U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Israel on Monday, on the first leg of his Mideast trip to press the momentum of the Trump administration’s Arab-Israeli peace push.
Pompeo met with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at his office the two spoke at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, the first stop on a multi-country tour of the region following the Aug. 13 announcement of the historic agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, brokered by Washington, to establish diplomatic ties.
“I am hopeful that we will see other Arab nations join in this,” Pompeo said. “The opportunity for them to work alongside, to recognize the state of Israel and to work alongside them will not only increase Middle East stability, but it will improve the lives for the people of their own countries as well.”
Pompeo also addressed Israel’s concern that the US will supply the UAE with advanced military weapons, including F-35 stealth jets, weakening Israel’s qualitative military edge (QME).
“The United States has a legal requirement with respect to [Israel’s] qualitative military edge we will continue to honor,” Pompeo said. “But we have a 20-plus year security relationship with the United Arab Emirates as well,” Pompeo said, adding that the US will ensure “we’re delivering the equipment [the UAE] needs to defend their own people from this same threat [of Iran].”
“I’m confident that both of these objectives can be achieved,” Pompeo asserted, referring to maintaining Israel’s military edge in the Middle East.
שר החוץ האמריקני מייק פומפאו נחת בישראל: ייפגש עם נתניהו, גנץ ואשכנזי ובכירים נוספים.
על הפרק: ההסכם בין ישראל לאיחוד האמירויות וה"מדינות הנוספות שעוד יבואו", ההשקעות הסיניות בישראל ואיראן. pic.twitter.com/kET4YTTloo
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) August 24, 2020
U.S. Secretary of State @SecPompeo meets #Israeli Prime Minister @netanyahu and delivers statements to the press at Israeli Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, August 24, 2020. pic.twitter.com/JWgzIWPw4t
— U.S. Embassy Jerusalem (@usembassyjlm) August 24, 2020
Later on Monday, Pompeo met with Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, as well as Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi.
U.S. Secretary of State @SecPompeo meets #Israeli Alternate Prime Minister @gantzbe and Foreign Minister @Gabi_Ashkenazi pic.twitter.com/4ZYALjBoE8
— U.S. Embassy Jerusalem (@usembassyjlm) August 24, 2020
https://twitter.com/gantzbe/status/1297874203539116038?s=20
The Israel-UAE agreement delivered a key foreign policy victory to President Donald Trump as he seeks reelection and reflects a changing Middle East in which shared concerns about archenemy Iran have largely overtaken traditional Arab support for the Palestinians.
Earlier this month, the U.S., Israel and the UAE announced the deal to establish full diplomatic relations, which also requires Israel to freeze its plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank sought by the Palestinians as part of their future state.
U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo arrives to the Ben-Gurion International Airport on August 24, 2020. Photo by Matty Stern/U.S. Embassy Jerusalem
After his Israel stop, Pompeo is also slated to visit Sudan, the UAE and Bahrain, with additional stops in the Gulf possible, the State Department had said. In Sudan, the secretary of state said he would push for “deepening the Sudan-Israel relationship.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem & AP)
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4 Responses
The only one that truely matters is the Palestinians.
As long as the Palestinians are fighting, the war continues. Israel can’t have peaceful relations with Muslim nations. Israeli needs to be highly militarized, which has a devasteing impact on Bnei Torah. Sign a peace treaty with the Palestinians, and the war is over. Israel will then have normal relations with the Muslim worlds, including Pakistan (which has nukes) and Iran.
The “existential” threat to Israel disappeared when the Israeli developed nuclear capability, probably over 50 years ago. At that point the best the Arabs could hope for was mutually assured destruction, so they would never push Israel far enough that the Israelis would choose to pull a “Masada” (or Shimson) by blowing up the entire region.
Oy, akuperma. “Sign a peace treaty with the Palestinians” and the war will not be over, and Israel will have even greater need to be highly militarized, because the Arabs cannot be trusted, EVER, and it is an explicit halacha in Shulchan Aruch that it is completely forbidden to make any concession for “peace” that would endanger Jewish safety when the peace is broken. On the contrary, one must break shabbos to resist such a “peace”, and must go to war, with all the danger that brings, rather than agree to such a “peace”. The only “peace treaty” that is permitted is one that will not leave us less safe if the other side breaks it.
And the existential threat is still there, since Iran doesn’t care if it gets hit by a nuke or two. Moslems are not afraid to die for their cause.
How outrageous that Pompeo that can enter Israel and bypass quarantine, and we cannot even enter Israel, not even with quarantine. This is a total lack of consideration to our own agendas, that Israeli Government only care about themselves and their own agenda.