Here at the 'gate the leaves are beginning to change as fall rolls into Hamilton. As summer ends and fall begins it is only fitting that during a recent meeting between Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama, the president was quoted as saying that Israeli and Palestinian leaders must "find ways to change the status quo so that both Israel citizens are safe in their own homes, and schoolchildren in their schools, from the possibility of rocket fire but also that we don't have the tragedy of Palestinian children being killed as well".
While there has been relative quiet since the end of Operation Protective Edge, the tensions remaining between Israel and Hamas remain quite tangible to the point where it is only a matter of time before there is some sort of incident. Netanyahu and the Israeli government completely understand this as the Prime Minister was quoted as saying that in terms of how to proceed towards a lasting peace with the Palestinians there is a need to "think outside the box." Also on the agenda in the discussion between Netanyahu and Obama was ensuring that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon.
This discussion between the two leaders comes only days after Netanyahu gave a very impassioned speech at the United Nations, which drew some criticism from the United States as Netanyahu drew a link between Hamas and ISIS. According to the Obama administration, another point of this meeting was to try and discuss how they are completely separate issues in the eyes of the United States as the rapidly spreading power and terror of ISIS is priority number one right now in the Middle East. Netanyahu also wanted to ensure that Obama remembers the grave dangers posed by a nuclear Iran and why it is imperative to get them to agree to a deal that causes them to dismantle their nuclear program. Obama seemed to underscore the point that the unresolved problem of peace between the Palestinians and Israel, while not of importance at the moment has the potential to blow up again at some point in the future, possibly leading to even more conflicts and an even more volatile region. In the upcoming weeks look to see what ideas are put into place by the United States in Israel in order to assure that the idea of Middle East Peace does not take a complete backseat to ISIS and the threat of extremism in the region.
