US State Department: Talk Of US Sanctions Against Israel 'Premature'

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US State Department: Talk Of US Sanctions Against Israel 'Premature'

Not off the table, or 'not under consideration'. Merely premature.

That came from US State department spokesmouth Robert Wood in apress briefing in Israel as he did prep work for US Envoy George Mitchell and the US delegation scheduled to arrive next week and meet with Israeli PM Netanyahu and his staff.

Asked at a press briefing whether the US was considering putting financial pressure on Israel to get it to comply with US demands, Wood said: "It's premature to talk about that."

"What we're trying to do," he said, "is to create an environment which makes it conducive for talks to go forward."

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell was working hard on this, Wood said. "And what we all need to do in the international community is support this effort, and that means Americans, that means Arabs and Israelis, [must] do what they can to kind of foster a climate in which the two sides can come together and negotiate their differences peacefully so that we can get to that two-state solution."

I love that "we". As if the Obama Administration was actually giving up anything or endangering its citizens, as they're asking Israel to do!or for that matter, as if the Arabs were...

IMRA has the complete transcript, which yields a few more interesting nuggets:

QUESTION: What about the agreements between the U.S. and Israel?

MR. WOOD: I think Secretary Clinton has spoken to that issue in quite a bit of detail. And I just really don't have anything more to add. I think you all well know our policy on settlements in Israel (inaudible). I mean, I could go through it again, but I think you've all heard it many times.

QUESTION: Yeah, we know your policy. But what are you going to do to convince Israel to go your way on settlements?

MR. WOOD: Well, as you know, this is what Senator Mitchell is trying to do.He is traveling - he's been to the region a few times, as you know. He is planning to travel again. And what he's trying to do, and what the Secretary has been pushing for, is to try to create conditions on the ground,conditions that will allow us to resume negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis.{...}

QUESTION: Dan Meridor has said - that the agreement we had with the Americans is binding on us and them. And he added that they should keep to the agreement. He's calling the U.S. to keep to the agreement.

MR. WOOD: I think we've been very clear with regard to settlements. They need to stop, and that includes natural growth. I don't have anything more to add to that. The Israelis are well aware of our position. And we'll obviously continue to have talks with the Israelis on this subject and other issues, but our policy remains the same.

QUESTION: But they are continuing building in --

MR. WOOD: Well, I said, we're having --

QUESTION: -- Jerusalem.

MR. WOOD: -- discussions with our Israeli partners about this issue and a whole host of other issues related to the Middle East - Middle East peace.So that's about the best I can offer for you right now.

Meanwhile the IDF is already making contingency plans for possible cut off or severe reduction of US military aid to Israel.

Why is Obama picking this fight? It can't be to advance US interests.

A cutoff of the military aid the US gives Israel - essentially loans that are almost entirely spent here in the US and keep Americans employed - makes little sense. It makes even less sense it terms of what America gets from Israel in return.

Aside from cutbacks in orders at places like Lockheed that will end up tossing more Americans out of work, a cutoff in aid would damage America's arms industry by unleashing a particularly fierce competitor. Israel's high tech armaments industry has had to decline billions of dollars in overseas contracts in deference to competing American manufacturers. Just recently, Israel had to turn down a multi-billion dollar joint venturewith Sweden to design a new fighter for the Indian air force.. because American manufacturers were competing for the business and lobbied to eliminate the competition.This sort of thing has happened countless times. And American defense contractors also do quite well with joint venture projects that give them access to Israeli high tech.

Then there's the access the US has to Israeli intel. Having decimated its own security services, America is heavily dependent on foreign intelligence services like the Mossad that still have boots on the ground.

Israel's also one of the few American allies that has never refused access to any of its air,land or sea facilities to US forces in a prime location of the Eastern Mediterranean. And it was the IDF that saved hundreds of American lives not only by bombing Saddam Hussein Osirak reactor a few years before the Gulf War but by having the IDF draw on its lessons in places like Jenin to train US Marines and soldiers how to fight and survive in Arab cities like Fallujah.

Obama focusing on ultimatums to Israel has had several effects:

• It has emboldened the Arabs and particularly the Palestinians to ignore even a semblance of constructive negotiations with Israel, because they expect Obama to bend the Israelis to his will and force them to give in to the Arab's every demand.

• It has totally deconstructed the US-Israel relationship. Since Netanyahu can already see that Obama is more than willing to break previous agreements with Israel with impunity and is prepared to arm twist the Jews on behalf of his Arab firends with unreasonable demands, Netanyahu has very little to lose by simply defying him and going his own way.If someone's trying to force you to commit suicide, there's no great loss in distancing yourself from him.

• Obama's clumsy strong arm tactics have united the Israeli public behind Netanyahu's government in a way Obama probably didn't think was possible. Even most of Israel's leftistswant no part of what Obama's selling.

Obama's assault on Israel - and it's difficult to put it any other way -comes from who he is and what he believes.

Obama's take on Israel proves he wasn't sleeping while his anti-Semitic spiritual mentor Jeremiah Wright was preaching to the congregation at Trinity United.To Obama, Israel is simply a racist white colonial outpost oppressing 'people of color' that needs to be suppressed and dealt with so he can get America out of the Middle East,concentrate on his domestic agenda and win favor with his pals in the Muslim world...perhaps a step along the road to his goal of making America "one of the World's largest Muslim nations."

Obama may very well succeed in destroying the US -Israeli relationship. But it will not be without a cost to America.