By HERB KEINON, 02/07/2010 ,
Bulgaria’s FM laments ‘lost’ European sensitivity to Israel’s security challenges.
European foreign ministers do not always have a fair understanding of what Israel is up against, and Turkey reacted “a little bit too strongly” to the Gaza flotilla episode, Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov said this week in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.
Mladenov, whose country of some eight million people is among the most supportive of Israel inside the EU, made his comments on Wednesday, shortly before completing a three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. During this visit, M
European foreign ministers do not always have a fair understanding of what Israel is up against, and Turkey reacted “a little bit too strongly” to the Gaza flotilla episode, Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov said this week in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.
Mladenov, whose country of some eight million people is among the most supportive of Israel inside the EU, made his comments on Wednesday, shortly before completing a three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. During this visit, M
ladenov made extremely friendly public comments about Israel at a time when such comments from foreign ministers around the world are anything but the norm.
For instance, on Tuesday, in a meeting with President Shimon Peres, he said, “We are lucky that the majority of Bulgarian Jews were saved [during the Holocaust] and were able to go on to build Israel. This [history] creates a strong, emotional connection and responsibility on our part to ensure Israel’s safety and its future.”
Asked why he made these comments at a time when Israel was facing increasing international isolation, Mladenov – who became Bulgaria’s foreign minister in January, following a six-month stint as its defense minister – said, “Because I think that is what friends are for, to be with our friends when they are in trouble.”
By “trouble,” Mladenov said he meant that there was currently a “dramatic shift in the entire strategic situation in the region.”
“We’ve seen a statement over the last couple years by Iran that it wants to erase Israel from the face of the earth,” he said. He added that the troubles Israel faced also included a “faltering Middle East peace process” and a situation in the South where the disengagement from the Gaza Strip led to a constant barrage of Kassam rockets on the western Negev.
Israel, he said, needed to “work better” on explaining its position in Europe. “And this is one of the reasons why I came here. I wanted to see on the ground – after the flotilla and everything – the views of the Israeli government, how it sees a way out of this.”
Asked if there was a fair understanding among his colleagues in the EU of what Israel was up against, Mladenov replied, “Not always, no. I’m being quite honest – no. I think sometimes we tend to oversimplify things in Europe, perhaps because war and confrontation and terrorism are not something that is a daily threat to many in Europe.”
Mladenov said that “many countries have lost the sensitivity to the difficult security environment in which Israel lives. We often say that ‘we recognize Israel’s legitimate security concerns,’ but I sometimes wonder if we all know what stands behind these words.”
Mladenov, who in 2006 spent time in Iraq as an adviser to the Iraqi parliament, said he had experience living in this part of the world and had a “fair idea of what it means to see someone blow themselves up in the middle of the street and stuff like that.
“I think we should be a little more sensitive to the fact that this is a very tough environment, and that Israel needs to be alert at every single moment in order to be able to protect its security and the security of its people,” he said.
Mladenov said it was important for people to understand Israel’s security concerns, and what it was like living in a place like Sderot under the Kassam threat, or “what does it mean to live in constant fear that somebody might decide to blow themselves up in the street, or what does it mean to live in the fundamental fear that there is a another country in the world that says it wants to destroy you as a country.”
Having said that, the Bulgarian diplomat added that providing security for one’s own people “doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t look a little bit beyond the horizon and see what is the framework in which you can resolve this conflict in the longer run,” and that it was important to consider the difficulties facing the Palestinians as well.
Asked to explain what some have described as an east-west split on Israel inside the EU, with Israel’s greatest supporters – the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria – coming from Central or Eastern Europe, and its greatest critics – Ireland, Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, Greece – coming from Western Europe, Mladenov said one reason was simply that for Central and Eastern European countries that emerged from communism, the relationship with Israel was new.
“This relationship was banned under communism, so there is an interest in developing it,” he said. He also said there was “a bit of a guilt feeling in Central and Eastern Europe, because in many countries, what happened in the Holocaust was not addressed in the way it was addressed in Germany, for example.”
As Turkey’s neighbor to the north, Bulgaria is carefully watching developments inside that country, and Mladenov – asked to explain how Sofia viewed Ankara’s shift under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan – said he did not think Turkey’s current search for a “new and more active role in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Balkans” had to do with a feeling of being rejected by the EU.
“I think the relationship between Europe and Turkey is very strong, and will continue to be strong, because Turkey is one of the most fundamental partners we have,” he said. “I would like to see more alignment and coordination between what Europe does and what Turkey does in the region, so that we don’t end up going in different directions, but actually are working in the same direction on a number of issues and conflicts that exist.”
Mladenov said that regarding the “whole situation with the flotilla,” Turkey “reacted a little bit too strongly.”
Asked to explain, he replied, “Too strong in the sense that I’m not sure to what extent it serves the interest of the Palestinians.”
The Turks, he was reminded, have said that this helped the Palestinians because now more goods are being allowed into Gaza.
Mladenov replied that the process of changing the “regime on getting goods in and out of Gaza” was something that had been under discussion for “quite some time. I don’t think people should have died for that.”
The Bulgarian foreign minister tiptoed around the question of whether he felt Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza was legitimate, saying this was a decision Israel had to make based on its own security. He did say, however, that it was important to allow the access of goods in and out of Gaza to develop the economy there, which in turn would create “a bigger constituency in support of peace, because people will see the benefits of that peace emerging.”
Mladenov also avoided a direct answer when asked whether Israel had approached Sofia about conducting IAF exercises over Bulgaria to make up for Turkey’s refusal now to allow Israeli military planes in its airspace. He said Bulgaria and Israel have “very good security and defense cooperation, and that an Israeli-Bulgarian defense cooperation memorandum was signed earlier this year.”
As to whether that memorandum included an agreement for IAF training in Bulgaria, he said, “I would imagine that it would include a lot of things.”
Asked whether the investigative committee Israel set up to look into the flotilla episode was sufficient, Mladenov, echoing the consensus European position, said it was too early to tell, and that this would depend on how the committee performed its work.
Column One: Netanyahu must play for time
By CAROLINE GLICK,2/07/2010
If he plays his cards wisely, he can say no to Obama and avoid an open confrontation.
On Wednesday, Foreign Policy published the content of a memo written last month in the US Military’s Central Command. The memo, a “Red Team” assessment of how the US should position itself vis-à-vis the likes of Hamas and Hizbullah, reveals that among key members of the US policy-making community, Israel is viewed with extreme hostility.
The leaked memo reportedly reflects the views of a significant number of senior and mid-level officers in Centcom, including large numbers of intelligence officers, as well as a significant number of area analysts stationed in the Middle East. It argues that it is wrong for the US to lump jihadist movements like Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida and Hizbullah in one group.
Dismissing the significance of the identical religious dogma that stands at the root of these movements, the memo asserts that Hamas and Hizbullah are pragmatic and important social forces with which the US must foster good relations.
The memo calls for the US to support the integration of Hizbullah forces into the Lebanese military. It also calls for the US to encourage and permit the integration of Hamas forces into the US-trained Palestinian security forces.
As far as Israel is concerned, the memo blames the Jewish state for the US’s failure to date to adopt these recommended policies. Moreover, the memo’s authors condemn Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza as keeping “the area on the verge of a perpetual humanitarian collapse.”
The Centcom memo also condemns Israel’s July 2006 decision to respond to Hizbullah’s unprovoked bombardment of northern Israel and its unprovoked cross-border attack against an IDF patrol in which five soldiers were killed and two were kidnapped and subsequently murdered.
Denying Hizbullah’s subservient relationship with the Iranian regime, the report claims that Israel’s decision to use force to defend itself against Hizbullah’s acts of war served to strengthen Hizbullah’s ties to Teheran.
What this memo shows is that Israel has little hope of seeing a change for the better in US policy in the near future and its best bet today is to play for time. Next week at the Oval Office, Netanyahu should capitalize on his advantage four months ahead of the congressional elections and put the burden on Obama and Abbas to show their good intentions.
caroline@carolineglick.com
US Intelligence Officers: Accept Hamas and Hizbullah in Armies
Tammuz 22, 5770, 04 July 10 10:06
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
(Israelnationalnews.com) A U.S. Central Command intelligence team has suggested that Hamas and Hizbullah terrorist forces be integrated into the Fatah and Lebanese armies, Mark Perry wrote in Foreign Policy.
Perry is a former advisor to Yasser Arafat and was the source of a recent Foreign Policy article charging that General David Petraeus had said that Israel's refusal to agree to the creation of the Palestinian Authority as a state endangers American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Petraeus denied the report.
The CENTCOM intelligence officers’ “Red Team” thinks that the two terrorist groups have to be accepted as a fact and that their grievances should be understood, Perry wrote. The suggestions, which are not a formal policy proposal, fly in the face of current American policy that outlaws both terrorist groups.
“The U.S. role of assistance to an integrated Lebanese defense force that includes Hizballah (sic); and the continued training of Palestinian security forces in a Palestinian entity that includes Hamas in its government, would be more effective than providing assistance to entities -- the government of Lebanon and Fatah -- that represent only a part of the Lebanese and Palestinian populace respectively,” according to the Red Team, Perry reported.
The intelligence officers cited Hamas and Hizbullah as being "pragmatic and opportunistic" and rejects the Israeli view that they cannot be changed by bringing them into the political realm. "Failing to recognize their separate grievances and objectives will result in continued failure in moderating their behavior,” according to the CENTCOM officers.
They wrote that each terror group has to be treated separately instead of lumping them together with Al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks.
The Red Team also rejects Israel’s claim that Hizbullah acts at the behest of Iran, whose Revolutionary Guard founded Hizbullah. Moreover, the intelligence officers blamed Israel for driving Hizbullah into closer ties with Iran by its retaliation in the Second Lebanon War, touched off when Hizbullah kidnapped and killed reserve soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
The report charges that Israel's partial embargo on Hamas-controlled Gaza keeps "the area on the verge of a perpetual humanitarian collapse" and "may be radicalizing more people, especially the young, increasing the number of potential recruits." The Red Team argues that lifting the embargo would be "the best hope for mainstreaming Hamas."
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said earlier this year that no humanitarian crisis exists in Gaza, where Israel has each day allowed hundreds of tons of food and supplies to flow, even during the Operation Cast Lead war last year.
The officers' political objectives are clearly stated. A return to a Fatah-Hamas unity government in the Palestinian Authority would gain "widespread international support and deprive the Israelis of any legitimate justification to continue settlement-building and delay statehood negotiations,” they wrote.
www.IsraelNationalNews.com
2. the "red team " wants to harm Israel as much as they can
that's the most plausible explanation. Obama, "blessed "the report since he wants the same thing.The bottom line is:antisemitism still exists, antisemites want Jews and Israel to be eradicated by any means. Antisemitic "red team ", obama,EU,UN,and russia would want to legitimize even adolf hitler if he were killing only Jews.
Wake up, people, please! Wake up before it's too late. The world does not care for peace in the Middle East or elsewhere else. The world cares to exterminate Jewish people. Antisemitism is the oldest hatred, about 2300 years old and still alive and well. Antisemitism will exist for as long as we exist.
It's about time to stop appeasing the goyim, they will not be happy for as long as we are alive. We must strengthen Israel, deport all the hostile elements that don't recognize it back to syria and jordan. Publicly declare Judea and Samaria to be part of Israel.
Me, planet Earth (07/04/10)
3. US Intelligence Officers: Accept Hamas and Hizbullah in Armies
Well the term "Intelligence Officers " is definitely a misnomer!!!!! Have you lost your stinking minds?!!!! You don't, I repeat, DON'T integrate, negotiate or communicate with terrorists....you destroy them and their networks. Very simple!! The suggestion you have made in this article is moronic!! Don't under any circumstance call yourselves intelligent, unpatriotic yes, intelligent, not a chance!! Time to grow up....
warm regards, Gregg Bowman, a patriotic Canadian
gregg bowman, Parksville (07/04/10)
5. The Nazis also had 'grievances'...
The Nazis also had 'grievances'...but they were crimes against humanity as are the 'grievances' of Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel has grievances like the failure of the League of Nations to implement the Paris Agreement, the San Remo Treaty or the British Manate. Israel has grievances like the failure of the UN to adhere to its charter, article 80 in particular. Israel has grievances like the failure of the world community to recognise that it is fighting every day for its survival against an evil implacable enemy that uses women and children as pawns in its genocidal war against the Jews.
Fivish, London (07/04/10)
10. US -- greatest supporter of terrorists
Further proof that the US gov't is Israel's enemy and the Arabs are just doing its dirty work.
Dan, Jerusalem (07/04/10)
9. THis report shows US gearing up to destroy Israel as Jewish state
The simple truth is the US government knows that Hamas and Hizballah have as a goal annihilation of world Jewry and the end of a Jewish state. I apologize to Israel for the anti-Semites we have in power today. It's 1939 again. These morons in Centcom forget how Hizballah killed 241 US marines in 1983 and overlook the Hamas charter Israel, start looking to your own resources. This is rewarding terrorism.
Lee Kaplan, Berkeley (07/04/10)
7. Accept Hamas and Hizbullah?
Unbelievable.
I'm ashamed to admit it was our people.
Carl USA
Carl Neubig, Houma (07/04/10)
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