Remarks by Vice President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu in a Joint Statement to the Press
12:36 P.M. (local)
PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU: Vice President Biden, Joe, welcome to Israel and welcome to Jerusalem. We’ve been personal friends for almost three decades. Can you believe it has been that long?
VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN: No. You’re getting older, Bibi, I don’t know how.
PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU: But you remain younger all the time. (Laughter.) And in all that time, you’ve been a real friend to me, and a real friend to Israel and to the Jewish people. And you’ve come to Israel many times since you came here first on the eve of the Yom Kippur. But now, you’re coming as the Vice President of the United States of America. And this is deeply appreciated and, for me, deeply moving.
President Obama has said in Cairo, and he has repeated this many times since, that the bonds between Israel and the United States are unbreakable. And he has shown that in the last year in things that are known to the public and some things that are not known to the public. In pursuing, for example, the joint military exercises for military defense between the Israeli army and the American military; in securing Israel’s qualitative military edge; and in many other activities along the world’s scene, including the battle against the infamous Goldstone report. I think that the bonds — exactly as President Obama has said, the bonds are unbreakable. And your visit demonstrates how strong they are.
I think this unbreakable bond will help our two countries meet the two historic challenges that we face today in the Middle East. The first and foremost among them is the need to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, and the second is the need to advance a secure peace between Israel and our Palestinian and other Arab neighbors
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