America Is Among the Targets as Israel Issues Warnings on Iran
If Prime Minister Netanayahu and President Biden meet next week — even at this late date, the word “if” must be used — expect some pleasantries but also a lot of behind the scenes disagreements, including on a growing rift over Washington’s Iran policies.
“The prime minister made clear to all world leaders that if we detect uranium enrichment above 60 percent then Israel will have no choice but to act,” Israel’s national security council chief, Tzachi Hanegbi, said Monday. “I don’t think we gamble on our fate if this seems to be the Iranian policy.”
A day earlier, the Mossad chief, David Barnea, made a lot of headlines by telling a conference at Reichman University at Herzliya that Israel is contemplating new methods to slow down the Islamic Republic’s aggression in the region and beyond.
“The time has come to exact a price from Iran in a different way,” Mr. Barnea said, warning that attacks against Israelis and Jews at home or around the world would be more costly to its perpetrators than was seen with past Israeli methods. “These prices will be exacted with great precision in the depths of Iran, in the heart of Tehran,” he said.
Iran is reportedly building a new airbase in southern Lebanon from which to conduct drone attacks on Israel. “The land is Lebanese, the control is Iranian, and the target is Israel,” the defense minister, Yoav Gallant, told Reichman University Monday, warning of “lethal force” against the base.
While Israel in the past has often uttered warnings against Iran, the current ones may be directed at more than just Tehran. Mr. Barnea “did not threaten the Iranians. He is a serious enough person to understand that that has no meaning,” a former senior Mossad official, Haim Tomer, told Radio 103FM Monday. “He made a threat to the Americans.”
Mr. Tomer, who was Mossad’s chief of intelligence and operations, added that Mr. Barnea is “expressing harsh criticism of the current U.S. administration,” and “is telling the Americans that he has freedom of action.” The foreign intelligence agency chief’s comments were cleared by Mr. Netanyahu, and were made on his behalf, Mr. Tomer added.
Washington and Jerusalem increasingly disagree over what to do about the Iranian nuclear program and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ military beef-up and growing aggression. Instead of addressing those issues, Mr. Biden is pressuring Israel over its lack of concessions to the Palestianians.
Washington well knows that Mr. Netanyahu’s right-wing government, as it is currently formed, cannot agree on concessions to Ramallah. Such concessions are even less likely in light of the much publicized recent antisemitic comments made by the Palestinian Authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas. He denied that Jews are Semites and blamed them for Hitler’s genocide.
Mr. Biden has long expressed his distaste for the current Israeli government, including by making a point of denying Mr. Netanyahu a White House audience. As yet, no plan for a meeting between the two leaders has been finalized during next week’s gathering of heads of state at the United Nations. The two leaders, nevertheless, do have one issue they agree on warmly and would like to highlight.
While at New Delhi this week, Mr. Biden and Prime Minister Modi announced the forming of a partial U.S.-financed railway and port project that would connect the eastern Mediterranean, Saudi Arabia, Europe, and India. Israel has long promoted such a modern-day Orient Express, and Mr. Netanyahu said this week it would transform the region.
The project is also envisioned as a counterpunch to Communist China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Yet, neither an ambitious futuristic project that is yet to be financed, nor several rounds of backroom negotiations over a formalized Saudi-Israeli peace treaty, will address what Israelis consider the region’s top threat.
Israel’s growing public dissatisfaction with Mr. Biden’s neglect of Iran as it progresses toward nuclear weapons is shared by others as well. Following a critical periodic report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog’s chief, Rafael Grossi, warned against “decrease in interest” over Iran’s advancing nuclear weapons program.
“There is a certain routinization of what is going on” in Iran, “and I am concerned about this, because the issues are as valid today as they were before,” Mr. Grossi told reporters Monday, as the IAEA’s board of governors opened its fall meeting.
As the IAEA reported to the board of governors, Iran is violating agreements with the agency and is flaunting its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal. Yet, a group of Western board members, including America, Britain, France, and Germany, has no plan to propose a formal censure of Iran at the current board session, Barron’s reports.
As Iran’s nuclear program progresses, many parties are concerned about America’s lax attitude. Israel, meanwhile, is ever more vocal in threats to go it alone, which could bode ill for a cordial meeting of its prime minister with Mr. Biden — if one will even take place.
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