Israeli Envoy: U.S. Ties At Their Worst In 35 Years

Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, has told the country’s diplomats there that U.S.-Israeli relations face their worst crisis in 35 years, despite attempts by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to project a sense of “business as usual”"

Oren was speaking to Israeli consuls general in a conference call on Saturday night. Sunday, Netanyahu continued to consult with the forum of seven senior cabinet ministers over a list of demands that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made in a telephone conversation Friday.

Clinton harshly criticized the announcement last week of plans to expand the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem while U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Tel Aviv.

Israeli daily Haaretz said that Clinton’s list includes at least four steps the United States expects Netanyahu to carry out to restore confidence in bilateral relations and permit the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians.

1. Investigate the process that led to the announcement of the Ramat Shlomo construction plans in the middle of Biden’s visit. The Americans seek an official response from Israel on whether this was a bureaucratic mistake or a deliberate act carried out for political reasons. Already on Saturday night, Netanyahu announced the convening of a committee to look into the issue.

2. Reverse the decision by the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee to approve construction of 1,600 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo.

3. Make a substantial gesture toward the Palestinians enabling the renewal of peace talks. The Americans suggested that hundreds of Palestinian detainees be released, that the Israeli occupation troops withdraw from additional areas of the West Bank and transfer them to Palestinian control, that the siege of the Gaza Strip be eased and further roadblocks in the West Bank be removed.

4. Issue an official declaration that the talks with the Palestinians, even indirect talks, will deal with all the conflict’s core issues – borders, refugees, occupied Jerusalem, security arrangements, water and settlements.

Two of Netanyahu’s advisers, Yitzhak Molcho and Ron Dermer, held marathon talks Sunday with senior White House officials in Washington and U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell and his staff to try to calm the situation. Mitchell will return to Tel Aviv Tuesday and expects to hear if Netanyahu intends to take the proposed steps.

At the beginning of Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Netanyahu tried to convey a message that there was no crisis in relations with the United States. But he sent precisely the opposite message to Oren in Washington.

In Oren’s Saturday conference call with the Israeli consuls general, he said that the current crisis was the most serious with the Americans since a confrontation between Henry Kissinger and Yitzhak Rabin in 1975 over an American demand for a partial withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula.

Four consuls discussed the conference call with Haaretz. Some noted that in previous conference calls with Oren, the ambassador took pains to make clear that relations with the United States were excellent. This time, however, Oren sounded extremely tense and pessimistic. Oren was quoted as saying that “the crisis was very serious and we are facing a very difficult period in relations [between the two countries].”

Oren told the consuls to lobby congressmen, Jewish community leaders and the media to convey Israel’s position. He said the message to be relayed was that Israel had no intention to cause offense to Vice President Biden and that the matter had stemmed from actions by junior bureaucrats in the Interior Ministry and was caused by a lack of coordination between government offices. “It should be stressed that [our] relations with the United States are very important to us,” Oren reportedly said.

Several of the consuls suggested waiting, but Oren hinted that his approach reflected Netanyahu’s wishes.

“FLAWED U.S. POLICY IS UNDERMINING MIDEAST PEACE”
Meanwhile, Haaretz interviewed Abraham Foxman who has headed the Anti-Defamation League since the 1980s, serving often as an unofficial spokesman for the American Jewish community on issues of anti-Semitism and other affairs and he talked about the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

Asked who is to blame for the current crisis in the U.S.-Israeli relationship, Foxman said, “In the short term Israel is, but in the long term – the U.S. This is a flawed policy that we are seeing in the Middle East, that we were very much concerned about in the beginning of this administration, and that is to what extent this linkage will play in the policy and in the strategy of this administration. There are a lot of people in this administration who had advocated linkage – that all you have to do to resolve all the problems in the Arab Middle East is to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict… But this administration has bought into this concept – even [Vice President Joe] Biden’s language, that if we don’t resolve this conflict American soldiers will die – that’s the worst of that fallacy. When the secretary of state then says that it harms the bilateral relationship – what happens between the Palestinians and Israelis impacts American security. The solution of the problem is in Baghdad, Kabul, Tehran, maybe in Riyadh and Cairo. Not in Jerusalem.”

“The continuation of the crisis is the fault of the U.S. Whatever happened, the prime minister apologized publicly and privately, issued a statement, the interior minister issued a statement, Israel did an al-het, [Biden] even accepted it. And then to wake up in the morning and to find [State Department spokesman P.J.] Crowley saying these terrible words – and this is not only the secretary of state, this is the president – and what’s worse, – with this linkage is also a belief that you can appease the Arabs that all you must do is to placate them by giving them settlements,” he added.

Asked if a stop to all provocative actions in occupied East Jerusalem it will repair the damage, he said that the belief that you can bring peace by placating the Arab position is wrong. “Whatever you give, the answer is “no, come back with more.” If freezing settlements is not enough, now it’s Jerusalem. Why does Israel have to pay the price for the proximity talks?”

“It’s not the first time Israel’s right wing government has embarrassed American officials,” Foxman added.

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The above article was published by Al Manar Staff;entitled: “Israeli Envoy: U.S. Ties at Their Worst in 35 Years” the article can be found on Al Manar