Israel Matzav

Livni wants to put NATO forces "in the region"

This government keeps going from bad to worse. Now it's foreign minister Tzipi Feigele Livni, who is at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels as an observer this weekend. It seems that Livni wants to put NATO forces "in the region" (in Gaza? in Judea and Samaria?) so that the next time Israel has to clean out a group of terrorist vipers, we will have to contend with NATO forces between us and the terrorists. Just what we don't need.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is expected to discuss the idea of the deployment of a NATO force in the region in talks with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in Belgium over the weekend, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The idea of a NATO or international force deployed in Gaza has been raised on a number of occasions over the past year, from such diverse sources as Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but has not yet gained much traction.

Not only has Israel traditionally been opposed to the idea, fearing that it would limit its military maneuverability, but NATO has also not been excited about the notion because it is currently overextended in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Traditionally NATO's position was that it would not deploy here until there was a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and does not want to go to Gaza and risk attack from Hamas, which has made clear it would oppose a NATO presence.

However, in recent months the idea of deploying NATO forces in Gaza has been raised as one way of possibly reinstating Abbas there, with the idea that he would "ride in" on NATO's back.

Sources close to Livni said that the idea of NATO "involvement" here, as well as greater Israeli involvement in NATO, would be on Livni's agenda in her talks with the NATO chief.

Watch this video to see what Livni has in common with Dick Casablancas.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:25 PM