Israel's Netanyahu Calms Down Rhetoric After Election Win, Affirms US Ties

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Washington as Israel's greatest ally and voiced his hope to repair Israel's ties with neighbors, in his first interview since Tuesday's elections with the MSNBC television channel.

The interview, to be aired later on Thursday, saw the Israeli prime minister pledge his commitment to strong relations with Washington, after his surprise visit to US Congress two weeks ahead of the Israeli parliamentary elections.

Speaking with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, the Israeli prime minister stressed that, "We have no other alternative. We're allies… America has no greater ally than Israel, and Israel has no greater ally than the United States."

Meanwhile in an address in early March, Netanyahu lambasted US President Barack Obama for holding talks with Iran on its nuclear program, prompting outrage from dozens of Democrats who urged a boycott of the prime minister's speech.

Netanyahu told MSNBC that his controversial visit to Washington was not an "attempt at partisanship." He also emphasized it was important for Israel to "negotiate a peace with our neighbors," meaning Palestinians.

Negotiations on the so-called two-state solution, which envisages the peaceful co-existence of an Israeli and a Palestinian state, have been held on and off for two decades.

Netanyahu's apparent call for peace is a U-turn in his foreign policy after the prime minister declared on the eve of the election that Palestinians would never have a state of their own while he was in charge, in an attempt to woo grassroots voters after polls showed his party trailing behind the centrist Zionist Union.

Netanyahu's ruling Likud party eventually won a decisive victory in the general parliamentary election earlier this week, gaining 30 seats in the Knesset.