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Olmert after Annapolis (Flash90)
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| By Israel Insider staff December 16, 2007 |
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"I demand that the ministers stop giving statements on Iran and the American intelligence report," a peeved Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday at the opening of the Israeli government's weekly cabinet meeting.
"May I remind you that the cabinet held a discussion on the subject and agreed on Israel's position. There is no place for private comments by every single minister on such a sensitive and complex issue," Olmert huffed.
"Such statements do not contribute to the campaign [against Iran] or to our relations with the White House," he added.
Unfortunately for Olmert, he was trying to shut the proverbial barn door after the horses had already bolted. His words may have been provoked by Public Security Minister Avi Dichter's outspoken attack on the latest US intelligence assessment which, the former Shin Bet head said, put Israel in a position of being vulnerable to a surprise attack on the order of the 1973 Yom Kippur War -- if not worse.
Other government officials had earlier reacted to Dichter's statements, with one senior source telling Army Radio that the minister's words could cause serious damage to Israeli-American relations. "The US stands by our side in the campaign against a nuclear Iran, and President [George W.] Bush has pledged to maintain Israel's security. We must not offend our closest ally," the source said.
Cabinet minister Ami Ayalon said Dichter made an error in publicly censuring the White House. "Such arrogant statements damage our ability to build a coalition [against Iran]," he said.
But the reality is that Dichter's extreme discomfort is evidently shared by many cabinet members, quite a few of which had made anonymous statements on the subject to the press. Defense Minister Barak has also gone on record with critical comments, although his were not quite so harsh. Dichter further suggested that if American intelligence agencies were wrong about Iran, letting themselves be influenced by politics, they might also be inclined to issue incorrect information about whether the Palestinians are fulfilling their security commitments.
The issue goes far beyond the specific intelligence report and now touches on the broader Israeli-American strategic relationship. Israeli ministers and analysts are saying that the Bush Administration has made a strategic shift toward engagement with Iran and Syria, with the expected outcome that Israel will be expected to pay in concessions for the American rapprochement.
Olmert allowed the United States to be positioned as the "judge" in the Middle East diplomatic progress and, specifically, of roadmap compliance. If the United States was once considered Israel's sole defender, today it is viewed not even as an even-handed arbiter but more as the Israeli arm-twister with the sole leverage to extract painful concessions from the Jewish State -- including sacrifices that could, in Dichter's view, put Israel's existence in danger due to a "misconception" about Iranian and Palestinian intentions and capabilities.
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