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Report: US Told Olmert Not to Attack Iran or Invade Gaza

Cheshvan 27, 5769, 25 November 08 08:51

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

 

 Rice and Olmert meet in Washington

 

(IsraelNN.com) The Bush administration warned outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert not to stage an attack on Iran or stage an all-out assault on Hamas in Gaza, TIME reported Tuesday, quoting senior Defense Ministry officials.

 

The two leaders met and dined together Monday during the Prime Minister's farewell visit, but the warning previously was issued by senior American officials. They are worried that Israel will use the period before President-elect Barack Obama takes office to attack Iran's nuclear plant.

Exploiting Bush's lame-duck status would force him and President-elect Barack Obama to completely revamp US Middle East policy, including the war in Iraq as well as attempts to use sanctions to prevent Iran from producing a nuclear weapon. Israel's problem is that if sanctions do not work, an attack on Iran may come only after a catastrophic nuclear offensive by Iran.

 

American government officials also told the Olmert government that if it were to carry out a long-threatened attack on Hamas and allied terrorists, it could erect a dead end to the America Roadmap program designed to lead to a new Arab country within Israel's current borders.

 

In order to calm Israel's growing impatience with rocket attacks on southern Israel, the Bush government asked Jordanian King Abdullah II to intervene, TIME reported. The result was a secret visit to Amman last week by Prime Minister Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who heard the king tell them he won promises by Hamas to halt the rocket strikes.

 

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni stated earlier this month that Israel need not retaliate so long as the rocket attacks do not cause widespread damage or serous injuries. One rocket three weeks ago damaged a strategic site in Ashkelon, causing light damage.
 
Jordan sent messengers to Syrian-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal to order Gaza terrorists to halt the attacks, and King Abdullah then reportedly informed Olmert and Barak of Hamas's promise.

"Olmert and Barak listened carefully but pointed out that Israel cannot stand idle while the rockets are falling," TIME quoted a Jordanian official. However, the monarchy later objected to Israeli media reports that Jordan's interest in calm was due to efforts to quell growing protests within its own country against Israel's closure of Gaza crossings.

 

More than 1,000 demonstrators of the Muslim Brotherhood's political branch angrily denounced Israel last Friday and said that it would send ships to Gaza to challenge Israeli sovereignty over Gaza's coastal waters.

King Abdullah's advisors maintained that Jordan is trying to keep down the violence in order to prevent a halt in negotiations between Israel and the PA.

 

Prime Minister Olmert and President Bush repeated routine statements to encourage progress in the talks. "We strongly believe that Israel will benefit by having a Palestinian state, a democracy on its border that works for peace," said President Bush.

 

The outgoing Prime Minister replied, "You have set forth in motion the Annapolis process, which I was very proud to take part in. It continues with your guidance and support and inspiration. And this is very important because, as you say, a two-state solution is the only possible way to resolve the conflict."

 

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'US warns Israel against large IDF ops'

Nov. 24, 2008
JPost.com Staff , THE JERUSALEM POST

 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and US President George W. Bush during a previous meeting.

The US has requested that Israel refrain from embarking on any large-scale operations during the last weeks of the George W. Bush administration, Time magazine reported Monday evening.

The magazine quotes an unnamed Israeli source at the Defense Ministry as saying, "We have been warned off."

IDF officials hinted in the past that a preemptive attack on Iran's nuclear installations might be timed to take place before the inauguration of US President-elect Barack Obama. Obama is slated to take office on January 20.

The request, reportedly relayed to Israeli officials by senior US counterparts, was likely to be reiterated on Monday during Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's last meeting with Bush with both leaders still serving as of heads of state.

The call for restraint, according to Time, also included a request to avoid a large incursion into the Gaza Strip - an option that has again been floated recently by Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in light of signs that the truce between Israel and Hamas, which has held for five months, is beginning to disintegrate.

US officials have even turned to Jordan's King Abdullah for help in stemming Palestinian rocket fire, the magazine quoted Palestinian and Jordanian officials as saying. Abdullah was approached to act as an intermediary between the US and Hamas, which the US mutely acknowledges as the effective ruler of Gaza but officially shuns as a designated terrorist entity.

According to Time, King Abdullah dispatched a senior officer to meet with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Damascus and warn him that Israel might stage an expansive attack unless rocket fire into southern Israel stops immediately.

Jordanian officials reportedly said Mashaal agreed to the request and had relayed it to Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups in Gaza.

The urgent meeting between Olmert, Barak and Abdullah last week was summoned by the Jordanian monarch following Mashaal's acquiescence, and included a warning that an Israeli attack might jeopardize Israel's ties with both Egypt and Jordan, Time said.

A Jordanian official told Time that Abdullah was furious to hear that Barak and Olmert told Israeli media upon returning that they agreed to avoid an incursion into Gaza because, they said, the king was afraid it might destabilize his monarchy.

 

The Jerusalem Post could not independently verify the details of the report by Time magazine.

This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404824782&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull