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Last update - 02:22 23/11/2008
Candidate for U.S. security adviser wants NATO force in West Bank
By Aluf Benn
James Jones with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
General James Jones, whom U.S. President-elect Barack Obama is widely expected to tap as his national security adviser, supports the deployment of an international force in the West Bank instead of the Israel Defense Forces. He also opposes Israel's demand to retain extensive security control over the territories even after a Palestinian state is established.
Jones served as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian security issues over the past year. He was tasked in particular with formulating security arrangements between Israel and the future Palestinian state.
Jones is expected to play a key role in the Obama administration. According to U.S. press reports, he will be as strong as Henry Kissinger, the all-powerful national security adviser to President Richard Nixon. His Middle East experience will presumably accord him a senior position in formulating American policy in the region - though Israeli sources say he would probably take a broader view as national security adviser than he did as Rice's envoy.
Israel has worked hard over the past year to persuade the Bush administration to accept its proposals on security arrangements. Israel's main argument was that its major population centers are vulnerable to rocket and suicide attacks from the West Bank, and that security control of the Jordan Valley is essential to prevent weapons from being smuggled into the West Bank. Israel also demanded complete demilitarization of the future Palestinian state, Israeli control of border crossings and Israeli early warning stations in the mountains.
In response to Israel's claim that the Palestinians cannot be trusted with responsibility for security, Jones, a former NATO commander, proposed a NATO-based international force that would later transfer control to the Palestinians.
Israeli officials say that such a force sounds wonderful, but in practice cannot provide the intelligence necessary to prevent terror.
Jones served as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian security issues over the past year. He was tasked in particular with formulating security arrangements between Israel and the future Palestinian state.
Jones is expected to play a key role in the Obama administration. According to U.S. press reports, he will be as strong as Henry Kissinger, the all-powerful national security adviser to President Richard Nixon. His Middle East experience will presumably accord him a senior position in formulating American policy in the region - though Israeli sources say he would probably take a broader view as national security adviser than he did as Rice's envoy.
Israel has worked hard over the past year to persuade the Bush administration to accept its proposals on security arrangements. Israel's main argument was that its major population centers are vulnerable to rocket and suicide attacks from the West Bank, and that security control of the Jordan Valley is essential to prevent weapons from being smuggled into the West Bank. Israel also demanded complete demilitarization of the future Palestinian state, Israeli control of border crossings and Israeli early warning stations in the mountains.
In response to Israel's claim that the Palestinians cannot be trusted with responsibility for security, Jones, a former NATO commander, proposed a NATO-based international force that would later transfer control to the Palestinians.
Israeli officials say that such a force sounds wonderful, but in practice cannot provide the intelligence necessary to prevent terror.
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Annapolis envoy likely to advise Obama
Nov. 22, 2008
HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, Jpost correspondent in washington , THE JERUSALEM POST
HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, Jpost correspondent in washington , THE JERUSALEM POST
WASHINGTON - Retired Gen. James L. Jones has emerged as a leading contender for national security adviser in a Barack Obama's administration.
Jones, the US Middle East security adviser and former supreme allied commander of NATO, was publicly praised by Obama during the campaign and several news sources reported Friday that the president-elect would like him to take the top foreign policy slot in the White House.
The sources referred to Obama's regard for Jones's four decades of military service, as well as the perspective he has provided on international issues and challenges.
Jones has avoided identifying himself on a partisan basis, but has criticized the running of the Pentagon by the Bush administration during the Iraq war.
Jones is currently serving as an envoy for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during the Annapolis process of the past year, consulting with Israelis and Palestinians about security measures.
He was reported to have drafted a report critical of some aspects of Israel's security stance toward the Palestinians during that time, but the report - which sources in the Israeli government feared would cause tension between the two countries - was never published.
In a rare interview that he gave to Inside the Pentagon at the end of last month, however, Jones urged the new administration to keep up the negotiations begun in Annapolis, warning that, "If they don't do that and they choose to start from ground zero again, then I think there would be a real tragedy, because there's real momentum and real progress here."
He told the outlet that "nothing is more important" in the Middle East than a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"If we don't get this right, and if organizations like Hizbullah and Hamas actually succeed in places like the West Bank and, in the long term, in Gaza, then you really do have a dramatically more serious situation strategically that could conceivably affect the future viability of Israel as a state," he said. "I mean, the noose will get tighter."
Also Friday, another foreign policy bigwig Obama has reportedly been consulting co-authored a Washington Post op-ed calling for the new administration to prioritize Israeli-Palestinian peace-making.
"Resolution of the Palestinian issue would have a positive impact on the region. It would liberate Arab governments to support US leadership in dealing with regional problems" as well as "dissipate much of the appeal of Hizbullah and Hamas, dependent as it is on the Palestinians' plight," writes Brent Scowcroft, who served as George H.W. Bush's national security adviser. "It would change the region's psychological climate, putting Iran back on the defensive and putting a stop to its swagger."
Obama has spoken positively of the older Bush's approach to foreign policy, notwithstanding his being a Republican. Scowcroft was joined by Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, in crafting the article.
The two urge Obama to push for an agreement based on a return to slightly modified 1967 borders, compensation in lieu of the right of return for Palestinian refugees, Jerusalem hosting two capitals and the creation of a nonmilitarized Palestinian state.
The Orthodox Union was quick to criticize the piece, taking issue with those "who believe a solution is so 'well known' that it can be laid out in just one paragraph."
In a letter drafted in response, OU Public Policy Director Nathan Diament took particular exception to the concept of a shared Jerusalem.
"In suggesting this step, they ignore both the historical and religious Jewish claim to the city, and the fact that only under Israeli rule has Jerusalem been a free and open to all faiths," he wrote.
The Obama transition team did not respond to a request for comment clarifying Scowcroft's role or the status of Jones's possible appointment.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404803559&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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