Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat down with presidential hopeful Bob Dole and other GOP leaders Friday, two days after meeting with President Clinton at the White House. Both Dole and Netanyahu pronounced the U.S.-Israel relationship strong.
"I think it would be stronger under a Dole administration, frankly, if it came to a missile defense, putting pressure on Syria, trying to isolate Iran," Dole said during a picture-taking session with Israel's new prime minister.Netanyahu declined to give his views on a potential Dole administration "in keeping a longstanding tradition of all Israeli prime ministers" of visiting opposition leaders while in the United States - but not getting involved in domestic politics.
"This meeting is an expression of that common bond that transcends politics," Netanyahu said.
Dole said the two did not talk politics, although, "I was kidding the prime minister about looking up his pollster."
"We have a strong relationship," Dole said "It will continue. It would certainly continue in a Dole administration."
Dole said he reiterated his long-held support for keeping Jerusalem an undivided city and for moving the U.S. embassy there from its current position in Tel Aviv.
"There wasn't any disagreement. I've held the same view for some time," Dole said.
Netanyahu said he "wasn't preaching" in his meeting with Dole. "There is a complete unity across the political divide about the need to keep Jerusalem undivided and united."
In Gaza today, PLO leader Yasser Arafat repeated his contention that the holy city "is the capital of Palestine forever."
Dole and Netanyahu met for about 40 minutes in the Stanhope Hotel.
Arriving with a roar of motorcycles and a flash of weaponry, Ne-tan-yahu ducked into a side entrance of the hotel. A large tent, its flaps down, obscured the prime minister from the view of gawkers lining Fifth Avenue.
Rifle-toting police officers stood along 81st Street. Concrete barriers were set up outside the hotel's front entrance to keep traffic away.
It was a homecoming of sorts for Netanyahu, who lived in Manhattan as Israel's delegate to the United Nations in the 1980s.