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The Impact of the Likud Referendum on US-Israel Ties

In 1973, President Nixon accorded a top priority to Israel’s retreat from certain areas in Sinai and to the lifting of the siege over Egypt’s Third Brigade. Therefore, he did not limit himself to the recycling of very friendly, yet ambiguous and non-binding declarations, but increased the military grant to Israel three folds ($983MN) and extended a $4.15BN loan.

 

In 1979, President Carter viewed Israel’s full withdrawal from Sinai as a key US policy. Hence the offer – to Israel – of a $3BN grant (Prime Minister Begin insisted that $2.2BN would be a loan).

 

In 2000, President Clinton considered Israel’s withdrawal from So. Lebanon a trigger to a peace accord among Israel, Syria and Lebanon.  Thus, he offered Israel a $800MN grant, which was never implemented due to obvious and strict congressional budgetary constraints.

 

However, in 2004, President Bush does NOT accord a top priority to Prime Minister Sharon’s plan of retreat from Palestinian terrorism in Northern Samaria and Gaza.  He, therefore, limits Sharon’s welcome to Washington to the recycling of very friendly, yet ambiguous and non-binding declarations.  Bush’s welcome reflects the fact that Sharon’s plan was imposed on him by Israel’s Prime Minister, while the US Commander-In-Chief has been preoccupied with the war on terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the November election, with the commission of inquiry and with the continued recovery of the US economy. Israel’s friend at the White House did not wish to embarrass Israel’s prime minister – especially not a few months before November – but at the same time would not ignore US order of priorities.  Hence, no tangible financial, military or industrial commitments to Israel in exchange for a proposed Israeli retreat from terrorism, which was not initiated by the US.

 

Sharon’s plan of retreat from terrorism contradicts the world view of Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and key Congressional leaders.  They contend that the retreat would contrast US own counter-terrorism doctrine: Offensive preemption on – and control of – the enemy’s own ground (rather than defense and retaliation); Swift and traumatic defeat of the enemy (rather than a protracted war); Destruction of the enemy’s political, financial and ideological infrastructure (rather than co-existence and containment). They assert that Israel’s retreat from Lebanon in 2000 has propelled Hizballah from a local – to regional – terror organization, with footprints in Iraq and Afghanistan. Further retreat from terrorism would add more fuel to the Mideast fire of anti-US terrorism. Cheney and Rumsfeld, and Israel’s leading friends on Capitol Hill have been concerned about Sharon’s policy (embracing the RoadMap to the establishment of a Palestinian State, the swap deal with Hizballah terrorists and the retreat from Northern Samaria and Gaza), which has played into the hands of their ideological rivals, Foggy Bottom and the CIA, which have attempted to push Israel back to the 1949 Lines.

 

Washington would not view a referendum victory of the opponents to Sharon’s plan as a set back to US-Israel relations or to Israel’s own democracy. In fact, it would be consistent with the US’ own democracy, which has been founded on the principles of the limits to the power of the Executive, checks and balance and separation of powers. For instance, Presidents Clinton, Bush 41st and Reagan were able to pass only 62%, 52% and 62% respectively of their proposed legislation, with the balance rejected by Congress. Moreover, according to the US Constitution, no presidential declaration or commitment made to a foreign country is binding, unless backed by a congressional legislation or by a ratification by 2/3 of the Senate. In 1999, Clinton signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Senate did not ratify, which was a reaffirmation to the fact that the US constitutes a democracy and not a dictatorship of the Executive.   

 

The contention that a victory of the opponents would undermine US-Israel relations has ignored the uniquely strong foundation of Shared Values, Joint Regional Interests and Mutual Regional Threats (and not the Arab-Israeli conflict) between the two countries, which has withstood periodical confrontations, rifts and tensions, even when issues of vital importance to the US were at stake. During 1948-1992, Israeli prime ministers frequently stood up to US initiatives concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict.  However, US-Israel ties expanded dramatically during the same period, precisely because Israel withstood the pressure, due to solid Judeo-Christian foundation binding the two Peoples, and due to Israel’s unique contribution to the US war on terrorism, against rogue regimes and against ballistic missiles.

 

The US does not seek allies, which retreat in face of terrorism and pressure (which is non-existent in this case).  The US seeks allies, which combat terrorism and defy pressure.  Sharon’s plan of retreat from Palestinian terrorism in Northern Samaria and Gaza has re-entrenched the concern – among Israel’s staunchest friends in Washington – that Israel may be gradually transforming from a role model of counter-terrorism to a role model of vacillation in face of terrorism. 

 




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US-sponsored anti-Israel UN Security Council statement – acumen

*The US’ co-sponsorship of an anti-Israel UN Security Council Statement reflects the return of the State Department’s worldview to the center stage of US foreign policy-making. This was the first time, in six years, that the US enabled the UN Security Council to act against Israel.

*This is not merely a worldview, which is highly critical of Israel, as has been the case since 1948, when Foggy Bottom led the charge against the re-establishment of the Jewish State.

This worldview has systematically undermined US interests, by subordinating the unilateral, independent US national security policy (on Iran’s Ayatollahs, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Palestinian issue, etc.) to a multilateral common denominator with the anti-US and anti-Israel UN and international organizations, as well as the vacillating and terrorists-appeasing Europe.

*It has sacrificed Middle East reality on the altar of wishful-thinking, assuming that the establishment of a Palestinian state would fulfill Palestinian aspirations, advance the cause of peace, reduce terrorism and regional instability; thus, enhancing US interests.

*However, the reality of the Middle East and Jordan and the rogue Palestinian track record lend credence to the assumption that a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River would doom the pro-US Hashemite regime east of the River, yielding traumatic ripple effects, regionally and globally:

^Replace the relatively-moderate Hashemite regime with either a rogue Palestinian regime, a Muslim Brotherhood regime, or other rogue regimes;
^Transform Jordan into a chaotic state, similar to Libya, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, which would be leveraged by Iran’s Ayatollahs to intensify their encirclement of the pro-US Saudi regime;
^Convert Jordan into a major arena of regional and global Islamic terrorism;
^Trigger a domino scenario into the Arabian Peninsula, which could topple all pro-US, oil-producing Arab regimes;
^Imperil the supply of Persian Gulf oil, which would be held hostage by anti-US entities, catapulting the price at the pump;
^Jeopardize major naval routes of global trade between Asia and Europe through the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal;
^Intensify epicenters of regional and global terrorism and drug trafficking;
^Generate a robust tailwind to US’ adversaries (Russia and China) and enemies (Iran’s Ayatollahs, the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS) and a powerful headwind to US economic and national security interests.

*The State Department assumes that Palestinian terrorism – just like Islamic terrorism – is driven by despair, ignoring the fact that Palestinian terrorism has been driven (for the last 100 years) by the vision to erase the “infidel” Jewish entity from “the abode of Islam,” as stated by the charters of Fatah (1959) and the PLO (1964), 8 and 3 years before the Jewish State reunited Jerusalem and reasserted itself in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).

*Aspiring for a Palestinian state, and viewing Israel’s control of Judea and Samaria as an obstacle to peace, ignores the Arab view of the Palestinians as a role model of intra-Arab subversion, terrorism, corruption and treachery. Moreover, the State Department has held the view that the Palestinian issue is the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict and a central to Arab interests, which has been refuted by the Abraham Accords. The latter ignored the State Department, sidestepped the Palestinian issue and therefore came to fruition.

*The State Department overlooks the centrality of the Palestinian Authority’s hate education, which has become the most effective production-line of terrorists, and the most authentic reflection of the Palestinian Authority’s worldview and vision.

*The State Department has also taken lightly the Palestinian Authority’s mosque incitement, public glorification of terrorists and monthly allowances to families of terrorists, which have documented its rogue and terroristic nature (walk), notwithstanding its peaceful diplomatic rhetoric (talk).

*The State Department’s eagerness to welcome the Palestinian issue in a “red carpet” manner – contrary to the “shabby doormat” extended to Palestinians by Arabs – and its determination to promote the establishment of a Palestinian state, along with its embrace of Iran’s Ayatollahs and the Muslim Brotherhood, have been interpreted by rogue regimes and organizations as weakness.

Experience suggests that weakness invites the wolves, including wolves which aim to bring “The Great Satan” to submission throughout the world as well as the US mainland.

Support Appreciated

 




Videos

The post-1967 turning point of US-Israel cooperation

Israeli benefits to the US taxpayer exceed US foreign aid to Israel

Iran - A Clear And Present Danger To The USA

Exposing the myth of the Arab demographic time bomb