Israel Update for May 2009

David Dolan

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was busy jogging on the diplomatic fast track during May, meeting with two important regional Arab leaders and later with President Barack Obama in Washington. All of the summits included discussions about peace prospects with the Palestinians during the new Israeli government's term in power, along with the looming threat posed to Israel and the entire Middle East by a nuclear armed Iran. The Israeli leader reportedly stressed that significant forward movement on the peace process cannot be expected before Iran's existential threat to the world's only Jewish state is fully addressed.

Just two days after the important White House meeting, Iran's notorious President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that his country had successfully conducted a live test firing of a new longer range two stage ballistic missile with a reach of at least 1,200 miles, meaning it can easily strike all of Israel, along with southeastern Europe. The Pentagon later confirmed that such a test had indeed occurred, but did not comment on its precise outcome. This came amid press reports that China is involved in negotiations to build a string of nuclear power plants in the rogue Shiite nation.

Meanwhile international media reports said that during a scheduled upcoming early June speech to be delivered in Cairo Egypt, President Obama will outline a new American peace initiative designed to secure the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state abutting Israel before the end of his current term in office, meaning by early 2013. Such a state would be formally demilitarized, at Israel's insistence. Regional Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait would be asked to begin to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel in the interim period. This news came as an Israeli security assessment was released stating that the radical Hamas movement, which violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, is likely to triumph in any future Palestinian election held in the disputed West Bank.

Washington Summit

After some anxiety in the run up to the first official meeting at the White House between Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu, Israeli governmental leaders expressed satisfaction over the outcome of the inaugural summit. Just the fact that the discussions stretched to four hours, beyond their scheduled time frame, signaled that the new American President has a high regard for his Israeli counterpart and his concerns, said many analysts, despite some obvious political differences between the two leaders.

Top aids to Netanyahu told reporters that the Israeli PM had arrived at several crucial understandings with Obama and his senior advisors regarding the burgeoning Iranian nuclear weapons threat. This was considered to be the most important issue discussed during the seminal summit, at least by Israeli officials.

Israeli media reports said Netanyahu actually agreed to hold off ordering a military attack upon Iran's far flung nuclear facilities until at least the end of this year in response to a request to do so by Obama. However his top national security advisor, Uzi Arad, denied that the Premier had agreed to postpone such action, saying he had instead "clarified that Israel reserves operational freedom."

The reported White House request was apparently first delivered directly to Netanyahu during a secret visit to Jerusalem by CIA director Leon Panetta in early May. The American security chief, sent to Israel by Obama, was said to have told Netanyahu that the US will not support Israel if it takes unilateral military action against Iran in the coming months.

The reported clandestine visit was later basically confirmed by Panetta himself. In an interview with an American magazine, he said that while Netanyahu's serious concerns over Iran are quite reasonable, he also "understands that if Israel goes it alone, it will mean big trouble."

Hinting that President Obama might order military action against Iran if negotiations to halt its nuclear program fail, as most analysts expect, Panetta stressed that America's leaders "are not naïve about the challenges posed" by the radical Muslim nation, adding that the Iranian nuclear threat "has our full attention." The CIA chief also stated that "the last thing we need in the Middle East is a nuclear arms race," apparently acknowledging Israel's fears that a nuclear armed Iran will spur other countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia to launch their own nuclear weapons programmes.

Netanyahu's reported agreement to delay any military action until at least next year would give the Obama administration time to proceed with its declared desire to attempt to engage Iran's militant Islamic clerical and political leaders in what Obama called "serious discussions" regarding their openly acknowledged nuclear programme. While rejecting what he termed as "artificial deadlines," the US President also stated during a post summit question time with American and Israeli reporters that "we are not going to have talks forever," adding that "by the end of this year, I think we should have some sense as to whether or not these discussions are starting to yield significant benefits."

Israeli officials have long made clear that they regard international negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme, which were initiated by the European Union over six years ago, as a waste of time. The futility of such talks has apparently been confirmed time and again as the extremist Iranian regime repeatedly defied United Nations calls for a suspension of its threatening nuclear program, despite the imposition of economic and political sanctions.

Slap In The Face

A mere two days after Barack Obama defended his decision to pursue diplomacy with Iran-maintaining he could "make a persuasive argument" to Iranian leaders to get them to halt their internationally censured nuclear programme-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad poured scorn on the American leader by announcing the successful test firing of a solid fuel ballistic missile he called the Sajir 2. Experts say it was the longest flying missile Iran has ever fired, with a range of at least 1,200 miles, and possibly up to 1,500 miles, meaning it could strike the entire Middle East where many American forces are stationed, along with parts of North Africa and southeastern Europe, India, Afghanistan and elsewhere.