Israel Matzav

Dermer to CNN: Israel will present evidence of Obama's UN gambit to Trump administration

Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, told CNN on Monday that Israel has evidence that President Hussein Obama orchestrated the presentation and passage of Security Council Resolution 2334, condemning as 'illegal' Israeli 'settlement' in Judea, Samaria and 'east' Jerusalem. Dermer said that Israel will present the evidence to the Trump administration after January 20, and leave it up to Trump whether to share it with the American people (Hat Tip: MFS - The Other News). I would bet on it being shared if it's solid enough.

Israel has evidence that U.S. President Obama's administration is behind Friday's Security Council resolution, Israel's Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer told CNN on Monday.

"We will present this evidence to the new administration through the appropriate channels. If they want to share it with the American people they are welcome to do it," Dermer told CNN.

According to Dermer, not only did the U.S. not stand by Israel's side during the vote, it "was behind this ganging up on Israel at the UN." Dermer said it was "a sad day and a shameful chapter in U.S.-Israeli relations."

In his first public reaction to the vote, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that the Obama administration has carried out an underhanded and an anti-Israel maneuver at the UN Security Council.

Why should anyone be surprised at that?

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump, Ron Dermer, United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:05 PM 0 comments

'Senior Israeli official' told Clinton campaign they fear Clinton Presidency would be '4-year Saban forum'

Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.

Wikileaks dumped another 2,000+ Hillary Clinton emails on Friday night, one of which contains what might be the Netanyahu government's view of a possible Clinton administration. The email is based on a discussion with a 'senior Israeli official,' who may be Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer. The email was written by Stuart Eizenstadt on December 7, 2015 to Dan Schwerin.

This is from the first link.

Dear Dan, Jake and Laura, 

I had a breakfast meeting with a senior Israeli official who is very close to the Prime Minister, and knows his thinking. He had the following insights: 

1. The Prime Minister always had a “surprising good relationship” with Hillary; she is “easy to work with”, and that she is more instinctively sympathetic to Israel than the White House. Even during their “famous 43 minute phone call, when he felt like slamming down the phone, he felt she was simply heavily scripted and reading from points prepared by the White House.
2. While the Prime Minister favors a two state solution, neither a majority of the Likud Party nor Bennett’s party does. Indeed, a two state solution has never been in the government guidelines in any Likud-led government.
3. The Prime Minister hoped during his most recent meeting with the President that the new MOU would be announced, but the White House only wanted to announce the intention to negotiate it. He hopes it will be concluded in the next few months. When I asked if Bunker Busting Bombs or the new deep ordinance bomb was on the Israeli request list, he only indicated that “there is no dispute on platforms” between the Administration and Israel. He said the biggest issue is the amount of money, in a lean budget situation. The Israeli Embassy is not going around the Administration to lobby for a higher figure, although they could probably get it. But if the figure is too low, they will wait until the next President.
4. Missile defense funds are also critical, but they come out of the Pentagon budget, while many of the items on the MOU list are in the FMF/Foreign Ops budget.
5. He attended part of the Saban Forum and felt that most of the emphasis was on the Palestinian issue, and wonders if a Clinton Administration “will be a Saban Forum for four years”, due to “the people around her, but not her”. Her own speech was “95% good, although there was some moral equivalence language.”
6. We discussed possible economic initiatives to help the Palestinians, like more Palestinian investment in Zone C, and/or an agreement to limit settlement expansion to the established blocs that under the Clinton parameters would be in Israel after any negotiation. He said the Prime Minister is genuinely interested in doing positive things on the ground. He said that they know it would have to be unilateral, and that they can expect nothing from the Palestinian Authority. But, he said there are the following complications:

(1) It is difficult to do while the knifings are occurring, and while Abu Mazan is fomenting violence; (2) So that it does not appear they are bending to violence they need the “support” of the USG. This could include:

(a) Opposition to a new UN Resolution, which Secretary Kerry continues to seek;
(b) Support for settlement activity in the established blocs. But the Obama Administration will not agree to any settlement activity, even in areas like Gilo.
(c ) It is little appreciated that despite great pressure to stop any Palestinians from the West Bank from coming into Israel to work, the Prime Minister had kept the flow of tens of thousands coming in every day, recognizing how important this is to the economy of the West Bank and to stability.
(d) The Prime Minister has also kept the VAT refund money flowing to the PA, despite the provocative statements. But he reiterated there is a deal to be made with the next Administration, looking for positive steps at the outset; “it would be easy to do”. 

7. American Jews are focused on issues like BDS and Israeli legitimacy, while Israelis are focused only on security, with the stabbings.
8. There are some in the Israeli coalition that want to dismantle the Palestinian Authority and take over full control. But the Prime Minister and the Defense Minster, and “certainly the military and intelligence community”, want to keep the PA. There is still intelligence sharing on radicals, but when Israel asks them to arrest the radicals they identify, they refuse, and ask the Israelis to do it, and then protest the arrests. But this is all part of a scenario of cooperation. However, if the PA takes Israel to the International Criminal Court, this would be a “huge problem” and a potential game changer in terms of their relationship with the PA.
9. Abu Mazan continues to talk about retiring, as he has done for years, but seems more serious now. There is no obvious successor if he leaves, “other than the guy in jail” [Barghouti. CiJ].
10. Only about 2% to 4% of Israeli civilians have guns, and certainly not the kind of assault rifles used in the US.
11. Israel Arabs are a “real problem.” The government had to dismantle the northern branch of the Islamic Association because they were radicalizing the Israeli Arabs, who are 20% of the population.

Best wishes, Stu Eizenstat

I am not able to access the Haaretz columns by Barak Ravid analyzing this story (usually you can access his columns through his Twitter feed even if - like me - you refuse to pay for access to Haaretz), however the Hebrew version has a more detailed summary than the English one.  That summary claims that Israel 'fears' that a Clinton administration will adopt the spirit of the Saban Forum and blame Israel for the frozen 'peace process.'

I don't quite see that in item 5 above (and yes, I'm #NeverHillary and therefore voting for Trump), although I have little doubt that Clinton will push the 'Palestinian' issue.

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Haim Saban, Hillary Clinton, Middle East peace process, Ron Dermer, US presidential campaign 2016

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:48 PM 2 comments

They don't speak in my name

Uber-Leftist MSNBC cites 'Jewish organizations' as reacting to Mike Huckabee's comment that President Hussein Obama's Iran deal is leading Israelis to the doors of the ovens (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

The National Jewish Democratic Council immediately called on members of the Republican Party to denounce Huckabee’s comments, saying it is “not only disgustingly offensive to the President and the White House, but shows utter, callous disregard for the millions of lives lost in the Shoah and to the pain still felt by their descendants today.”

“It may be the most inexcusable we’ve encountered in recent memory,” the organization added in a statement. 

The Anti-Defamation League, a group that fights antisemitism, said that while they are wary of the deal, Huckabee’s comments are “completely out of line and unacceptable.”

“To hear Mr. Huckabee invoke the Holocaust when America is Israel’s greatest ally and when Israel is a strong nation capable of defending itself is disheartening,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, in a statement.

The NJDC is an organization of the Democratic party that has come out in favor of the Iranian nuclear sellout. It exists to promote the Democratic party (and Jewish donations to it) and is definitely not Jewish. The ADL is a group of paranoid liberals that is too busy finding anti-Semitism on every street corner to think about what it means to be Jewish. In fact, I am surprised that they did not accuse Huckabee of being an anti-Semite.

I have never heard of any of the other organizations cited, although I do 'know' one of the people cited from his online persona.

And in true Leftist fashion not a single comment supporting Huckabee has been cited.

Israeli ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer didn't like Huckabee's comments either.

"Look, we have a very serious disagreement with the administration on a very serious issue," Ambassador Ron Dermer told Capital Download. "But what I don't doubt is the sincerity of the president or his team when they say they believe this deal not only makes America safe but makes Israel safe. Where we disagree is the judgment of actually what this deal is going to do."

On Huckabee's comments, he said: "These are not words that I would use or that I think are appropriate."

But what did you expect him to say while he's the Ambassador? That Obama is at best indifferent and at worst hostile to Israel's existence as a state? Consider what Dermer's predecessor wrote once he was out of office (from a review by John Podhoretz):

It’s not that there’s lots of breaking news in “Ally” that will startle people. Rather, it makes news on almost every page with its incredibly detailed account of the root hostility of the Obama administration toward the Jewish state.

What makes the details especially credible is that Oren is no flame-breathing Israeli right-winger but very much (and at times distressingly) an Establishment creature and one, moreover, who makes it clear he drank the Obama hope-and-change Kool-Aid in 2008. (Indeed, he now serves in Israel’s Knesset not as a member of Bibi Netanyahu’s Likud but of the new centrist Kulanu party.)

On major matters, the administration seemed to hold Israel accountable for problems it had nothing to do with.

Example: The Palestinian Authority made moves toward seeking a declaration of statehood at the United Nations in 2011, which would’ve triggered a law shutting down their US mission and suspending all aid to the PA and to UN agencies that recognized Palestine.

In response, Deputy Secretary of State Tom Nides called Oren into his fancy Foggy Bottom office and screamed at him: “You don’t want the f - - - ing UN to collapse because of your f - - - - ing conflict with the Palestinians, and you don’t want the f - - - king Palestinian Authority to fall apart either.”

To which Oren replied that Israel didn’t want the United Nations to collapse “but there are plenty of Tea Party types who would, and no shortage of Congress members who are wondering why they have to keep paying Palestinians who spit in the president’s eye.” He reports that Nides “slumped into his Louis XVth chair.”

Oren also writes about bizarrely petty offenses. In 2010, Obama left Israel off a list of countries he mentioned as having helped in the wake of the Haiti earthquake when it was the first nation in the world to dispatch relief teams and get them to the disaster sites — because the president was angry about something having to do with the peace process.

Even when the administration is acting friendly, Oren senses it is doing so not out of genuine fellow feeling but to keep Israel close — hugging it to prevent it from acting, especially when it came to Iran’s nuclear program.

Dermer is (a) still in office and (b) a 'flame-breathing Israeli right winger.' He is also a Republican at heart and therefore cannot agree with Huckabee and still keep his position in Washington. Obama is already obsessed with removing Dermer.

I'd bet that Dermer is a lot closer to Huckabee and Oren on this than he is to the ADL or the NJDC - he just can't say so.

My own view is that while I'm averse to Holocaust analogies (they make me cringe because I think they're overused), there is something to the notion that 'ovens' reflects Obama's deepest wishes for the people of Israel, if not for (non-liberal) Jews generally. And it certainly reflects what Iran wants to do with its nuclear program.

Labels: ADL, Barack Hussein Obama, Holocaust, Iranian nuclear threat, liberal media bias, Michael Oren, MSNBC, National Jewish Democratic Council, Ron Dermer

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:20 PM 1 comments

But will Biden speak to him?

I am honored to host @VP Biden at Israel's Independence Day event in Washington, D.C. on April 23rd.
— Amb. Ron Dermer (@AmbDermer) April 16, 2015

Let's hope Biden at least acknowledges his host.

Labels: Joe Biden, Ron Dermer, Yom HaAtzmaut

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:32 AM 1 comments

Obama meets with some of Israel's most radical Leftists

He backed Isaac Herzog and Tzippi Livni in the last election with an ad campaign that said that 'from the River to the Sea,' all of Israel belongs to the 'Palestinians.' But Livni and Herzog are far - very far - from being the most radical Leftist Israelis to whom Obama has granted succor. Daniel Greenfield has a rogue's gallery.

The Haaretz piece is another exercise in poisoning the well, but it does reveal some bits of interesting information. The article claims that Obama’s people, including Susan Rice, are refusing to meet with the Israeli ambassador. But they’re rather enthusiastic about meeting with assorted Israeli leftists.

...

Looking into the records of the entry permits reveals that several heads of leftist Israeli not-for-profit groups also visited the White House during 2014. At the end of October there was a visit by the head of the Geneva Initiative group, Gadi Baltiansky, followed the next day by a visit by the head of Friends of the Earth Gidon Bromberg. They met separately with Maher Bitar, director of Israeli-Palestinian affairs at the White House.

On December 2, left-wing activist Danny Zeidman, whose main interest is problems related to Jerusalem, met with adviser Gordon. On December 9, attorney Michael Sfard from the Yesh Din human rights group, met NSC Mideast adviser Lempert.

Those are understated descriptions.

Zeidman is with Ir Amim, a radical left-wing group fighting against the Jewish presence in Jerusalem. It gets its funding from the EU and George Soros.

An Ir Amim blog entry in the Huffington Post (April 27, 2010), appeals to the United States government to, “Threaten [Israel] with severing diplomatic ties.”

And apparently Ir Amim is much closer to the White House than anyone thought.

Yesh Din is another anti-Israel lefty group funded by the EU and George Soros.

According to Emily Schaeffer, a lawyer on Yesh Din’s legal team, “Yesh Din was founded to use law as a tool to fight the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.”

Victor Davis Hansen would tell you that coordinating strategy with groups like Ir Amim and Yesh Din - which are very far from any type of Israeli consensus - is something that Obama does purposefully and as a matter of course.

But, in fact, there is a predictable pattern to Obama’s foreign policy. The president has an adolescent, romantic view of professed revolutionary societies and anti-Western poseurs — and of his own ability uniquely to reach out and win them over. In the most superficial sense, Obama demonstrates his empathy for supposedly revolutionary figures of the non-Western world through gratuitous, often silly remarks about Christianity and Western colonial excesses, past and present. He apologizes with talk of our “own dark periods” and warns of past U.S. “dictating”; he contextualizes; he ankle-bites the very culture he grew up and thrived in, as if he can unapologetically and without guilt enjoy the West’s largesse only by deriding its history and values. 

In lieu of reading or speaking a foreign language, or knowing much about geography (Austrians speak Austrian, the death camps were Polish, the Indian Ocean Maldives are the politically correct name of the Falklands, cities along the U.S. Atlantic Coast are Gulf ports, etc.), Obama adopts, in the manner of a with-it English professor, hokey accentuation to suggest an in-the-know fides anytime he refers to the Taliban, Pakistan, or Teheran. Reminiscent of college naïfs with dorm-room posters of Che Guevara, Obama mythologizes about the underappreciated multicultural “Other” that did everything from fuel the Western Renaissance and Enlightenment to critique Christian excesses during the Inquisition. In truth, what he delivers is only a smoother and more refined version of Al Sharpton’s incoherent historical riff on “astrology” and “Greek homos.” Obama refuses to concede that Islam can become a catalyst for radical killers and terrorists, and he has a starry-eyed crush on those who strike anti-Western poses and have turned their societies upside down on behalf of the proverbial people. 

... 

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Hamas, Iranian nuclear threat, Palestinian Authority, radical Left, Ron Dermer, Victor Davis Hanson

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:23 AM 1 comments

@BarakRavid's tempest in a teapot

Israel's mediabots are tweeting this article by Barak Ravid (and Ravid is retweeting it which is why I have seen it even more times) all over social media. The article cites two 'senior Israeli officials' who claim that Prime Minister Netanyahu told his cabinet recently that 'our biggest fear' is that Iran 'will honor the nuclear deal.'

The meeting of the security cabinet was called on short notice on April 3, a few hours before the Passover seder. The evening before, Iran and the six powers had announced at Lausanne, Switzerland that they had reached a framework agreement on Iran’s nuclear program and that negotiations over a comprehensive agreement would continue until June 30.

The security cabinet meeting was called after a harsh phone call between Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama over the agreement with Tehran.

The two senior Israeli officials, who are familiar with the details of the meeting but asked to remain anonymous, said a good deal of the three-hour meeting was spent on ministers “letting off steam” over the nuclear deal and the way that the U.S. conducted itself in the negotiations with Iran.

According to the two senior officials, Netanyahu said during the meeting that he feared that the “Iranians will keep to every letter in the agreement if indeed one is signed at the end of June.”

One official said: “Netanyahu said at the meeting that it would be impossible to catch the Iranians cheating simply because they will not break the agreement.”

Given that we are between governments, it's kind of hard to say who is in the security cabinet right now, but hopefully it's not Yair Lapid or Tzipi Livni, who were in the security cabinet until Netanyahu fired them, precipitating our most recent election.

In any event, what all the Leftists are leaving out (and Ravid is happy to see them do so) is the second half of the report, which makes clear that Netanyahu's fear is entirely rational.

Netanyahu also told the ministers that in 10 to 15 years, when the main clauses of the agreement expire, most of the sanctions will be lifted and the Iranians will show that they met all their obligations. They will then receive a “kashrut certificate” from the international community, which will see Iran as a “normal” country from which there is nothing to fear.

Under such circumstances, the prime minister said, it will be very difficult if not impossible to persuade the world powers to keep up their monitoring of Iran’s nuclear program, not to mention imposing new sanctions if concerns arise that Iran has gone back to developing a secret nuclear program for military purposes.

Sounds like good reason to fear Iran keeping to the agreement for 10-15 years, doesn't it? And just imagine if they manage to violate the agreement in secret, as they have done so many times before.

What could go wrong?

Labels: AIPAC, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Bob Corker, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, P 5+1, Ron Dermer, security cabinet

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:55 AM 0 comments

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?

BREAKING: MoD Yaalon: Israel didn't receive any formal complaint from the US about alleged Israeli spying against American officials
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) March 24, 2015

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

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:15 PM 1 comments

Israel accused of spying on Iran nuke talks

If this story is true, Prime Minister Netanyahu has proven once again that he does not trust the Obama administration, and that he is willing to do whatever must be done to protect Israel, even at the cost of offending King Hussein. The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that Israel 'spied' on the nuclear talks with Iran (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). I'm going to post a lot of this article, because it's not freely available online and I got it by email from another source.

The spying operation was part of a broader campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to penetrate the negotiations and then help build a case against the emerging terms of the deal, current and former U.S. officials said. In addition to eavesdropping, Israel acquired information from confidential U.S. briefings, informants and diplomatic contacts in Europe, the officials said.

The espionage didn’t upset the White House as much as Israel’s sharing of inside information with U.S. lawmakers and others to drain support from a high-stakes deal intended to limit Iran’s nuclear program, current and former officials said.

“It is one thing for the U.S. and Israel to spy on each other. It is another thing for Israel to steal U.S. secrets and play them back to U.S. legislators to undermine U.S. diplomacy,” said a senior U.S. official briefed on the matter.

The U.S. and Israel, longtime allies who routinely swap information on security threats, sometimes operate behind the scenes like spy-versus-spy rivals. The White House has largely tolerated Israeli snooping on U.S. policy makers—a posture Israel takes when the tables are turned.

The White House discovered the operation, in fact, when U.S. intelligence agencies spying on Israel intercepted communications among Israeli officials that carried details the U.S. believed could have come only from access to the confidential talks, officials briefed on the matter said.

Israeli officials denied spying directly on U.S. negotiators and said they received their information through other means, including close surveillance of Iranian leaders receiving the latest U.S. and European offers. European officials, particularly the French, also have been more transparent with Israel about the closed-door discussions than the Americans, Israeli and U.S. officials said.

Using levers of political influence unique to Israel, Messrs. Netanyahu and Dermer calculated that a lobbying campaign in Congress before an announcement was made would improve the chances of killing or reshaping any deal. They knew the intervention would damage relations with the White House, Israeli officials said, but decided that was an acceptable cost.

The campaign may not have worked as well as hoped, Israeli officials now say, because it ended up alienating many congressional Democrats whose support Israel was counting on to block a deal.

Obama administration officials, departing from their usual description of the unbreakable bond between the U.S. and Israel, have voiced sharp criticism of Messrs. Netanyahu and Dermer to describe how the relationship has changed.

“People feel personally sold out,” a senior administration official said. “That’s where the Israelis really better be careful because a lot of these people will not only be around for this administration but possibly the next one as well.”

THEY feel sold out? Well, BOO HOO. The Obama administration has done everything in its power over the last six years to weaken relations between the United States and Israel. They expect us to trust them? I'm thrilled that Netanyahu is capable of seeing and admitting that this administration is no friend of Israel, and last week's election results prove that most Israelis can see that there is a difference between our relations with the United States and the American people and our relations with this administration. Most Israelis didn't fall for the simplistic argument advanced by the Left that Netanyahu was ruining our relations with the United States.

As to the last sentence, that's yet another incentive for Israelis to work for a Republican candidate for President in 2016. Ted Cruz, who announced yesterday, would be excellent.

The article goes on to state that Israel might have spied because the Obama administration launched these talks in 2012 without telling us, and didn't tell us about them until September 2013 (gee, talk about creating mistrust). The article also says that Netanyahu's office denies that we spied on the US (we routinely spy on Iran, but the US knows that because they helped set up our system for doing so!).

Israeli officials, who said they had already learned about the talks through their own channels, told their U.S. counterparts they were upset about being excluded. “ ‘Did the administration really believe we wouldn’t find out?’ ” Israeli officials said, according to a former U.S. official.

The episode cemented Mr. Netanyahu’s concern that Mr. Obama was bent on clinching a deal with Iran whether or not it served Israel’s best interests, Israeli officials said. Obama administration officials said the president was committed to preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Mr. Dermer started lobbying U.S. lawmakers just before the U.S. and other powers signed an interim agreement with Iran in November 2013. Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Dermer went to Congress after seeing they had little influence on the White House.

Before the interim deal was made public, Mr. Dermer gave lawmakers Israel’s analysis: The U.S. offer would dramatically undermine economic sanctions on Iran, according to congressional officials who took part.

After learning about the briefings, the White House dispatched senior officials to counter Mr. Dermer. The officials told lawmakers that Israel’s analysis exaggerated the sanctions relief by as much as 10 times, meeting participants said.

When the next round of negotiations with Iran started in Switzerland last year, U.S. counterintelligence agents told members of the U.S. negotiating team that Israel would likely try to penetrate their communications, a senior Obama administration official said.

The U.S. routinely shares information with its European counterparts and others to coordinate negotiating positions. While U.S. intelligence officials believe secured U.S. communications are relatively safe from the Israelis, they say European communications are vulnerable.

So maybe we didn't spy on the US. Maybe we spied on the Europeans. Or maybe the Europeans - or at least France - decided to tell us about it. Hey Obama - you keep saying that you're our ally and that you have our back and your party chaircritter keeps saying that she wears her support to Israel to work on her sleeve every day.  So how can you keep something like this from us for a year? How can you do this behind our backs? It's our existence at stake - not yours! What do you expect us to do in response?

Or maybe we spied on Iran.

Current and former Israeli officials said their intelligence agencies can get much of the information they seek by targeting Iranians and others in the region who are communicating with countries in the talks.

In November, the Israelis learned the contents of a proposed deal offered by the U.S. but ultimately rejected by Iran, U.S. and Israeli officials said. Israeli officials told their U.S. counterparts the terms offered insufficient protections.

And this story is apparently how Netanyahu's address to a joint session of Congress came about too.

In January, Mr. Netanyahu told the White House his government intended to oppose the Iran deal but didn’t explain how, U.S. and Israeli officials said.

On Jan. 21, House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) announced Mr. Netanyahu would address a joint meeting of Congress. That same day, Mr. Dermer and other Israeli officials visited Capitol Hill to brief lawmakers and aides, seeking a bipartisan coalition large enough to block or amend any deal.

...

Mr. Dermer and other Israeli officials over the following weeks gave lawmakers and their aides information the White House was trying to keep secret, including how the emerging deal could allow Iran to operate around 6,500 centrifuges, devices used to process nuclear material, said congressional officials who attended the briefings.

For the record, those 6,500 centrifuges (now apparently 6,000) aren't enough for any civilian nuclear use, but they are enough for nuclear weapons.

The Israeli officials told lawmakers that Iran would also be permitted to deploy advanced IR-4 centrifuges that could process fuel on a larger scale, meeting participants and administration officials said. Israeli officials said such fuel, which under the emerging deal would be intended for energy plants, could be used to one day build nuclear bombs.

...

When asked in February during one briefing where Israel got its inside information, the Israeli officials said their sources included the French and British governments, as well as their own intelligence, according to people there.

“Ambassador Dermer never shared confidential intelligence information with members of Congress,” Mr. Sagui said. “His briefings did not include specific details from the negotiations, including the length of the agreement or the number of centrifuges Iran would be able to keep.”

'Current and former US officials' claim that Dermer did tell Congress those details.

All of this has come at a cost, and Israel is seeking new ways to defeat a deal with Iran.

Congressional aides and Israeli officials now say Israel’s coalition in Congress is short the votes needed to pass legislation that could overcome a presidential veto, although that could change. In response, Israeli officials said, Mr. Netanyahu was pursuing other ways to pressure the White House.

This week, Mr. Netanyahu sent a delegation to France, which has been more closely aligned with Israel on the nuclear talks and which could throw obstacles in Mr. Obama’s way before a deal is signed. The Obama administration, meanwhile, is stepping up its outreach to Paris to blunt the Israeli push.

France has not been a better friend to Israel than the United States since the Eisenhower administration. Obama has 'succeeded' in turning back the clock.

One final comment. Obama is lucky this story didn't come out last Sunday or Monday. If it had, the Likud might have won 80 seats in last Tuesday's elections. This story doesn't make Obama into a victim (although I am sure that was the administration's intent in leaking it). This story makes Obama look petty, vindictive, and more than willing to abandon an ally that just happens to be the only democracy in a part of the world that is of critical interest to the United States.

Obama has won the title. He will go down in history as the worst President the United States has ever had. 

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, centrifuges, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, John Boehner, joint session of Congress, P 5+1, Ron Dermer, uranium enrichment, US-Israel relationship

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:55 AM 2 comments

Netanyahu to offer Likud MK (Benny Begin?) Ambassadorship to the United States - UPDATED UNITED NATIONS

פרסום ראשון: נתניהו צפוי להציע את תפקיד שגריר ישראל באו"ם לאחד מחברי הכנסת של הליכוד ובכך לדלל את רשימת המאוכזבים.
— Yaron Avraham (@yaronavraham) March 22, 2015

The tweet above in Hebrew comes from a Knesset Channel correspondent, who claims that Prime Minister Netanyahu will offer Ron Dermer's position as Ambassador to the United States to a Likud MK, in order to allow another MK into the Knesset, and 'dilute the list of disappointed' candidates. 

Some of you might recall that the Obama administration named replacing Dermer as the price of reconciliation for Netanyahu with Washington.

The comments to the tweet include much speculation that the MK in question is Miri Regev, who served as IDF spokesperson before becoming an MK, but whose English language skills may or may not be up to snuff. She was number 5 on the Likud list. Another MK mentioned in Gilad Erdan, but given that he was a minister in the last government, that seems hard to believe.

I don't know who is number 31 on the Likud list (you can find the first 30 here). But my bet is that it's Benny Begin. His English is fluent. He's number 11 on the Likud list - probably not in line for a senior ministry. He's an elder statesman already. He didn't want to run for the Knesset - Netanyahu begged him to run because he wanted him on the list. And it would be very difficult for the Obama administration to reject the man whose father signed the Camp David accords.

Just my humble speculation....

UPDATE 2:56 PM

Thanks to commenter Hutzpan for pointing out that there was a typo in the English language tweet from which I found this story,  and that the MK is being offered the Ambassadorship to the United Nations and not to the United States.

So you can change the first paragraph above to read as follows:

The tweet above in Hebrew comes from a Knesset Channel correspondent, who claims that Prime Minister Netanyahu will offer Ron Prosor's position as Ambassador to the United Nations to a Likud MK, in order to allow another MK into the Knesset, and 'dilute the list of disappointed' candidates.

And then you can delete the second paragraph and delete the last sentence of the fourth paragraph.

I still think it's Begin.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Gilad Erdan, Israeli Ambassador to the United States, John Kerry, Miri Regev, Ron Dermer

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:26 PM 4 comments

Report: 'Post-partisan' Obama makes Dermer price of detente

There may be nothing in the US-Israel relationship that has gotten Barack Hussein Obama more upset than Prime Minister Netanyahu's appointment of Ron Dermer as Ambassador to the United States. Dermer, an American immigrant, is the scion of a Republican family from Florida. Obama doesn't like Republicans. Now, Haaretz's Barak Ravid is reporting that Dermer's replacement is to the price of 'mending' Prime Minister Netanyahu's ties with Washington.

Senior administration officials said the White House is not planning any retaliation against Netanyahu, nor is it considering ways to punish him if he wins the election. Nevertheless, the wounds caused by the premier’s address to Congress are far from being healed, and Netanyahu will have to make great efforts to restore good relations with the Obama administration.

“We are not the ones who created this crisis,” said a senior administration official. “President Obama has another two years in office and we wish to go back to a reality where you can work together despite the differences. The prime minister of Israel is the one who needs to find a way to fix this.” 

...

Although White House officials don’t say so explicitly, they seem to imply that one way to repair the relations between Netanyahu and Obama would be to replace Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer. The latter is seen as an instigator who concocted Netanyahu’s Congress speech behind Obama’s back with John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives.

In his speech to AIPAC, Netanyahu praised Dermer for standing firm and taking the heat in Washington. If Netanyahu wins the election and continues to back Dermer, the ambassador will find himself isolated in the American capital. As long as Obama is in the White House, nobody in the administration will work with him. 

...

Former U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer, who is close to the Obama administration, wrote in an article on Politico Magazine on Tuesday that “Dermer’s ability to function as the Israeli ambassador is now severely weakened, perhaps even fatally so.”

In acting more as Netanyahu’s personal envoy than Israel’s ambassador, Dermer “has lost touch with a large segment of Americans – including a majority of the Jewish community that votes for the Democrats. Ambassadors are an expendable lot – I know from experience – and Dermer has now outlived his usefulness as Israel’s envoy to the United States,” Kurtzer wrote.

 Petty. Vindictive. Describes Obama and his crew perfectly.

Labels: AIPAC, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Iranian nuclear threat, John Boehner, joint session of Congress, partisanship, Ron Dermer

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:30 AM 2 comments

'Most pro-Israel administration ever' blocks missile shipment to Israel

In yet another sign of the cool relations between the Obama administration and the State of Israel, the Obama administration has blocked a shipment of hellfire missiles to the Jewish state and has ordered that future requests be approved by the administration and not just by the military.

White House and State Department officials who were leading U.S. efforts to rein in Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip were caught off guard last month when they learned that the Israeli military had been quietly securing supplies of ammunition from the Pentagon without their approval.

Since then the Obama administration has tightened its control on arms transfers to Israel. But Israeli and U.S. officials say that the adroit bureaucratic maneuvering made it plain how little influence the White House and State Department have with the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu —and that both sides know it.

The munitions surprise and previously unreported U.S. response added to a string of slights and arguments that have bubbled behind the scenes during the Gaza conflict, according to events related by senior American, Palestinian and Israeli officials involved.

In addition, current and former American officials say, U.S.-Israel ties have been hurt by leaks that they believe were meant to undercut the administration's standing by mischaracterizing its position and delay a cease-fire. The battles have driven U.S.-Israeli relations to the lowest point since President Barack Obama took office.

Now, as Egyptian officials shuttle between representatives of Israel and Hamas seeking a long-term deal to end the fighting, U.S. officials are bystanders instead of in their historic role as mediators. The White House finds itself largely on the outside looking in.

U.S. officials said Mr. Obama had a particularly combative phone call on Wednesday with Mr. Netanyahu, who they say has pushed the administration aside but wants it to provide Israel with security assurances in exchange for signing onto a long-term deal.

As a 72-hour pause in the fighting expired at midnight Wednesday, a senior Hamas official said negotiators agreed to another cease-fire, this one of five days. There was no immediate confirmation from Israel or Egypt.

Well, there was another five-day cease fire, but Hamas has already breached it.

Hamas already breached the last 72-hour ceasefire three hours ahead of its conclusion Wednesday at midnight; on Thursday morning it proved that it does not intend to honor the newly achieved five-day ceasefire either.

Rocket warning sirens were sounded around 10 a.m. on Thursday in the Eshkol Regional Council and Hof Ashkelon region.

Shortly afterwards reports came in that a rocket fell in open ground in the Hof Ashkelon region, apparently causing no injuries or damage.

The attack comes after Hamas fired at least one rocket at the Hof Ashkelon region on Wednesday night around 9 p.m., where it hit open ground.

The terrorist organization then continued firing into the night even after the ceasefire extension was announced, with the Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepting one rocket over the city of Netivot. Two other rockets exploded in the Sdot Negev region.

Is anyone really surprised that Israel doesn't trust Obama? This is from the first link again.

Today, many administration officials say the Gaza conflict—the third between Israel and Hamas in under six years—has persuaded them that Mr. Netanyahu and his national security team are both reckless and untrustworthy.

Israeli officials, in turn, describe the Obama administration as weak and naive, and are doing as much as they can to bypass the White House in favor of allies in Congress and elsewhere in the administration.

While Israeli officials have privately told their U.S. counterparts the poor state of relations isn't in Israel's interest long term, they also said they believed Mr. Netanyahu wasn't too worried about the tensions. The reason is that he can rely on the firmness of Israeli support in Congress, even if he doesn't have the White House's full approval for his policies. The prime minister thinks he can simply wait out the current administration, they say.

Yeah, 'attacking' Hamas after thousands of rockets is 'reckless and untrustworthy.' I would say that the one who is 'reckless and untrustworthy' is Obama. Is he behaving like an ally?

Of course, the official Israeli response (as opposed to the 'privately' one) is a lot tamer.

"The allegations are unfounded," said Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer. "Israel deeply appreciates the support we have received during the recent conflict in Gaza from both the Obama administration and the Congress for Israel's right to defend itself and for increased funding of Iron Dome."

Blah, blah, blah. Obama is clearly ticked off. It's hard to run a war from a golf course.

A senior Obama administration official said the White House didn't intend to get into a "tit for tat" with the Israelis when the war broke out in Gaza. "We have many, many friends around the world. The United States is their strongest friend," the official said. "The notion that they are playing the United States, or that they're manipulating us publicly, completely miscalculates their place in the world."

American officials say they believe they have been able to exert at least some influence over Mr. Netanyahu during the Gaza conflict. But they admit their influence has been weakened as he has used his sway in Washington, from the Pentagon and Congress to lobby groups, to defuse U.S. diplomatic pressure on his government over the past month.

And for the record, Israel did nothing wrong! It's Obama who's changing the rules in the middle of the game.

On July 20, Israel's defense ministry asked the U.S. military for a range of munitions, including 120-mm mortar shells and 40-mm illuminating rounds, which were already kept stored at a pre-positioned weapons stockpile in Israel.

The request was approved through military channels three days later but not made public. Under the terms of the deal, the Israelis used U.S. financing to pay for $3 million in tank rounds. No presidential approval or signoff by the secretary of state was required or sought, according to officials.

...

A U.S. defense official said the standard review process was properly followed.

"There was no intent to blindside anyone. The process for this transfer was followed precisely along the lines that it should have," another U.S. defense official said.

Then the officials learned that, in addition to asking for tank shells and other munitions, Israel had submitted a request through military-to-military channels for a large number of Hellfire missiles, according to Israeli and American officials.

The Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency, or DSCA, was about to release an initial batch of the Hellfires, according to Israeli and congressional officials. It was immediately put on hold by the Pentagon, and top officials at the White House instructed the DSCA, the U.S. military's European Command and other agencies to consult with policy makers at the White House and the State Department before approving any additional requests.

A senior Obama administration official said the weapons transfers shouldn't have been a routine "check-the-box approval" process, given the context. The official said the decision to scrutinize future transfers at the highest levels amounted to "the United States saying 'The buck stops here. Wait a second… It's not OK anymore.' "

White House and State Department officials were worried about public reaction.

The Palestinians, in particular, were angry, according to U.S. diplomats.

"The U.S. is a partner in this crime," Jibril Rajoub, a leader in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Western-backed Fatah party, said of the decision to provide arms to Israel during the conflict.

Even as tensions with the White House and the State Department were spilling over, Israeli officials worked to expedite the Iron Dome money on Capitol Hill.

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said Israeli officials told lawmakers the money was urgently needed because they were running out of interceptors and couldn't hold out for a month or more.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said Congress's goal in approving the money quickly on Aug. 1 was to send a message to the administration to stop calling Israel out about civilian casualties.

A senior Republican congressional aide said Israeli officials told senators they wanted the money sooner rather than later. He said Israel's main purpose in accelerating the vote in Congress to before legislators' August recess was to provide an overwhelming "show of support" for the military operation.

The last straw for many U.S. diplomats came on Aug. 2 when they say Israeli officials leaked to the media that Mr. Netanyahu had told the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, that the Obama administration was "not to ever second-guess me again" about how to deal with Hamas.

The White House and State Department have sought to regain greater control over U.S.-Israeli policy. They decided to require White House and State Department approval for even routine munitions requests by Israel, officials say.

Instead of being handled as a military-to-military matter, each case is now subject to review—slowing the approval process and signaling to Israel that military assistance once taken for granted is now under closer scrutiny.

A senior U.S. official said the U.S. and Israel clashed mainly because the U.S. wanted a cease-fire before Mr. Netanyahu was ready to accept one. "Now we both want one," one of the officials said.

A top Israeli official said the rift runs deeper than that. "We've been there before with a lot of tension with us and Washington. What we have now, on top of that, is mistrust and a collision of different perspectives on the Middle East," the official said. "It's become very personal."

We have to become more reliant on our defense and weapons capabilities and less on the United States, at least so long as this administration is in power. 'Most pro-Israel administration evah'? You got to be kidding.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Dan Shapiro, Egypt, Gaza, Hamas, Hellfire missiles, John Kerry, Michael Oren, Operation Protective Edge, Qatar, Ron Dermer, Turkey, weapons acquisition

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:37 AM 2 comments

Video: Ambassador Ron Dermer destroys CNN coverage of Operation Protective Edge

Here's Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, appearing on CNN and blasting their coverage of Operation Protective Edge.

Let's go to the videotape.



You almost have to feel sorry for Erin Burnett. This was clearly above her grade.

Labels: civilian casualties, CNN, Gaza, Hamas, human shields, Operation Protective Edge, Ron Dermer

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:08 PM 1 comments

Who caused the 'peace talks' to collapse?

Two different articles claim that the 'Palestinians' and the Americans, respectively, purposely brought about the collapse of the 'peace talks.' This is from the first link from JCPA's Jonathan Dahoah HaLevi, who claims that the 'Palestinians' blew up the talks as part of a strategy of gradually accreting the indicia of statehood.

• In March 2014, Saeb Erekat, the head of the Palestinian negotiating team, prepared a 65-page document that surveys the diplomatic process and offers a list of recommendations for the PA to achieve Palestinian sovereignty in the territories demarcated by the 1967 lines. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has recently implemented some of these recommendations.

• The recommendations include submitting a request to immediately join the Geneva Conventions; declaring the impossibility of extending the negotiations after the end of the nine-month period on April 29, 2014; and opposing the Israeli proposal that the settlement blocs become part of Israel in any final agreement.

• The plan also includes activating bilateral committees with Russia, the EU, and the UN, and cooperating with the monitoring committee of the Arab Peace Initiative, to muster support for the Palestinian anti-settlement position; urging the states of the world to uphold the European Union’s guidelines regarding settlement activity; and escalating the peaceful popular struggle against settlements and the [security] fence.

• The PA’s latest moves reflect the long-term strategy Abbas has been implementing, which involves using diplomatic means to obtain international recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state along the 1967 lines without the Palestinians having to make concessions on the fundamental issues of the conflict, particularly the refugee issue and what is called the “right of return.”

• The signing of the 15 international conventions is part of a gradual Palestinian move to statehood which, unlike a unilateral declaration of statehood, does not occur with one move. Abbas has previously made political moves in defiance of the United States and Israel without fearing the pressures and threats directed at him, as in his November 2012 appeal to the UN General Assembly for an upgrade of the PLO’s status to UN nonmember observer state. Now, too, he feels confident in his ability to take unilateral steps without incurring serious damage.

• The Palestinians believe they can use the diplomatic-legal arena to overcome Israel’s power and gradually subject it to diplomatic and economic pressures to unilaterally withdraw from the West Bank in a way similar to Israel’s unconditional withdrawal from Gaza in 2005.

Read the whole thing.

Meanwhile, the Washington Free Beacon's Adam Kredo blames it on the Americans, saying that the White House has had  a secret campaign to scapegoat Israel for the 'talks' failure.

Multiple sources told the Washington Free Beacon that top Obama administration officials have worked for the past several days to manufacture a crisis over the reissuing of housing permits in a Jerusalem neighborhood widely acknowledged as Israeli territory.

Senior State Department officials based in Israel have sought to lay the groundwork for Israel to take the blame for talks collapsing by peddling a narrative to the Israeli press claiming that the Palestinians were outraged over Israeli settlements, the Free Beacon has learned.

These administration officials have planted several stories in Israeli and U.S. newspapers blaming Israel for the collapse of peace talks and have additionally provided reporters with anonymous quotes slamming the Israeli government.

The primary source of these multiple reports has been identified as Middle East envoy Martin Indyk and his staff, according to these insiders, who said that the secret media campaign against Israel paved the way for Secretary of State John Kerry to go before Congress on Tuesday and publicly blame Israel for tanking the talks.

“The Palestinians didn’t even know they were supposed to be abandoning negotiations because of these housing permits, which are actually old, reissued permits for areas everyone assumes will end up on the Israelis’ side of the border anyway,” said one senior official at a U.S. based pro-Israel organization who asked to remain anonymous because the Obama administration has in the past retaliated against critics from inside the pro-Israel world.

“Then Martin Indyk started telling anyone who would listen that in fact the Palestinians were angry over the housing issue,” the source said. “Eventually, the Palestinians figured out it was in their interest to echo what the Americans were saying.”

We've known for a long time what a shmuck Indyk is, haven't we? He's also a member of the board of the New Israel Fund. Back to Kredo.

One former Israeli diplomat familiar with Indyk’s tactics said that he is a crass political player who has a history of planting negative stories about Israel in order to undermine the Netanyahu government and bolster his hand in the talks.

“I’ve seen this before and see his fingerprints,” said the source, who referenced a separate story two weeks ago in which U.S. government sources implied that newly installed Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer was not performing his job effectively.

“It’s certainly in Indyk’s interest now [to undermine the Israelis], but this was a game he also used to play when he was ambassador twice,” said the former diplomat. “This is part of Indyk’s playbook.”

“There was only one person who would do this kind of thing and it’s Martin Indyk and his staff,” the former diplomat added.

Another Washington-based source familiar with the talks said that Kerry’s peace team has a track record of trashing Israel anonymously.

“It’s one of the worst-kept secrets in Jerusalem that Kerry’s team leaks anti-Netanyahu quotes and claims to the Israeli press—not that is should be a mystery why Israeli reporters based in Israel keep producing anti-Bibi quotes from ‘American officials,’” the source said.

“But just imagine the outrage if the roles were reversed and Bibi had a team on the ground in D.C. trashing Obama to the Washington Post on background,” the source said.

Maybe we should... Oh, wait. They'd probably declare Dermer persona non grata if we did that.

Read the whole thing. 

Labels: Abu Mazen, Binyamin Netanyahu, Gilo, Martin Indyk, Middle East peace process, Ron Dermer, scapegoat, settlements

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:51 PM 0 comments

Report: Obama's National Security Adviser refuses to meet with Israel's ambassador to the United States

The Obama administration claims to be the most pro-Israel administration ever. The facts belie that claim. Here's another one: Obama's National Security Adviser, Susan Rice, refuses to meet with Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer. Dermer has been in Washington for six months and has yet to meet with Rice.

Dermer, a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been in Washington since October and presented his credentials to Obama in December. Nonetheless, and in a departure from the practice of previous national security advisers and previous Israeli envoys, Rice has not met with him.

Dermer has been identified with Republican politics in the past. He was a protégé of Republican pollster Frank Luntz and helped firm Netanyahu’s ties to American Republicans. In the 2012 election, while working for Netanyahu, he helped arrange Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign visit to Israel. According to the liberal-leaning The New Republic, Dermer "epitomized the Netanyahu government’s hostility to Barack Obama and his administration."

Israel Radio's diplomatic analyst, Chico Menashe, reported that prior to naming him ambassador to Washington, Netanyahu's people checked with the White House to ensure that Dermer's past affiliation would not pose a problem. They were reportedly assured that it would not.

Dermer did meet in recent months with Rice's deputies.

This past weekend, Dermer addressed a Las Vegas meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, a group funded by gambling billionaire Sheldon Adelson.

Also taking part in the event were four Republican potential presidential candidates, including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

In response to a question whether Rice was boycotting Dermer, officials in Washington said the ambassador had not asked for a meeting with Rice.

It amazes me that they even had to check....

Maybe Dermer hasn't asked for a meeting because the protocol is that Rice is supposed to ask. Or maybe he doesn't want to ask and be told no. 

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Mitt Romney, National Security, Republican Jewish Coalition, Ron Dermer, Sheldon Adelson, Susan Rice, US presidential campaign 2016

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:52 PM 0 comments

Israel pushing United States to back Egyptian army?

In an earlier post, I reported that 'out friends the Saudis' were pushing the United States to continue to support the Egyptian army and that Israel was trying to stay out of the picture. Now, the New York Times reports that Israel is getting into the picture, and may begin openly pressing the United States to support the Egyptian army.

With the European Union planning an urgent review of its relations with Egypt in a meeting Monday, the message, in part, is that concerns about democracy and human rights should take a back seat to stability and security because of Egypt’s size and strategic importance.

“We’re trying to talk to key actors, key countries, and share our view that you may not like what you see, but what’s the alternative?” the official explained. “If you insist on big principles, then you will miss the essential — the essential being putting Egypt back on track at whatever cost. First, save what you can, and then deal with democracy and freedom and so on.

“At this point,” the official added, “it’s army or anarchy.”

Israeli leaders have made no public statements and have refused interviews since Wednesday’s brutal clearing of two Muslim Brotherhood protest encampments. But even as the death toll climbed in ensuing gunfights in mosques and on streets, officials spoke frequently to members of Congress, officials at the Pentagon and State Department, and European diplomats.

While Israel's concerns are obvious, not everyone in Israel agrees with the idea of openly supporting the Egyptian army.

“This is a very big mistake to interfere in what happens in Egypt,” said Mordechai Kedar, a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and director of its new Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam.

Dr. Kedar invoked an old joke about a lifeguard kicking a boy out of a pool for urinating — from the diving board. “You can do things, but do them under the water,” he said. “Israel, by supporting explicitly the army, exposes itself to retaliation. Israel should have done things behind the scenes, under the surface, without being associated with any side of the Egyptian problem.”

But Eli Shaked, a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt, praised Mr. Netanyahu’s government for “acting very discreetly,” and Yitzhak Levanon, Israel’s ambassador to Egypt until 2011, said the lobbying had not been aggressive.

“We are talking to a lot of friends,” said Mr. Levanon, who teaches a course on Egypt at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. “Pushing? I don’t think that this is the word. We are expressing what we believe is best for the region.”

Mr. Shaked said that unlike the Obama administration and the European Union, Israel did “not have any illusions about the possibility of a democracy in Egypt.”

“I understand Washington and Europe with their criticism, but there is no alternative to letting the army in Egypt try by force,” he said. “We have to choose here not between the good guys and the bad guys — we don’t have good guys. It is a situation where you have to choose who is less harmful.”

Read the whole thing.

That Israel would support the Egyptian army in this case seems obvious. I'm not sure it needed to be said.

Haaretz's Barak Ravid tweets that the source for both Rudoren's story and for another one by Herb Keinon in Monday's JPost is Prime Minister Netanyahu's close adviser and future ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer. Maybe Ravid is jealous that Dermer didn't call him, but I disagree with Ravid's assertion. Given past Obama administration efforts to expose things Israel does quietly (see Syria), I suspect the source is someone in Washington.

Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Binyamin Netanyahu, Egypt, Egyptian army, Egyptian democracy, Jodi Rudoren, Mohammed Morsy, Muslim Brotherhood, our friends the Saudis, Ron Dermer

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:39 AM 1 comments

Left goes ballistic over Dermer

I meant to post this earlier and did not get to it.

Almost immediately after Ron Dermer was announced as Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Haaretz's Barak Ravid posted a nasty attack rehashing all the reasons why the Prime Minister didn't name Dermer ambassador several months ago.

In Washington, however, Dermer is viewed with suspicion by the Obama administration. He is identified there as a supporter of the Republican party. His family in Miami Beach have close ties with the Bush family, particularly with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, whose name has been mentioned as one of a number of possible contenders for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

Many Democrats also see Dermer as the brains behind Netanyahu's support for Mitt Romney. An article published in Tablet Magazine a few months before the election revealed that Dermer was the one who conceived and planned Romney's visit to Israel in July this year, along with Dan Senor, an adviser to Romney.

Romney’s visit is the brainchild of two other men: Ron Dermer, the American-born political operative who is Netanyahu’s chief strategist and speechwriter and, more importantly, Dan Senor, a Republican politico-turned-investor who is a close adviser

Dermer is also the person who tried to convince Netanyahu by any means possible that Romney was set to win the elections. With the Obama starting his second term in the White House, it may be hard for Dermer to develop a network of trusted and intimate contacts among the president's most senior advisers.

Let's assume that it's true that Dermer can't make friends in the current Washington climate (I don't accept that but let's assume that it's true).  The last time I checked, Israel's ambassador to the United States is supposed to represent Israel's interests in Washington and not the interests of the Obama administration.

Dermer's positions on policy are far more extreme than Netanyahu's. European and American officials have expressed shock by his positions on the settlement issue, on peace talks with the Palestinians, and on the principle of an independent Palestinian state.

On the way back from Netanyahu's first visit to Washington, for example, Dermer told reporters on the prime minister's plane that "the principle of two states for two peoples is a childish solution to a complicated problem." A U.S. State Department diplomatic cable that was leaked to Wikileaks revealed that Dermer is convinced that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is no partner for peace. (Click here for the original document).

I would say that at least regarding the last sentence of that blurb, most Israelis are convinced of the same thing at this point. And the fact that he said it in 2010 makes him a lot more prescient than most Israeli politicians.

Then Ravid says something that's simply mud slinging.

Dermer immigrated to Israel in 1997 at the age of 26. He did not serve in the IDF or do national service (he claims that he went to sign up, but the IDF rejected his request to enlist). Since he moved to Israel, he has mainly been involved in politics – at first as an adviser to Natan Sharansky and later as an aide to Netanyahu. For four years, from 2004 to 2008, he was not in Israel, after Netanyahu nominated him as a representative of Israel's Finance Ministry to Washington. 

I immigrated to Israel in 1991 and was slightly older than 26 at the time (please don't tell my kids). By the time I would have been called in 1994, they wouldn't take any immigrants who were over 21. And as time went, on they took less - not more - immigrants over 21 because with the massive Russian aliya of the late '80's and early '90's they simply didn't need them.

Unlike many darlings of the Left who were born in Israel and became poster children for evading the draft (Bar Refaeli, Aviv Gefen and others), Dermer didn't evade the draft. He was exempted from it. National service? It almost didn't exist back then.

Labels: Aviv Gefen, Bar Refaeli, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Mitt Romney, Ron Dermer

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:37 PM 2 comments

Dermer appointed ambassador to the US

Ron Dermer is going to be Israel's next Ambassador to the United States.

The American-born Dermer has served as Netanyahu's senior adviser for the past four years. He has held previous diplomatic posts, including economic attaché at the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

"Ron Dermer has all the qualities necessary to successfully fill this important post," Netanyahu said. "I have known him for many years and I know that Ron will faithfully represent the State of Israel in the capital of our greatest ally – the USA. On behalf of the citizens of Israel, I wish him great success."

So do all of us. And it's well worth noting what an improvement Dermer is over the candidate who was presented in January. 

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Michael Oren, Ron Dermer

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:49 PM 0 comments

It's official: Ambassador Oren is returning to Israel

Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, told Haaretz on Friday night that he plans to complete his term of service in the fall.

"After over four years I will complete my duties this coming fall,” Oren said in a statement. “I am grateful for the opportunity I have been given to represent Israel and its government…Israel and the United States have always, and will always enjoy a special relationship, and I have had the privilege of playing a central role in shaping these bonds, and making them stronger. I hope to continue to serve Israel in the future.”

Oren was appointed ambassador to the U.S. in 2009. His term was extended by three months after the last Israeli election, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had yet to decide who would replace him. Oren, however, told Netanyahu that he wished to return to Israel and did not want his term extended.

The leading candidate to replace Oren as Israel’s ambassador to Washington is his associate Ron Dermer, who has served as Netanyahu’s political consultant over the past four years. Netanyahu has yet to make an official statement naming Dermer Oren’s successor, as he has not made a final decision on the matter.

I hope Dermer becomes Oren's successor, and that by the time he leaves Washington there's a Republican President. 

Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Michael Oren, Ron Dermer

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:10 PM 0 comments

Dermer to be ambassador to US?

Last December, I reported that Ron Dermer was likely to become Israel's Ambassador to the United States when current Ambassador Michael Oren's term ends in August. In the same post, I blogged a column by Barak Ravid in Haaretz, who claimed that the Obama administration would not be happy with Dermer, because Dermer is from Florida and his family is close with that state's Republican governor and potential Presidential candidate Jeb Bush.

Two weeks later, I reported on another likely candidate for the Washington position: Ehud Barak. I noted that Barak as ambassador might be more pleasing to the Leftist Obama administration.

Now, basing itself on an Army Radio report, JPost is reporting again that Dermer is going to be the ambassador.

According to the report, Dermer will replace Oren in Washington in August. Oren's four-year term is set to come to an end.

Army Radio reported that the appointment of Dermer to the post became possible after he was able to rehabilitate his relationship with the Obama administration in recent months following a falling out over his support for Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election.

Dermer has often been mentioned as a potential ambassador to Washington or the United Nations in recent months.

I have met Dermer and he seemed like a nice guy. He also speaks perfect English. But 'rehabilitate his relationship with the Obama administration'? What the heck does that mean? The Obami don't forgive and they don't forget. 

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Michael Oren, Ron Dermer

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:42 PM 0 comments

The next Israeli ambassador to the US?

My, my. Just two weeks ago, I reported that Ron Dermer was likely to be the next Israeli ambassador to the US, and why President Hussein Obama might not be too happy with that pick. Now, there's another possibility that would be much more pleasing to the Leftists in Washington: Ehud Barak.

Ehud Barak is in Washington Wednesday on a four-day trip in which he’ll be meeting with senior officials on security matters. But some in Israel think his visit could be a preview of Barak’s future position in government.

Arik Elman, an Israeli-based political commentator and Algemeiner blogger said that rumors have begun to circulate that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might move to appoint Barak to the position of Israeli ambassador to the United States. “These are the kind of rumors going around,” Elman said. “If Netanyahu will not be able to convince Barak to return as Defense Minister, then he will try to appoint him as ambassador to the U.S.”

In November Barak said that he was quitting politics to spend more time with his family. However, many in Israel think that there’s still the possibility he could serve in the next government if Netanyahu is re-elected.

Hmmm.

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Ehud Barak, Ron Dermer

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:25 PM 1 comments