US President Barack Obama has warned Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu against surprising the US with a military attack on Iran.
A senior US official met with Netanyahu in Israel and conveyed Obama’s message.
Earlier, Netanyahu’s envoy had visited Washington and met with National Security Adviser James Jones and with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and discussed the dialogue Obama has initiated with Tehran.
The message reveals US fears that Israel, the mad dog of the Middle East, is getting out of control.
The message was so urgent that Obama preferred not to wait for Netanyahu’s visit to Washington that is scheduled for next Monday, May 18.
The new Israeli government has vowed to halt Iran’s nuclear programme, even through launching military attacks on the country’s nuclear facilities.
Israel, which is the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, but Tehran has repeatedly declared that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.
Netanyahu told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah II at meetings this week in Egypt that they needed to work with Israel to counteract what he called ‘the Iranian nuclear threat’.
The talks with Mubarak and King Abdulah also briefed the Arab leaders on preliminary details of Netanyahu’s policy toward the Palestinians. He refuses to accept the need for a Palestinian state, and rejects US policy.
Netanyahu was joined by Israeli Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, who is on good terms with Mubarak and Egyptian intelligence Chief General Omar Suleiman.
Ben-Eliezer has been sending messages to Cairo for Netanyahu over the past few weeks.
Abdullah, who met Obama last month, was the first regional leader to meet the new US president.
Both Mubarak and Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas are expected to meet Obama soon after Netanyahu’s visit.
Netanyahu told Israeli Russian-language journalists last week that he would not stop settlement building.
‘When the demand is made to freeze construction in the settlements entirely, I always ask, what are the children of the settlers to do? Live on the roof or underground?’
Netanyahu also told reporters that he would not present preconditions for negotiations with the Palestinians, and would not accept preconditions from them.
On the possibility of talks with Syria, Netanyahu said Israel would never withdraw from the occupied Golan Heights because the region was strategic for Israel’s security.
Meanwhile, Iraqi parliamentarians are taking steps to try to force Israel to compensate Iraq for its air strike on Iraq’s nuclear power plant in 1981.
Iraqi MP Mohammed Naji Mahmoud is leading the push to sue Israel. Iraq deserves ‘billions of dollars’ in damages, he said.
The Iraq parliament’s foreign relations committee is reviewing UN Resolution 487 which was issued in June 1981 and stipulates that Israel compensates for its air strike on Iraq’s Osiraq nuclear plant.
‘According to the international law, Iraq has the right to receive compensation from Israel,’ the Asharq al-Awasat newspaper quoted Nasar al-Rubaie as saying.
‘We have called for a legislation to be passed in the parliament to force the Iraqi government to follow up the issue,’ he added.
‘Iraq is a UN member. In order to receive compensation from Israel it is not necessary to recognise it,’ the Iraqi lawmaker added.
The suit, if it is filed, will use the United Nations condemnation of the Israeli strike as proof that Israel unfairly caused Iraq financial losses.
This comes at the same time Israel is thinking of using the same method to attack Iran’s Bushahar nuclear program.
In fact, the Zionists feel that they are under seige and that a desperate situation requires desperate measures.
Dr. Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador-designate to the United States, wrote in an article recently, under the title ‘Seven Existential Threats’, that: ‘The State of Israel copes not only with one but with at least seven existential threats on a daily basis.
‘These threats are extraordinary not only for their number but also for their diversity.
‘In addition to external military dangers from hostile regimes and organisations, the Jewish State is endangered by domestic opposition, demographic trends, and the erosion of core values.’
Oren added that Israel has no competition in the modern era when it comes to the number and variety of threats that endanger the Jewish state’s existence.
Oren, a historian from the Shalem Center whom Prime Minister Netanyahu has tapped for Israel’s top diplomatic post, described a country rotten to the core, riddled by everything from drug dealing to white slavery, from money laundering to illegal arms trading.
He reported that not even the army has escaped the clutches of corruption, thus weakening Israelis’ will to fight for ‘their country’ or even to live in it.
Moreover, Oren complained: ‘Israel’s best and brightest are being persecuted around the world for what the country’s detractors term “war crimes”.’
Next on the list are the ‘existential demographic threat’, the ‘existential terrorist threat’ and the ‘existential threat of Iran’s nuclear capability’.
According to Oren: ‘If this trend continues, (Israeli founding father David) Ben Gurion’s nightmare will materialise and Israel will be rendered soulless, a country in which a great many Jews may not want to live or for which they may not be willing to give their lives.
‘For the first time since 1948, Israel is in danger of losing Jerusalem – not to Arab forces but to a combination of negligence and lack of interest,’ Oren wrote.
‘Recent years have seen the flight of thousands of secular Jews from the city, especially professionals and young couples.
‘This exodus has severely eroded the city’s tax base, making Jerusalem Israel’s poorest city. Indeed, virtually half of all Israelis under 18 have never even visited Jerusalem.’
