Monday, November 13, 2006

Olmert in Washington

PM Olmert is visiting Washington to meet with Pres. Bush at a relatively relaxed time. Olmert has strengthened his coalition with the entry of Yisrael Beiteinu, so that his Government is now quite stable. Pres. Bush has received a "thumping" in the mid-term elections, but he is still the Presdient and has two years to go. The UN Security Council voted on the Qatari resolution to blame Israel for the deaths of civilians in Gaza, while hardly mentioning the rockets fired into Israel every day for the last 3 years, and as pointed out by the US representative John Bolton, without mentioning terrorism at all. So fortunately for Israel the US vetoed the resolution, which in any case was about an accident, as every reasonable person knows.
While there is a crisis in Lebanon over the resignation of the 5 Shia members of the Cabinet, at least this is after the Lebanon war and so things are relatively calm on that front. Although there is on and off fighting in Gaza, at the moment there is no major IDF action there. In an interview before leaving Olmert stressed that he was unconditionally prepared to meet Abbas and make territorial concessions. This is what Bush wants to hear, since his advisers have persuaded him that if progress can be made on the Israel-Palestinian front then this will help him in his situation in Iraq, by somehow magically gaining "moderate" Arab support. This is illusiory, but all Presidents believe this, and so they are prepared to bring pressure on Israel to make concessions. However, at the present Israel cannot do that with the Hamas Government still in power. Although the Hamas Government has proven an obstacle to Bush's plans for his "Road Map" plan, nevertheless there is talk of prisoner exchanges and a National Unity Government in the PA.
Looming large on the horizon, but not yet with us, is the impending danger of the Iranian nuclear weapons issue. While the Russians and the Chinese have agreed in principle to sanctions against Iran, they seem to spend most of their time trying to reduce their impact. Of course, this is a life or death issue for Israel, but also one for the US, especially in terms of the US forces and interests in the Middle East. Although joint US-Israeli action would seem to be appropriate, the US usually shys away from this in light of the general anti-American reaction that such an alliance would engender in the Muslim world and elsewhere. But, twice now the US has been involved in coalitions in the Gulf region and Iraq that have proved virtually worthless, with often incompetent forces in token numbers from miscellaneous countries.
At least now the US and Israel have the opportunity to coordinate their intentions and efforts in regard to Iran. As Dep. Defense Min. Efraim Sneh said the other day "force is the last resort, but sometimes the last resort becomes the only resort." Apparently the Iranian Government is suing him for having spoken the obvious. Israel has had a concerted campaign against Iran over Ahmedinejad's terrible statements, such as "wiping Israel off the map," and now a group is taking legal action against him in the Intl. Court in the Hague for proposing genocide. Meanwhile, former Iranian Pres. Rafsanjani and 8 other officials are wanted on international warrants from Argentina for the bombing of the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires in 1994 that killed 85 people.
No doubt Olmert will want to hear from Bush and the Democratic leaders what they expect to happen now in Iraq that the Democarts have taken charge of both Houses of Congress. Whatever is decided it will undoubtedly affect Israel's position in the Middle East. Thankfully the Democratic leadership are known to be very supportive of Israel.
The expectations from this summit are not very high, and no press conference is even scheduled after the meeting. But, let's hope that quietly behind the scenes important decisions are being made that will ensure Israel's survival.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home