Report: U.S. says it won’t support Israeli strike if Iran stays away from American assets
(JNS.org) The U.S. has indirectly told Iran that it won’t support Israeli military action on its nuclear program if the Islamic Republic agrees to “steer clear of strategic American assets in the Persian Gulf,” the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday.
America used “covert back-channels in Europe” to convey that message to Iran, according to the newspaper.
The report comes after U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, speaking to reporters in London Aug. 30, said the following regarding a potential Israeli strike on Iran: “I don’t want to be complicit if they choose to do it.”
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported Monday that U.S. President Barack Obama is now considering setting “red lines”—points that, if reached, would prompt America to take military action against Iran. White House Spokesman Jay Carney said last week that Obama “has made clear frequently he is determined to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
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Concern over Iran policy grows after U.S. general distances himself from Israeli strike
(JNS.org) Reacting to U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey’s statement that he won’t support a potential Israeli strike on Iran, Israeli officials and others are expressing concern over America’s commitment to preventing a nuclear Iran and helping to defend Israel against that threat.
Dempsey, speaking to reporters in London Aug. 30, said the following regarding an Israeli strike: “I don’t want to be complicit if they choose to do it.” He added that the “international coalition” applying pressure on Iran “could be undone if [Iran] was attacked prematurely.”
The international community, however, is failing to set a “clear red line” for Iran over its nuclear program, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday. Netanyahu added that Iran “doesn’t see determination” from other countries that they will do what it takes to stop its nuclear quest.
Netanyahu’s warning followed that of Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who said Aug. 31 that “our friends in the United States” are “in part responsible” for the fact that Iran doesn’t fear international action against its nuclear program. “There are many cracks in the ring closing tighter on Iran,” Ya’alon said.
While the administration of President Barack Obama has repeatedly stressed that there is still time for diplomacy and sanctions to work in Iran, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton told Ma’ariv that “time is on [Iran’s] side and they will continue with what seems like a well thought-out plan, mostly because they believe that the United States under Obama’s leadership will do nothing.”
The Wall Street Journal published an editorial Saturday stating that while Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s threats to wipe you off the map have “the ring of honesty,” Obama—who has said the U.S. “will always have Israel’s back”—leads an administration that is trying “to sell to the public a make-believe world in which Iran’s nuclear intentions are potentially peaceful, sanctions are working and diplomacy hasn’t failed after three and half years.”
“Not only is there waning confidence that Mr. Obama is prepared to take military action [against Iran] on his own, but there’s also a fear that a re-elected President Obama will take a much harsher line on an Israeli attack than he would before the first Tuesday in November,” the editorial continued.
White House Spokesman Jay Carney recently said Obama “has made clear frequently he is determined to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”
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New Egyptian ambassador arrives in Israel
(JNS.org) Atef Salem, who is slated to officially become Egypt’s next ambassador to Israel under President Mohammed Morsi’s administration, arrived in Israel on Sunday. Salem is expected to submit his letters of credence to Israeli President Shimon Peres within the next month and a half, Israel Hayom reported.
Officials at the Israeli Foreign Ministry were pleased with the appointment, which comes at a tense time for the two neighboring countries, as Jerusalem watches to see how the recently elected Morsi will choose to approach Israel.
So far, despite avoiding a clear reference to Israel, it appears Morsi has displayed a tendency toward peace and diplomacy. He criticized Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s “oppressive regime” during last week’s Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran and has also sent reassuring messages to Israel by saying that Egypt will continue to act with “full respect to international treaties.”
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As Jews evacuate Migron, Palestinians continue illegal building in West Bank
.(JNS.org) Jewish families complied with the court-ordered evacuation of the West Bank community of Migron, but illegal Palestinian building continues in areas that are under Israeli jurisdiction.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) completed the evacuation of all Jewish homes in Migron on Sunday evening, earlier than the Sept. 4 deadline, according to Israel Radio.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank’s Area C—where under the 1993 Oslo Accords, Israel has full administrative and security control, and allocation of final sovereignty is to be determined in negotiations between the Jewish state and the Palestinian Authority (PA)—the PA is attempting to wrestle control away from Israel.
Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled June 7 that Palestinians were living illegally on Israeli state land in the newly created Arab village of Khirbet Sussiya in Area C, yet the village is not being evacuated like Migron.
Ari Briggs of the Regavim think tank wrote in a column for the Jerusalem Post that the statements of PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad on Area C have “made his intentions very clear.”
“Many think that zone ‘C’ areas have become disputed territories rather than occupied territories in the public consciousness,” Briggs quoted Fayyad as saying in 2009. “We assert that these are Palestinian National Authority territories where the state will be established.”
While Palestinians say they are building illegally because they have been granted too few building permits by Israel, the Israeli Civil Administration in the West Bank has in reality approved more than 100 town plans in Area C over the last decade, Briggs noted.
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Israeli unemployment rate drops 0.6%, shows brighter picture than U.S.
(JNS.org) Israel’s unemployment rate fell by 0.6 percent in July, when 35,000 new jobs were created, an Aug. 30 report from the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics revealed.
The Jewish state’s unemployment rate fell from 7.1 percent in June to 6.5 percent in July. By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate stayed relatively steady at 8.2 percent in June and 8.3 percent in July, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A total of 116,000 jobs have been created in Israel since the beginning of 2012.
“We should celebrate the fall in unemployment, and, more importantly, the increase in participation in the workforce,” Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said. “However, in order to preserve our economic growth and low unemployment rate, we will have to stick to our economic discipline in the near future.”
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Preceding provided by JNS.org and reprinted with permission