Netanyahu speaking at the Munich Security Conference, February 18, 2018. IMAGE: Amos Ben Gershom / GPO
On September 3rd, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that despite the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal being bad, it had brought Israel closer to the Arab world.
“The agreement with Iran was a bad agreement in every respect except for one – it brought us closer to the Arab world on a scale that we never knew, and one of our goals is that it continues,” Netanyahu said in a speech at the Foreign Ministry, cited by i24News.
“I think that another important thing is, of course, the fact that there is a gradual normalization with leading countries in the Arab world,” he added in the context of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Regarding the Iran Nuclear Deal, when on May 8th, Donald Trump announced the US withdrawal form the agreement, Netanyahu praised Trump for what he described as a “brave decision to reject the catastrophic nuclear deal with the terrorist regime in Tehran.”
Israel has been a strong supporter of the reimposition of sanctions on Iran. The two countries have not had official diplomatic relations since the Islamic revolution of 1979 and bilateral tensions in recent years have escalated, Tehran refuses to recognize the Jewish state, which in response condemns Iran for its alleged attempts to expand its influence in Syria.
On August 29th, Israel’s Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon met with United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, as well as with Trump Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt. He mostly discussed Israeli-Palestinian joint economic projects. However, Kahlon and Mnuchin also announced the establishment of a joint US-Israel professional team that will enforce economic sanctions against Iran in the high-tech sector. Kahlon said: “The economic sanctions that the United States is leading against Iran have proven themselves. They contribute to removing the threat to Israel’s security and to the security of the entire free world, and for this we must thank the U.S…. The joint team that we have established will be of great importance in tightening the sanctions on Iran. This is great news for the State of Israel.”
i24News further reported that Netanyahu has repeatedly said that Sunni states have been inviting Israel to join an “anti-Iranian coalition.” Israel has repeatedly accused Iran of fueling regional conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain.
As reported by Sputnik, on August 1st, Netanyahu hinted at joining an anti-Irani coalition in the event that Tehran blocks the Bab al-Mandab Strait, the southern entrance to the Red Sea. Iran has so far only ever threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, which is in the Persian Gulf.
i24News also cited a New Yorker magazine report from June, which describes the detailed and deep co-operation in recent years between Israel and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), alongside a presumably increasingly decaying US-Israeli relationship under the Obama administration, which appears to be rapidly improving under the Trump one.
The report detailed, among other things, a 2015 meeting in Cyprus between top Emirati and Israeli officials — suspected to have included Netanyahu himself — during which the parties coordinated a joint stance on how to tackle Iran in the face of Obama’s imminent singing of a nuclear pact with Tehran.
Earlier in 2018, on July 4th, Israeli Air Force hosted a military delegation from the UAE to review operations of the US-made F-35 fighter jets. The UAE and Israel formally have no public relations, i24News cites reports that have hinted at longstanding ties based on a multitude of common interests – most significant of which is Iran’s expanding influence in the region.
Another development which led to rumors of warmer ties between Israel and the Arab world was Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s recognition of Israel’s “right” to exist and the possibility of future cooperation. He also said that the Palestinians also have a right to a homeland and that “normal relations” between Tel Aviv and Riyadh would depend on a peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israel.
No, moron, you’re closer to Arab regimes, like the Saudis. But the Arab world consists more then just its leaders. And the average Arab still hates your guts, because they still see on their TV how IDF soldiers shoot unarmed Palestinians.
Yeah the IDF. Love’s to use Palestinians as Target practice.
That actually destroy their combat readiness and lower their troop morale. Yet their cheerleader thought that was a good thing. What they do is making them into psychopathic civilian enforcers which would then be used extensively by their elites to repress and destroy opposition.
He’s NOT closer to the ‘Arab world’ at all – he’s only close to ‘some’ of the mass-murdering klepto Gulf monarchy-dictatorships who account for 4 Arab nations out of 18. In truth, the so-called ‘Arab world’ absolutely hates israel and considers it as their ONLY enemy.
Exactly my thoughts as well Lena :)
Well said Lena.
AGREED! The Gulf ‘Arab State’ groups are mere satellites of ‘israel’. Useful pawns. The Saudi ‘Royals’ are ‘Arab’ in name only. They are crypto jews. Their common ancestor is Moishe ben Mordechai.
BULLSHIT.
The terrorist-talmudic jewish state has no friends, only victims.
The talmud instructs jews to make enemies of ALL gentiles and indeed they follow it to the word, have been doing so for 4000 years: https://platosguns.com/2018/08/29/anti-gentilism-causes-antisemitism/
spot on
Palestinians are Semites, Jews, the majority of whom are inbred European AshkeNAZIs, are anti Semites.
– the true causes of “antisemitism” –
https://thesaker.is/a-crash-course-on-the-true-causes-of-antisemitism/
The Arab world and most of the rest of the planet voted against the Jerusalem move and for the Palestinian protection force.
How many friends does israel have? It has zero friends but plenty of hosts to blood-suck from.
USA Christians are jew friends since they believe that helping jew (Israel) is a God command (!?), and they are afraid to go to hell if they do not do this. I do not see any other reason why they help this genocide people.
Christian zionists are talmudic Christians and they represent but the loony-fringe minority of Christendom.
Wahabis are talmudic muslims and they too represent but the loony-fringe of the muslim nations. You can see now how the vindictive, jealous, hate-loving jews have infiltrated the Abrahamic religions to create divisions and mass-death in the world – serving thus satan and not god’s will.
I was living in USA for more than 8 years, and my wife is christian and always was involve in christian churches in USA. I did not know in all this time and in my life a single christian who was against supporting jews and Israel, not a single one. If Christian zionists are just a few, this few looks like the whole USA.
There are almost 71 million catholics in the usa and most of them do not blindly support israel. There are almost 40 million christian zionists there who blindly support israel. Perhaps you were in parts of the usa where zios were the majority. There are many churches in the USA that support BDS. Personally, I have met numerous American christians who do not support israel – I even know some catholics who are still pissed at the jews over the murder of Jesus.
Yes, but for the most part they keep their heads down and their mouths shut. Taking on the Zionist entity can be career ending. So folks may think US Middle East policy is wrong but it takes courage to speak out, a quality which is sadly lacking here these days.
Money has bought Congress and lots of other folks/institutions in the USA. Jews are rich and many spend their money to buy support for the Zionist enterprise. There is some push back but the tribe works hard to neuter attacks on that little hate state.
Yeah the united states Britain and the French! And many more!!
arab world???????????????????? WHERE I cant find it…. saudi arabia??? the name speaks for itself ” SAUDI arabia”…….born out of the asshole of England and I´m not bothering mentioning those evil puppet regimes which were given UN status of nationhood under direct orders be it. Bahrain and the rest of these puppet slave regimes…..as far as egypt is concearned,..we all saw live on TV what happened and how Sisi came to power….it was ordered, it was done…and just like the others Sisi follows ORDERS….
Love it!! Well said.
Agreed. Yes!
Poor, pathetic Arabs. They could have been a world superpower, with economic power, military might and international political respect. Instead, they have allowed themselves to be divided and conquered by their Anglo-Zionist oppressors. Their innate corrupt nature and lack of real time intelligence means the Zionists have been able to run rings around them in every way. Except for a few rare occasions when they were able to take the initiative, as in the Yom Kippur offensive by Egypt, their track record has been dismal. The only Arabs to ever inflict a real defeat on the Zionist entity was Hezbollah, an Iranian trained and financed militia . .
Poor, pathetic Westerners. They could have been authentic world superpowers, with economic power, military might and international political respect. Instead, they have allowed themselves to be divided and conquered by their Anglo-Zionist oppressors. Their innate corrupt nature and lack of real time intelligence means the Zionists have been able to run rings around them in every way. Except for a few rare occasions when they were able to take the initiative, as in WW2. The only Westerners to ever inflict a measure of defeat on the Zionist entity was Hitler’s Germany, financed by American industrialists.
I see your point and agree. The West has been defeated and controlled by the Anglo-Zionists for decades now. But I was regionalizing the point. With several hundred million Arabs they could have pushed the Israeli hegemonists back into the sea if they just had more unity, intelligence and versatility of strategy and tactics. There were a few notable leaders like Nasser, but even he was too slow and stupid to defeat the Israelis. Only the Iranians (again, I’m talking local; ME theater) have the sophistication, cunning and innovative thinking to seriously challenge the occupiers of Palestine . .
Right you are, Allan. May I propose that had not Anwar Sadat betrayed Hafez Assad back in 1973 by SUDDENLY withdrawing the Egyptian army from battle when the combined forces of Egypt and Syria were about to defeat the israeli army, the Arab world, I dare say, would be in a far better place today that we find it.
Lena, Sadat did not withdraw the Egyptian army from battle. Quite the opposite. He threw his army into battle to attempt to alleviate pressure on the Syrians, even though his defence chief (Shazli) strongly protested, as it brought the Egyptian forces outside of their SAM safety umbrella and caused massive losses to Egyptian armor. The only reason Sadat agreed to a ceasefire was because the main Egyptian army was completely cut off from Egypt proper by an Israeli invasion of Egypt, which was itself isolated and surrounded by Egyptian forces. If he hadn’t agreed to a ceasefire and eventual armistice he would have lost one of his main armies and the Israelis would then claim a piece of Egypt itself, similar to what happened to the Golan . .
Thanks Allan. But I beg to disagree on the reason why Sadat withdrew his forces from battle at the 11th hour of victory – and without informing his Syrian war-partner Hafez Assad of his intentions, I may add.
On retrospect, it would seem that Sadat had all along faked his allegiance to Syria on the battlefield, intending all while to make peace with israel and not to liberate historic Palestinian/Arab territory. If you recall, the first thing that Sadat had done upon becoming President was to kick the Soviets out of Egypt, inviting thus the usa to exercise influence/control over Egypt. Sadat had secretly (before the 1973 war), with usa backing, decided that recognition of and peace with israel was the goal and not Jamal Abdul Nasser’s revolutionary Pan-Arabism and the just liberation/resolution of the Arab/Palestine issue. Sadat, when he informed his top general at the time (who was a Nasserite) that he wanted to withdraw from battle at the 11th hour, his general utterly refused, citing ease of military advancement to the next stage. Sadat then overnight fired this general and all his Nasserite army honchos and replaced them with malleable generals who obeyed the order of halting warfare against a limping israel. On retrospect, it appears that Sadat, since the eviction of the Soviets from Egypt, had had a secret deal with the Americans to make peace with israel at the expense of both the Palestine and Pan-Arab causes. It appears that Sadat was secretly not interested in going past the liberation of the Sinai from israel, as per his military agreement with Hafez Assad, but only interested in executing the usa-israel plan of bringing the giant Egypt under full usa sedation/control/protection – with the proviso that the Egyptian army does NOT cross the Sinai-Palestine border. Camp David followed the end of that war – so in a sense, peace was made with israel on the battlefield first, then it was made official thru Camp David. And what did Sadat get out of it? Several billion American dollars in aid and a fancy USA weapons package, plus… personal international recognition and a Nobel peace prize.
What a cheap and narcissistic traitor to his own people and to the Arab world in general, Sadat was. Especially that Historic Palestine was on the verge of being liberated by the combined forces of Egypt and Syria at the time. Had Sadat continued with his Nasserite generals, we would not today have the very existence of israel. This lifeline that Sadat threw to the israelis by withdrawing from the 1973 war is what has enabled israel to continue existing and creating misery, mass-murder and warfare in the middle east.
Good comment. You know a few things about that history. Thankyou!
I agree with you on your point about Sadat. He was a traitorous compromiser and he was more interested in US money than in taking back Palestine. But it would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible to advance to the next stage as the Egyptian forces didn’t have control of the skies. It is practically impossible to win a land battle if your enemy has complete control of the air, especially in Sinai type terrain. Hezbollah was able to do it because the terrain of South Lebanon is ideal guerrilla warfare terrain. Saddam tried it during both Gulf Wars and his armies were annihilated, included his elite Republican Guard. Egypt’s air force was wiped out during the early hours of the 5th June, 1967 in a preemptive attack by Israel. Six years was not enough time to complete the restoration. Syria’s air force was no match for Israel’s and Jordan was reluctant to enter hostilities with Israel, having lost half its most populated areas to Israel during the 6 day war. So we all agree that Sadat was a yellow-belly, two-faced traitor, but the fact remains that Egyptian forces would have been unable to advance even to the borders of Occupied Palestine. The Syrians were also unable to advance and were taking quite a heavy beating in the Golan. If Israel did not have air superiority, Egypt and Syria could have (theoretically) advanced into Israeli territory and possibly liberated Palestine.
Hi Allan. Apologies for the delay in response… and again, I beg to disagree with your implying that Syria and Egypt were on their way to defeat in the 1973 war, all due to the aerial powers of the israeli air force. Here, I’ll have to remind you that the Egyptian army had already defied and circumvented the israeli jets by crossing into the Sinai in large formations where the desert spread towards the israeli border was wide open for them (hence the Nasserite General’s resolve to continue with the charge forward towards israel to liberate the whole of Historic Palestine). And simultaneously, the Syrian army had already crossed into the northern slice of the occupied Golan where their liberation operation were stream-rolling towards the southern side of occupied Golan. History records that it was at this point that the then israeli prime minister Golda Meir went ballistic, frantically phoning the White House and the Pentagon and threatening to nuke northern Egypt (the furthest point away from the holy land in this conflict) unless the US exerted absolute and maximum pressure on Egypt to IMMEDIATELY cease military hostilities, thus cutting the strong military chord that linked the Egyptian army to the Syrian one in the 1973 war. The US at this point called on Sadat (who, some historians refer to as a CIA asset) to commence the secret peace deal with israel right there on the battle field (by ceasing hostilities), instead of at the UN as is customary.
We learn from all this that yet again, israel won yet another war while riding on the shoulders of giants: this time on the shoulders of the US – as indeed it had in previous wars ridden on the shoulders of the French and the Brits.
I understand your point Lena, but what you need to realize is that the Egyptians and Syrians were only able to advance as far as their respective protective missile “umbrellas” would allow them. In the case of Egypt, if they had tried to advance across the Sinai they would have lost most or all of their armor. The Israelis had already managed to circumvent the Syrian missile sites by attacking from the South-East (across Jordan) and the Israelis had found a gap between two Egyptian armies, had encircled Egypt’s 3rd army and were closing in on the city of Suez. Without air superiority, no army can win a conventional war in open, featureless terrain. I respect your opinion that Egypt and Syria could have advanced to the borders of Occupied Palestine, but in reality, it was too ambitious. Even the Soviets knew this and had tried to persuade Sadat to aim for smaller, more easily achievable goals. They were frustrated at the Egyptian’s inability to see that trying to accomplish too much could lead to disaster. Crossing the Suez alone was an historic military feat, in case you may not be aware. It took incredible planning and innovation, plus massive forces. In the 3 days it took the Israelis to mobilize, they had already achieved their immediate goals. Trying to advance further, given the circumstances, was a mistake, similar to what the Germans tried to do during the Ardennes offensive in December 1944. Hitler was advised by top generals to make it a limited offensive, but he wanted to push all the way to Antwerp. It was a shock for the allies and caused them to retreat on may fronts, but allied air superiority eventually crushed the German advance and the weakened German forces were able to be defeated more quickly than if they had gone for incremental gains. Land forces cannot win large battles without air superiority and the israelis had air superiority over the Egyptians and Syrians.
Thank you for your informative post, Allan. I still maintain that it was Sadat’s corruption and cowardice that led to the Arab defeat in the 1973 war. You must know that air superiority does not always give a military advantage to the side that possesses it, hence the utter ineffectiveness of the israeli airforce during its 2006 war with hezbollah where the IAF was reduced to blitzing civilian structures out of criminal frustration and their inability to militarily subdue the Hezb’s rocket assaults on the northern part of israel proper. The israeli air force failed in 2006 because it was fed wrong intel (by hezb agents) on the locations of hezb launch points etc. This tells us that it’s actually accurate ‘Intel’ that supremely enables or disables a superior airforce. Mindful here too that an airforce does not actually invade a territory but merely gives support to an invading or ‘liberating’ ground force.
In 1973, israeli military honchos conducting the war from their war theater were wetting their khakis and sweating bullets: seeing that their forces were losing out to both the Egyptian and Syrian forces, hence Golda Meir’s panic attack that led to her meaningfully threatening northern Egypt with nuclear strikes. Allan, there would have been no such hysterical threat with nukes had the israeli airforce ‘ruled the day’. As you rightly point out, it was a momentous achievement for the Egyptian army to have crossed the ‘Bar Lev’ line imposed by israel on Egypt – and this is in fact what Sadat sold his people on as ‘enough’ victory – this is exactly what he propagandized the Egyptian masses with, after removing the ‘ambitious’ and perfectly sober and capable Nasserite generals from the Egyptian war theater.
I know it’s no use talking about ‘what could have been’, but to re-address you original point of the ‘uselessness’ of Arabs in war versus the wily ‘usefulness’ of the Iranians in war, I’m here resolved to agreeing with you, but up to a point. I would find it more accurate, especially in the case of the 1973 Arab-israeli war, to say that it was corruption/treason of Arab leaders, combined with FULL Western backing of israel, that has enabled the war successes of colonialist israel against the Arab natives. The Arabs are not a weak lot, but in-house corruption and division of their leaderships is precisely what has led to their losses against israel. I also maintain here that israel has never won a single war against the Arabs purely off its own back – in every single war, including the 1948 war, israel had substantial assistance from the reigning superpowers of the day.
Fast-forward to today’s geopolitics of the middle east: although major Arab countries (Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Sudan and Syria) have been been crippled by israel’s Yinon Plan and its violent machinations, israel itself has also become at a great geopolitical disadvantage for the destruction it has heaped – nay, the single greatest geopolitical disadvantage in its history. Today, israel finds its enemy in the shape of Hezbollah located a mere 98 miles from tel aviv, more capable that any previous Arab state army before it: threatening every inch of israel proper – and it also find Iranian troops and military eggheads right there in Syria at its doorstep. This is israel’s nightmare today: a geopolitical nightmare that it cannot wake up from without the risk of tel aviv being turned into a smoking rubble.
It looks like to me that all the destruction that israel has heaped on its Arab neighbors for decades now has actually significantly weakened it today – despite its air superiority and despite the copious and committed support it gets from powerful Western nations.
I do not see israel surviving the next war against what is known as the ‘Axis of Resistance’, despite its nukes and the blah-blah might of its military. Geography, we can say, is not on the side of zionist israel.
Thank you for engaging with me on this topic.
The Iranians are blessed with the fact that they are a historically united peoples as well as a predominantly religiously united peoples. The Arabs are neither. Historically they fought each other, and religiously they are divided.
The Iranians, may God bless them, have definitely lead the charge against the Zionist entity, and thanks to their aid, the Arabs may slowly reach a point of strength, just as Hezbollah has. Hezbollah is currently self sufficient thanks to their own initiative and Iran. The Syrians, Iraqi militias and Houthis are following suit.
Everybody knows that who are wahabis (the Saudi rulers) and with whom their DNA match and why they are enemies of Muslim world and of Islam.
Absolutely!
Bibi is a compulsive liar, he lies about everything to everybody. The fact that Israelis keep electing this Jewish Hitler says a lot about the people of Israel, and is why I will have no sympathy for them if Bibi gets a whole lot of them killed.
The US and Israel both have no land that is why they are living on stollen lands. The demons and thieves cannot become superpower because they are criminals.
A bunch of robbers and war criminals came together and butchering nations and taking their lands by force is not supremacy.
The entire record and history of US and UK is dirty. If thousands generations passed in this world still they cannot clean it.
Closer to Arab World of MBS and Sisi.
This is not in defense of Sisi but Egypt is forced to fakely befriend israel while talmudic MBS very much desires a friendship with genocidal, talmudic israel.
Israel will be closer who whatever animal be against IRAN and wants to destroy it. After Iran destruction, animals destruction by Israel will come.
iran will never be destroyed :)))
What’s the point of increasing your cooperation with leading Arab countries (ie, their dictators), when the vast majority of the civilians in those countries hate you, and the regimes/governments themselves ain’t gonna last long (especially Saudi Arabia, but even UAE and Qatar)?
Zionist Jews, so smart in the short term, absolute morons in the long term.