In style, substance, leaders on same page

JERUSALEM - President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed an unusual degree of solidarity Wednesday on a set of shared national security concerns that have divided them in the past, signaling either a turn in their vital, if volatile, relationship or a cool tactical display of diplomatic theater.

The leaders' joint appearance concluded a tone-setting first day of Obama's first presidential trip to Israel, a visit celebrated with military ceremony, children's serenades, and a rare personal chemistry with a hard-line Israeli leader with whom he has often bickered publicly.

In particular, Obama and Netanyahu, appearing at an evening news conference, reached what seemed to be a consensus regarding their views of Iran's uranium-enrichment program.

Iran denies the program is designed to develop a nuclear weapon, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. Netanyahu and Obama, who advocates a diplomatic solution to the matter, have disagreed over how much time remains before a military strike is necessary to slow down the program.

Obama said recently that he thinks Iran is a year from achieving a nuclear-weapons capability, a timeline that has differed from Israeli assessments. On Wednesday, Netanyahu moved closer to Obama's timeline - and even softened his certainty about Iran's intent - to allow more space for diplomacy.

"I think that there's a misunderstanding about time," Netanyahu said. "If Iran decides to go for a nuclear weapon - that is, to actually manufacture the weapon - then it will take them about a year."

Obama, in turn, reiterated his support for Israel's right to self-defense. He pledged to seek additional funding for the Iron Dome system, which he saw when he swung by an antimissile battery after his arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport.

The system, which shot down hundreds of Gaza-fired rockets in November, will receive $200 million in U.S. funding this fiscal year. Obama said he and Netanyahu will begin talks to extend the U.S.-Israeli military aid agreement beyond its 2017 expiration.

"Israel's security needs are truly unique, as I've seen myself," Obama said.

The warm display by Obama and Netanyahu comes against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Middle East, now shifting politically and culturally through war, protest, and elections.

It is too soon to tell whether the two leaders have overcome past differences, which have played out in venues as public as the Oval Office. But the signs of a stronger U.S.-Israel relationship may apply new pressure on Iran's leaders, who Obama said Wednesday must be convinced that it is not in their interest to pursue a nuclear weapon.

Obama's visit to the prime minister's official residence featured a surprising levity.

Upon arrival at Netanyahu's residence, Obama invited the prime minister's wife, Sara, to stand between the two for a photo. "A rose between the thorns," Obama joked.

He and Netanyahu, appearing relaxed and jovial, chatted while Obama signed a guest book. The prime minister complained about how hard it was to form a government in Israel's multiparty system, telling Obama, "You have only one party" to compete with.

When Obama later teased Netanyahu during the news conference that his "handsome sons" got their looks from their mother, a grinning Netanyahu responded: "I could say the same thing about your daughters."

Obama is packing a lot into his three-day trip to Israel and the West Bank, where he is to meet Thursday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

The trip, on which he is accompanied by his new secretary of state, John Kerry, is a mission of remedial diplomacy after a difficult first term with the United States' closest Middle Eastern ally and a deeply disillusioned set of Palestinian leaders.

In addition to the Iranian nuclear program, Obama and Netanyahu said they agreed on the dangers posed by the widening civil war in Syria.

Obama defended his policy toward Syria - where an estimated 70,000 people have been killed - citing the international sanctions he has helped organize against President Bashar al-Assad's government.

But he also said that the use of chemical weapons by Syria's government, which Syrian rebels alleged occurred Tuesday, would be a "game-changer" prompting a more direct, if unspecified, U.S. response.

Obama said he would speak Thursday about how to revive direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations with Abbas. Direct talks between the two parties have been dormant, except for a brief period in the fall of 2010, for more than four years.

Obama received a boost Wednesday from Netanyahu, who in the past has endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state with so many caveats that Palestinian leaders have dismissed the notion as a ploy.

In his opening statement, Netanyahu said: "Israel remains fully committed to peace and to the solution of two states for two peoples." It was one of his strongest public comments in favor of a Palestinian state.