Israel Matzav

Netanyahu's disaster

I've pointed out before that Prime Minister Netanyahu made a huge mistake in agreeing to tie Israel's security to negotiations with the 'Palestinians.' How big a mistake was made clear in an article by Yedioth's military correspondent Alex Fishman in an article that's been translated here. Here's a summary from Ron Kampeas:

It boils down to this (but read the whole thing):

--Israel and the United States have, since the dying days of the Bush administration, been negotiating a security package that would last until 2030 (current guarantees are in place until 2017) and would include state of the art F-35 fighter jets.

--At their July meeting, Bibi told Obama he would make far-reaching diplomatic compromises if Obama could wrap up the 20 year security assistance deal.

--Last month, after negotiations between Ehud Barak, Yitzhak Molcho and Dennis Ross, the deal was ready. The United States put together a letter.

Bibi balked. Why?

Fishman suggests a number of reasons: When Barak delivered the deal, it came with a stipulation: Deliverable upon a final status deal with the Palestinians, Netanyahu realized that because of the ball he set in motion, Israel's security cooperation was -- for the first time in decades -- conditional upon diplomatic outcomes.

Another is that Bibi was seeking time to kill the talks with the Palestinians.

The upshot, Fishman says, is that Bibi is now proposing an alternative: A formal defense alliance. This gives Israel's defense establishment the major creeps -- it potentially removes from Israel its much cherished independence in making defense related decisions.

Were a proposal of a formal alliance come to Congress, it would help explain the recent insistence by Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the incoming majority leader, that he would keep Obama's feet to the fire over maintaining "synonymous" U.S.-Israel security interests. Same again if Obama sustains his own insistence on tying security assistance to diplomatic outcomes.

Netanyahu should have stuck with 'no preconditions' to negotiations. But instead, he went out of his way to convince Obama that he was 'serious about peace' and in the process has jeopardized our security relations with the United States. This is a complete disaster that has to be stopped. Fortunately, the 'Palestinians' may yet pull Netanyahu's chestnuts out of the fire. But Netanyahu has to stop trying to play both sides against the middle and start being honest with Obama about what he can and cannot deliver. And right now, he cannot deliver any more concessions to the 'Palestinians.'

What could go wrong?

Read the whole thing.

Labels: Alex Fishman, Barack Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Hillary Clinton

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:05 PM