De Israelische Terreur 864

Netanyahu adviser moves out of the shadows

US forced to rehabilitate former spy Uzi Arad

By Jonathan Cook in Nazareth

20 May 2009

Jonathan Cook considers the rise of a former official of Israel’s spy agency Mossad, Uzi Arad, formerly barred from entering the US by the Bush administration after implication in a spying scandal but recently rehabilitated by Obama. Arad is an implacable opponent of Palestinian statehood and believes that Israel should strike  “anything and everything of value” in Iran, including its “holiest sites”.

As might be expected of a former senior official with Israel’s spy agency Mossad, Uzi Arad – the most trusted political adviser to Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister – has got used to being in the shadows as he exerts influence.

 

But that is fast changing. Mr Arad was prominent in preparing Mr Netanyahu’s tough positions as he headed for Washington this week to meet Barack Obama, the US president, who is seeking to advance a Middle East peace plan.

 

Mr Arad, recently appointed the head of Israel’s revamped National Security Council, will oversee an organization that Mr Netanyahu regards as the linchpin of the new government’s security and foreign policy.

 

One military analyst, Amir Oren, has noted that, given Mr Netanyahu’s unstable coalition, Mr Arad “is likely to emerge as a strong adviser to a weak government”.

 

Mr Arad has been outspoken both in rejecting Palestinian statehood and in promoting the military option against Iran, positions believed to be shared by the Israeli prime minister and that will be at the root of a possible confrontation in the coming months with the Obama administration.

 

Mr Arad is also one of only a handful of senior figures on Mr Netanyahu’s Iran Task Force, charged with devising a strategy for dealing with Tehran and its supposed ambitions to attain nuclear weapons.

 

That will make some in Israel uneasy. The hawkish views that have made Mr Arad indispensable to Mr Netanyahu have also earned him several high-profile opponents.

 

Arik Carmon, founder of the Israel Democracy Institute, has described Mr Arad’s proposal to arrange “territorial exchanges” to strip some of Israel’s Palestinian minority of their citizenship as “racist”.

 

Alon Liel, a former director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, has called Mr Arad’s efforts to derail recent talks with Syria by demanding the continuing occupation of the Golan “ridiculous and nasty”.

 

In 2007, before his rise to public prominence, Mr Arad also fuelled worried speculation about Israel’s plans for a military strike on Tehran, after he described it as “easier than you think”. A wide range of non-military Iranian targets were legitimate, he added.

 

But despite Mr Arad’s espousal of opinions that in many respects accord with those of Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu Party and Mr Netanyahu’s foreign minister, few doubt the prime minister’s fierce loyalty to him.

Lees verder: http://www.redress.cc/palestine/jcook20090520