In an explosive WikiLeaks revelation, Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad, the head of the Political Military Bureau of Israel's Ministry of Defense, while discussing Israeli requests for U.S. military aid, "acknowledged the sometimes difficult position the U.S. finds itself in given its global interests, and conceded that Israel's security focus is so narrow that its QME [Qualitative Military Edge] concerns often clash with broader American security interests in the region," according to the State Department.
Gilad's "typically frank" remarks lend credence to the testimony of Gen. David Petraeus, then CENTCOM Commander, before the Senate Armed Service Committee in March. Petraeus articulated several reasons why U.S. and Israeli interests did not necessarily coincide. The Arab-Israeli conflict, according to Petraeus, "present[s] distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests," and "foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel." Petraeus went on to describe how Israel's ongoing conflicts spurred recruitment efforts for al-Qaeda and increased Iranian influence in the region.
What appears obvious to Petraeus and is reluctantly admitted to by Gilad is lost on Israel's most vociferous backers on Capitol Hill, such as incoming Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor, who declared after conducting private diplomacy with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and undermining the Obama administration's efforts to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that "the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other." In Cantor's view, daylight between the strategic interests of the United States and Israel is inconceivable because they are symbiotic.
Cantor would do well to read some of the 19 cables released so far by WikiLeaks from the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, which shed important light on behind-the-scene tensions between Israel's quest for complete military dominance and U.S. attempts to militarize the Middle East, as evidenced by Gilad's admission. These documents display an incomplete, yet consistent, pattern of the United States saturating its allies with weapons while deflecting Israeli pressure not to do so.
Much of the disagreement, sanitized in diplomatic parlance, stems from different interpretations of what constitutes Israel's qualitative military edge (QME). This technical assessment, whose provisions were snuck into the 2008 Naval Vessel Transfer Act, sponsored by Rep. Howard Berman, requires the president to certify that any sale of weapons or military services to Middle East countries "will not adversely affect Israel's qualitative military edge over military threats to Israel." The law also mandates the president to submit to Congress secret reports that include an "empirical and qualitative assessment on an ongoing basis of the extent to which Israel possesses a qualitative military edge over military threats to Israel."
In conversations with U.S. officials, Israel stakes out an unequivocal position: any U.S. weapons sale, even to the most friendly of regimes, is potentially devastating to its security. The State Department reports that Israeli officials "attempted to make the argument that moderate Arab countries could in the future become adversaries -- and that this should be taken into account in the QME process." Israel raises specific concerns about the potential sale of F15-SA fighter planes to Saudi Arabia, the transfer of Cessna Caravan planes and Raven unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to Lebanon, and C-7 AMRAAM missiles to Jordan.
The always candid Gilad went a step further, stating the QME was nothing more than a "codename" for "potential threats against Israel." The cable summarizes his thinking:
"Israel currently enjoys peace with regimes in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates -- but the future is uncertain, and each of these regimes faces the potential for change, he [Gilad] argued. U.S. weapons -- 'the best in the world'-- level the playing field by reducing the need for training -- and could ultimately aid a future enemy of Israel, Gilad said."
While staking out this maximalist position, Israeli officials, however, are resigned to massive U.S. weapons sales in the region. The State Department notes that "Israel understands U.S. policy intentions to arm moderate Arab states in the region to counter the Iranian threat, and prefers such sales originate from the United States instead of other countries like Russia or China." Israel's Assistant Chief of Defense, Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz "seemed to acknowledge that Israel does not expect that all QME decisions will break in its favor, but that Israel only expects a fair and equitable process that incorporates 'intimate dialogue.'" And Israel's Mossad Chief Yair Dagan "clarified that he would not oppose U.S. security assistance to America's Arab partners. He expressed concern, nevertheless, about the current policies of those partners -- especially with regards to Syria and Iran. Dagan added that if those countries must choose between buying defensive systems from the U.S. or France, then he would prefer they buy systems from the U.S., as this would bring them closer to the U.S."
Israel's stance is a pragmatic one, in the realization that U.S. arms sales to the region will take place even over its objections. Discussing with Dagan the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for $30 billion in U.S. military aid to Israel, then Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns affirmed in 2007 that the "MOU serves as a concrete reminder that the U.S. stands by its long-term security commitments to its friends, and is ready to help them with their needs."
However, Burns also "noted that the Middle East is now at the heart of American interests. Because Egypt also plays a vital role in the region, the U.S. would also renew its security assistance commitment to that country. U.S. relations with the Gulf states were longstanding, and America would stay true to those friendships, as well." In other words, massive amounts of U.S. military aid to Israel in no way conflict with massive U.S. arms sales to the region in general, as witnessed by the Obama administration's record-breaking $60 billion sale of fighter planes and attack helicopters to Saudi Arabia, announced just last month.
The sad reality is that this process deliberately fuels an unnecessary and never-ending arms escalation in the Middle East, making President Obama's goal of achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace during his first term in office that much more remote. WikiLeaks has done a great service by exposing the inner workings of how U.S. diplomacy is drowning the region in weapons. As President Jimmy Carter once said, "We cannot be both the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of the weapons of war."
Josh Ruebner is the National Advocacy Director of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, a national coalition of more than 325 organizations working to change U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine to support human rights, international law, and equality. He is a former analyst in Middle East Affairs at Congressional Research Service (CRS).
Follow Josh Ruebner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/joshruebner
Arianna Huffington: The WikiLeaks Cables: Small Revelations That May Cause a Big Idea to Take Hold
" Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor, who declared after conducting private diplomacy with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and undermining..."
When did Eric Cantor become Secretary of State?
Brzezinski implied that wikileaks *could* be an intelligence operation of a foreign government . So break out the tin foil hat for a former national security advisor because he implied that wikileaks could have a specific intent besides how the media portrays it.
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JUDY WOODRUFF: How easy would it be to seed this to make sure that it was slanted a certain way?
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI : Seeding — seeding it is very easy. I have no doubt that WikiLeaks is getting a lot of the stuff from sort of relatively unimportan t sources, like the one that perhaps is identified on the air. But it may be getting stuff at the same time from interested intelligen ce parties who want to manipulate the process and achieve certain very specific objectives .
Attempting to blackmail the U.S. into war has NOT worked for over 5 long and hard years.
Israeli war hawks are getting very desperate.
With only 500 cables released, keep watching...
Security is a word the Israelis use for cover-up. They want to grab more land without the indigenous people living on it. Why else would they be promoting young families out to the settlements ?
How do you figure? Over a million people are dead in Sudan. Is that what you want?
Aren't they having an election out there right now to determine if the North and South Sudan should separate?
Palestine should do the same thing as South Sudan.
(what a hippocrateÂ! Only 55 Muslim states).http://wwwÂ.upi.com/TÂop_News/WoÂrld-News/2Â010/11/28/ÂFatah-refuÂses-to-recÂognize-JewÂish-state/ÂUPI-838912Â90948919/
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Nov. 28 (UPI) -- The Fatah RevolutionÂary Council said it
refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish State and has called on PalestiniaÂns to actively
resist Israel.
Summing up its fifth convention during a three-day session in Ramallah, the council
reaffirmed its refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish State, claiming such demands violate
internatioÂnal law and human rights conventionÂs, Ma'an news agency said Saturday night.
A statement issued by the council said: "The council affirms its rejection of the so-called
Jewish state or any other formula that could achieve this goal. The council also renews its
refusal for the establishmÂent of any racist state based on religion in accordance with
internatioÂnal law and human rights conventionÂs."
Which Arab state is NOT a Muslim State? In which Arab state can Jews live?
People who support this ruling and who support Hamas are helping to eliminate Jews from the only country in the Middle East where they may currently live after being forced to leave Arab states in 1949, nearly a million Jews... except for Morocco. Palestinian leaders show contempt for the original Palestinians, the Palestinians who built Palestine.
BTW, nearly one million Israeli Jews have emigrated abroad and immigration is less than a trickle.
Israel is concerned about maintaining a military edge?
Israel buys weapons from the US?
Israel tries to get the US to not sell weapons to other countries in the region?
US generally ends up selling to whomever we want anyway?
Israeli and US interests don't always sync up perfectly?
Anyone paying even a little attention already knows all of this
Assange would not be releasing these if he was the hacker. He can then be arrested and convicted easily. Someone is handing him this material, that someone must have extensive knowledge of our systems and the manpower to do it or the support of a group of people to aid them in doing it.
The very same day of the release, 2 Iranian nuclear techs are attacked with one being assassinated.
Israel did the very same thing to Iraqi techs prior to Osirak
Anyone standing in the way of the dream of a greater Israel is an enemy. Smeared, slandered and shamed into silence.
Israel’s Parliament the Knesset went to the unusual lengths of renaming a motion in mid-debate today, removing references to “US war crimes” from National Union MP Michael Ben-Ari’s after others expressed concern it would “insult” the Obama Administration.
Ben-Ari was previously a member of Israel’s “Kach Party,’ which was banned by the government for being “manifestly racist.” In 2009 he was arrested briefly for his role in a settler attack against Palestinian farmlands in the West Bank. He was never charged, and claimed the detention violated his immunity as an MP.
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/10/27/israeli-parliament-softens-title-of-us-war-crimes-motion/
1500+ posts and then he claims that he is being "silenced."
Hilarious.
We should all hope that Israel does something as brilliant and constructive as hitting Osirak. We'll never be able to calculate how many lives that saved.
Get acquainted with mainstream PalestiniaÂn TV - http://wwwÂ.memri.orgÂ/content/eÂn/main.htm
Read Jerusalem Post - http://wwwÂ.jpost.comÂ/
Some people say they would NEVER read the Jerusalem Post because Israelis write most of it. Are you one of those people? I tend to think yes.
"Several commentators, such as CNN's Arabic department, have claimed that the transcript of the April 13 show (2007) provided by MEMRI contains numerous translation errors and undue emphases.[26] Brian Whitaker, the Middle East editor for the Guardian newspaper said "My problem with Memri is that it poses as a research institute when it's basically a propaganda operation,"[8] to "further the political agenda of Israel."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East_Media_Research_Institute
Your quoted criticisms are rather lame arguments. Is that the best you can come up with?Anyway, didn't the Palestinian government just post on their website that the Western Wall has no religious or historical significance to the Jewish people? There goes your credibility argument. Unless you belive Israeli spies hacked the site and "framed' the innocent Palestinians I would HOPE you MIGHT change your opinion.
In other news, the Sun is quite hot!
Uh, no. That's not what this means nor is it what most military strategists endorse. In fact, a recent letter from about 50 retired U.S. generals and admirals to President Obama states clearly that it is in our country's best interest to continue to ally with and support Israel:
http://www.crethiplethi.com/u-s-generals-write-obama-on-israel/english/2010/
Is it a smart idea also to arm surrounding Arab states? Israel obviously thinks not, and this position is understandable. From a U.S. standpoint is it a good idea? I'm not so sure, either, but time will tell on that.
That the Israelis were even old enough to say they wanted to review our QME report before it even goes to congress is totally ridiculous. The juevos on these beggars goes beyond accepted reason. You would think that Americans are working for just their benefit!
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-oceans-of-blood-and-profits-for-the-mongers-of-war-2145037.html