Vice President Joe Biden took advantage of a key opportunity today to visit with Israeli President Shimon Peres about the need to keep peace talks going with the Palestinian Authority.
Biden went to Israel to attend the memorial service for the late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who died over the weekend at age 85.
The VP’s message was that Israel should recognize Palestinian autonomy while seeking guarantees of its own security.
For his part, Peres told Biden that the Palestinians aren’t the “enemy.
“They are our neighbors and our friends,” he said, adding that terrorism is “destroying their fabric.”
That’s a realistic view of life in that terribly troubled region.
“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.”
I’m reminded of what the great Winston Churchill once said about the value of talking. “To jaw-jaw always is better than to war-war,” Churchill said.
Keep jawing.