Robert Gates (retired): Now he tells us
Recent “news” stories report that former Secretary Robert Gates had run-ins with PM Netanyahu of Israel over various mutual defense matters. Before retiring this summer:
“In a meeting of the National Security Council Principals Committee… held not long before his retirement this summer, Gates coldly laid out the many steps the administration has taken to guarantee Israel’s security — access to top- quality weapons, assistance developing missile-defense systems, high-level intelligence sharing — and then stated bluntly that the U.S. has received nothing in return, particularly with regard to the peace process. …Gates argued to the president directly that Netanyahu is not only ungrateful, but also endangering his country by refusing to grapple with Israel’s growing isolation and with the demographic challenges it faces if it keeps control of the West Bank.” Whole story here
Ha’aretz offers these additional details: “An embarrassing incident between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in July 2010 led to serious, two-month crisis between the Pentagon and the Israeli defense establishment, according to a senior Israeli official. The official said that Gates was deeply insulted by a number of claims against him Netanyahu aired in a meeting regarding the supposed breaching of bilateral agreements regarding the sale of U.S. arms to Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.”
No sitting cabinet official can publicly express complaints that go against presidential policies, so Gates had to wait until he retired. Still, a bit more transparency on the relations of the “50″ U.S. states to the “51st” might begin to loosen that death grip the 51st has on the rest of us.
Can we hope that these “leaks” from various sources are a prelude to a U.S. abstention when the Palestinian Authority goes to the UN in the next weeks for recognition of a Palestinian state?
Thanks, Margaret for posting this. We all have a responsibility to stay informed about this situation.
“Can we hope that these “leaks” from various sources are a prelude to a U.S. abstention when the Palestinian Authority goes to the UN in the next weeks for recognition of a Palestinian state?”
Yes, yes, yes – But I doubt it will happen.
The Right Wing will go ballistic, saying that we are throwing Israel under the bus and conservative Christians will offer all kinds of theological justifications for their defense of Israel.
WWJD?
Meanwhile, who has recognized and called Israel on their long-standing treatment of the Palestinians, both Muslim AND Christian? In some conversations I have had with Franciscan priests in Israel, it may be the Catholic Church, who have supported them and, also I think that the present administration has a stronger appreciation of the Palestinian issue.
Gates was right to call Biden on his lack of backbone.
[A political aside: Wonder what Bob Gates thinks of Rick Perry. Please, save comments for another thread.]
Speaking of Palestinian Christians, here is a letter from a university official (Christian Brother, I think) about attacks on students at Bethlehem University:
“A Bethlehem University Professor and Student Survive Two Separate Attacks by Israeli Settlers
“In the early morning hours of Monday, 5 September 2011, while travelling in the West Bank between the Palestinian villages of Al-Lubban and Turmos Aya and near the Israeli settlements of Ofarim and Bet Ariye along the Nablus-Ramallah, Dr. Adwan Adwan, a faculty member in the Arabic Department at Bethlehem University, was the victim of a violent attack by some 20 Israeli settlers who threw rocks in his face, injuring his head, shoulder, and stomach. His car was blocked by a pile of burning tires when he quickly came under what he said felt like a well-orchestrated ambush. Dr. Adwan eventually was able to speed away from the scene and get himself to a hospital for treatment. “I felt lucky to escape with my life,” he says.
“On the same day and further along the same road, near the settlement of Shiloh in the Palestinian Territories, Miss Yara Odeh, a Bethlehem University masters degree student, was the victim of a violent attack by some Israeli settlers. Yara found herself stuck in what appeared to be a traffic jam caused by Israeli settlers pelting cars with rocks. With the road blocked, she escaped from her car through the passenger door and ran toward nearby Israeli soldiers, calling for help. She reports being refused help and being told to return to her car. “The settlers seemed not so much interested in damaging the car as they were in harming me,” she says of the incident.
“The Bethlehem University administration is extremely disturbed by these attacks on members of the academic community. “We value the lives of our faculty and students,” says Dr. Michael Sansur, Executive Vice President at Bethlehem University. “Each and every day our faculty engage our students in promoting democracy, peace, and justice. We are fortunate to have a campus atmosphere that is known to be an oasis of peace. These violent and aggressive attacks on our students and faculty from Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territories are horrifying and unjust. We are grateful for the well-being of Dr. Adwan and Yara in surviving these traumatic events and pledge to continue in our efforts to prepare our graduates to take their place as ethical leaders in fostering shared values, moral principles and dedication to serving the common good.”
“As reported in the media and by the United Nations, there appears to be an increase in the number of Palestinians who are being attacked by groups of Israeli settlers. The United Nations and other international human rights and aid organizations report that more than 500,000 Israeli settlers, many of whom are armed, occupy the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“Please continue to keep us in your prayers.
Blessings to you,
Brother Jack Curran, FSC, PhD
Vice President for Development
jcurran@bethlehem.edu “
It really is not fair to call support of Israel a right wing thing. Plentyof the left support Israel unconditionally because of tremendous money support.
Bill Mazzella:
But, do the Right are aware of the plight of the Palestinians? I would support Israel if they were just with respect to the Palestinians.
Correction:
Bill Mazzella:
But, are the Right aware of the plight of the Palestinians? I would support Israel 100% if they acted with justice with respect to the Palestinians.
Are we willing to sacrifice the people of Israel because we don’t like the Israeli prime minister?
Fuel for the fire from the NYT “Ex-White House Scientist Pleads Guilty in Case Tied to Israel”.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/us/08spy.html?_r=1
Oops — should be “in Spy Case Tied to Israel”
For a careful assessment of the Palestinian Approach to the UNO, an appraisal by a Palestinian Christian Center, I warmly recommend:
http://www.sabeel.org/events.php?eventid=221
The longer version is the more recent and with more to ponder and pray about. Prayer is essential.
(Sabeel is a Palestinian Christian Ecumenical Liberation Theology center/movement, with international support by Friends of Sabeel).
Our Congress at work for the 51st: Congressman Joe Walsh (R.IL) announced legislation asking Congress to recognize the right of Israel to annex “Judea ane Samaria” aka the West Bank. A new congressional power? Chutzpah?
Congressman Walsh represents Illinois 8th District which goes from Illinois’ northern border to Chicago’s Northwest suburbs. Any 8th districters out there? What is your Congressman up to?
8th District Map: http://walsh.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=7§iontree=7
“Tea party firebrand Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) plans to introduce a provocative measure in the House expressing congressional support for Israel’s right to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank as the Palestinians move forward with a controversial request for a declaration of statehood at the United Nations.
“The resolution, which is modeled closely on a bill introduced in the Israeli Knesset, is the latest effort by Congress ahead of the proposed vote.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/62957.html#ixzz1XN3myfVE
Joe Walsh is the most single-minded politician I’ve seen in a long time. Reminds me a bit of Joe McCarthy in that respect. I commented on him in another thread as being “scary”. This confirms my impression, I think. He seems to be a man with little respect for law, and, therefore, government of any sort. Scofflaw if not outlaw.
MJ Rosenberg has this on the coming Palestinian vote at the UN:
Shooting Ourselves In The Foot At The U.N.
It is amusing watching the usual suspects — including those in the Obama administration — announce their opposition to the United Nations resolution that would grant the Palestinians their long-sought state.
Some of the opposition comes from the lobby and its congressional cutouts who are dedicated to preserving the status quo (i.e., the occupation). The Obama administration surely has a far more nuanced position but is terrified at the prospect of challenging the lobby as it faces a tough re-election campaign.
In any case, the United States looks utterly helpless. The Palestinians no longer view President Obama as an honest broker. Having watched him back down after every attempt to bring Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to the peace table, they view Obama as no different from his most recent predecessor.
As for the Israeli leadership, it openly disrespects the president. Netanyahu, like most bullies, is only impressed by those who bully him right back. Obama’s repeated capitulations win him no points with Netanyahu, who believed from day one that Obama could be rolled. He has been proven right while his many dovish critics at home — who insisted that there would be a price to be paid for disrespecting the United States — look like Nervous Nellies.
It is the United States that is paying the price, not Israel.
Look at how the Obama administration is handling the upcoming U.N. vote. This week, in a last ditch attempt to avert a U.N. vote, the administration dispatched Dennis Ross, the National Security Council official in charge of Arab-Israeli affairs, to the region, along with David Hill, who is filling in as Special Envoy to the region following the resignation (in disgust) of George Mitchell.
Hill is a respected foreign policy professional, but both Palestinians and Israelis know that Ross is the guy who matters. He is also the official responsible for the administration’s failure to make any headway on Israel-Palestinian issues since coming to office.
That is not because Ross is inept; he isn’t. But he is a true-blue supporter of right-wing Israeli policies, best known for, between government jobs, having led AIPAC’s own think tank, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
More than any administration official since Elliot Abrams — in the George W. Bush administration — Ross believes that the United States must never publicly differ with the Israeli government about anything. (Apparently it was Ross who devised Vice President Biden’s pledge that there must be “no daylight, no daylight” between Israeli and U.S. policies.)
Dispatching Ross to talk to Palestinians and Israelis about the U.N. vote demonstrates that the administration is just going through the motions on Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy. After all, the Palestinians don’t trust Ross at all and the Israelis know that he is fully on their side. Ross brings nothing new to the table and certainly nothing to induce the Palestinians to forego their statehood initiative.
If the United States was dedicated to advancing diplomacy rather than reassuring the lobby, it would pressure Netanyahu to return to negotiations based on the ’67 lines (as has been the case with all previous negotiations), with a settlement freeze as a form of earnest money. In return, the Palestinians would drop its U.N. initiative. Unfortunately, that won’t happen because the lobby (and its friend, Dennis Ross) will not permit pressure on Israel, just on the Palestinians — who have been warned that if they go ahead with the vote, they will lose U.S. aid.
So it looks like there will be a U.N. vote and the United States will be among the few nations in the world to vote “no.” Not even Mahmoud Abbas’ repeated assurance that his first act following the vote will be to open negotiations with Israel will have an impact on the U.S. position. No, we will stand with Netanyahu even though internationally the perception that the U.S. and Israel are joined at the hip is the last thing any president wants.
But let’s not give up hope. This weekend is the 10th anniversary of 9/11, a particularly inauspicious time for the Obama administration to look like Netanyahu’s puppet.
This is not to say that the terrorists who would love to strike America again are seriously concerned about the Palestinians. They aren’t. But America’s seeming hostility to the Palestinians and our “no daylight” alliance with Israel gives them a convenient pretense to commit terrorism. And it gives the vast majority of the people in the Middle East, who are fighting against both Al-Qaeda and their Western-backed dictators, further reason to question our motivations in the region.
The Palestinian issue is the one issue on which all Muslims are united. No matter whether they are Saudis or Iranians, Indonesians or Afghans, the one issue that brings Muslim together is the belief that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza are terrible wrongs, supported by the United States. (Muslims aren’t the only ones who feel this way, as will be demonstrated by the overwhelming vote for the Palestinian statehood resolution that the U.S. and Israel will stand virtually alone in opposing.)
The Obama administration should keep that in mind when it decides how it will handle the vote. Promoting the two-state solution, starting with a vote FOR a Palestinian state at the U.N., is not only the moral thing to do — just as it was when the U.S. supported Israel’s statehood at the U.N. in 1947 — but it is also the right thing to do from the standpoint of America’s security. For Israel’s sake, for the Palestinians’, and for our own, the President should tell the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. to vote “yes.”
http://politicalcorrection.org/fpmatters/201109080009
For Margaret and others, I have reposted a blog piece I did months ago during Netanyahu’s visit to DC that i think is relevant to this post and to the debate at UN on Palestinian statehood. Here is the link to it.
http://debatingobama.blogspot.com/2011/09/jeffrey-goldberg-and-recognition-of.html