As Benjamin Netanyahu’s top pick for national security adviser, Uzi Arad will be key to crafting the foreign and defence policies of the incoming Israeli government.
Arad is a retired official of the Mossad intelligence agency who served under the hawkish Netanyahu during his first term as prime minister in 1996-1999. That period saw Israel pursuing U.S.-sponsored interim peace negotiations with the Palestinians, as well as tentative rapprochement with Syria.
A decade on, Israelis are focused on the threat they see from Iran’s nuclear programme and support for armed Islamist factions on their borders. Peace talks are not popular. Many Arabs, for their part, perceive Israel’s rightward tack as a sign of poor faith on the core issue of establishing a Palestinian state.
In a wide-ranging interview, Arad made clear that, while the new government’s policies have yet to be set, Netanyahu is almost certain to insist on “blunting” Iran as a prerequisite for any progress in Israeli-Arab peacemaking. Pending that, the prime minister will focus on building up the Palestinian economic and security infrastructure in the occupied West Bank. There appears to be no plan to stop shunning Hamas, the Islamist faction locked in a power-struggle with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and in control of the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu opposed Israel’s 2005 Gaza withdrawal and has vowed not to evacuate Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Arad further stressed that Israel, under Netanyahu’s Likud party, would not part with the Golan Heights. Syria lost the Golan in the 1967 Middle East war and insists on its full return for peace.
In fuller remarks to Reuters, which can be viewed above, Arad rebuffs accounts that Netanyahu signalled flexibility on the Golan issue during the 1990s. Any such overtures were made by Israeli prime ministers from the centre-left Labour party, not Likud, he says. But Arad does discuss possible stop-gap proposals such as a partial ceding, or long-term leasing, of the strategic plateau.
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Netanyahu may speak but he should not be heeded for guidance as to what the US or any other country should do. After all, isn’t it Israel that has nuclear weapons and has threatened to use them against Iran? Isn’t it Israel that has attacked with disproportionate death and destruction other countries” Isn’t it Israel that has locked down and destroyed Gaza, confiscated Palestinian lands and property, and blocked countries and agencies from assisting and aiding the Palestinians?
- Posted by Carolyn HopleyIsrael should try getting along instead of being the biggest bully and most unreliable ally.
the recent israel election is much like the taliban taking over as the government in the swat valley of pakistan. both are extremist religious party with an agenda which is a threat to U.S national security and is eventually going to result in loss of life on a massive scale and create conflicts which have the potential of WW3 breaking out. with this man creating policies for both washington and tel-aviv, we are bound to see a large conflcit take place with thousands of lives lost.
- Posted by sidneyone thing curtain if israel is annihilated like what iran is saying is going to happen,then the jewish and christian faith could be considered false, it would prove that our old and new testament accounts are completely fictitious.i tend to believe unfortunately what it states in revelation, the people who attack israel in the end time prophecy.it will take 7 months just to bury their dead bodies.
- Posted by brian lee“Want Peace? Blunt _________ (fill in the blank) Netanyahu Aide Says”
Journalists should save time and adopt this as one of their templates. Afterall, this is Likud you’re dealing with. First it was Syria, then Iraq, and now Iran. Pakistan is probably next. Perhaps Kazakhstan will start to feel the squeeze in a couple of years time. I’m half expecting them to blame Bhutan.
Want peace? Withdraw to the 67 borders and stop treating the Palestinians like cattle. Sadly, with Netanyahu and Lieberman at the helm this option seems more like a pipe dream
- Posted by Nu'manIsreal has a right to defend it’s citizens. I support your struggle. I am however having a hard time with the death of civilians in Gaza. Children should not be made to suffer anywhere in this world.
- Posted by JudahIf ‘you’ want peace you need to stop telling lies. You need to refer to international law, not leftist political or jihadist propoganda. A two state solution to the Jew/Arab ‘problem’ in Palestine was formulated and made international law in Paris (1919) ratified in San Remo (1922) and incorporated into the British Mandate (1922).
- Posted by FivishUN article 80 of the charter gives the 1919 two state solution overriding presidence. By this law, there are no palestinian territory except in Jordan. No settlers, except the Arabs who illegally build in Judea and Samaria. And the Arabs now have an illegal apartheid territory in Gaza.
Tell the truth to the Arabs…..their home is in Jordan not Israel.