(Communicated by the Prime Minister's Media Adviser)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday (1 May 2013), met with a delegation of senior members of the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA.)

At the start of the meeting, Prime Minister Netanyahu said: "We’re engaged right now in an effort that we appreciate led by President Obama and Secretary Kerry to restart the peace negotiations between us and the Palestinians. We’re eager to do it; we have no preconditions and we think there shouldn’t be any preconditions to restart negotiations. We do think that to finish the negotiations, we need two basic pillars: one is that the Palestinians recognize the Jewish state and second that Israel has solid security arrangements. We’re prepared to discuss many things, but I will never compromise on Israel’s security."

Rep. Royce said: "The last time I was here, we had a situation during the Second Lebanon War. I was in Haifa and I saw what things looked like, how bad things were at that moment. The Iron Dome, since then, has been a very remarkable development, one more example of the resilience and the creativity of the people of Israel at the same time we have shared valued between the United States and Israel, we are all here because we feel the importance of the depth of the relationship, but we also have shared threats. So, Mr. Prime Minister, we look forward to working with you."