Washington ? Peace talks with the Palestinians dominated President Barack Obama’s meeting last year with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but will barely warrant a mention at their White House session Monday or in speeches to a powerful pro-Israeli lobby. Iran is now the issue commanding urgent attention.

The United States, Israel and much of the world are trying to figure out how to deal with Iran and its nuclear program. While all sides insist a resolution to the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict is critical to Israel’s security, the Israelis have come to believe that Iran may be on the threshold of developing atomic weapons and is the primary existential threat to the Jewish state.

The Palestinians probably will not get much more than a passing reference by the U.S. and Israeli officials, lawmakers, GOP presidential hopefuls and others at the America Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual policy conference, where Obama was scheduled to speak Sunday, a day before Netanyahu.

Nor is the peace process at the top of the agenda for Netanyahu’s meeting with Obama at the Oval Office on Monday and his talks with congressional leaders on Tuesday.

But the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “is not going to just go away,” said Maen Rashid Areikat, the Palestinian envoy in Washington. He said Netanyahu “can focus on Iran, but he can only bring peace to his country by making peace with the Palestinians and his Arab neighbors.”

Shifting focus from the seemingly intractable Mideast conflict has political advantages for both Obama and Netanyahu, even if they also don’t see eye to eye on the preferred tactics to prevent Iran from being a nuclear-armed state.

For one, no politician in an election year has ever suffered from being tough on Iran. Pressing Israel on the need to make concessions to the Palestinians can be a political minefield.

Israel is an ally whose wishes are key to the Democratic-leaning Jewish vote and to the evangelical Christians who make up a large chunk of the Republican base.