Israel Hayom | Report: Hezbollah chief Nasrallah secretly visits Iran.

Israel Hayom | Europe can’t bring peace to the Mideast.

Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. This piece is reprinted with permission and can be found on Abrams’ blog “Pressure Points” here.

Lady Catherine Ashton, the EU’s top foreign policy official, has received a remarkable letter from the “European Eminent Persons Group on the Middle East Peace Process.” This self-selected collectivity might more accurately be called the “Formerly Eminent Persons Group,” inasmuch as the first word describing each one of its members is “Former,” but I suppose that these Formerly Eminent Persons do indeed also represent the views of Currently Eminent European Persons.

The letter is important in one way: It shows that European official and elite thinking continues to blame Israel for everything related to the so-called peace process. To take one example, the letter states that:

“We have watched with increasing disappointment over the past five years the failure of the parties to start any kind of productive discussion, and of the international community under American and/or European leadership to promote such discussion. We have also noted with frustration and deep concern the deteriorating standards of humanitarian and human rights care of the population in the Occupied Territories.”

The failure of the parties? Five years? Five years ago, in the spring of 2008, the parties were negotiating, apparently seriously, as part of what was then called “the Annapolis process.” That failed when Mahmoud Abbas refused an extremely generous offer from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The Formerly Eminent Persons appear to have forgotten this, or, far more likely, appear to be seeking to avoid that truth. Equally inaccurate is their line about the “failure of the parties,” a phrase that refuses to acknowledge that only the Palestinians have refused to negotiate in the last four years, not “the parties.”

In any event, the Formerly Eminent Persons soon arrive at their key insight, which is “that the Peace Process as conceived in the Oslo Agreements has nothing more to offer.” What does this mean, actually? Turns out, rather unsurprisingly, that it means we must all get tougher now with Israel. We must all insist that Israel’s borders are the 1967 lines and everything beyond that is illegal and illegitimate. Everything — including such things as Israel’s control of the Western Wall and the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, from which Israelis were kept away when Jordan controlled the area. The Formerly Eminent Persons wish above all to erase the letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon from President George W. Bush in 2004, where he called the major settlement blocks “new realities on the ground” that all efforts at negotiation had acknowledged Israel would keep.

There is more in the letter that is wrong, such as the notion that human rights conditions in the West Bank are deteriorating due to the Israeli occupation. One can make a good argument that they are deteriorating in the Gaza Strip due to Hamas and in the West Bank due to the growing pressure from the Palestinian Authority against journalists. The letter does not appear to consider the possibility that any problem in Palestinian areas might possibly be the fault of Palestinians.

The letter’s greatest sins are those that are quite familiar in letters from Europe, whether from Formerly Eminent Persons or from Currently Eminent Persons: the sin of blaming everything on Israel and nothing on the Palestinians, demanding nothing of the Palestinians, and treating the Palestinians like objects rather than people. Nowhere does the letter mention the issue of anti-Semitic broadcasting and hate speech in Palestinian official media, nor the matter of the glorification of terrorism and terrorists by the PA, and the impact such conduct has on prospects for peace.

The letter takes a shot at U.S. President Barack Obama, saying that all he said and did during his trip to Israel “gave no indication of action to break the deep stagnation.” Just talk from the Americans, you see; we are all, including Obama, seen as coddling Israel (and we do not even have Formerly Eminent Persons writing letters).

This letter is a useful reminder of European attitudes, at least at the level of the Eminent: Blame Israel, treat the Palestinians as children, wring your hands over the terrible way the Americans conduct diplomacy. The Israelis will treat this letter with the derision it deserves, and the Palestinians will understand that because this kind of thing reduces European influence with Israel, the EU just can’t deliver much. Indeed it cannot, and the bias, poor reasoning, and refusal to face facts in this letter all suggest that this won’t be changing any time soon.

Here is the letter and its list of signatories:

THE MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS

Dear High Representative

We, the under-signed members of the European Eminent Persons Group on the Middle East Peace Process, are writing to you to express our strong concern about the dying chances of a settlement based on two separate, sovereign and peaceful states of Israel and Palestine.

The Eminent Persons Group is composed of a number of former Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ministers and senior officials of EU Member States who have decided to concert their efforts to encourage a lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

We have watched with increasing disappointment over the past five years the failure of the parties to start any kind of productive discussion, and of the international community under American and/or European leadership to promote such discussion. We have also noted with frustration and deep concern the deteriorating standards of humanitarian and human rights care of the population in the Occupied Territories. The security and long-term stability of Israel, an essential objective in any process, cannot be assured in such conditions, any more than the legitimate rights and interests of the Palestinian people.

President Obama made some of these points during his March 2013 visit to the region, particularly in his address to the people of Israel, but he gave no indication of action to break the deep stagnation, nor any sign that he sought something other than the re-start of talks between West Bank and Israeli leaders under the Oslo Process, which lost its momentum long ago.

We are therefore appealing to you, and through you to the members of the Council of Ministers, to recognise that the Peace Process as conceived in the Oslo Agreements has nothing more to offer. Yet the present political stalemate, while the situation deteriorates on the ground, is unsustainable, given the disturbed politics of the region and the bitterness generated by the harsh conditions of life under the Occupation.

The concern of the European Union at this deterioration, clearly expressed in a series of statements, not least the European Council Conclusions of 14 May 2012, has not been matched by any action likely to improve the situation. The aspirations of Palestinians and Israelis and the interests of the European Union, prominently referred to in those Conclusions and in other relevant EU documents, cannot be met by the current stagnation.

It is time to give a stark warning that the Occupation is actually being entrenched by the present Western policy. The Palestinian Authority cannot survive without leaning on Israeli security assistance and Western funding and, since the PA offers little hope of progress towards self-determination for the Palestinian people, it is fast losing respect and support from its domestic constituency. The steady increase in the extent and population of Israeli settlements, including in East Jerusalem, and the entrenchment of Israeli control over the OT in defiance of international law, indicate a permanent trend towards a complete dislocation of Palestinian territorial rights.

We have reached the conclusion that there must be a new approach. Letting the situation lie unaddressed is highly dangerous when such an explosive issue sits in such a turbulent environment.

A realistic but active policy, set in the context of current regional events, needs to be composed of the following elements:

• a sharper focus on the essential need for a two-state solution, as the most likely outcome to offer lasting peace and security for the parties and their neighbourhood and the only one recognised by UN resolutions as just and equitable;
• an explicit recognition that the current status of the Palestinian Territories is one of occupation, with responsibility for their condition falling under international law on the occupying state;
• an insistence that Israeli settlements beyond the 1967 lines are illegal, must cease being expanded and will not be recognised as one of the starting points in any new negotiations;
• a stipulation that any representative political organisation with a valid claim to participate in negotiations must renounce the use of violence outside established UN norms;
• the renewal of efforts to establish a unified Palestinian representation of both the West Bank and Gaza, without which a comprehensive peace cannot be successfully negotiated and the absence of which serves as an excuse for inaction;
• the encouragement of reform of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, including representation of all the main Palestinian parties committed to non-violence and reflecting the expressed wishes of the resident Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza;
• a vigorous international drive for the implementation of much improved humanitarian and human rights conditions in both the West Bank and Gaza, monitored by the United Nations, whatever the state of peace negotiations might be at any time;
• a reconsideration of the funding arrangements for Palestine, in order to avoid the Palestinian Authority’s present dependence on sources of funding which serve to freeze rather than promote the peace process;
• a clear and concerted effort to counter the erasing of the 1967 lines as the basis for a two-state outline. This should include a clear distinction in EU dealings with Israel between what is legitimate – within the 1967 lines – and what violates international law in the Occupied Territories;
• a clearer willingness within the EU to play a political and not just a funding role and to resume a more strategic dialogue with the Palestinians.

For all the good sense of EU statements on this issue over the years, the EU’s inactivity in the face of an increasingly dangerous stagnation is both unprincipled and unwise. European leaders cannot wait for ever for action from the United States when the evidence accumulates of American failure to recognise and promote the equal status of Israelis and Palestinians in the search for a settlement, as accepted in United Nations resolutions.

Later generations will see it as unforgivable that we Europeans not only allowed the situation to develop to this point of acute tension, but took no action now to remedy the continuing destruction of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. We regard it as essential for EU interests that the Council of Ministers and you take rapid action to correct this unacceptable state of affairs.

We are sending copies of this letter to Members of the Council of Ministers and to the US Secretary of State.

Members of the EEPG send you their respectful greetings.

Signed

Guiliano Amato, Former Prime Minister of Italy

Frans Andriessen, Former Vice-President of the European Commission

Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, Former Vice-Prime Minister of the Netherlands

John Bruton, Former Prime Minister of Ireland

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Former European Commissioner and Former Foreign Minister of Austria

Teresa Patricio Gouveia, Former Foreign Minister of Portugal

Jeremy Greenstock, Former UK Ambassador to the UN and Co-Chair of the EEPG

Lena Hjelm-Wallén, Former Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden

Wolfgang Ischinger, Former State Secretary of the German Foreign Ministry and Co-Chair of the EEPG

Lionel Jospin, Former Prime Minister of France

Miguel Moratinos, Former Foreign Minister of Spain

Ruprecht Polenz, Former Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag

Pierre Schori, Former Deputy Foreign Minister of Sweden

Javier Solana, Former High Representative and Former NATO Secretary-General

Peter Sutherland, Former EU Commissioner and Director General of the WTO

Andreas van Agt, Former Prime Minister of the Netherlands

Hans van den Broek, Former Netherlands Foreign Minister and Former EU Commissioner for External Relations

Hubert Védrine, Former Foreign Minister of France and Co-Chair of the EEPG

Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Former President of Latvia

From “Pressure Points” by Elliott Abrams. Reprinted with permission from the Council on Foreign Relations.

Israel Hayom | War on terror is not over.

It would have been very convenient for the U.S. administration if Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the two brothers believed to be responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings, turned out to be members of some radical American fringe group. But that is not the case, so the administration and the American public are facing a dilemma.

While there is no evidence at this time to directly link the Tsarnaev brothers to al-Qaida, their fascination with the radical terror group, as well as with other jihadist groups, was easily discovered through their Internet browsing history.

And it was in Boston, one of the friendliest cities in the United States, where U.S. President Barack Obama has received his wake-up call: The war on terror is far from over.

Obama has had to deal with many questions in the wake of the Boston bombing, like how could two young men who were raised in the U.S. and exposed to the American way of life do such a thing? And did they have any outside help? Those are good questions, whose answers may be too hard to handle for someone who has worked so hard to strike the term “Islamic terror” from the American lexicon.

The Boston bombing was a lesson to anyone who refused to acknowledge that jihadist ideology can transcend borders and can find its way to the West, and into the minds of bright young men, like 19-year-old Dzhokhar, who was enrolled at the prestigious University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Obama believes in a different, better world. Maybe that was why it took him a whole week to admit that last September’s attack in Benghazi, Libya, which killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and four other Americans, was a terror attack. It took him 24 hours to utter the word “terror” after the Boston bombing as well.

In his State of the Union address in February, Obama said the U.S. “can say with confidence that America will … achieve our objective of defeating the core of al-Qaida.” Obama, whose credits now include taking out Osama bin Laden (a substantial achievement) was convinced that all he had to deal with now were the remnants of this terror group. He even declared that the war on terror was over.

America, however, realized that this was far from accurate. Worse: It was exposed to the combination of an internal-external attack, the kind perpetrated by American citizens who were inspired, and perhaps even guided, by external forces.

The U.S. suddenly remembered how in 2009 Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Palestinian-American U.S. Army Medical Corps officer, killed 13 of his comrades in Fort Hood, Texas. Hasan’s killing spree was inspired by the teachings of American-Yemeni imam and terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki.

Over the weekend, Boston celebrated the arrest of Dzhokhar, 19, and the death of his brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan. There was no doubt that the world’s No. 1 power would track down the bombers; but the fact that the FBI questioned Tamerlan in 2011 over his alleged extremist ties and had to let him go because it could not find any incriminating evidence is definitely a cause for concern.

Right after the marathon bombing, it was clear that the two devices, which were made up of explosives encased in pressure cookers containing ball bearings and nails, were reminiscent of Islamic terror. There were also reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin offered the U.S. Russia’s help in the investigation. All that was missing was Chechnya — not so much because it has been waging war against Mother Russia since the 19th century, but because it has become a hotbed for radical Islam. That is the reality, whether you want to acknowledge it or not.

via Hagel: Israel, US see ‘exactly same’ Iran threat – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Shortly before landing in Israel, US defense secretary says there is ‘no daylight at all’ between Jerusalem, Washington on central goal of preventing nuclear Iran, but adds ‘there may well be some differences regarding the timing’

Associated Press

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Sunday the United States and Israel see “exactly the same” threat from Iran, but differ on when it may reach the point of requiring US or Israeli military action.

Hagel used his first visit to Israel as Pentagon chief to highlight his view that Israel must decide for itself whether and when to pre-emptively attack its neighbor.

“Israel will make the decision that Israel must make to protect itself, to defend itself,” Hagel told reporters before arriving here on Sunday to begin a week-long tour of the Middle East.

Hagel acknowledged that while Israel and the US share a commitment to ensuring that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon, there “may well be some differences” between the two allies on the question of when Iran’s leaders might decide to go for a bomb.

Hagel lands in Israel (Photo: AFP)

He said there is “no daylight at all” between Israel and the US on the central goal of preventing a nuclear-armed Iran.

But he added, “When you back down into the specifics of the timing of when and if Iran decides to pursue a nuclear weapon, there may well be some differences.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tends to see more urgency, reflecting in part the fact that certain Iranian technological advances toward a nuclear weapon could put the program beyond the ability of the Israeli military to destroy it with airstrikes. US forces have greater reach.

‘Very clear signal to Iran.’ Obama and Hagel (Archive photo: Reuters)

In an interview on an overnight flight from Washington, Hagel repeatedly emphasized Israel’s right of self-defense and stressed that military force – by implication, Israeli or American – remains an option of last resort.

“In dealing with Iran, every option must be on the table,” he said.

Hagel, 66, came under intense fire from Republican critics, prior to his February Senate confirmation hearing, for some of his past statements on Israel. His critics painted him as insufficiently supportive of the Jewish state.

V-22 Osprey transport plane (Photo: AP)

In choosing to make Israel one of his first overseas stops, Hagel sought to put that controversy behind him – with serious words and a touch of humor. The February confirmation hearing, which Republicans used to hammer him on Israel and other subjects, “was years ago,” he deadpanned.

During his two-day visit to Israel, Hagel is expected to put the final touches on a US arms deal that would provide Israel with missiles for its fighter aircraft, plus KC-135 refueling planes that could be used in a long-range strike on a country like Iran, as well as V-22 Osprey transport planes. He called the proposed sale a “very clear signal” to Iran.

“The bottom line is, Iran is a threat – a real threat,” he said, not only for its nuclear ambitions and its stated goal of destroying Israel but also for its alleged sponsoring of terrorism.

Hagel said US and international economic sanctions are “hurting Iran significantly,” but he said they do not guarantee that Iranian leaders will be persuaded to stop what the West sees as their ambition to become a nuclear power. Iran asserts that its nuclear program is designed entirely for non-military purposes.

Hagel suggested he holds hope that Iran’s presidential election in June might change the trajectory of its nuclear drive.

He asserted that there is still time for diplomacy and international sanctions to resolve the Iran problem.

“These other tracks do have some time to continue to try to influence the outcome in Iran,” he said.

In the interview en route to Tel Aviv, Hagel was asked whether the Obama administration has determined whether the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against opposition rebels. He said intelligences analysts are still assessing the evidence and have not reached a conclusion.

After his talks in Israel, Hagel is scheduled to visit Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Each of those four is an important American ally in the Middle East, and each is worried by Syria’s civil war.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are part of a $10 billion proposed US arms sale that includes Israel. The UAE would get about 26 F-16 fighters and it and Saudi Arabia would get advanced air-launched missiles.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is also in the region. He is working to mend the strained relationship between Turkey and Israel and on Sunday he announced the White House is doubling its non-lethal assistance to the Syrian opposition to $250 million.

Outrage in Jordan | JPost | Israel News.

( Just plain sickening… – JW)

Hagel: Israel has right to decide on Iran strike | JPost | Israel News.

Netanyahu: Eilat rockets likely fired by Gazan terrorists | JPost | Israel News.

( This may or may not be true.  But Gaza has an address and can make Sinai quiet.  If I was in Gaza I would sleep in the cellar tonight… – JW )

By JPOST.COM STAFF, YAAKOV LAPPIN

Netanyahu Vows to Retaliate for Eilat Attack – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News.

( YES!!!  My tourist town is doomed if we let this shit continue… – JW )

Remains of Grad that hit EIlat

Israel Police

Israel will “extract a price” from those who launched the terror attack against the Red Sea resort town of Eilat last week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced Sunday.

The statement made it clear that Israel has decided to draw a line in the sand for terrorists from Gaza – and elsewhere — operating against the Jewish State from the Sinai Peninsula.

Last Wednesday, the Mujahedeen Shura Council, a Salafi jihadist group claimed responsibility for firing two Grad Katyusha missiles at Eilat from the Sinai Peninsula and triggering activation of the Color Red rocket alert system in the city.

One of the missiles landed in a building site, the other in the backyard of a private home. No one was physically injured, and no property damage was reported.

A senior member of an unnamed Salafi terror group in Gaza was quoted by the London-based Arabic daily A-Sharq al-Awsat on Friday as saying that rocket fire aimed at Eilat is part of the Islamic concept of jihad (holy war) and will not stop.

Salafi Muslim groups, he said, are not obligated by the Egyptian-brokered cease fire between Israel and the Hamas terrorist rulers of Gaza following last November’s IDF Pillar of Defense counter terror operation.

Likud Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon toured Eilat just hours after the Grad attack on the city, visiting the neighborhood struck by one of the missiles and speaking to the residents. Although the Iron Dome anti-missile system correctly identified the missiles as they approached the city, Danon said, the battery did not activate. The minister added that the matter was under investigation.

Home Front Command has announced that it will hold a five-day defense exercise in Eilat beginning on Sunday, to include the opening of public bomb shelters and implementation of rescue operations.

Israeli planes departing from the Red Sea resort town will soon be armed with anti-missile systems, according to a report broadcast last week on Israeli television’s Channel 2.

Israel is installing the equipment on civilian aircraft to counter the threat of shoulder-carried anti-aircraft missiles that could be fired from the Sinai Peninsula, according to the report.

Speaking at the opening of the regular weekly government cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said, “Israel will extract a price from what would appear to be Gaza terrorists operating from the Sinai who are responsible for the rocket attack on Eilat.”

Late last night Gaza terrorists again launched a rocket attack against southern Israel, striking the Eshkol Regional Council district.

The Color Red air raid siren activated prior to the attack, waking parents an hour after midnight and forcing them to drag children from their beds with a window of 15 seconds to race for shelter before the rocket landed.

No one was physically injured, and no property damaged was reported.

Two similar attacks occurred Thursday at about 11:00 p.m., but residents did not have the benefit of any warning at all, as the Color Red rocket alert warning system failed to activate for some reason.

Miraculously, no one was injured and no damage was reported.

Saudi Arabia opens luxury rehab center for Qaeda terrorists – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Extremists jailed during crackdown on local branch of al-Qaeda will be able to swim, work out and watch television between meetings with counselors. ‘To fight terrorism, we must give them an intellectual and psychological balance,’ says director of rehab centers

AFP

Saudi Arabia is hoping to wean jailed al-Qaeda terrorists off religious extremism with counseling, spa treatments and plenty of exercise at a luxury rehabilitation center in Riyadh.

In between sessions with counselors and talks on religion, prisoners will be able to relax in the center’s facilities which include an Olympic-size indoor swimming pool, a sauna, gym and a television hall.

The new complex is the work of the Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Center for Counseling and Care, a body set up seven years ago to rehabilitate extremists jailed during a Saudi crackdown on the local branch of al-Qaeda.

“Just under 3,000 (Islamist prisoners) will have to go through one of these centers before they can be released,” interior ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turki told AFP during a tour of the new center.

Another center has already opened in the western port city of Jeddah, and three more are planned for the north, east and south of the desert kingdom.

The new facility in Riyadh, however, is the first to offer inmates a taste of luxury as an incentive to moderate their beliefs.

Olympic-size indoor swimming pool at center (Photo: AFP)

The centers bear the name of the current interior minister, who spearheaded the government’s crackdown on al-Qaeda following deadly attacks by the group between 2003 and 2006 in which more than 150 Saudis and foreigners were killed.

Al-Qaeda jihadists, many of them trained in Afghanistan, had targeted Saudi Arabia for allowing US troops to set up bases in the kingdom during the Gulf War and to stay on afterwards, until they eventually withdrew in 2003.

During the crackdown, many terrorists fled from Saudi into Yemen’s lawless southern and southeastern regions where the network formed al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in January 2009 – classified by the United States as the jihadists’ deadliest branch.

Prince Mohammed himself survived a suicide attack by a jihadist in August 2009 when a bomber managed to infiltrate the prince’s security. The prince suffered only superficial injuries.

The Riyadh centre spreads over an area equivalent to around 10 football pitches and is designed to accommodate 228 prisoners from the “deviant group,” the term used by Saudi authorities to refer to al-Qaeda.

Each of the 12 buildings at the flagship facility will host 19 prisoners, who will have access to special suites where they can spend time with visiting family members.

Good behavior could earn them a two-day break with their wives.

‘Dialogue and persuasion.’ Saudi rehab center (Photo: AFP) 

During the day, the prisoners will attend seminars on religious affairs, aimed at steering them away from thoughts of jihad.

“In order to fight terrorism, we must give them an intellectual and psychological balance… through dialogue and persuasion,” said the director of the rehabilitation centers, Said al-Bishi.

He said a total of 2,336 al-Qaeda prisoners have now been through Saudi rehabilitation schemes.

“The percentage of those who rejoin the deviant minority does not exceed 10%,” Bishi said, a proportion he described as “encouraging”.

AFP tried to speak to several former al-Qaeda prisoners who had been released after going through rehabilitation but they declined to be interviewed about their experiences.

Not everyone is convinced, however. There have been some high-profile returns to the ranks of the jihad, such as Saeed al-Shehri, who became deputy leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula after supposedly being rehabilitated.

Liberals are particularly critical of the religious content of the program which they say draws on an ultra-conservative version of Islam not so different from al-Qaeda’s own.

“We cannot know if the program will succeed in eradicating terrorism and extremism,” social scientist Khaled al-Dakheel told AFP.

“To treat the problem at its root, one should challenge jihadist thought with an enlightened philosophy, not just with other Salafist ideas that are only slightly less extreme,” he said.

“There must be pluralism and an acknowledgement of the rights of others to be different.”

Hagel arrives in Israel for first stop on Mideast tour – Diplomacy & Defense – Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper.

The Iranian nuclear issue will be front and center in Hagel’s defense-related meetings, along with the changing situation in Syria, and arms sales.

Chuck Hagel Photo by Reuters

By Amir Oren | Apr.21,2013 | 11:51 AM

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived on Israel late Sunday morning, kicking off a week-long five-country regional visit expected to focus on Iran, the Syrian civil war and weapons sales to allies Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Hagel is using his first visit to Israel as Pentagon chief to underscore his view that Israel must decide for itself whether and when to use military force against Iran. He told reporters on his flight from Washington that Israel has every right to defend itself, and that Israel and the U.S.­ share the objective of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. He also acknowledged some differences of view with the Israelis on the question of when and if Iran will decide to go ahead with building a bomb.

Route 1, the main highway leading to Jerusalem, was closed from 11 A.M. to 1 P.M.  as Hagel made his way to the capital.

He will start his Israel tour with a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem, and Sunday night he will be Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon’s dinner guest at the David Citadel Hotel. The U.S. defense secretary is also scheduled to meet with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Benny Gantz during his visit.

On Monday, Hagel and Ya’alon are expected to discuss the anticipated sale to Israel of U.S. military equipment including an undisclosed number of Bell Boeing V-22 transport helicopters and Boeing KC-135 inflight refueling planes, as well as advanced radar systems for fighter planes and antiradiation missiles.

Israeli officials say the arms deal aims in part to preserve Israel’s military superiority in light of weapons contracts with other countries in the region.

Ayalon and Hagel are expected to hold a press conference after their meeting Monday. In the afternoon, Hagel is scheduled to meet with Peres to discuss military issues and ways to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

The U.S. Defense Department has called Hagel’s visit a continuation of contacts following President Barack Obama’s trip here last month. The Iranian nuclear issue will be front and center in Hagel’s defense-related meetings, along with the changing situation in Syria. On Monday, an honor guard will be on hand at Tel Aviv’s Kirya army base to honor Hagel.

From Israel, the defense secretary will travel to Amman to discuss the implications of Syria’s civil war on Jordan, before proceeding on to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. In the UAE Hagel is expected to move to finalize the sale of 25 F-16 fighter planes. The deal is set to include training in the United States of UAE combat pilots.