#ThanksObama... for making America's former allies into our allies
It's not just Israel that doesn't trust Barack Hussein Obama. And in one of the best examples of countries having interests rather than friends, a group of previously irreconcilable American allies has
joined together look out for their own interests in the waning days of the Age of Obama. Bret Stephens reports.
I’ve spent the better part of a week talking to senior officials,
journalists, intellectuals and politicians from across Israel’s
political spectrum. None of it was on the record, but the consistent
theme is that, while the Jewish state still needs the U.S., especially
in the form of military aid, it also needs to diversify its strategic
partnerships. This may yet turn out to be the historic achievement of Benjamin Netanyahu’s long reign as prime minister.
On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon publicly shook hands with former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal at the Munich Security Conference. In January, Israeli cabinet member Yuval Steinitz
made a trip to Abu Dhabi, where Israel is opening an office at a
renewable-energy association. Turkey is patching up ties with Israel. In
June, Jerusalem and Riyadh went public with the strategic talks between
them. In March, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi told the Washington Post that he speaks to Mr. Netanyahu “a lot.”
This
de facto Sunni-Jewish alliance amounts to what might be called the
coalition of the disenchanted; states that have lost faith in America’s
promises. Israel is also reinventing its ties to the aspiring Startup
Nations, countries that want to develop their own innovation cultures.
In October, Israel hosted Indian President Pranab Mukherjee
for a three-day state visit; New Delhi, once a paragon of the
nonaligned movement that didn’t have diplomatic ties to Israel for four
decades, is about to spend $3 billion on Israeli arms. Japanese Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe, who is personally close to Mr. Netanyahu, sees
Israel as a model for economic reinvention. Chinese investment in Israel
hit $2.7 billion last year, up from $70 million in 2010. In 2014,
Israel’s exports to the Far East for the first time exceeded those to
the U.S.
Then there is Europe—at least the part of it that is
starting to grasp that it can’t purchase its security in the coin of
Israeli insecurity. Greece’s left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras
used to lead anti-Israel protests. But Greece needs Israeli gas, so he
urges cooperation on terrorism and calls Jerusalem Israel’s “historic
capital.” In the U.K., Prime Minister David Cameron’s government is moving to prevent local councils from passing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) measures against Israel.
All
this amounts to another Obama administration prediction proved wrong.
“You see for Israel there’s an increasing delegitimization campaign that
has been building up,” Mr. Kerry warned grimly in 2014. “There are
talks of boycotts and other kinds of things. Today’s status quo
absolutely, to a certainty, I promise you 100%, cannot be maintained.”
Except when the likely alternatives to the lousy status quo are worse.
Maybe we need to say #ThanksObama after all. Just not the way he expected. Heh.
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, China, David Cameron, Greece, India, Japan, Moshe Yaalon, Turki al-Faisal
Obama's got Israel's back - again
Remember President Hussein Obama promising Israel additional military aid to ensure that we can cope with a nuclear Iran? In Haaretz on Sunday, Barak Ravid reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday that if the Obama administration doesn't properly help Israel, he'll
wait for the next administration.
"It's not yet clear that we will come to an agreement," Netanyahu told the cabinet members in the course of a diplomatic-security briefing by acting national security adviser Jacob Nagel, who also heads the Israeli team negotiating memorandum with the Americans. "[We] need to see if [we] can achieve a result that will address Israel's security needs or perhaps we will not manage to come to an agreement with this administration and will need to come to an agreement with the next administration."
Last Thursday, an American delegation led by Yael Lempert, the Special Assistant to the president and Senior Director for the Levant, Israel and Egypt at the National Security Council in the White House, who arrived in Israel to hold a third round of negotiations on the matter. Over the past three days, the American team held discussions with a team of counterparts from the national security staff in the Prime Minister's Office and from the Defense Ministry, the Israel Defense Forces and the Foreign Ministry. The main topic of discussion in the talks was the size of the aid that the United States would provide Israel and the conditions on its use.
Netanyahu's remarks at the cabinet meeting raise the possibility that the round of talks in Jerusalem will not achieve substantial progress. Just two weeks ago, in the course of his visit to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where the prime minister met with American Vice President Joe Biden, and where the two discussed the matter, the prime minister sounded much more optimistic. In an interview on stage with American journalist Fareed Zakaria, Netanyahu noted that he believed Israel and the United States would manage to wrap up negotiations in a positive manner on a new security memorandum of understanding in the coming months that would outline the size of American assistance to the IDF for the coming decade.
...
The current security memorandum of understanding signed ten years ago between the two countries is due to expire at the end of 2018. As a result of the understanding, the United States has provided $30 billion over a decade in security assistance to Israel. In the course of meetings between Netanyahu and Obama at the White House in November, the two announced the opening of new negotiations on the memorandum for the coming decade.
At the beginning of the negotiations a few months ago, senior figures in the defense establishment expressed the position that Israel is in need of a $5 billion annual increase to the amount of American assistance. Netanyahu himself has told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset that he is interested in coming to agreement with Obama on the sum of "$4 billion plus."
In the course of his last visit to the United States and in interviews with the American media since then, Netanyahu has stressed that Israel needs a substantial increase in American security assistance in light of the nuclear agreement that Iran reached with the major world powers. Iran will be receiving $100 billion as a result of the lifting of sanctions and can use these funds to acquire quantities of weapons and provide advanced weaponry to Israel's enemies – Hezbollah, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Netanyahu noted.
At the same time, Netanyahu has made it clear in recent months both in public and in private conversations with the Americans that the Sunni Arab countries are acquiring large quantities of advanced weaponry from the United States and France to protect themselves from Iran, but the weapons could in the future be turned against Israel. In such a reality, he has argued, an increase in American assistance is necessary to maintain the IDF's qualitative advantage in the region.
Senior officials in the defense establishment are expressing serious concern over the prospect that it will not be possible to reach an agreement with the Obama administration on the size of security assistance, resulting in a deferral of the subject until a new president takes office in January 2017. Under such circumstances, there would be less than a year remaining to come to a new security agreement before the current one expires. That would present a very complicated situation since any new president would need half a year at least to study the subject.
DEBKA, which I don't like to sole source, but will because of the Haaretz background, reports on some of the
specifics of what's missing.
US President Barack Obama has retracted on his pledge of an extra
defense package to compensate Israel for the damage caused its security
by the nuclear deal concluded with Iran last year. This flat refusal,
reported here by debkafile’s
Washington sources, confronted Israeli officials when they met last
week with heads of the National Security Council at the White House.
Asked to define its new requirements, Israel asked the administration
for an additional $1.9 billion, which would have upped the total to $5
billion per annum for the next five years. The officials explained that
Israel’s defense bill had been inflated substantially by the new perils
looming from the current Middle East wars, and the windfall Iran had
gained from the lifting of sanctions for its advanced ballistic missiles
programs and for enhancing its allies' aggressive capacity, especially
that of Hizballah.
Israel is now beset additionally by adverse Russian military
operations in southern Syria and looming ISIS threats on multiple
fronts, at a time that the Arab states are stuffing their armories with
advanced weapons from Russia and China.
The US officials explained that, because of cutbacks in US defense
spending, it would not be possible to add a single dollar to Israel’s
regular $3.1 billion appropriation. After notifying Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon of this refusal,
the Israeli delegation was advised to reduce its application to $900
million. This too was refused.
The standing $3.1 billion annual US assistance program for Israel
expires at the end of 2016. The negotiations taking place currently were
to have covered its extension for ten years. That too is in doubt.
The Obama administration reacted angrily to Prime Minister Netanyahu's statement, and said that Israel will not get a better deal from the next President. Of course, that depends who the next President is.
#ThanksObama.
Labels: Ashton Carter, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Hamas, Hezbullah, Iran, Iranian nuclear threat, Israel's security, Moshe Yaalon
Surprise: Ehud Barak tells biographers Israel canceled plans to attack Iran in 2010, 2011 and 2012
Israel's Channel 2 television obtained recordings of former Defense Minister (and Prime Minister and IDF Chief of Staff) Ehud Barak telling biographers that Israel planned to strike Iran in 2010, 2011 and 2012... and then called off the strikes because someone in the IDF (Gabi Ashkenazi) or the cabinet (Boogie Yaalon, Yuval Steinitz) objected . You can watch a CNN report about the recordings
here.
Here in Israel, there is outrage over the report. Yisrael Beiteinu party leader Avigdor Lieberman is accusing Barak of
giving away state secrets.
Liberman told Army Radio that he was “more
than surprised” at Barak, and said statements such as those given by the
former minister would ultimately strengthen Iran.
“I think that when moves and discussions that
should have been closely guarded state secrets are discussed by the
press, it relays that you are a talker, that you aren’t serious, that
you’re unreliable,” he said.
“That is why, among other reasons, Iran is
being coddled by the international community, and we have been backed
into a corner… These things should only have been discussed in closed
forums.”
Asked whether he believed Barak was guilty of
revealing state secrets, Liberman responded that he had “no doubt” that
was the case.
And the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is
opening an investigation... into how the tapes got out.
Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Tzahi Hanegbi (Likud) said on Sunday he intends to investigate whether information divulged by former Defense Minister Ehud Barak regarding a possible Iran strike was properly cleared for publication, and if so, why.
...
Speaking to Israel Radio on Sunday, Hanegbi said such publications do not serve Israel's security interests. When asked if Barak harmed Israel's security, Hanegbi refuse to answer, but said that as the head of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee he plans to summon officials from the censor's office and hear their explanation.
Barak spoke of the plans in conversations with his biographers, Dani Dor and Ilan Kfir. Excerpts from the recordings were aired on Israel Channel 2’s weekly news magazine on Friday.
Channel 2 said Barak did not want the material released, but the IDF military censor approved the publication.
Hmmm.
Labels: Avigdor Lieberman, Binyamin Netanyahu, censorship, Channel 2, Ehud Barak, Gabi Ashkenazi, IDF, Iranian nuclear threat, Israeli attack on Iran, Moshe Yaalon, Tzachi Hanegbi, Yuval Steinitz
Independent claims Israel going after Iranian nuke scientists
Some of you might remember that newspaper front page. It's from when Defense Minister Moshe "Boogie" Yaalon called US Secretary of State John Kerry
'Messianic' and 'obsessive' for his continued pursuit of a 'two-state solution' long past the point where it was clear that it was not going to happen. Now, with Kerry having negotiated a deal to make Iran a threshold nuclear state,
Yaalon has given an interview to Germany's
Der Spiegel, which ends with this.
SPIEGEL: If your army or military chiefs were to inform you next
week or next year that Iran has violated the terms of the deal and
reactivated its military nuclear program, would you recommend air
strikes against the nuclear facilities?
Yaalon: In such a case, we will have to discuss it. At the end,
it is very clear. One way or another, the Iranian military nuclear
ambitions should be stopped. We can in no way tolerate an Iran with
nuclear weapons. We prefer for this to be done through a deal or
sanctions, but in the end, Israel should be able to defend itself.
SPIEGEL: So will we see further deaths of Iranian nuclear scientists through attacks or malware compromising Iranian computer networks?
Yaalon: We should be ready to defend ourselves. I'm not responsible for the lives of Iranian scientists.
The last question assumes that Israel is responsible for a
series of
deaths of
Iranian nuclear scientists - a point that Yaalon seemingly glosses over. But London's
Independent clearly
sees the answer as a threat.
Israel’s Defence Minister has appeared to imply
that his country is prepared to assassinate Iran’s nuclear scientists
following a historic deal with the West.
What do they expect us to do - roll over and play dead?
Luckily for Israel, Yitzchak Buji Herzog isn't in charge, because 'roll over and play dead' is exactly what he seems to want to do.
"The agreement with Iran is bad, but the dispute with the US is a family
matter- it should not be conducted in public, where our enemies would
enjoy seeing us disagree.
"I am convinced there is certainly
enough time to reach an understanding between us which will prevent
seriously damaging the relations between Israel and the United States in
the short and long term," he said.
He furthered stated in the
meeting with Democratic congressmen that while he and Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu have major differences in their opinion concerning
the Iran deal, he remains critical of the deal's legitimacy.
He
added, however, that it is not Israel's place to interfere in American
foreign policy: "I have no intention of interfering with American
politics, and do not wish to publicly confront the US President or his
administration. The relations between Israel and the United States are a
key component to our national security."
In other words, if this is what Obama wants to do, we shouldn't try to stop it? Now you know why Herzog is not the country's leader.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Iran Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, John Kerry, Moshe Yaalon, nuclear scientists, Yitzchak Herzog
That's the way they operate
Does anyone else think it odd that the Obama administration would
leak a story about Israel spying on the US to the Wall Street Journal rather than calling in the Israeli ambassador and making a formal complaint?
Odd? Not really. This is standard operating procedure for Obama.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Iranian nuclear threat, John Boehner, joint session of Congress, Moshe Yaalon, P 5+1, Ron Dermer, spying, uranium enrichment, US-Israel relationship
Hezbullah endangering both Syria and Lebanon
In the previous post, I noted that Lebanon understands that if Hezbullah attacks Israel from its territory,
Lebanon will suffer. While Lebanon gets it, Hezbullah could care less. Moreover, it is possible that even if Hezbullah attacks Israel from Syria,
Israel may respond by hitting Lebanon. Israel is also threatening that if it is dragged into the conflict in Syria, it might just
put an end to the Assad regime. In the meantime, Hezbullah
cannot stop bragging about its activities in Syria. This is from the second link, a lengthy analysis by Lee Smith.
The throngs attending the younger Mughniyeh’s funeral on
January 19 yelled “Death to America” only once. “I counted,” says Lokman
Slim, an anti-Hezbollah Shiite activist. “And they said ‘Death to
Israel’ only a few times. Then they went to more religious slogans.”
According to Slim, the scaled-down rhetoric and modest
size of the funeral are evidence that Hezbollah is caught in a bind.
“The [Lebanese Shiites] don’t want another war with Israel,” says Slim,
“but they also want to know Hezbollah can protect them like it says.”
...
“The Shia are supposed to side with justice against
injustice,” says Slim. “Shia stand with the underdog. And now Hezbollah
is fighting alongside a dictatorial regime.” Moreover, Hezbollah has
also staked the Shiites to a position against the regional Sunni
majority in a war whose best outcome, says Slim, can only be a political
settlement. “Hezbollah will have fought this war, and at the end the
Shia will ask to what purpose did we sacrifice so much?” The worst
outcome, says Slim, is a war that won’t end.
“Maybe trauma,” says Slim, “is the only way back from
divinity.” Maybe. We’re on the road heading south to the Shiite
heartland to see.
...
Outside of Lebanon’s Shiite regions, it is very difficult
to get a sense of how profoundly the war in Syria has injured the
community. Exactly how many Lebanese Shiites have been killed there is
unknown—high-end estimates are more than a thousand in the last two
years—or even how many are fighting. Slim says the numbers miss the
point. “Let’s say there are 3,000 Hezbollah combatants in Syria, but
then take into account all the other things you need, everything from
intelligence to logistics, and there are perhaps 20,000 committed to the
war. For instance, a father and his two sons have a bulldozer, and
Hezbollah needs them and their machine in Syria, so they pay them double
to be there.”
Hezbollah is unaccustomed to waging a long war of
attrition like this, far from the Lebanese villages where it fought
guerrilla wars against Israel. To be sure, its fighters are becoming a
battle-hardened expeditionary force, but the nature of the war is
reconfiguring Shiite society.
“Boys are dropping out of school to join
the fight,” says Slim. “They enjoy the benefits of manhood earlier than
before, but it’s becoming a community without men, or men who are simply
on leave from Syria and waiting to return. The result,” he says
smiling, “is that the women will become more powerful.”
Black humor underlines how far Hezbollah has fallen from
its divine status. “We have the phenomenon of the widows of the fighters
killed in Syria,” says Slim, “beautiful young girls being courted by
the organization’s senior officials. ‘Hey, if you need anything, just
text me. And if it’s evening, you can reach me on Whatsapp, too.’ ”
The fact that Israel presumably weighed Hezbollah’s
predicament before striking the Mughniyeh/Allahdadi convoy—how the scope
of its deployment in Syria limited its ability to avenge its fallen—is
one of several indignities Nasrallah has to swallow. There’s also the
ongoing issue of treason. Not long before the strike in the Golan,
Hezbollah disclosed that it had found a spy in its ranks, Mohamed
Shawarba, a high-ranking official who allegedly worked for the Mossad.
If Hezbollah was eager to boast of its ability to root out traitors,
Israel’s operation—netting major Hezbollah and Iranian figures—suggests
that its counterintelligence wing has plenty of work left to do, because
the organization is still riddled with spies.
...
We discuss whether Nasrallah will retaliate for last week’s attack and,
if so, when and how. Will there be rocket fire from Lebanon, terrorist
operations abroad, an IED on the border targeting Israeli troops, or an
operation from the Golan? The last, which would come from Syrian
territory, seems safest to most of the Lebanese I’ve spoken with.
However, it’s worth considering that Israel may have struck not because
of an urgent threat near Quneitra, but rather to prevent Iran and
Hezbollah from opening another front from which to attack Israel.
The
Israelis have been watching the Syrian border with concern. Given Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reputation for being risk averse, it’s
notable that he chose to risk the possibility of war with elections only
two months away. Clearly, the Israeli government will not allow Iran to
use the Golan as a launching pad, and firing on Israel from there in
retaliation would effectively make it a second front. Accordingly,
chances are that an Israeli response, in any escalation, would target
Hezbollah in Lebanon, with the south again bearing the brunt of the
conflict, likely including, according to Israeli strategists, a large
ground operation.
That's the first I've heard of a possible Israeli ground operation in Lebanon, but it's not too surprising. Israel may want to hit Hezbullah while it's down.
Read the whole thing.
While Israel prepared for the fallout from last week's elimination of
a top Hezbollah terrorist and an Iranian general on the Golan Heights,
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon had a message for anyone planning to
attack Israel from the direction of Syria: Israel would hold Damascus
responsible for any “revenge attacks” coming from Syrian territory, to
the extent that Jerusalem would side itself with forces seeking to
unseat Bashar Assad from the leadership of Syria, if necessary.
Tensions remained high in northern Israel in the aftermath of the
elimination of Jihad Mughniyeh, said to be Hezbollah's “commander of the
Golan Heights area,” along with a crew of Hezbollah terrorists, and
Iranian general Abu Ali Tabtabai. Roads in the area of the
Israel-Lebanon border have been closed, and tanks and armored personnel
carriers were reportedly deployed along the northern border. Lebanese
media outlets are reporting Israeli jets and helicopters over the Har
Dov area along the Lebanese border.
Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Golan Heights, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbullah, Iran, Lebanon, Moshe Yaalon, Syria
Lapid burns
With Yair Lapid out as finance minister, the Knesset Finance Committee has released funding to the Jewish towns and villages in Judea and Samaria. Lapid, who was holding up the money, is furious, and has labeled the release '
bribery.' (He didn't really think he was going to get any votes from the 'settlers,' did he?
Yesh Atid is outraged at the request of Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu to transfer additional funds via the Finance Committee to
regional councils in Judea-Samaria, the party said in a statement on
Monday.
"This is an election bribery - this is an inappropriate course of
action in a democratic state," the party stated, asking the Knesset's
Legal Advisory to intervene over the issue.
Budgetary transfers to the regional councils had been frozen for months
by Finance Minister and Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid, who was sacked
from his ministerial position last week and whose party left the
coalition in a dramatic political move.
Lapid's dismissal has finally paved the way for tens of cash-strapped
communities in the region to receive their funds, leaving leftists
livid.
But the issue is not the only budgetary transfer finally on the table
with Lapid's dismissal; the Finance Committee is expected to make
decisions on dozens of requests for government funding Monday in Lapid's
wake.
Rumor has it that the man behind the transfers is that
'settler' lover,
Moshe 'Boogie' Yaalon.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon may be easing up on his own crackdown
on Judea and Samaria, it was revealed Monday, after leaks from closed
conversations Ya'alon had with unnamed officials indicated his support
for lifting a freeze on funds to Judea-Samaria regional councils.
"Our goal should be the immediate release of funds for the
development of settlements in Judea and Samaria, and I am working to do
this," Ya'alon allegedly stated. "These funds former Finance Minister
Yair Lapid held for political reasons, and now they [the Knesset - ed.]
have to release these funds."
Ya'alon's statements surfaced just as the Knesset Finance Committee announced that funds for Judea-Samaria regional councils had been unfrozen, after months of an on-and-off freeze instituted by Lapid for political purposes.
...
The report, if true, also shows a sharp reversal in Ya'alon's policies thus far. The Defense Minister has been personally behind the continuation of a military seizure of the Yitzhar Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva [Torah academy - ed.] and froze funds for a project to build new housing for IDF soldiers over 1949 Armistice lines just last week.
Heh.
Labels: Israeli Knesset, Judea and Samaria construction, Knesset elections 2015, Moshe Yaalon, settlements, Yair Lapid
Hagel takes the fall for Obama's failed Iran policy? Forced out as US Defense Secretary
Chuck Hagel has been forced out as US Secretary of Defense.
Let's go to the videotape.
The irony is that after we here in Israel were
very much opposed to Hagel's nomination, he actually got along with Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon (unlike Obama and Kerry), and seemed to be following Hippocrates' rule of first
doing no harm with respect to our country.
The New York Times says that Hagel was the fall guy for
Obama's failures to handle ISIS (Islamic State) and Ebola.
Administration officials said that Mr. Obama
made the decision to remove Mr. Hagel, the sole Republican on his
national security team, last Friday after a series of meetings between
the two men over the past two weeks.
The
officials characterized the decision as a recognition that the threat
from the militant group Islamic State will require different skills from
those that Mr. Hagel, who often struggled to articulate a clear
viewpoint and was widely viewed as a passive defense secretary, was
brought in to employ.
Mr. Hagel, a combat
veteran who was skeptical about the Iraq war, came in to manage the
Afghanistan combat withdrawal and the shrinking Pentagon budget in the
era of budget sequestrations.
...
“The next couple of years will demand a
different kind of focus,” one administration official said, speaking on
the condition of anonymity. He insisted that Mr. Hagel was not fired,
saying that the defense secretary initiated discussions about his future
two weeks ago with the president, and that the two men mutually agreed
that it was time for him to leave.
But Mr.
Hagel’s aides had maintained in recent weeks that he expected to serve
the full four years as defense secretary. His removal appears to be an
effort by the White House to show that it is sensitive to critics who
have pointed to stumbles in the government’s early response to several
national security issues, including the Ebola crisis and the threat
posed by the Islamic State.
The bigger problem is that Hagel is a Republican.
Would it be too much to hope for
Michele Flournoy?
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Chuck Hagel, Ebola, Iranian nuclear threat, Islamic State, Michele Flournoy, Moshe Yaalon
Israel needs to separate itself from the Obama chickensh*t
Tell me that quote isn't a perfect description of the Obama administration and how it relates to Israel. Here's
Bret Stephens to explain why (Hat Tip:
Gershon D).
“Despite the fact that Yaalon’s requests to meet with the senior members of
the Obama administration were declined over a week ago, Washington waited until
the visit ended before making the story public in order to humiliate the
Israeli defense minister,” Ha’aretz reported. Mr. Yaalon is now said to be
under an Obama administration “quarantine” until he performs additional
penance, perhaps by recanting his hard-line views about the advisability of a
nuclear deal with Iran or a peace deal with Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas.
The good news here is that at least there’s one kind of quarantine this
administration believes in. The bad news is that it seems to give more thought
to pursuing personal vendettas against allies like Israel than it does to
waging effective military campaigns against enemies like ISIS.
The administration also seems to have forgotten that two can play the game.
Two days after the Yaalon snub, the Israeli government announced the
construction of 1,000 new housing units in so-called East Jerusalem, including
600 new units in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood that was the subject of a 2010
row with Joe Biden. Happy now, Mr. Vice President?
The real problem for the administration is that the Israelis—along with all
the other disappointed allies—are learning how little it pays to be on Barack
Obama’s good side. Since coming to office in 2009, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed, against his own inclination and over the
objections of his political base, to (1) recognize
a Palestinian state; (2) enforce an unprecedented 10-month
settlement freeze;
(3) release scores
of Palestinian prisoners held on murder charges; (4) embark on an
ill-starred effort to reach a final peace deal
with the Palestinians; (5) refrain from taking overt military
steps against Iran; and (6) agree to every possible
cease-fire during the summer’s war with Hamas.
In exchange, Mr. Kerry publicly
blamed Israel for the failure of the peace effort, the White House
held up the delivery of munitions
at the height of the Gaza war, and Mr. Obama is hellbent
on striking whatever deal the Iranians can plausibly offer him.
Oh, and Mr. Kerry also attributes the rise of Islamic State to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. Maybe if the Israelis grovel a bit more, Mr. Obama will oblige them
by recognizing a Palestinian state as his parting act as president. Don’t
discount the possibility.
Which brings me to the concept of a trial separation.
Last year, Mustafa Alani, a Saudi foreign policy analyst, observed of
Riyadh’s evolving attitude toward Washington: “We are learning from our enemies
now how to treat the United States.” Sure enough it wasn’t long after the
Saudis turned down a seat on the Security Council and threatened a fundamental
re-evaluation of their ties to the U.S. that Messrs. Kerry and Obama went bowing
and scraping
to King Abdullah when they needed the kingdom’s help against ISIS.
At least the Saudis understand the value of showing they’re prepared to be,
as someone once wrote, co-dependent no more. The administration likes to make
much of the $3 billion a year it provides Israel (or, at least, U.S. defense
contractors) in military aid, but that’s now less than 1% of Israeli GDP. Like
some boorish husband of yore fond of boasting that he brings home the bacon,
the administration thinks it’s the senior partner in the marriage.
Except this wife can now pay her own bills. And she never ate bacon to
begin with.
Small-minded. Ignoble. Takes the trivial seriously. Sounds like the Obama administration. Sounds like a prescription for a bad marriage. Stephens is right: it's time to get away for a while.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Bret Stephens, John Kerry, Moshe Yaalon, US-Israel relationship
Why the White House hates Boogie
As many of you may have heard, Defense Minister Moshe (Boogie) Yaalon was
denied meetings with Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry and National Security Adviser Susan Rice in Washington last week.
U.S. officials said the Obama
administration had rejected requests by Ya'alon for meetings with Vice
President Joe Biden, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and Secretary
of State John Kerry during Ya'alon's five-day trip to the U.S. last
week.
While in the U.S., Ya'alon did meet with
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha
Power. The Obama administration had sought to stop Ya'alon from meeting
Power, but the objections were made too late to cancel the meeting,
according to U.S. officials.
The Obama administration is miffed with
Ya'alon over negative comments he has made about Kerry's efforts to
broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal and the nuclear negotiations
being held between world powers and Iran.
But it's not that the administration is miffed with Yaalon's comments about Kerry. It's something far deeper than that.
Yaalon is a straight shooter.
Secretary Kerry
recently said the lack of resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian issue is
leading to street anger and recruitment for the Islamic State. What is
your response?
Unfortunately, we find
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is dominated by too many
misconceptions. We don’t find any linkage between the uprising in
Tunisia, the revolution in Egypt, the sectarian conflict in Iraq and the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mainly, these come from the Sunni-Shia
conflict, without any connection to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The
core of the conflict is their reluctance to recognize our right to
exist as a nation state of the Jewish people — whether it is
[Palestinian Authority President] Abu Mazen or his predecessor [Yasser]
Arafat. There are many who believe that just having some territorial
concessions will conclude it. But I don’t think this is right.
Will territorial concessions bring peace?
No, they would be another stage of the Palestinian conflict, as we experienced in the Gaza Strip.
We disengaged from the Gaza Strip to address their territorial
grievances. They went on attacking us. The conflict is about the
existence of the Jewish state and not about the creation of the
Palestinian one. Any territory that was delivered to them after Oslo
became a safe haven for terrorists.
Bearing that in
mind, to conclude that after the [recent] military operation in Gaza
this is a time for another withdrawal from Judea and Samaria [the West
Bank] is irrational. If we withdraw now from Judea and Samaria, we might
face another Hamastan.
...
Do you believe in a two-state solution?
You
can call it the new Palestinian empire. We don’t want to govern them,
but it is not going to be a regular state for many reasons.
What does that mean — the Palestinian empire?
Autonomy. It is going to be demilitarized.
In Gaza and the West Bank?
It
is up to them. According to the agreement, they should be
demilitarized. It is up to Abu Mazen if he is able or if he wants to
demilitarize Gaza. Otherwise, we are not going to talk about any final
settlement.
Is Abu Mazen the best Palestinian leader you’re going to get?
I don’t know, but he is not a partner for the two-state solution. He doesn’t recognize the existence of the Jewish state.
He says he is against violence.
Fine.
But this is a tactical consideration. He believes he might get more by
what he calls “political resistance” — going to the United Nations or to
international bodies to delegitimize us. He prefers it to violence
because in his experience, terror doesn’t pay off.
Is that why you said Secretary Kerry should just get a Nobel Prize and go home? Do you think the West just doesn’t get it?
I
spoke about misconceptions. It is a misunderstanding, without naming
anyone. It might be naivete or wishful thinking — ‘We the Westerners
know what is good for the Arabs.’ To believe that you can have
democratization with elections . . . it is collapsing in front of us.
And part of it is ignorance, yes.
Anyone want to count how many sacred cows Yaalon just slaughtered?
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, John Kerry, Middle East peace process, Moshe Yaalon, Samantha Power, Susan Rice
Yaalon: The hell I'll expose my troops to Ebola
Although the United Nations calls for
our replacement with a 'state of Palestine' every November, when push comes to shove, they always call on Israel to help. But this time, despite a request from the United Nations and the Obama administration to open IDF field hospitals, Israel said 'no,' it will not send its troops to Africa to fight Ebola. No, not because of the danger of Ebola, but because of the
danger to IDF troops' lives.
The Foreign Ministry
recommended the Defense Ministry respond positively to the American's
request, even though it was a complex mission, which runs the risk of
infection for medical crews, who would have been forced to wear full NBC
suits.
The mission was further complicated by the need to provide security for each such encampment.
Despite all these risks, the Foreign Ministry believed that
participation in such a mission would help bolster Israel's
international standing, which suffered a severe blow in the aftermath of Operation Protective Edge.
However, after examining the request and mission details, the
Defense Ministry decided against Israel's participation, saying there
was no feasible way to provide for the safety of the Israeli doctors and
medical crews, which could then return to Israel and further spread the
virus.
Despite the decision –
or maybe because of it – the foreign minister decided to up the level of
Israeli aid to the Ebola effort.
That's just fine with me. If they want our help, they could learn to be nicer to us (just sayin'...).
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Ebola, IDF, Moshe Yaalon, Ron Prosor, Samantha Power
Abu Mazen's success
With the end of the holiday and the Sabbath here in Israel, it's become clear that '
moderate' '
Palestinian' President
Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen's United Nations General Assembly speech was quite a success... but not quite for the reasons he wanted. Abu Mazen has managed to unite Israeli politicians across the board in
blasting him for his hatred.
"Mahmoud Abbas has again proved his only expertise is spreading lies
and incitement against Israel," Communications Minister Gilad Erdan
(Likud) slammed Saturday night. "He has denied the Holocaust in the past and now, in this surreal speech at the UN, he has accused us of 'genocide.'"
"This is not how a 'peace partner' talks, and certainly not anyone
who wants for 'reconciliation between peoples," Erdan continued. "Now it
is clear why he insists on partnering with the Hamas terrorist
organization, with whom he shares the 'struggle against Israel' and will
promote our delegitimization through false propaganda."
"Mahmoud Abbas always finds a soft spot for murderers, rocket
launchers, and our enemies in general," Jewish Home Chairman and
Economics Minister Naftali Bennett added. "We saw missiles launched at
Ben Gurion Airport two months ago, and it's good to know these launchers
are members of Mahmoud Abbas's 'Palestinian state.'"
"Now Israel must find new and creative ways to allow us to just
survive here," Bennett fumed. "A Palestinian state west of the Jordan
River is not one of them."
Even the extreme left took issue with Abbas's speech.
"While Israel has acted harshly in Gaza and made things difficult
[for the Palestinians], you cannot call it 'genocide," Meretz Chairman
Zahava Gal-On stated Saturday. Gal-On - who did not explicitly condemn
Abbas - did add, however, that Abbas's words were "serious and grave." [But see below. CiJ]
"These are false and outrageous statements," MK Eitan Cabel (Labor),
added. "It would have been better if they had not spoken, and these
words are worthy of condemnation from all who truly love peace."
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon had some more
biting remarks.
"Through his speech at the UN, Mahmoud Abbas proves for the umpteenth
time: this is not a leader who wants peace and the advancement of his
people's lives, but a person who distributes lies, incitement, and hate
speech against Israel," Ya'alon stated Saturday. "Mahmoud Abbas is not a
man of peace, and is not really interested in an agreement with Israel,
which means recognition of the Jewish national homeland."
"Time after time, Mahmoud Abbas goes on to deceive the international
community, to throw at Israel false and racist accusations out of the
hope that threats, pressure, and lies will scare us and make us
acquiesce [to his demands]," Ya'alon continued.
Ya'alon implied that Abbas's speech was particularly grave, and may have jettisoned future plans to renew peace talks.
"He has no partner for a political agreement - which is essential to
end the conflict - and we will therefore not compromise the security of
Israeli citizens," Ya'alon said, referencing plans to make a Palestinian
state in Judea and Samaria. "In every situation, we are responsible for
our own destiny and our own security, and we will be in the future."
Ya'alon concluded by blasting Abbas for "not really coming to terms
with our own existence" and added that the claims "are detached from
reality."
Prime Minister Netanyahu is on his way to the United States to counter Abu Mazen's (and Iranian President Hassan Rohani's) '
slander and lies.'
But despite the quotation above, Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On actually
backed Abu Mazen.
“Meretz supports Abbas’s international efforts to bring the end of the occupation and to get international recognition as a [Palestinian] state and member of the UN before and as a corridor to reaching peace in bilateral negotiations between equals,” the party leader said.
The speech reflected Abbas’s total distrust of Netanyahu as a partner for peace, Gal-On said.
According to Gal-On, “Netanyahu refused to negotiate for five years and the talks under American sponsorship led nowhere and wild construction continued in the settlements. Now Netanyahu wants to continue ‘managing the conflict’ instead of solving it,” she lamented.
Gal-On proves the prophet Isaiah right once again. Isaiah warned that those who would destroy us would spring forth from among us. What could go wrong?
Labels: Abu Mazen, Binyamin Netanyahu, Eitan Cabel, Gilad Erdan, Holocaust denial, Meretz, Moshe Yaalon, Naftali Bennett, United Nations General Assembly, Zehava Gal-On
It may have been a rocket - will the IDF respond?
It is now being reported that what was fired from Gaza on Israel around 6:30 this evening was
a rocket and not a mortar.
There have been mixed reports on the precise nature of the projectile fired, with Channel 10 saying
the attack was a mortar shell as opposed to a rocket; likewise, IDF
spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner labeled it a mortar shell on the
IDF's official Twitter feed. However, nearly all other major Israeli media sources have identified it as a rocket attack.
As is usually the case outside of an official operation, Hamas is claiming that it did not do it.
The Hamas terrorist organization claimed Tuesday night that it had
nothing to do with the rocket attack, saying it remains committed to the
ceasefire. Hamas breached numerous ceasefires during Operation
Protective Edge, as well as over the course of recent years.
"The Palestinian factions are committed to the truce," spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. "We want it to continue."
He questioned whether the attack as reported by Israel had in fact
taken place. "There is no evidence that there was mortar fire from the
Gaza Strip," he said.
Yeah, right....
Politicians on the right say Israel must respond in order to avoid a deterioration in the situation.
MK Danny Danon (Likud) spoke out after the attack, saying "we must
not compromise with terror, we should have subdued Hamas during
Operation Protective Edge because terror doesn't change its face."
"Now we must respond with strength in response to the fire for the
sake of deterrence and for the sake of the faith residents of the south
gave to the leadership which said there will be quiet for a long time,"
stated Danon.
The former deputy defense minister, who has been critical of
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu over his management of the operation,
added "only 21 days have past and we're returning to the trickle of
terror from the Gaza Belt. Self-restraint now signals acceptance of the
situation."
The attack came hours after Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon predicted that Hamas would not renew its terror attacks on Israel on September 25 if an agreement - which appears unlikely - is not in place. Hmmm.
In the meantime, Yaalon is being slammed by MK's from the Jewish Home party for dismissing an IDF officer - alleged to be former IDF chief rabbi
Avichai Ronsky - for leaking information to Jewish Home party leader
Naftali Bennett.
"Hamas fired a multi-rocket salvo in honor of the agreement to reconstruct Gaza.
But the defense minister is busy hazing (former IDF Chief) Rabbi
(Avichai) Ronski and slandering Minister Bennett," wrote [Jewish Home party MK Orit] Struk, noting a
dispute over information Bennett reportedly used to attack top IDF
brass in Security Cabinet meetings.
While Ronski was identified in reports as being the suspected source of the leaks who was later dismissed, he told Arutz Sheva on
Tuesday that he did not pass any materials to Bennett, has not heard
anything of the dismissal - and indeed still is scheduled to perform
reserve duty next month.
Not responding to this rocket fire from Gaza would be a terrible mistake and would invite a creeping escalation of the rocket fire from Gaza - as has happened after the end of every other operation. Will the government authorize the IDF to respond? I would guess that we will know the answer to that question before the sun is up in Israel on Wednesday morning - about seven hours from now.
Labels: cease fire, Gaza, Hamas, Hamas rockets, IDF, Jewish Home party, mortar shells, Moshe Yaalon, Naftali Bennett, Operation Protective Edge
Report: Israel and 'Palestinians' reach deal over Gaza construction materials
United Nations envoy Robert Serry says that Israel and the 'Palestinians' have reached a deal over the
passage of construction materials into Gaza (Hat Tip:
Gershon D).
Serry told the U.N. Security Council that the United Nations had brokered the deal "to enable work at the scale required in the strip, involving the private sector in Gaza and giving a lead role to the Palestinian Authority in the reconstruction effort, while providing security assurances through U.N. monitoring that these materials will not be diverted from their entirely civilian purpose."
Defense Minister Yaalon has warned that if the materials are used for building terror tunnels,
the transfers will stop immediately.
"Building materials and reconstruction equipment will enter the Gaza
Strip through a mechanism that Coordinator of the
Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) Maj. Gen. Yoav
Mordechai is building, together the with UN envoy Robert Serry and the
Palestinian Authority," Ya'alon added.
But the defense minister warned that "if those materials are
transferred to building tunnels - the transfer will stop immediately."
Of course, the terror tunnels were built from materials that Israel allowed in after the last two Gaza operations (Cast Lead and Pillar of Defense) in 2006 and 2008-09, respectively, and either the IDF didn't pick up on it or decided that they could not stop the materials from being diverted. Why will this time be different? What could go wrong?
Labels: Gaza, Gaza construction, Hamas, Moshe Yaalon, Operation Cast Lead, Operation Pillar of Defense, Operation Protective Edge, Robert Serry, terror tunnels
Kerry canceled trip to Israel after he realized no one was interested
Even US Secretary of State John FN Kerry may finally understand that there is no hope for the '
peace process' right now.
One of the ministers at Thursday’s meeting told Haaretz that the
confrontation represents a deep rift between segments of the coalition
on the Palestinian issue. Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid are
pushing for talks, but are in the minority. “As opposed to what is
commonly thought, policy on the peace process is what could threaten the
stability of the coalition, not the 2015 budget,” the minister said.
Although
Netanyahu has been speaking recently about a “new diplomatic horizon”
as a result of the war in Gaza, during Thursday’s cabinet meeting and
other interviews he gave on television Friday, the prime minister seems
to identify completely with Ya’alon’s position. He does not seem to be
planning any significant diplomatic initiative vis–à–vis the
Palestinians.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who sent feelers
out to Netanyahu over the past two weeks as to the possibility of
taking advantage of the end of the war to renew talks with the
Palestinians, has also realized this. A senior Israeli official said
that Kerry had even been considering coming to Israel this week to hold
talks with Netanyahu and Abbas, but that he abandoned the idea after he
realized that neither Netanyahu nor Abbas had any interest in talks at
this time.
Gen. John Allen, who was over the past year his
representative on security arrangements in the West Bank following the
establishment of a Palestinian state, was sent by Kerry to Israel last
week. Allen is considering stepping down from his position due to the
diplomatic standstill, but Kerry asked to go to Israel once more before
he made his final decision to see if there was any chance of renewing
talks.
A senior Israeli official said that Allen met with
Netanyahu and Ya’alon, hearing messages even more hawkish than in the
past. They message they conveyed to the general is that their lesson
from the war in Gaza is that the IDF has to have freedom of action in
the West Bank and not only along the Jordan River.
The pair made
clear to Allen that the main focus of dialogue with the PA had to be
mainly the Gaza Strip and not a diplomatic arrangement in the West Bank
that included the presenting of maps and the drawing of borders.
Netanyahu
and Ya’alon told Allen they wanted him to continue his work on security
arrangements taking into consideration the increasing threat from the
Islamic State. The prime minister and the defense minister want to see
the return of the PA Presidential Guard to the Rafah and the border
crossing with Egypt, as well as PA involvement in the rehabilitation of
the Gaza Strip, and payment of salaries to Gaza officials. “Let’s see
how Abu Mazen [Abbas] does first of all in Gaza and then we’ll talk
about other things,” they told Allen.
If Kerry really wanted to get the 'peace process' going again, he could do something very simple. Instead of sending Jen Psaki out to say that he sent Dan Shapiro to
shake his fingers at Israel, and to announce that Kerry will be speaking to Netanyahu on Tuesday, Kerry could instead pick up the phone and call '
moderate' '
Palestinian' President
Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen. He should tell Abu Moron that he's really sorry but since there's no longer a 'peace process' there's no reason for Israel to stop annexing territory, and that Kerry has no basis to tell Israel to stop even if there were a reason. Nothing would bring the 'Palestinians' to the table any more quickly and they might even be willing to negotiate for a change.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Abu Mazen, Binyamin Netanyahu, John Kerry, Middle East peace process, Moshe Yaalon
Indyk's obsession
Here's a lengthy interview with
Martin Indyk about the US-Israel relationship in the aftermath of Operation Protective Edge.
There is much with which to disagree.... Suffice it to say that he is still obsessed with the 'two-state solution.'
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, John Kerry, Martin Indyk, Middle East peace process, Moshe Yaalon, Operation Protective Edge, two-state solution, US-Israel relationship
Liveblog: Netanyahu speaking
Netanyahu: We will not end this operation without neutralizing the tunnels which aim to destroy our population and our land. That's unequivocal.
The war against the tunnels is a necessity for demilitarizing Gaza. Demilitarizing Gaza has to be part of any solution and the 'international community' must forcefully demand it rather than supplying money, cement and concrete to Hamas for more tunnels. There must be supervision.
It is impossible for Israel's citizens to live under the constant threat of rockets and infiltrations. Hamas rejected every cease fire offer and has been cruel to our citizens and to its own.
I said and I repeat that we must be prepared for a long war. We will continue to act with force and sobriety until we accomplish the goal.
Defense Minister Yaalon: We will not compromise on the security of our population. We will continue to fight to destroy tunnels and rockets and missiles. If the terror organizations think they can defeat us, they will see in the coming days that won't be the case. We will not be afraid and we will continue until Hamas understands that they cannot defeat us. We will hit them from land, air and sea in the coming days.
We are sorry for every civilian casualty but they will not come before our population. We are dealing with the tunnels now. The soldiers are aware of the magnitude of the tasks. We ask everyone to support the IDF in its sacred work. We wish the wounded a speedy recovery and reach out to the families of those who died.
They're taking questions.
Yaalon says the IDF did not hit Shifa Hospital.
Says we will get anywhere Hamas is hiding.
Says the population has to have patience.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Gaza, Hamas, IDF, Moshe Yaalon, Operation Protective Edge
Oh my... Kerry's cease fire proposal (which he claimed didn't exist) totally ignored Israel's security concerns
A draft of US Secretary of State John FN Kerry's week-long cease fire proposal, which was unanimously rejected by Israel's cabinet moments before the Sabbath started, shows that Kerry
completely ignored Israel's security concerns. The proposal treated Hamas as equal to Israel, and would have prevented Israel from continuing to destroy Hamas' terror tunnels.
The draft described the urgent need of "protecting civilian lives,
ending all hostilities in and from the Gaza Strip and achieving a
sustainable cease-fire and enduring resolution of the crisis." The draft
said that as such, the two sides - "the Palestinian factions and the
State of Israel" have agreed to make the following commitments, detailed
in three subsequent clauses:
a) Establish a humanitarian cease-fire, ending all
hostilities in and from the Gaza Strip, beginning in 48 hours [Sunday
evening], and lasting for a period of seven days
b) Build on the Cairo cease-fire understandings of November 2012 [reached following Operation Cast Lead]
c)
Convene in Cairo, at the invitation of Egypt, within 48 hours to
negotiate resolution of all issues necessary to achieve a sustainable
cease-fire and enduring solution to the crisis in Gaza.
The third clause goes on to spell out, in one way or
another, Hamas' demands: arrangements to secure the opening of
crossings, allow the entry of goods and people and ensure the social and
economic livelihood of the Palestinian people living in Gaza, transfer
of funds to Gaza for the payment of salaries for public employees and
address all security issues.
Israel's demands were mentioned in the most general of
terms in the phrase "address all security issues." There was no one
mention of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip of its rocket supply or
advanced weapons, and not the dismantling of the terror tunnels.
.... According to the
terms of the draft, the Israel Defense Forces would not be asked to
withdraw from the Gaza Strip during the cease-fire, but would be
forbidden from continuing to operate against the tunnels it has located.
The final clause of the draft determined that "members
of the international community, including the United Nations, the Arab
League, the European Union, the United States, Turkey, Qatar and many
others, support the effective implementation of the humanitarian
cease-fire and agreements reached between the parties, in cooperation
and coordination with the parties, and will join in a major humanitarian
assistance initiative to address the immediate needs of the people of
Gaza."
This clause bore no mention of Egypt – the country
which borders the Gaza Strip, which has many vital interests pertaining
to any cease-fire agreement to be signed, and which filled a central
role in similar agreements in the past. Within Kerry's draft, Egypt's
traditional role of supervising implementation of the agreement has been
passed to Turkey and Qatar – two states which support Hamas and are
hostile to Israel.
Last Friday evening, when the draft reached the Prime
Minister's Bureau at the Defense Ministry's headquarters in Tel Aviv,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon,
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and the rest of the security ministers
could not believe what had been written down on paper.
The cabinet ministers, most of them familiar with the
other and better American drafts shown to Israel over the course of
Wednesday and Thursday, were in shock. The ministers voted unanimously
to reject the document. Nevertheless, Israel decided not to issue an
official announcement on the matter, so as to avoid embarrassing the
U.S. secretary of state and burning the bridges at work. Instead, it was
decided that Netanyahu would call Kerry personally and demand
significant improvements to the draft on the matter essential to Israel.
Senior Israeli officials expressed great anger
regarding Kerry's proposal over the weekend. Cabinet ministers described
it as a "prize for terror," claiming that the U.S. secretary of state
had completely adopted the positions presented by the Turkish and Qatari
foreign ministers negotiating on behalf of Hamas.
On Saturday, apparently following his telephone
conversation with Netanyahu, Kerry tried to patch up the damages caused
by the proposal he submitted to Israel the day before.
...
Senior Israeli officials said that the draft presented
by Kerry had been removed from the table, and was no longer under
discussion. "We succeeded in foiling that document and now we are
discussing other options," said the officials.
An associate of Kerry responded as such: "There is no
paper and no proposal. The draft was based on the Egyptian proposal that
Israel whole heartedly supported. So if they are opposed. They are
opposed their own plan."
Curiously, in his press conference on Friday, Kerry claimed that he never made a formal proposal to Israel and
slammed the Israeli media for its 'mischievous reports' that a proposal existed.
The press conference U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
convened [on Friday] together with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Egyptian
Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry was one of Kerry's most embarrassing
incidents since taking office. And there were quite a few in the last
year and a half.
A few hours before the press conference began, the
Israeli security cabinet ministers unanimously rejected Kerry's
cease-fire plan draft. Kerry, as is his wont, seemed and sounded as if
he came from a parallel universe. He claimed to have never presented
Israel with a formal offer for a cease-fire, slammed the Israeli media's
"mischievous reports" and promised that Netanyahu's office will issue a
clarification.
As if that wasn't enough, Kerry claimed he made
significant progress in the cease-fire talks and said, deadpan, that the
disagreements with Israel are purely on matters of terminology.
Reality, of course, was completely different. If anything happened on
Friday it was another deep crisis in trust between Israeli senior
cabinet members and the American secretary of state.
Would love to see the US media nail Jen Psaki on this at tomorrow's briefing. Most pro-Israel administration evah?
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, cease fire, Egypt, Gaza, Hamas, John Kerry, Moshe Yaalon, Operation Protective Edge, Qatar, terror tunnels, Turkey, Tzipi Livni
Liveblog: Netanyahu press conference
Prime Minister Netanyahu sends condolences to families of those killed in Gaza today.
Talks about Israel's shared sense of responsibility for each other.
We're in a war for our home. Soldiers fighting now in the field. Fighting hard with great spirit. Tells soldiers people behind them and praying for them. Tells families he's aware of their concern and we all feel that. We want to protect the soldiers and the country. We didn't choose to enter this war, but now we must finish it and significantly damage Hamas' infrastructure. We are not afraid and will continue to fight.
Last night we exposed more tunnels, some of which already reached Israel. Hamas invested years of effort in them with the goal of causing mass terror attacks and kidnappings.
The tunnel threat is not new, but this action is much broader than any previous attempt to control the tunnels. If the tunnels were not discovered, the results could have been disastrous and deadly. That was Hamas' program and that is what we are working against. We cannot promise 100% success but we are doing everything to attain the maximum and to date we are achieving more than expected.
In the days leading up to the ground attack, we built the infrastructure for international support. We agreed to cease fires which prepared the diplomatic infrastructure that has caused countries like the US, Canada, Germany [and others] to support us.
I thanked President Obama for supporting us.
Because we accepted the cease fire, no one can claim we are responsible for the violence and Hamas is responsible. We are sorry for any injury to the innocent but that's on Hamas' head.
Hamas has two strategic structures to hurt Israel - rockets and tunnels We have significantly damaged both of them.
Iron Dome has stopped the rockets, and the IAF is attacking launch sites, which they are still doing. As to the tunnels, the current operation is severely damaging Hamas' underground capabilities against us.
I want to thank the IDF, including the reservists who have left their families behind to join us. I want to thank Chief of Staff Benny Gantz who chose to be in the south now with his men and to leave me and Defense Minister Yaalon to speak to you.
In every war there are difficult events and so in this war, but this war will be expanded as much as necessary until quiet returns to Israel.
This could be a long war, but we know from our history that the eternal people does not fear a long road. We are proud of our soldiers. With God's help, we will do and we will succeed.
Now Yaalon is speaking.
Sends condolences to families. Thanks country for support.
Questions.
If they knew about the tunnels five days ago, why did they agree to cease fire at the time?
Netanyahu: This would have been the first topic we would have raised if there were a cease fire. Instead we are undertaking an operation deep inside Gaza and most of the world is supporting us. Says Abu Mazen can be part of the solution if he understands that Hamas cannot be part of it.
Yaalon: We've been busy with the tunnels for a long time - in the last year we have discovered four in our territory. This can be dealt with diplomatically or militarily - now it's being done militarily with a lot of success.
Q: Have you set a goal of getting rid of Hamas? Is the reconciliation with Turkey dead in light of what Erdogan has said? And to the Defense Minister, if there's a cease fire in a day or two, will you support it even if the tunnels aren't finished and will you insist on an international force?
Netanyahu: We are trying to turn the clock back as best we can - the fact is that you if you don't deal with it you get Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbullah. We said we'd defend ourselves against the missiles and we have. Hamas was shocked. The only thing that has changed is the fact that we are hitting them hard. They are now underground. This is a multiphase war and the problem will be resolved over time whether diplomatically, militarily or some combination.
As to Turkey, I told Kerry that Erdogan's words were anti-Semitic and that he cannot tell the difference between a terror organization that seeks to destroy us and Israel's actions to stop a terror organization. He sounds like Iran or al-Qaeda. Right now I'm busy with other things aside from him.
Yaalon: We'll cross the bridge when we come to it, but within two days most of the tunnels will be destroyed. Some things cannot be done in one day - they're a process. The Arab street is not a partner of Hamas and does not support it. There are therefore things that have to be done as a process.
Q: Who will watch over a demilitarized Gaza and what if the 'Palestinians' oppose it?
Netanyahu: Some of the demilitarization is happening de facto. We have no intention of harming civilians. But we need an international notice that the placement of missiles in Gaza against Israeli citizens is not acceptable and cannot be allowed to continue. The most important thing is to force this claim into the international community as we did with Iran's nuclear weapons which are now before the international community. You will hear about this subject more and more and more.
Yaalon: We gave an answer for Hamas' rockets. They tried to hit Gush Dan (Tel Aviv area) and they are frustrated that they did not succeed.
Netanyahu: Most important thing is the determination of Israel's citizens. You are all of our strength.
Labels: Benny Gantz, Binyamin Netanyahu, IDF, Moshe Yaalon, Operation Protective Edge, terror tunnels
Breaking: Netanyahu and Yaalon fire Danny Danon
Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Boogie Yaalon have
fired Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon.
Danon had been highly critical of Netanyahu's security policies, often attacking the prime minister from the Right.
Netanyahu reportedly wrote in his decision to fire Danon, "At a time
that the Israeli government and the IDF are at the height of a military
campaign, it cannot be that the deputy defense minister attacks the
leadership of the state."
Earlier on Tuesday, after the security
cabinet decided to accept an Egyptian-initiated ceasefire to end the
current round of hostilities with Gaza, Danon stated that the truce was
"a slap in the face to all the residents of Israel, especially those in
the south who were willing to pay a heavy price for significant
achievements in the war on Hamas."
Danon has challenged
Netanyahu's leadership of the Likud over the past year as head of the
party's Central Committee. Despite his removal from his position as a
deputy minister, Danon will remain a Likud MK and chairman of the Likud
Central Committee.
Once again Netanyahu cowers before the Left and treats the Right with a heavy hand. His time to go will come.
This has nothing to do with Operation Protective Edge. This is Netanyahu taking the opportunity to do what he's wanted to do for a long time anyway.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Danny Danon, Moshe Yaalon
