(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) A good deal with Iran on the nuclear issue is possible, and such a deal would benefit everyone, Vice President Joe Biden said during an address on Monday at the General Assembly of Jewish Federations of North America, which met just outside Washington.
Biden also told the group that the future of Israel depends on reaching a two-state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians.
"The historic convergence of basic interests" creates a chance for closer relations between Israel and the entire Arab world, he stressed..
As the November 24 deadline nears for reaching a comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran, "we will not sign a bad deal," Biden said.
"A diplomatic solution that puts significant and verifiable constraints on Iran's nuclear program represents the best and most sustainable chance to ensure that America, Israel and the Middle East will never be menaced by a nuclear-armed Iran," he said.
Iran must decide whether it will seize a "historic opportunity" to prove that its nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes, or face increasing pressure, he said.
"Of course, Israel's future as a Jewish, democratic state depends on more than preventing a nuclear-armed Iran, as consequential as that is," Biden said. It also depends on reaching a two-state solution for the Israelis and Palestinians.
"I remain convinced that the vast majority of Israelis and the vast majority of Palestinians believe that peace is both desirable and possible," he said.
"As you look around the region today, an interesting thing is happening," the Vice President said. "Israel and nearly all its Arab neighbors - would find themselves on the same side in a fight against violent Islamic extremists like ISIL as well as a regional struggle against Iran. They have all this in common." "The last thing we need and the quickest thing to halt any major strategic realignment that could benefit Israel's security is the failure to reach a two-state solution or, even worse, a renewed crisis, another Intifada on the ground," he said.
That is why it is critical that "as we work toward lasting peace, we also take steps to ensure that tensions do not boil over into conflagration and conflict in Jerusalem," Biden said. All sides need to avoid incitement and demonstrate restraint, he said.
Biden said the efforts to de-legitimize Israel as a Jewish state worry him more than anything else.
"This past summer during the conflict in Gaza, we witnessed countless incidents around the world of attempts to demonize and defame Israel," he said. "Too often, in too many countries, opposition to Israel's military actions crossed the line from legitimate debate and legitimate criticism into outright anti-Semitism. "And that poses a fundamental threat not just to Jewish communities but to democracies everywhere around the world," he went on The preservation of an independent Jewish state is the only certain guarantor for freedom and security for Jews worldwide, Biden added.
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