Will the US Manage to Persuade Israel?

• 07.20.2015, 17:19
•  America,  Region,  Near East,  World

On July 20 the US Defense Secretary Ash Carter is in Israel to discuss the Iran nuclear deal with high-level Israeli officials and to ease their worries on the issue. During his visit the US official  will meet Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon and will travel to northern Israel to review the situation in the Lebanese border area, "including the threat that Israel faces from Hezbollah," Voice of America reports. During his visit the US official is also to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In the context of this visit it is interesting to pay attention to the present wording of the high-level US officials. Commenting on his visit, the US Defense Secretary Ash Carter himself spoke of the possibility of military option to prevent Iran from developing nuclear deal:

"We believe that the nuclear deal promotes the security in the region, the American strategy, and also the defense of Israel. But as I said, friends can disagree. One of the reasons why this deal is a good one is that it does nothing to prevent the military option," the US official noted.

In their turn the US President Barack Obama and State Secretary John Kerry have also continuously put main emphasis on the security trying to console his worried ally. The US high level officials offered Netanyahu two days earlier to upgrade Israeli military capabilities, and its security and intelligence cooperation with the United States.

The fact that the US Defense Secretary is going to travel to the to northern Israel to review the situation in the Lebanese border area, "including the threat that Israel faces from Hezbollah," gives ground to assume that during this visit as well the US is to  insist of the increased US military assistance to Israel; the offer which has been continuously rejected by the Israeli Prime Minister:

"Everybody talks about compensating Israel. If this deal is supposed to make Israel and its Arab neighbors safer, why should we need to be compensated with anything? And how can you compensate my country against a terrorist regime that is sworn to our destruction and going to get a path to nuclear bombs?" as the Times of Israel reports Netanyahu noted on the occasion.

Judging from the radical stance of the Israeli side and continuous refusal to accept military assistance for the US it is obvious that the negotiations between the US and Israel are not going to be an easy one. It is unlikely that the Israeli officials will easily come to terms with the Iranian nuclear deal and will accept military assistance from the US. However, taking into consideration that the Iranian nuclear deal is a reality and the likelihood that Congress will manage to stop Iranian deal (it would be possible only if two-thirds of both houses of Congress vote to override a presidential veto of a joint resolution of disapproval) the Israeli government will sooner or later agree with it, instead demanding maximum security  leverages  from the US.