THE JEWISH CHRONICLE (UK), March 26, 2015
Netanyahu aides say Israel-US relationship is a write-off — and Iran, not the Palestinian issue, is to blame
Senior advisers to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have described the relationship between the Obama administration and the Israeli government as irreparable.
The war of words between the two leaders over the last few days has focused on Mr Netanyahu’s remarks on the establishment of a Palestinian state and Israel’s Arab citizens, but officials in Jerusalem say they are convinced the real reason for the crisis is the difference of opinion on Iran.
The view among Mr Netanyahu’s advisers is that President Barack Obama is adamant that Iran must be engaged as a regional ally, and that this is leading to a US-Israel rift that will continue until at least the end of his presidency in January 2017.
Less than 24 hours after polls closed in Israel and Mr Netanyahu’s win became evident, the White House was already talking openly about “re-evaluating” the peace process following a pre-election statement by Mr Netanyahu in which he said that a Palestinian state would not be established during his term.
In interviews to US media after the election, Mr Netanyahu attempted to row back, explaining that he was not backtracking from the 2009 Bar Ilan Speech in which he accepted the two-state solution, but was merely saying that in the current regional situation, a Palestinian situation, a Palestinian state was unlikely.
In an interview on Sunday, however, Mr Obama said: “We take him at his word when he said that it wouldn’t happen during his prime ministership, and so that’s why we’ve got to evaluate what other options are available to make sure that we don’t see a chaotic situation in the region.”
The US President also took issue with Mr Netanyahu’s election day call for right-wingers to vote in response to “droves of Arabs” voting for the left.
The row escalated further on Tuesday when the White House leaked allegations that Israeli intelligence had spied on the US nuclear talks with Iran, and had then used the information to persuade Congress to undermine the negotiations – an accusation vehemently denied by Israel.
While the implications of the US “re-evaluation” of the peace process are unclear, American officials have indicated that it could mean a withdrawal of their veto on some anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations, support for the Palestinian demand for a timetable for establishing a state and perhaps also American support for European Union sanctions against the settlements.
Senior Israeli officials complain that while the US-Israel relationship remains ostensibly strong, in recent months it has been more difficult and time-consuming to fix meetings and sign contracts in Washington.
While nothing has yet been formalised, two “confidence-rebuilding” measures are expected in the near future. One is an announcement by Israel that it is releasing tax revenues it charges for the PA. The revenues, now totalling around $500m, were frozen in January in response to the Palestinians’ decision to join the ICC.
Another anticipated move is the replacement of Israel’s envoy in Washington, Ron Dermer. One of the prime minister’s closest advisers, Mr Dermer is seen in the White House as being overly close to the Republican Party and was the man behind Mr Netanyahu’s invitation to the speak to Congress.
Israel’s current representative to the United Nations and former ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, is being mentioned as a replacement for Mr Dermer.
Sources close to Mr Netanyahu insist that the latest tensions with the White House are “artificial and contrived” and were manufactured mainly to try to suppress Israeli opposition to a possible nuclear deal between the international community and Iran, which may be signed in the next few days.
“The Palestinian issue is a sideshow,” said an aide close to Mr Netanyahu. “The Americans know as well as we do that there is little hope of going forward now with the diplomatic process – not because of Israel but due to anarchy on the Palestinian side.
“If they don’t succeed in signing a deal with the Iranians, this crisis will quickly pass. If a deal is signed, then nothing will help.”
Remember, it’s the relationship with Obama that’s dead, not the relationship with the people of the USA. I hope Congress gets it together to impeach him.
@ ArnoldHarris:
@ Economist:
The Bible promises the nation of Israel a huge country from the Nile to the Euphrates. Such a country was unsustainable and utterly unnecessary for Jews in antiquity. “From the Nile” includes Sinai, but even Egypt didn’t govern the Sinai in times of old except for a narrow strip. The Promised Land was a technical impossibility and a burden to maintain. The land wasn’t prized, but consisted of deserts and steppes. If you were bent on seducing Hebrews with a promise, a takeover of Egypt would be much more attractive.
Only in the late twentieth century did we understand the rationale behind the Promised Land. Israel critically needs the Sinai for depth of defense against Islamist Egypt. If not for Sinai and the Negev, the initial thrust of the Yom Kippur war would have drowned the Jews in the sea. Now that Egypt has acquired missiles and cutting-edge aircraft, the depth of defense the Sinai affords to the Jewish state becomes all the more important.
The Promised Land includes the Frankenstein state of Lebanon. Jews so far have failed to realize the commandment and conquer that land, driving the ever-fighting Lebanese tribes away to Syria—and the Lebanese tribes have proved to be a perpetual source of trouble for Jewish Galilee.
Likewise with the Euphrates. The Jordanian monarchy won’t last long. The Palestinian majority will take over that desert state, and unable to create a viable economy there, they will turn to nationalism and militancy. Jordan will become a huge Gaza, rife with terrorist training camps. Jordanians will extend their influence to those Arabs whom Israel failed to expel in violation of the commandment, and they will become “a trap for you,” “a sore in your eye,” and “masters over you.” In order to establish security, Israel would have no choice but to extend toward the Euphrates, relocating the hostile Arabs to Iraq. As if prompting Israel to fulfill the commandment, the strong and militant state of Iraq was invaded for no reason and destroyed; now the way for relocating Palestinians and Jordanians is cleared.
There is absolute certainty that Islamic terrorists will lay their hands on nuclear weapons fairly soon. Crude nukes are not that apocalyptic: a primitive bomb detonated at the ground level in Tel Aviv would kill something like 10,000 Jews, a sorrowful but statistically insignificant number. Looking at Nagasaki, the long-term effects of nuclear bombing are also tolerable. So instead of panicking, Jews should disperse into a single-story society interconnected by the latest communication networks rather than Tel Aviv’s promenades. And that’s why we need the Promised Land in its entirety.
It’s great to live in peace. Unfortunately, amid a sea of Muslims, Israel will never live in peace. It is a heart-rending assertion, but true nonetheless.
And so the Torah instructs us to fight for safety.
@ Avigail:
My first thought was that the co-pilot was a Muslim fanatic.
We need to thank the liberal J from NY, Miami, Boston, Chicago and LA!!!!!
Economist Said:
How so? If you are going to compare me to N K at lest explain and justify your comparison-instead of throwing sh8t against the wall hoping some might stick.
@ yamit82:
Sounds as if you joined Naturei Karta. Also suicidal. Sounds like the guy who jumped off the Empire State Building without a parachute, and as he passed the 40th floor said, “So far, so good.”
And by the way, O/T
Gee, do you think this is relevant? Germanwings co-pilot reported to be a ‘recent convert to Islam’
How many planes, now? 3? 4?
@ NormanF:
It could also be that he knows exactly that what you’ve just posted is true and just adopts a posture of appeasement, knowing that the tide is going to turn at one point, and by that I mean that in the US, more and more are shocked and offended by the betrayal of a loyal ally and are going to go on offense if it goes on this way.
And when it happens, Obama will appear for what he is (petulant, malevolent) and Bibi as the moderate, in this unfortunate episode. Who will blink first, you think?
Bibi is a lot of things but he’s certainly not a moron.
@ yamit82:
I agree – and moreover I think it would be in Israel’s best interests if the two sides exhaust each other in a bloody war that never ends. The Sunni Arabs and the Shia Iranians both hate Jews. What they’re doing now in Yemen is poetic justice. Let the monster called Islam die a slow and horrible death. This is one fight Israel would do well to stay out of.
@ yamit82:
According to the story Netanyahu still plans further appeasement gestures towards Obama. Why bother with them? If you seek to be nice to a bully, you’re only going to enrage him more and make him see you as weak. Netanyahu going forward apparently doesn’t want to understand nothing he could offer Obama -not even goodwill gestures – will sway the White House. It has made its decision. Pretending things can still be patched up is a fools’ errand. Its far too late for that now.
yamit82 Said:
Now you’re talking some of my deepest long-term thoughts, as I have commented numerous times. In some period of time yet to come, Israel’s borders will the Gulf of Suez and Mitla Pass to the west, the Syrian Desert to the east, the Straits of Tiran to the south, and the Litani River gorge and the Mt Hermon mountain range to the north.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
@ yamit82:
That’s pretty clear. I mean the Saudis fighting Iran in Yemen… I couldn’t even imagine it.
Btw, I insist: same goes for Netanyahu. 😉
That’s why I refrain from attacking him these days, the other reason being that you don’t attack someone (especially a brother) who is already under fire. And G-d knows he is.
@ ArnoldHarris:
Have you seen the link I’ve posted the other day about the House letter to the man-child regarding Iran? It seems to me the number of signatories was largely above what is required to override a veto (is it more than 2/3? Can’t remember)
Really? Happy to hear that but it seems to me that the MSM is silent about the top-secret release by the Pentagon, as opposed to what is occurring on the Net.
MadMax is not the only nutcase around:
White House Insists Chaotic Yemen a ‘Model’ for Obama’s War on Terror
The White House says another foreign policy failure proves Obama is doing something right, but it not clear exactly what.
And these people are in charge…
Orwellian.
@ Economist:
A-This is above anything internecine Muslim conflict between Shia and Suni Muslims. Obama seems to have sided with the Shia and Iran. Apparently they think Iranian hegemony of the ME is preferable to autocratic undependable Arab regimes. It’s part of the old Churchillian concept of 3-4 regional hegemony working in unison through the UN to control the rest of the world. The nation state of Israel based on narrow nationalistic premises is for these fools an impediment to their overall aims. Your Friends Bush 41 and 43 subscribed to this vision.
Israel should not take sides, it ain’t our fight unless they draw us into it. The Saudis might agree to use us for their aims but fundamentalist Saudi Arabia home to Mecca and Medina will never accept Israel as a nation state as it would in effect render the theological base of Islam as mute.
There is no benefit to Israel engaging in-any formal or informal agreements with those monsters.. Let them abandon their economic boycott against Israel first. I predict-in 2-5 year the autocracies of Jordan the gulf states and the Saudis will be overthrown bu radical Muslims from within and without.
It’s their Gennie, their Golom let them eat what they have cooked up. There is no Arab army professional enough to fight the radicals except Jordan and Obama won’t back him Only Israel has his back and we should let him fall. The threat to our East will force us to push eastward to the Euphrates correcting what the Brits stole from us.
The G-d of Israel/ the G-d of History is manipulating history for us. We must not interfere.
FUBO is making more steam in the USA. They sell FUBO T-shirts, probably FUBO bumper stickers, and everybody who can use Google knows exactly who the acronym FUBO references. Anyway, it’s making more headway by far than “change you can believe in”. I can envision Hillary Clinton not only keeping her distance from He Who Supposedly Must Be Obeyed, but even running away from him for a visit to the women’s room if he were to approach her at one of her public events.
By the way, US Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat-NY, possibly the most liberal Democrat in the Senate, is the latest sponsoring signatory on the Corker-Menedez legislation requiring congressional of any deal made by Obama and Kerry with Iran regarding that country’s capability of manufacturing nuclear weapons. The number of congressional sponsors may is either approaching or possibly has surpassed the number of congressmen needed to override a presidential veto.
The situation has reached the point that every new attack Obama makes against Prime Minister Netanyahu in particular and Israel in general backfires on him almost as soon as his staff leaks it to the press, or he stands up before a group of reporters and issues yet another pronunciamento like some South American dictator.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Mark Levin is hammering Obama:
MARK LEVIN: OBAMA THE GREATEST THREAT JEWS FACE SINCE 1930s
I would advise to listen to the long recording.
Lots of American conservative blogs are outraged about all this.
HotAir illustrates this entry with a picture of… Chamberlain.
Did the Obama administration declassify documents on Israeli nuclear program?
@ yamit82:
Perhaps an opportunity for Israel to create a METO bringing members under its nuclear umbrella. Membership conditional on contributing to a warm peace and regional economic development. Initial members Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait?
@ Economist:
Since WW2 Has America ever gone up against a non 3rd world enemy? Since WW2 has America ever beaten any enemy? Not much bang for the buck eh! Once Iran produces her nukes America will not fight them. Israel’s nuke deterrence will have been cancelled, nullified. We cannot win a conventional drawn out conflict. BB has brought this upon us. With a lot of help and aid from our big brother. Cowardice has a price.
@ Economist:
FUBO is an acronym born in 2008. With good reason. 🙂
A new acronym: FUBO. Nice work. We may expect to see it more and more. Perhaps a FUBO coalition in Congress. Reminds me of a good friend, Gus Weiss, who was asked to propose punitive measures against the Soviets for Afghanistan to the National Security Council, did so, and argued that even if the Sovs pulled out we should do them on general principles.
You don’t say.
This must be the only silver lining regarding this deal.
Why can’t we say “no”? Why can’t we say FUBO? Why not be the “mad dog” again?
Obozo is a stealth Muslim: it’s the only language he gets.
The view among Mr Netanyahu’s advisers is that President Barack Obama is adamant that Iran must be engaged as a regional ally, and that this is leading to a US-Israel rift that will continue until at least the end of his presidency in January 2017. Will they still be an ally once they have nuclear weapons, I don’t think so, Obozo should study the Kur’an.