The American negotiators involved in the current round of “peace talks” for Israel and the Palestinian Arabs are pressuring Israeli leaders to speak out publicly in support of the U.S. positions regarding Israel’s security, according to recent Israeli media reports.
In an Israeli channel 2 news report, political correspondent Amit Segal explained that Amb. Martin Indyk, the U.S. Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations, and his team have been meeting with many Israeli military leaders, trying to convince them that the U.S. security plans for the Jordan Valley are good for Israel.
Indyk reportedly told the Israelis, essentially, that “if you support” the American position on Israeli security regarding the Jordan Valley, then “go to the media and be interviewed because they have the impression that the Israeli public has doubts about” the American plan.
One of the names mentioned in the news report was Maj. Gen. (Res.) Avi Mizrachi, who was the head of the Israeli Central Command from October, 2009 until March, 2012.
Mizrahi has already publicly stated his position that he is convinced Israeli forces must remain in the Jordan Valley. Those forces must be present in order to prevent a missile threat from foreign controlled – including Palestinian Arab – territories, as well as to bar the transfer from across the border of explosives, equipment or people who could be used in terrorist attacks.
Israel cannot trust an international force, even an American one, for the existential security of the Jewish State.
Mizrachi reportedly told the American negotiators that he sees two central flaws in the U.S. plan. First, the troops to guard the Jordan Valley must be Israeli troops, not American soldiers. Secondly, the guards must be stationed in the Jordan Valley for 50 years, not the 10 years proposed in the American plan.
The sense conveyed by Segal was the Israelis understood the “diplomatic initiative” by the U.S. to be an effort to convince the Israeli public that they should support the American proposal, even if the Israeli government does not.
Here is a video of the Channel 2 report, captured, translated and subtitled by the ECI, and reported in the Washington Free Beacon.