USA TODAY International Edition
U. S.- Israel relations chill
Israelis say draft deal with Iran over nukes threatens Israel’s very existence.
JERUSALEM A draft deal with Iran on its nuclear program that Israel asserted would imperil its very existence is the latest sign that Israel and longtime ally the United States are as far apart as ever on how to deal with growing threats in the Middle East.
Analysts say the Obama administration needs to take Israel’s fears seriously, while the White House insists it is doing what is best for the security of Israel, the United States and the Middle East.
Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking Sunday on NBC’s Meet the
Press, tried to reassure skeptics about the stalled talks.
“We’re not going into a full deal and giving away something,” Kerry said in the interview. “We’re talking about stopping their program where it is, with enough guarantees to know that it is, in fact, stopped where it is, while we then negotiate the full measure of the deal with our allies.”
Aaron David Miller, a former U. S. peace negotiator who has advised Democratic and Republican secretaries of State, said the rift with Israel may cause problems for the U. S. multiple fronts, including a risk of dragging America into war with Iran.
“How this will play out is not clear,” Miller said. “I find it almost unimaginable this administration would conclude even an interim agreement with ( Iranian President Hassan) Rouhani that left Israel angry and aggrieved and the relationship in even worse shape.”
Miller says Israeli frustration with the United States may have been greater at points in the past but he’d never seen Israeli ire expressed as publicly asin recent days by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“If there were a synoptic map for diplomatic storms, the National Weather Service would be putting out a hurricane warning right now,” said Haaretz diplomatic correspondent Chemi Shalev. “And given that the turbulence is being caused by an issue long deemed to be critical to Israel’s very existence, we may actually be facing a rare Category 5 flare up, a ‘ superstorm’ of U. S.- Israeli relations.”
The United States has been pushing for a deal in talks in Geneva to end a standoff between Iran and the West over a nuclear program that the USA suspects is aimed at making an atomic bomb, a possibility that Israel considers a threat to its existence.
Netanyahu said the deal appeared headed toward allowing Iran to maintain its nuclear capabilities and at the same time seriously undermine economic sanctions imposed by the West to get Iran to back down.
France apparently agreed and in a swift move went public over the weekend to announce that it could not endorse the proposal. The move may have ended the momentum toward a deal, though talks are scheduled to resume Nov. 20.
The Iranian question is just the latest issue to severely fray relations between Israel and the United States in recent months. Others are the U. S. decision to tackle Syria’s chemical weapons with diplomacy and the Israeli- Palestinian standoff.