T. Belman. The read-outs from each party were deeply disturbing.
Gantz is totally wrong to stress private diplomacy over Bibi’s public diplomacy. What the US wants to do in Gaza is idiotic but its position of the peace process takes the cake:
Washington has made clear that it is not interested in launching high-level peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, but is interested in promoting positive steps that keep a two-state solution alive while preventing unilateral moves that distance the parties from that resolution.
Israel cannot accept the freeze that is implied here. We must pursue our own policies both with regard to J&S and Iran. We should insist on the Trump Deal.
US officials push ‘immediate’ aid for Gaza during series of meetings. What’s the rush? Neither side is punishing Hamas for its war crimes yet the UN has created a permanent commission to hound us.
Since we are desperate for the resupply, the US will probably demand we do their bidding in Gaza and J&S in exchange..
Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Thursday that Israel will stay engaged as the US tries to return to a nuclear deal with Iran, sidestepping what has long been an area of open disagreement between the United States and the now-jeopardized government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Senior Biden administration officials raised the need for “immediate” humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip during a series of meetings with Gantz, who was in Washington for a snap visit.
In addition to discussing last month’s 11-day Gaza conflict and its aftermath, Gantz presented Israel’s concerns about Iran in successive meetings with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and offered implicit criticism of the more confrontational approach pushed by Netanyahu.
Gantz, who is now part of a coalition that appears poised to oust Netanyahu after 12 years in power, said Israel will stay engaged on the terms as the US tries to return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Gantz told reporters before a meeting with Austin that Iran’s nuclear program and other actions were an “existential threat” to Israel. “Stopping Iran is certainly a shared strategic need of the United States,” Israel and other countries, Gantz said.
But Gantz — unlike Netanyahu — stopped short of openly opposing the Biden administration’s efforts to get the United States back into a deal limiting Iran’s nuclear program, in exchange for relief from sanctions.
According to a readout from the Defense Ministry, Gantz implicitly criticized Netanyahu’s approach of publicly lobbying US and world leaders on the matter.
“We will continue this important strategic dialogue in private discussion … only, not in the media in a provoking way,” he said, calling for “open dialogue behind closed doors.” It echoed Biden’s own embrace of what the administration has called quiet diplomacy when dealing with Israel.
Sitting across a table from his US counterpart at the Pentagon, Gantz said, “Our dialogue is so important to ensuring that any deal effectively meets its goal of keeping Iran away from nuclear weapons.”<
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“Of course, given the scope of the threat, Israel must always make sure that it has the ability to protect itself,” Gantz added.
In US readouts from the meetings, Biden officials stressed their commitment to Israel’s security while the statements from Gantz’s offices highlighted the defense minister’s appreciation for the American support.
Sullivan during his meeting with Gantz “highlighted the importance of ensuring that immediate humanitarian aid is able to reach the people of Gaza,” according to the White House readout.
The Biden administration has expressed its interest in playing a major role in Gaza reconstruction efforts, saying they should be led by the United Nations in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority in order to ensure that the international aid does not reach the Hamas terror group that rules the coastal enclave.
Gantz appeared to be in sync with that goal, tweeting that he told Austin that the military “achievements” made by Israel during Operation Guardian of the Walls “must now be leveraged in a diplomatic initiative that will [allow for the return of two captive Israeli civilians and the bodies of two IDF soldiers], strengthen the Palestinian Authority and bring peace, stability and growth to the people of Gaza.”
Defense Minister Benny Gantz (L) and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan at the White House on June 3, 2021. (Shmulik Almani/Defense Ministry)<
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In a press appearance ahead of his meeting with Blinken, Gantz said “As the defense minister, I think the combination of moving forward with [Gaza] construction and making sure that everything stays secure is very important.”
Austin and Sullivan also highlighted the US commitment to replenishing Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, which faced over 4,000 rockets from Gaza during last month’s war.
US Senator Lindsey Graham told reporters earlier this week in Israel that Gantz would submit a billion-dollar request to the Pentagon to replenish the interceptor arsenal during his visit to Washington.
US President Joe Biden already announced his commitment to replenishing the missile system last month in a speech hours after the ceasefire ending Operation Guardian of the Walls was reached.
The parties also discussed the broader Palestinian issue, according to the various readouts, which were light on detail. Washington has made clear that it is not interested in launching high-level peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, but is interested in promoting positive steps that keep a two-state solution alive while preventing unilateral moves that distance the parties from that resolution.
It has warned Israel against settlement building, demolitions of Palestinian homes and evictions of Palestinian families, including in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. Meanwhile, it has condemned PA incitement and payments to security prisoners, including ones with blood on their hands.
Israeli and American flags are visible on the table as US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin hosts a bilateral meeting with Defense Minister Benny Gantz at the Pentagon in Washington on June 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)<
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Netanyahu’s years-long fight to torpedo the Iran nuclear deal — struck during the Obama administration in 2015, but rejected by former president Donald Trump after his election — included Netanyahu denouncing it to a 2015 joint session of the US Congress as a “very bad deal.”
Netanyahu has continued that open opposition in recent days, saying a deal “paves the way for Iran to have an arsenal of nuclear weapons with international legitimacy” and that the fight against that was worth any “friction with our great friend the United States.”
Biden has pressed for a return to the nuclear deal as the best way to keep Iran from building up what it says is a civilian nuclear program, and to calm a flashpoint in the Middle East. European negotiators expressed some optimism this week as they closed the latest round of talks in Vienna on getting the USS and Iran back in the deal.
AP contributed to this report.
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Gantz is an asshole.
This is exactly why the public approach to such negotiations is vital to success. Without a platform to display the stated input of Israel’s allies in the US, we are at the mercy of Obama’s 3rd term with no ace to play.
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Now, Bennett is not Bibi, and Gantz is neither of them. That being said a public debate has much to speak for it and the only thing that would reproach such a campaign is that Israel seems to have just replaced the greatest choice for succeeding in such a campaign. But such as it is, Bennett or Gantz should not shrink from such an undertaking as it will afford them some support against their American counterparts who are quite hostile to Israel’s good.
Liberty dies in darkness. This slogan carries much truth in it. Though not all quiet negotiations prove to be contrary to the public good, the silence renders the public deaf, blind and stupid of their eventual situation while it is being deliberated. The use of secretive back-room dealings is how, it should be recalled, that, Wilson created the Versailles Treaty in 1919 amid all the missteps and backstabbing, double-dealing arrangements that were crafted by the few and which were suffered by the millions and led to much misery and slaughter in later years.
Transparency in democratic societies is greatly comforting to the public and, I believe, would be better used to to assuage the anxieties that many obviously hold with regards to Bennett’s incoming gov’t, given its inclusion of such radical elements as Abbas and Meretz. Though, in fairness, it would likely be destabilizing to Bennett’s coalition, such as it is. Still, it would be a poor choice of a first step by this administration to hide such negotiations from the public view as an open public debate would afford the public a fair understanding of any successes or short-comings that might arise from negotiations. And don’t be misled by Biden’s grandfatherly appearance as his administration has been very harsh to Israel since Day one. These villains that hold the levers of control in the US mean Israel no good, as such gifts are rather preserved for their Iranian and Muslim Brotherhood accomplices who intend our distruction.
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@Bear Klein
I think this is too cynical to be fair. Bibi’s public approach to the JPOC is how he dealt with it with great success in 2015. As the principle of past is prediction would suggest, it should always have been assumed that Bibi would use a public approach in his dealings with Obama’s 3rd term as it achieved much against the same players in the past. The fact that it is also among Bibi’s most obvious best assets should not be seen as a point of disregard of the public good in preference of his own interest – in truth, this is a tactic that his opponents have utilized to undermine his efforts on behalf of the state for some time and such critiques have gain traction, in spite, of the successes his efforts have produced.
Also, public debate allows the people to weigh in via demonstration of support or protest(non-violent) which is how the public of democratic societies are best able to express their input to the representatives they have chosen by election to carryout the will of the voters. The elected should not hide from the public, and though this is likely not Bennett’s intent, it is the most obvious perception of such secretive dealings, and is made to appear even more alarming when necessarily compared to Bibi’s public negotiations in similar circumstances.
Public negotiations would also allow Bibi, as again he did in 2015, to bring the support of Israel’s friends both in Washington and among the US public to pressure fence sitting politicos who could be able to press the White House for a more favorable outcome for Israel. While many will agree that the US support for Israel has diminished in recent years, their is no reason to ignore American support, and such a moment could have positive side effects upon US public opinion regarding Israel’s recent abuses from Hamas and likely future abuses from Iran’s other minions. The quiet approach renders such assets useless and worse, renders them impotent for so much as commentary until after the negotiations are complete and our ruin is certain.
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Obama is calling the shots, not Biden. Jabotinsky also preferred public discourse rather than Weizmann’s private diplomacy when dealing with the British Cabinet.
I have no confidence is what will come out of the vienna discussions.
In his meetings with the US officials, Gantz emphasized the need to consolidate a military option vis-à-vis Iran and increase oversight of Iran’s nuclear armament.
Bibi was public talking about JPOC and Israel’s right to do what is required of it publicly not because that would be effective with the USA because of Israeli domestic politics.
Biden is not Obama and does not hate Israel. This does not mean he understands the situation or is doing the correct things.
Israeli government has a much better chance to quietly in privately with him as his Secretaries to influence the US direction. You can always talk publicly. Bibi’s public blast did not accomplish anything except Bibi flapping his wings to look tough as Mr. Security to his followers and try and show he is not replaceable.