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2021-05-30t000000z_311154010_rc28qn9zgyfu_rtrmadp_3_israel-politics-scaled

Retired Israeli general: Pushing Iran deal exit 'worst strategic mistake in Israel's history'

The security establishment in the Jewish state is getting increasingly vocal as prospects dim for a return to the JCPOA.

Reporting | Middle East

Major General Isaac Ben Israel played a key role in Israel’s attack on Iraq’s nuclear reactor back in the 1980s and later served as Israel’s chief of air force intelligence and is now chairman of Israel’s space agency. This week he joined a growing chorus emerging from the Israeli security establishment that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s obsessive opposition to the Iran nuclear deal has worsened Israel’s security. 

“Netanyahu’s efforts to persuade the Trump administration to quit the nuclear agreement have turned out to be the worst strategic mistake in Israel’s history,” Ben Israel told journalist Zev Chafets in an interview published at Bloomberg. “We need to end the negativity and encourage the U.S. to conclude a deal that focuses on the main thing.”

Ben Israel dispelled the notion that a military strike would end Iran’s nuclear program and dissuade its leaders from building a nuclear weapon. 

“[A]ll the technology needed to produce a bomb is already in Iranian hands,” he said. “The fact is, Israel can no longer destroy the Iranian nuclear project.” Ben Israel added that if Israel destroyed Iranian nuclear facilities, they would be able to rebuild them “within a year or two.”

The former Israeli general also criticized the idea, put forth by many JCPOA opponents, that talks with Iran should include a whole host of issues outside the nuclear file, like Tehran’s support for terrorism and missile development. 

“It is [a] mistake to complicate things. We can deal with terrorism on our own,” he said.

Ben Israel said he has personally advised current Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett “to end Israel’s opposition to the American return to the JCPOA.”

Calls from the Israeli security establishment for the restoration of the Iran nuclear deal have ramped up in recent weeks as talks in Vienna have resumed and many experts are pessimistic about whether the United States with its international partners can reach an agreement with the Iranians. 

Danny Cintrinowicz, who led the Iran branch of the Israeli Military Intelligence’s Research and Analysis Division from 2013 to 2016, recently called Netanyahu’s anti-Iran deal posture a “failure.” Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon agrees with Ben Israel in that it was a “mistake” to withdraw from the JCPOA and and former Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot said the U.S.-Iran deal exit was “a net negative for Israel.” 

FILE PHOTO: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points to a red line he drew on the graphic of a bomb used to represent Iran's nuclear program as he addresses the 67th United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. Headquarters in New York, September 27, 2012. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo
Reporting | Middle East
Where are the US ships on the Gaza aid mission now?
File:US Navy 030530-N-0000X-002 Sea trials of USNS Benavidez (T ...

Where are the US ships on the Gaza aid mission now?

QiOSK

The Army and Navy ships that have left the U.S. for a massive humanitarian aid project in Gaza are still making their way across the Atlantic, with two still at ports in Florida and Virginia. It will likely take until mid-April for the vessels to reach Gaza and begin building a temporary causeway to facilitate the entry of life-saving aid into the strip.

Looking at real-time satellite imagery tracking military vessels, it looks like the USAV Gen. Frank Besson Jr., an Army support vessel that left Fort Eustis, Virginia, on March 10, has been moored and presumably refueling at a port in the Azores, Portugal, since Friday. It is at the half-way point between the U.S. and its final destination of Cyprus (nearly 5,000 nautical miles total). At an average speed of 10 knots, its journey will take nearly two more weeks, depending on weather conditions, once it gets going again.

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Pro-Israel org reels in big fish: A former CENTCOM commander

210505-N-KZ419-1186 NAVAL SUPPORT ACTIVITY BAHRAIN (May 5, 2021) Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, center, and Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, incoming commander U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT), U.S. 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) listens to remarks during a change of command ceremony onboard Naval Support Activity Bahrain, May 5. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Dawson Roth)

Pro-Israel org reels in big fish: A former CENTCOM commander

Washington Politics

Despite serious concerns about possible Israeli war crimes and even “plausible” allegations of genocidal acts in its war in the Gaza Strip, the former chief of U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, has accepted a fellowship from one of Washington’s most hawkish pro-Israel organizations.

The Jewish Institute for National Security of America, or JINSA, announced last week that Gen. Frank McKenzie, who led CENTCOM from 2019 to April 2022, would become the Hertog Distinguished Fellow at JINSA’s Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy.

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State Dept: No evidence Israel violating laws with US weapons

Photo credit: Anas Mohammed/ Shutterstock

State Dept: No evidence Israel violating laws with US weapons

QiOSK

The State Department said on Monday that it has found no evidence that Israel is violating a recent directive that recipients of U.S. military aid comply with international human rights law.

In February, partly due to pressure over support for Israel’s war on Gaza, the Biden administration issued a national security memo that required any country receiving military aid from Washington while participating in an active armed conflict, to issue “credible and reliable written assurances” that they will use weapons funded by the U.S. in accordance with international law, and that they “the recipient country will facilitate and not arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance and United States Government-supported international efforts to provide humanitarian assistance.”

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