Re: How to Repair the Widening American-Israeli Rift
[{"sender": "Jeffrey Epstein [jeevacation@gmail.com]", "recipients": ["Sultan Bin Sulayem"], "timestamp": "8/27/2012 11:05:23 AM", "subject": "Re: How to Repair the Widening American-Israeli Rift", "body": "http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j00NtuA2fbH1hED38qZkrNKc6VJw?docId=CNG.15\n8e059567cc64e99373df644f3134b3.01"}, {"sender": "Sultan Bin Sulayem", "recipients": [], "timestamp": "Mon, Aug 27, 2012 at 6:22 AM", "subject": "Re: How to Repair the Widening American-Israeli Rift", "body": ""}, {"sender": "Esneh", "recipients": ["Esneh"], "timestamp": "August 27, 2012 9:23:47 AM GMT+01:00", "subject": "How to Repair the Widening American-Israeli Rift", "body": "Israel Policy Forum\nOn Iran: How to Repair the Widening American-Israeli Rift\nEphraim Sneh\nThe Islamist takeover in the Middle East and North Africa has created perilous strategic\nturbulence in the region. Consequently, it is now critically important that the United States and\nits few allies cooperate closely. Unfortunately, this has not been the case in recent weeks for US-\nIsrael relations regarding Iran's nuclear program. The disagreement about attacking Iran's\nuclear facilities has turned into ugly bickering, much of it disguised. This is harmful for both\nIsrael and the United States.\nTo heal this rift — which is necessary to effectively address the Iranian threat — we must\nunderstand the following basic facts:\n1. The Israeli fear of a nuclear Iran is genuine. It is not a political trick of Prime Minister\nBenjamin Netanyahu or Defense Minister Ehud Barak. A nuclear Iran would bolster and\nencourage extremist militant forces across the region. The moderates would be discouraged,\nintimidated and invariably weakened to the point where they would be unable to negotiate with\nIsrael. In just a few years, Israel will be surrounded by three Pakistan-like' countries: Saudi\nArabia, Egypt and Turkey. All three would possess nuclear weapons and be dominated\npolitically by Islamists. In such a scenario, Israel would lose its strategic advantage in the region.\nIt would lose its lead as a country of entrepreneurship and excellence, as foreign investment\nwould decline and talented young Israelis would build their future abroad. No responsible Israeli\nleader will allow such a nightmare to become a reality. The hateful declarations of Iran's leaders,\ncommitted to wiping the Jewish state off the map, do not assuage Israelis' fears.\n2. Economic sanctions cannot convince the regime in Teheran to abandon its nuclear project.\nHowever, sanctions can bring about the collapse of the regime if they are vigorously\nimplemented and enforced.\n3. An American military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities would be more effective\nthan an Israeli one. But disparaging Israel's capabilities and its military ingenuity, undermining\nits deterrence effect, is a grave mistake.\n4. Israel's operational window is closing. If Israel has to cope alone with the Iranian threat, its\nwindow of operational opportunity is narrower than the American one. It has to act sooner.\n5. An Israeli military strike in the next two months, contravening repeated demands by the\nU.S. President to postpone it, would be counterproductive. The damage of defying the\nPresident would be greater than the damage sustained by allowing the Iranian regime an\nadditional few months of advancing toward acquiring the bomb. Such a strike may broaden the\ngap between the U.S. and Israel and weaken the alliance, which all previous Israeli Prime-\nMinisters have safeguarded as a strategic asset of Israel.\n6. The United States has failed to prevent countries like Pakistan or North Korea from\nobtaining nuclear weapons. This record feeds Israeli skepticism about a U.S. success in the\ncase of Iran. This skepticism prevails despite the clear rhetoric and unquestionable commitments\nof the President and the Secretaries of State and Defense to prevent a nuclear Iran.\n7. The fact that the Israeli Prime Minister and the Republican presidential candidate share\nthe same political benefactor feeds suspicions in the Obama administration about Netanyahu's\nmotives for attacking Iran a few weeks before the U.S. presidential elections.\n8. The regional perspective cannot continue ignoring the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian\nconflict. This issue can no longer be swept under the rug. Maintaining the status quo is politically\ncomfortable in the short-run, but it will be combustible and devastating in the long run.\nAchieving the two-state solution will preserve Israel as a Jewish, democratic state. It will end\nIsrael's regional isolation. It will rebuild America's standing and influence in the Arab and\nMuslim world. Furthermore, these last two outcomes will strengthen America's and Israel's\nhands in thwarting Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions.\nThese eight basic facts combine to produce a complex reality. When fully understood, they can\npave the way to restoring U.S.-Israeli harmony. There is no symmetry between the United States, the super-power, and its tiny ally, Israel. But the \"package\" required from each side in order to\nmend fences has to include the following mutual commitments:\n1. Israel will not attack Iran in 2012.\n2. The United States will hold a joint intelligence estimate session with Israel in the early spring\nof 2013. If the conclusion of this joint estimate is that there is no substantial slow-down of the\nIranian nuclear project, the U.S. will take military action to destroy this project.\n3. The United States will oppose any attempt to intervene in Israel's strategic capacities and will\nprevent any monitoring of Israel's own strategic installations. At the same time, the United States\nwill uncompromisingly support Israel's right to preserve and develop its indigenous military\ncapacities.\n4. Israel will accept an American invitation to attend a peace conference that will be convened\nin the U.S. no later than mid-2013. This gathering will address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, aiming to resolve it once and for all with an agreed-upon timetable for implementation.\nThese four commitments would serve the interests of both the United States and Israel. They\nwould enable the U.S. to resume its leadership role of peacemaking in the Middle East. And they\nwould provide a basis for binding the U.S. and Israel together as they face these challenging\ntimes."}]