Israel: Defense Minister Barak "Palestine Peace Bigger Issue Than Iran's Bomb"

Speaking at a conference in Tel Aviv, Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday that a continued stalemate in the peace process with the Palestinians poses a greater threat to Israel than an Iranian nuclear bomb. Having called on the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas to sit on the negotiation table, Barak continued to praise Israel's responsibilities and "progress" and stated that an an apartheid political entity as a result of the stalemate will be the biggest threat:

I am proud to be a member of a government that has taken upon itself the responsibility of addressing issues pertaining to the Road Map.

We regard the settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria as part of Israel in relation to any final status agreement.

We have a paramount interest in establishing defined borders between ourselves and the Palestinians, that will set the stage for two states for two peoples.

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It must be understood that if between the Jordan [River] and the [Mediterranean Sea] there is only one political entity called 'Israel', it will by necessity either be not Jewish or not democratic, and we will turn into an apartheid state.

Following his comments on Palestine, Barak targeted the Lebanese government:

We are not looking for a deterioration of the situation in Lebanon, but if there is such an unraveling, our target will not be some Hizbullah terrorist somewhere in southern Lebanon. Our target will be the Lebanese government and its infrastructure, whatever that may include.

Only then did Barak turn to Iran came out of his lips. He called on the international community to put sanctions on Tehran and warned of a future nuclear arms race in the Middle East and beyond:

Iran is only engaging in dialogue in order to buy itself some time. The setting of a brief and clear timetable for imposing of sanctions on Iran is vital, and uranium enrichment on Iranian soil cannot be legitimized, since this will lead to an Iranian military nuclear capability.

A nuclear Iran will lead to an unrestrained arms race and every Third World dictator will know that his country can go nuclear if it tries.

Israel: Netanyahu's "War on Evil"

On the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, during a ceremony at Yad Vashem on Monday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called on the international community to fight against the increasing "evil" of anti-Semitism which is seeking the destruction not only of Israel but also the rest of the world. Netanyahu continued:

There is an evil that can spread and threaten the security of Jews. We know that this just begins with Jews, and then continues on to the rest of the world. There are today new people who hate Jews, with new reasons for [wanting] the destruction of the Jewish state. This is our concern.

Without explicitly signifying Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, Netanyahu declared, "This is a test for humanity and we will see in the coming weeks how the international community stops this evil before it spreads."

Israel: Defense Minister Barak “Palestine Peace Bigger Issue Than Iran’s Bomb”
Gaza: Israel Rejects Another High-Level Visit
Palestine: Conflicting Statements from Hamas on Israel’s Right to Exist

Middle East Inside Line: War between Hezbollah and Israel?

This weekend, following The Washington Post's report that Hizbullah had moved long-range-missile launch pads into both northern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, Israel's Minister-without-Portfolio Yossi Peled said that another war with Hezbullah was "inevitable". Peled continued:

Without a doubt we are heading for another round (of fighting) in the North. No one knows when, but it's clear that it will happen. We did not know that the Second Lebanon War was going to break out.

However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not see eye to eye with Peled. A statement issued by his office assured, "The State of Israel does not want any confrontation with Lebanon."

Jordan: The Attack on the Israeli Embassy Convoy

On Thursday, a bomb was detonated near an Israeli Embassy convoy in Amman, Jordan. According to Israel's Channel 2, the convoy was entering a Jordanian army base. The spokeswoman at the Israeli Embassy in Amman, Merav Horsendi, confirmed the incident and added, "All I can say now is that everyone is fine."

So far, no organization immediately claimed responsibility for the failed attack. Israeli chatter, however, is focusing on Lebanon's Hezbollah. The Jerusalem Post reports that, following the failed attempt to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Azerbaijan last year,  the Israeli defense establishment has been on high alert over Hezbollah. In particular, Israel was watching for a strike on an Israeli target ahead of the 3rd anniversary of the assassination of Hezbollah leader Imad Fayez Mughniyeh death.

Middle East Arms Triangle: The US, "Moderate" Arabs, & Israel

On 6 January, we reported that the Netanyahu government had concerns over Washington's sale of about $6 billion of arms to four "moderate" Arab states (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates) and Washington. We asked whether the Israelis were pursuing  the complaint to argue the argument that the regional balance of power would collapse because of the arms shipments, regardless of how "moderate" the Arabs states are.

The background to the current manoeuvres lies in Israel's concerns over a $20 billion arms deal between Saudi Arabia and the George W. Bush Administration. On that occasion, Tel Aviv used its concerns as leverage to receive advanced F-35 fighter jets and to limit American arms sales to Lebanon amidst the re-emergence of Hezbollah. So far, no arms deal with Israel have been signed under Obama, and there is the issue of  shipment of higher-tech arms under the 2007 Memorandum of Understanding, which promised $30 billion to Tel Aviv over the following 10 years.

In that context, perhaps the immediate postures over the US-Arab deals should situated under the US-Israel strategic relationship. The Jewish Daily Forward has noted:

Leaders in Washington and Jerusalem have publicly locked horns over the issue of West Bank settlements. And Israeli public opinion has largely viewed America’s new administration as unfriendly. But behind the scenes, strategic security relations between the two countries are flourishing.