The Israeli siege around Arafat's Mukata complex in Ramallah is now a week old, and shows no signs of ending soon. Water supplies are apparently low, garbage has not been collected, and reports of diarrhea have been received. Israel demands that the 50 wanted terrorists inside give themselves up. Israel has come under some domestic and foreign criticism for its actions in the Mukata - but Dr. Meir Rosenne, a former Israeli Ambassador to the United States, says that talk of a "crisis" between Israel and the U.S. is an exaggeration.
"I have been involved in Israeli-U.S. relations for 35 years," Rosenne told Arutz-7 today, "and there have been strong disagreements, but the current situation is far from that. The U.S. will not do anything that will weaken Israel, because the American interest is that Israel should be strong because it knows that Israel is the only country in the area that it can count on 100% - not only for a military activity, but also if it requests Israel not to respond to an Iraqi provocation. The U.S. well remembers that Israel endangered itself by bombing the Iraqi nuclear reactor over 20 years ago, thus paving the way for the U.S. to be able to stop the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait 11 years ago."
Rosenne expressed great astonishment at U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer for the latter's outspoken and public criticism of Israel yesterday at a press conference with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. "In all my years in the Foreign Service," Rosenne said, "I never saw anything like that… If an Israeli Ambassador somewhere had been as publicly critical of a country's Foreign Minister, I am sure it would not have passed quietly… In my experience, when there is a disagreement between Israel and the U.S., it is worked out quietly, and not in public."
"I have been involved in Israeli-U.S. relations for 35 years," Rosenne told Arutz-7 today, "and there have been strong disagreements, but the current situation is far from that. The U.S. will not do anything that will weaken Israel, because the American interest is that Israel should be strong because it knows that Israel is the only country in the area that it can count on 100% - not only for a military activity, but also if it requests Israel not to respond to an Iraqi provocation. The U.S. well remembers that Israel endangered itself by bombing the Iraqi nuclear reactor over 20 years ago, thus paving the way for the U.S. to be able to stop the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait 11 years ago."
Rosenne expressed great astonishment at U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer for the latter's outspoken and public criticism of Israel yesterday at a press conference with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. "In all my years in the Foreign Service," Rosenne said, "I never saw anything like that… If an Israeli Ambassador somewhere had been as publicly critical of a country's Foreign Minister, I am sure it would not have passed quietly… In my experience, when there is a disagreement between Israel and the U.S., it is worked out quietly, and not in public."