Obama Offers Military Upgrade to Help Israel
Swallow Bitter Iranian Deal
In a phone conversation between the two leaders Tuesday, Netanyahu
did not respond to the offer, said the official, who requested
anonymity.
By Barak Ravid
July 16, 2015 "Information
Clearing House"
-
"Haaretz"
- U.S. President Barack Obama has offered Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu immediate talks to upgrade the Israel Defense Forces’
offensive and defensive capabilities in the wake of the deal on
Iran’s nuclear program, a senior U.S. official told Haaretz.
In a phone conversation between the two leaders Tuesday, Netanyahu
did not respond to the offer, said the official, who requested
anonymity.
He said this was the second time Obama had made a direct offer to
Netanyahu on launching such talks. The first time was in an April 2
phone call, a few hours after the announcement of the framework
nuclear deal in Lausanne, Switzerland.
But Netanyahu did not accept that offer so as to avoid implying that
Israel had come to terms with the nuclear deal. Also, in late May,
Netanyahu told reporters that Israel would fight the nuclear accord
and not seek any kind of reciprocal deal with Washington.
But now Obama has told Netanyahu he understands why the Israeli
leader did not accept the April offer, the official said. With the
deal with Iran sealed, Obama believes that Israel and the United
States should hold talks on how to preserve Israel’s qualitative
military edge given the changes that could occur in the region as a
result of the nuclear accord.
On Tuesday, Obama told Netanyahu he would send Defense Secretary
Ashton Carter to Israel for talks next week. Carter is expected to
repeat Obama’s offer, but it is too early to predict the response by
Netanyahu and his defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon.
“We’re still waiting for an Israeli answer. If Israel wants to wait
until after the Congressional debate on the nuclear accord that’s
fine too,” the U.S. official said.
“We’ll be ready to hold these talks then too, because the day after
the agreement goes into effect the sun will still shine and Israel
and the U.S. will continue to work together on security matters.”
In an interview Tuesday with The New York Times, Obama said: “I’m
prepared to go further than any other administration’s gone before
in terms of providing them additional security assurances from the
United States."
According to Obama, “The thing I want to emphasize is that people’s
concerns here are legitimate. Hezbollah has tens of thousands of
missiles that are pointed toward Israel. They are becoming more
sophisticated. The interdiction of those weapon flows has not been
as successful as it needs to be.”
Netanyahu told the Knesset Wednesday he intended to keep fighting
the nuclear accord and believed he could succeed.
“The agreement that was signed in Vienna is not the final word,” he
said. “We will continue to point out its flaws and dangers, and the
danger of making such a deal with a murderous dictatorship.” One way
Netanyahu plans to fight the agreement is by trying to persuade the
U.S. Congress to vote against the lifting of the economic sanctions
on Iran.
Obama said Tuesday he would veto any decision by Congress that could
block the implementation of the nuclear accord. A two-thirds’
majority is needed to override a presidential veto, so Netanyahu
would have to persuade many Democrats to oppose their president.
In the interview with The New York Times, Obama said he was
confident he could get the accord approved by Congress.
“But after that’s done, if that’s what [Netanyahu] thinks is
appropriate, then I will sit down, as we have consistently
throughout my administration, and then ask some very practical
questions: How do we prevent Hezbollah from acquiring more
sophisticated weapons?” he said.
“How do we build on the success of Iron Dome, which the United
States worked with Israel to develop and has saved Israeli lives?”
Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who will meet
with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday, said the Netanyahu
government would have opposed any agreement.
“Israel wants a permanent state of standoff and I don’t believe
that’s in the interests of the region,” he said Wednesday, adding
that he would try to explain Britain’s position to Netanyahu — not
that he expected to convince him.
“He has made clear that he intends to fight it all the way and that
Israel will seek to use its influence in the U.S. Congress to
obstruct the progress of the deal,” Hammond said. “I am confident
that action will not succeed.”
Hammond expressed the hope that Israel would ultimately adopt a
pragmatic approach. Once it had exhausted its efforts to stop the
accord, it might “seek to engage in a sensible and pragmatic way to
deal with the new reality on the ground in the Middle East, to the
benefit of everyone.”
Hammond’s criticism echoed that of his German counterpart,
Frank-Walter Steinmeier. “This is a responsible deal and Israel
should also take a closer look at it and not criticize the agreement
in a very coarse way,” Steinmeier said Tuesday.
© Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All Rights Reserved
See also -
U.S. Offers to Help Israel
Bolster Military Aid : The
current agreement, which went into effect in 2009, provides for $3
billion a year, most of which is used by Israel to buy American
military hardware, such as jets and components for missile defense.
Israel requested between $4.2 billion and $4.5 billion a year for
the next 10 years, an official familiar with the talks said.
