Biden presses Israel on peace talks

Vice President Biden said peace talks between Israel and Palestine could create “one island of stability” in the Middle East and implored negotiators to seize the moment during a bilateral meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres on Monday.

Biden met with Peres after the funeral services for the late former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro were also in the U.S. delegation.

{mosads}The vice president said Israel’s security rested in the “genuine accommodation” of a Palestinian state, while acknowledging that “none of this is easy.”

“This is one of those opportunities, one of those moments in history. It has to be seized,” the vice president said.

Peres said there were “tough” and “serious decisions” ahead and insisted to Palestinians that Israel was “not their enemy.”

“They are our neighbors and our friends,” Peres said, while cautioning that terror was “destroying their fabric.”

The bilateral meeting comes amid Secretary of State John Kerry’s broader push to restart peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Wasserman Schultz told reporters traveling with the delegation that the meeting was an opportunity to “build on” Kerry’s efforts. 

“Anytime that you have a leader from the United States as significant as Vice President Biden sitting down with the prime minister of Israel, which Vice President Biden will be doing while we’re here, there’s an opportunity for progress,” she said. “Every time there is an opportunity for progress, for the United States to be in a position to help Israel in the cause of crafting and finalizing a two-state solution, we take that opportunity.”

The talks also come just days after world leaders finalized a pact with Iran that temporarily limited uranium enrichment and increased access for inspectors in return for an easing of economic sanctions. President Obama has called the plan an opportunity to negotiate a comprehensive nuclear agreement with Tehran, although Israel has repeatedly voiced opposition to the deal.