PRESIDENT OBAMA:  I'm ready.

PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU:  -- you and the First Lady came to Israel, sir.

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  We look forward to it.  Thank you.

PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU:  Any time.

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Thank you very much.  Thank you.

All right, we’ve got time for one question each.  I’m going to call on Stephen Collinson, AFP.

Q    Thank you, Mr. President.  As part of the steps which need to be taken to move proximity talks（近距离会谈） on to direct talks, do you think it would be helpful for Israel to extend the partial settlement moratorium（暂停，中止） , which is set to expire in September?

And if I could just briefly ask the Prime Minister, with regards to the sanctions you mentioned, do you think that these measures will contain or halt Iran’s nuclear program where others have failed?
    
PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Let me -- let me, first of all, say that I think the Israeli government, working through layers of various governmental entities and jurisdictions（司法管辖区，行政辖区） , has shown restraint（抑制，约束） over the last several months that I think has been conducive to（有益于） the prospects of us getting into direct talks.

And my hope is, is that once direct talks have begun, well before the moratorium has expired（期满） , that that will create a climate in which everybody feels a greater investment in success. Not every action by one party or the other is taken as a reason for not engaging in talks.  So there ends up being more room created by more trust.  And so I want to just make sure that we sustain that over the next -- over the next several weeks.

I do think that there are a range of confidence-building measures that can be taken by all sides that improve the prospects of a successful negotiation.  And I’ve discussed some of those privately with the Prime Minister.  When President Abbas was here, I discussed some of those same issues with him.

I think it’s very important that the Palestinians not look for excuses for incitement（煽动，刺激） , that they are not engaging in provocative（刺激的，挑拨的） language; that at the international level, they are maintaining a constructive tone, as opposed to looking for opportunities to embarrass Israel.

At the same time, I’ve said to Prime Minister Netanyahu -- I don't think he minds me sharing it publicly -- that Abu Mazen working with Fayyad have done some very significant things when it comes to the security front.  And so us being able to widen the scope of their responsibilities in the West Bank is something that I think would be very meaningful to the Palestinian people.  I think that some of the steps that have already been taken in Gaza help to build confidence.  And if we continue to make progress on that front, then Palestinians can see in very concrete terms（具体名称，具体条件） what peace can bring that rhetoric（修辞） and violence cannot bring -- and that is people actually having an opportunity to raise their children, and make a living, and buy and sell goods, and build a life for themselves, which is ultimately what people in both Israel and the Palestinian Territories want.

PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU:  I think the latest sanctions adopted by the U.N. create illegitimacy or create de-legitimization for Iran’s nuclear program, and that is important.  I think the sanctions the President signed the other day actually have teeth.  They bite.

The question is -- how much do you need to bite is something I cannot answer now.  But if other nations adopted similar sanctions, that would increase the effect.  The more like-minded countries join in the American-led effort that President Obama has signed into act, into law, I think the better we’ll be able to give you an answer to your question.

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Is there somebody you want to ask here?

Q    Mr. President, in the past year, you distanced yourself from Israel and gave a cold shoulder（冷遇，冷淡对待） to the Prime Minister.  Do you think this policy was a mistake?  Do you think it contributes to the bashing（抨击，猛击） of Israel by others?  And is that -- you change it now, and do you trust now Prime Minister Netanyahu?

And if I may, Mr. Prime Minister, specifically, did you discuss with the President the continuing of the freezing of settlements after September?  And did you tell him that you’re going to keep on building after this period is over?

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Well, let me, first of all, say that the premise of your question was wrong and I entirely disagree with it.  If you look at every public statement that I’ve made over the last year and a half, it has been a constant reaffirmation of the special relationship between the United States and Israel, that our commitment to Israel’s security has been unwavering.  And, in fact, there aren’t any concrete policies that you could point to that would contradict that.

And in terms of my relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu, I know the press, both in Israel and stateside, enjoys seeing if there’s news there.  But the fact of the matter is that I’ve trusted Prime Minister Netanyahu since I met him before I was elected President, and have said so both publicly and privately.

I think that he is dealing with a very complex situation in a very tough neighborhood.  And what I have consistently（一贯地，一致地） shared with him is my interest in working with him -- not at cross-purposes -- so that we can achieve the kind of peace that will ensure Israel’s security for decades to come.

And that's going to mean some tough choices.  And there are going to be times where he and I are having robust discussions about what kind of choices need to be made.  But the underlying approach never changes, and that is the United States is committed to Israel’s security; we are committed to that special bond; and we are going to do what’s required to back that up, not just with words but with actions.

We are going to continually work with the Prime Minister and the entire Israeli government, as well as the Israeli people, so that we can achieve what I think has to be everybody’s goal, which is that people feel secure.  They don't feel like a rocket is going to be landing on their head sometime.  They don't feel as if there’s a growing population that wants to direct violence against Israel.

That requires work and that requires some difficult choices -- both at the strategic level and the tactical（战术的，策略的） level.  And this is something that the Prime Minister understands, and why I think that we’re going to be able to work together not just over the next few months but hopefully over the next several years.

PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU:  The President and I discussed concrete steps that could be done now, in the coming days and the coming weeks, to move the peace process further along in a very robust way.  This is what we focused our conversation on.  And when I say the next few weeks, that's what I mean.  The President means that, too.

Let me make a general observation about the question you posed to the President.  And here I’ll have to paraphrase Mark Twain, that the reports about the demise（死亡，终止） of the special U.S.-Israel relations -- relationship aren’t just premature, they're just flat wrong.  There’s a depth and richness of this relationship that is expressed every day.  Our teams talk.  We don't make it public.  The only thing that's public is that you can have differences on occasion in the best of families and the closest of families; that comes out public -- and sometimes in a twisted way, too.

What is not told is the fact that we have an enduring bond of values, interests, beginning with security and the way that we share both information and other things to help the common defense of our common interests -- and many others in the region who don't often admit to the beneficial effect of this cooperation.

So I think there’s -- the President said it best in his speech in Cairo.  He said in front of the entire Islamic world, he said, the bond between Israel and the United States is unbreakable.  And I can affirm that to you today.

PRESIDENT OBAMA:  Thank you very much, everybody. 

END
1:01 P.M. EDT