Outgoing Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak gave a speech to AIPAC’s (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) annual policy conference and proposed a dramatic shift in dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat.
“We must build a regional security framework” with the primary objective of defeating Iran’s race for the bomb, said Barak. The arrangement would also be aimed at achieving common goals pertaining to the “joint challenges of radical Islamist terror [and] border security.”
Barak says Israel is at a “decisive moment in [its] history,” requiring the Jewish state to muster “the character and courage as a nation to make those tough decisions to preserve the peace and security...for generations to come.”
Regarding existing P5+1 policy of tough sanctions against Iran, Barak said they would not “lead to a moment of truth,” and that “a nuclear Iran will be the end of any conceivable non-proliferation regime.”
Barak called Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons “the greatest challenge facing Israel.” But in terms of a regional security framework, how Israel would go about putting this together is anyone’s guess, seeing as how Israel doesn’t have diplomatic relations with the vast majority of its Middle East counterparts.
On the other big issue for Israel, Barak reiterated “the two-state solution is the only viable long-term solution.” “It is a compelling imperative for us,” he said, “not a favor to the Palestinians.”
Source: Mark Doing / The Times of Israel
Writing in the Financial Times, Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said that while the U.S. is most worried about Iran’s nuclear program, “Arab governments, while sharing this worry, are no less concerned about its bid for regional primacy...Arab priorities reinforce the importance of a meeting of the minds on Syria, the theater in which Iran’s influence in the area is most likely to be decided.”
Regarding Secretary of State John Kerry’s first visit to the region, Haass observed:
“Mr. Kerry is likely to find governments are preoccupied with the civil war in Syria and with Iran, which for them tends to be much the same thing....
“As welcome as the ejection of the odious President Bashar al- Assad would be, it is vital that he is not succeeded by chaos and civil war that could claim tens of thousands of additional lives or by a new government that treats the majority of the Syrian people as badly as, or worse than, he and his father did.”
Well, too late for that, sports fans.
Hot Spots will return in a few weeks.
Brian Trumbore
