- Title: MIDDLE EAST: Public rift with U.S. makes Israeli strike on Iran harder.
- Date: 12th September 2012
- Summary: JERUSALEM (SEPTEMBER 11, 2012) (REUTERS) ( ** BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **) VARIOUS OF ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU MEETING BULGARIAN PRIME MINISTER BOIKO BORISOV (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SAYING: "The world tells Israel 'wait, there's still time'. And I say, 'Wait for what? Wait until when?' Those in the international c
- Embargoed: 27th September 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Jerusalem, Israel
- City:
- Country: Israel
- Topics: International Relations,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA8PLRX83UB4AK6NG1TUL6EKKTH
- Story Text: 'No redlines, no deadlines and lots of headlines,' says a top Israeli political commentator, as diplomatic relations between Israel and the United States continue to sour over Iran.
The public row between Israel and the United States this week will make it extremely hard for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch a unilateral strike against Iran and risks undermining his domestic standing.
Despite years of warning about the dangers of Iran gaining nuclear weapons, the Israeli leader has failed to convince any major world power of the need for military action and has yet to persuade his domestic audience that Israel should go it alone.
"The world tells Israel 'wait, there's still time'. And I say, 'Wait for what? Wait until when?' Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don't have a moral right to place a red light before Israel," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday (September 11).
By raising the stakes with U.S. President Barack Obama, he has drawn criticism from his own defence minister, Ehud Barak, and given Tehran the pleasure of watching its main enemies argue over the case for war.
Infuriated by Washington's reluctance to lay down clear limits to Iran's nuclear programme, Netanyahu fired a broadside at Obama on Tuesday, saying those who failed to set red lines did not have the "moral right" to prevent Israel from striking.
Further stirring the troubled waters, senior Israeli officials briefed journalists twice in two days to denounce U.S. policymaking, before announcing that the president had refused to see Netanyahu when he travels to New York later this month.
The White House denied ever receiving a request for a meeting and Obama swiftly got on the phone for a long chat with Netanyahu, with whom he has notoriously testy relations.
In the hours that followed, Israel sought to play down the differences between the two, but the damage was done, with the Israeli press bemoaning a new low in bilateral ties.
"If once both leaders used to use the slogan 'the bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable and unshakeable' I think they can replace the slogan now with another one, 'no redlines, no deadlines and lots lots of headlines' that is what we see between both Israel and the United States. Israeli Prime Minister is begging for a presidential statement and he got an answer from Secretary Clinton, no dead lines no red lines and then he answer his answers that the international community has no moral statement to ask from Israel to place before Israel red light so obviously that we are watching now very tense relationship between Israel and the United States. nobody can rap it with diplomatic words about the bond the unshakeable and unbreakable bond," said Israeli journalist and political commentator, Ayala Hason.
Israel, believed to have the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, has long threatened to attack Iran unless it dismantles its ambitious nuclear programme that many countries in the West believe is aimed at creating an atomic bomb.
Iran denies this and, despite increasingly severe economic sanctions, has shown no sign that it intends to scale back its project or halt its contested uranium enrichment drive.
Regularly beating the drums of war, Netanyahu has succeeded in getting alarmed Western allies to turn the sanction screws, but has yet to persuade them of the need for military action, or even to win their backing for a sole Israeli initiative.
Aware that its armed forces might be hard pressed to do significant damage to Iran's far-flung nuclear sites, Israel has said repeatedly that it wants the U.S. military to do the heavy lifting, arguing a nuclear Iran is a threat to the whole world.
But rather than bow to Israeli demands for further clarity, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's said Washington would not set any deadline with Iran. Her comments triggered fury in Netanyahu's Jerusalem office.
Israelis know the United States is by far and away their most important ally and previous premiers who jostled in public with Washington have invariably drawn flak at home.
Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor looked to play down the very public rift between the two allies,
"We have no ally as great and as important as the United States. I think we must always remember this out of appreciation of our true force and might and the force and might (of the United States). In this alliance there is a balance of power that one must not lose perspective of. U.S.-Israel relations have stood many tests, many fundamental agreements as well as some differences from time to time. But not only have these relations not been harmed, but they have weathered crises," said Meridor. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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