He said Americans know Israel is their only reliable democratic ally in the Mideast, and that Iran sees the two countries as inseparable enemies.
"For them, you're the Great Satan, and we're the Little Satan," Netanyahu said. "For them, we are you and you're us. And, you know something, Mr. President — at least on this last point, I think they're right. We are you, and you are us. ... Israel and America stand together."
Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful. It has called for Israel's destruction.
Netanyahu told a gathering of the pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, on Monday that Israel has "patiently waited" for diplomacy and sanctions to work.
He said: "None of us can afford to wait much longer. As prime minister of Israel, I will never let my people live in the shadow of annihilation."
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who also spoke at AIPAC Monday night, said that the U.S. should use overwhelming military force against Iran if American intelligence shows Tehran has decided to develop a nuclear weapon or it has started to enrich uranium to weapons-grade level.
Although Israel says it hasn't decided whether to strike Iran, it has signaled readiness to do so within the next several months. The United States sees a longer timeline to the moment when a military strike might be appropriate partly based on different views of when Iran would pose an imminent threat.
A senior Obama administration official said it would take upward of a year for Iran to build a working weapon once it started work on one. That was an unusually specific estimate and offered a window into the U.S. argument to Israel that the crisis with Iran is not as dire as some in Israel have painted it.
GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich will speak to the pro-Israel group AIPAC on Tuesday.
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Associated Press writers Anne Gearan, Amy Teibel and Donna Cassata contributed to this story.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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