Israel's prime minister delivers a highly anticipated policy speech Sunday in which he could use the re-election of Iran's president to boost his argument that Tehran poses a bigger threat to Mideast peace than his refusal to endorse Palestinian statehood, AP reported. Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing that argument as he publicly defies President Barack Obama's appeals to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank and start negotiating the creation of a Palestinian state. The re-election Friday of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the street protests by opponents who think the vote was rigged will make the international audience more receptive to Netanyahu's position on Iran, said Iran expert David Menashri. «For Netanyahu, it could not be better. The world will be in a better position to accept Netanyahu's position on Iran after having seen the pictures coming out of Iran in recent days,» said Menashri, who heads the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University. The Israeli leader has been under intense pressure from Washington to enter into negotiations on Palestinian statehood and end all settlement expansion in the West Bank _ positions he opposes and whose adoption would almost surely fracture his hawkish governing coalition. Netanyahu had tried to parry that pressure by attempting to redirect attention away from peacemaking with the Palestinians and toward Iran's nuclear program. But the U.S. was not won over to that point of view, and in his June 4 address to the Muslim world, Obama forcefully called for a Palestinian state and a halt to the settlement construction that has proven to be a major impediment to peacemaking.
