Israel Matzav: Obama breaches another US commitment

Obama breaches another US commitment

By going along with the effort to force Israel to join the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, President Obama is breaching yet another commitment made to Israel by President Bush in 2004.

In that letter, which dealt primarily with the Palestinian issue, and which Israel interpreted as a US acceptance of settlement blocs and a rejection of the Palestinian claim to a right of refugee return, Bush also wrote, “The United States reiterates its steadfast commitment to Israel’s security, including secure, defensible borders, and to preserve and strengthen Israel’s capability to deter and defend itself, by itself, against any threat or possible combination of threats.”

In private conversations, Sharon on numerous occasions said this represented a US obligation to prevent the international community, once it had de-fanged Iran’s nuclear ambitions, from then turning on Israelis’ reported nuclear capabilities.

Oh well. Obama doesn't believe that letter exists anyway. And I think that's the last time this country will trust any commitment given to it by an American President, now that Obama has proven that the United States is no different than any other banana republic where the newly elected President dissolves all the previous President's commitments.

What Israel needs to do - somehow - is to change the conversation from a discussion of a 'nuclear free' Middle East to a discussion of a 'WMD free' Middle East.

Landau said that if Israel altered its long-standing policy of nuclear ambiguity it would place itself on a slippery slope that would lead to intense pressure for it to disarm itself of its reported nuclear capabilities.

Landau said Israel should be less “gun-shy” in explaining its nuclear policy, and that it should clarify that what it supported in the Middle East was a weapons of mass destruction-free zone, not a nuclear weapons-free zone as advocated by Egypt.

One diplomatic official said the reason the Egyptians loudly push for a nuclear weapons-free zone, and not a zone free of all weapons of mass destruction, was simply because many Arab states have not signed onto treaties preventing chemical and biological weapons, even though they have signed the NPT.

But Obama seems unlikely to back that anyway. After all, in the 1980's, all anyone worried about was nukes.

Read the whole thing.

Israel Matzav: Obama breaches another US commitment