He suggested that Obama could mollify Netanyahu on the Iran nuclear deal by proposing a consultative committee to address Israeli concerns about the agreement, and to consider ways of countering Tehran’s backing for the Lebanon-based Islamist group Hezbollah, an open enemy of the Jewish state with whom Israel fought a month-long war nearly a decade ago.
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In 2013, after his role in the administration had ended, Ross visited Israel and was summoned to Netanyahu’s residence, arriving just as the prime minister was on a call with Obama. “He believed the United States had given up all its leverage in this deal and the sanctions would now collapse of their own weight, taking all the pressure off the Iranians and freezing the situation”.
Echoing global criticism of Israel over its operations in Gaza, Mr Netanyahu argued that the United Nations has displayed “disproportionality” and “injustice” in its treatment of the Jewish state.
“Had Tom Donilon still been the national security adviser, he surely would have understood that there was a problem, and he would have immediately spoken to his counterpart”, wrote Ross, who worked closely with Donilon in Obama’s first term. “He had done precisely that in September 2012 when Prime Minister Netanyahu had made public comments, challenging our position on the Iranian nuclear issue”. Donilon arranged the call and the air was not only cleared, but there was a meeting of the minds.
Rice, Ross said, was infuriated with Netanyahu’s broadsides against the deal.
The Palestinian official also accused Israel that it is the one which brought the peace talks to a deadlock because of not halting settlement and because Netanyahu refused to freeze it. “I know it’s hard”, said Netanyahu, whose government is one of Israel’s most right wing ever.
While Obama is big on the empty words, the world has no reason to doubt
Netanyahu when he says he will do what is necessary to protect Israel and
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei when he vows “death to
America” and “death to Israel”.
Netanyahu criticized the wave of violence as “the result of wild and mendacious incitement by Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, several countries in the region and – no less and frequently much more – the Islamic Movement in Israel, which is igniting the ground with lies regarding our policy on the Temple Mount and the purported changes that we want to make to the status quo”.
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According to Ross, the “mixed messages” led to Israeli complaints, because the Israelis understood that they stemmed from a fundamental disagreement on preventing Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability versus “containing” that capability. “However, those differences have never lessened in any way our unprecedented commitment to Israel’s security”.
