Posted on 10/04/2013 11:03:21 AM PDT by lbryce
Israel, alarmed at the prospect of a U.S.-Iranian rapprochement, is reported to be discussing the possibility of an anti-Iran alliance with longtime Arab adversaries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, a project that could have immense ramifications in the Middle East.
If talks are under way, they're in large part the result of many secret meetings between Israeli and Arab intelligence chiefs and other senior officials that have been held over several years, often in the Jordanian capital Amman.
Senior Israelis have held meetings with prominent figures from a number of Persian Gulf and other Arab states in recent weeks in an attempt to muster a new alliance capable of blocking Iran's drive, Israel's Channel 2 television reported Wednesday.
The report said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has vociferously opposed what appears to be a determined effort by U.S. President Barack Obama to pursue reconciliation with Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, supervised these "intensive meetings."
Channel 2 said a "high-ranking official" from an Arab state secretly visited Israel for talks. It gave no details.
The Times of Israel observed that the report was published a day after the hawkish Netanyahu declared during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York that shared concerns over Tehran's nuclear project "have led many of our Arab neighbors to recognize ... that Israel is not their enemy."
He said this "affords us the opportunity to overcome historic animosities and build news relationships, new friendships, new hopes."
Saudi Arabia and the other Sunni Muslim monarchies share some of Israel's strategic concerns. They are also concerned about Shiite Iran's nuclear objectives and its influence across the oil-rich gulf and the Levant, just as Israel is, and favor direct action to curb Iranian expansionism.
Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened pre-emptive and unilateral Israeli military action against Iran's nuclear program and has been held in check largely by pressure from Washington and the forceful opposition of his senior commanders.
Netanyahu and his hard-line associates have said they no longer believe that Obama would use military force against Iran to prevent it acquiring nuclear weapons.
Israel has diplomatic relations with two Arab states, peace partners Egypt and Jordan. It had clandestine dealings with Amman under the late King Hussein long before it signed its peace treaty with the Hashemite kingdom in 1994.
Although Channel 2 did not specify which Arab states Netanyahu was dealing with, the most likely candidates are Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman, which make up the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The Jewish state has had covert dealings with them to one degree or another for years, particularly since the first peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, and no doubt with Washington's discreet blessing.
There were reports in May that Netanyahu's government was working on an anti-Iran defense pact with several "moderate" regional states, including Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Jordan and Turkey, a strategic Israeli ally until a diplomatic rupture in May 2010.
The Israelis have had secret dealings in recent years with nuclear power Pakistan, a staunch military ally of Saudi Arabia.
The Sunday Times of London, which habitually publishes seemingly outlandish reports on Israel, asserted that under that arrangement Israel would gain access to the GCC's gulf-based early warning radar system.
Technically, developing such an alliance would not be difficult. Israel and GCC states all use U.S. military systems and the battle-hardened Israelis would no doubt he happy to do the heavy lifting if there was any action.
Selling such a proposition to Arab populations, who for decades have been taught to hate the Jewish state, would prove far more problematical and politically explosive.
But the monarchies and Israel share an abiding hatred of the Islamic jihadists now operating across the Arab world. The gulf monarchies, like the Israelis, are also concerned that U.S. power in the Middle East is waning, leaving them vulnerable amid the region's turmoil.
The new reports concerning Israel come amid strenuous efforts by Netanyahu and his ministers to portray Rouhani's reformist administration in Tehran as untrustworthy and to mobilize Israel's powerful political lobby in Washington to undermine the push for reconciliation among U.S. lawmakers who depend on its support at election time.
Israel sees how the global political alignment has tilted against it, has had to come to grips with the new reality and look for ways to secure itself in ways thought untenable until now.
I've often heard in anecdotal reference regarding the extent in which Sunni and Sh'ite consider each other to be a religious status worse than that of Jews, one in which is emphatically proven to be the case with the alignment of the strangest sort of bedfellows that boggle the geopolitical mind, that puts Israel and the unlikeliest sort of cohabitants namely the terror funding tribe that is the House of Saud, in pragmatic opportunism against a common foe.
The gulf royals are the moderate Muslims Bush keeps talking about. The problem is that their populations are not anywhere near as moderate. And any deviations from religious orthodoxy on the part of the royals could lead to assassination attempts or even coups. The Shah's attempt to secularize the country led to the Iranian revolution. Unfortunately, inside every Muslim isn't an American struggling to get out.
Too bad Israel doesn’t have a friend in the White House, or they wouldn’t have to go looking for assurances form these scum.
This is better for Israel even with a friend in the White House. No foreign country should rely on one guardian angel.
The Gulf Arabs are a bunch of lecherous jackals not to be trusted. Same goes for the current occupants of the White House.
I agree on both counts. I think it is better for Israel to develop strategic relationships with both groups instead of putting its reliance on the White House, because when it is inhabited by a jackal (I can’t speak to lecherousness) Israel has nowhere else to turn.
lechery
The Times of Israel observed that the report was published a day after the hawkish Netanyahu declared during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in New York that shared concerns over Tehran's nuclear project "have led many of our Arab neighbors to recognize ... that Israel is not their enemy." ... The Sunday Times of London, which habitually publishes seemingly outlandish reports on Israel, asserted that under that arrangement Israel would gain access to the GCC's gulf-based early warning radar system.
If you check my posts over the past several years you will note I told of the secret war room Wherein the IDF and the GCC and USA forces have been planning.
This piece indicates the meetings have been on going for years.
Time is important. The old line is being replaced by younger savy less radical educated leaders
And it’s better for the US to take a lower profile in the Middle East and not be endlessly embroiled in expensive and bloody regional conflicts. The Israelis can and should take care of themselves without Uncle Sam.
The problem of course is that when the US arms Israel’s enemies Israel feels forced to ask the US for military aid as well.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Makes sense. I doubt any of the participants, purported enemies, would trust a pact with the USA.
Like the Saudi princes co-operation with the Wahabi-Sunni clerics, a security agreement between the Gulf States and Israel will be a “pack with the devil” and NOT good for Israel in the long run. Who’s backing the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists in Syria and Egypt and the Islamists in North Africa? The Gulf States. And who’s behind the “Yom Kipper War Anniversary” protests in Egypt? Islamists in Egypt who are backed by..................the Gulf States.
How many reminders does Israel need to understand that Islamists NOR THEIR BACKERS CHEERLEADERS OR SUPPORTERS are its friends.
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