WarSclerotic

The White House is not interested in being considered an “honest broker” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a senior US official said this week, rejecting the notion that some sort of “equivalency” between the two sides was required to successfully mediate a peace deal.

Rather, the administration is proudly supportive of Israel and does not feel the need to try to counterbalance any pro-Israel statement with some carrots for the Palestinians, or to add a line about Palestinian grievances every time it laments Israeli victims of terror attacks, according to the senior official.

“The US is a strong ally of Israel. The administration, from the president on down, is not embarrassed to defend Israel where Israel needs to be defended, whether it’s on the Gaza border, on the Hezbollah tunnels, the Syrian border, wherever it is,” the senior official told The Times of Israel, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Asked about the widespread perception that the US is no longer an “honest broker,” the senior official dismissed that concept as “a vestige of talking points from decades ago.”

“We don’t believe that in order for us to work on a peace effort we need to have an equivalency, where we can only say certain things about Israel if at the same time we also say something about the Palestinians,” he said.

“Not only does that not work; we don’t think it’s right. We say what’s on our mind; we speak the truth. The truth may be uncomfortable for some people. But we cannot solve the conflict without being open and honest. Ultimately, it’s all about the plan: either it’s a good plan that’s workable for the two sides, or it isn’t.”

The official was referring to the administration’s much-expected proposal for an comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, which Washington is expected to release in the weeks after the April 9 Knesset elections.

In recent weeks, Trump’s special envoy to the peace process, Jason Greenblatt, has conducted some contentious Twitter exchanges with senior PA officials over US-Palestinian relations and so-called Twitter diplomacy.

Greenblatt, who has been working on the peace plan together with Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, responded to the attacks by saying that his door remains open to Palestinian officials, who would like to discuss the administration’s policies vis-a-vis the Middle East.

The official reiterated that meetings with “ordinary Palestinians” were taking place on a regular basis.

“They express deep frustration with their leadership. They believe that their leadership has eroded their standing in the world, not just in the US, but around the world. They want to engage with us and they want to see what is in the plan. They want a better future, and they know the key to that involves the US,” the official said.

People are seen outside the Palestinian Liberation Organization Delegation office in Washington DC on September 10, 2018. (AFP/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds)

Since US President Donald Trump unilaterally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017, and subsequently moved the US embassy to the city, the Palestinian Authority has refused to engage with administration officials, arguing that Washington was no longer qualified to play a leading role in the peace process.

Relations between Ramallah and Washington further soured after the administration surprisingly cut financial aid to agencies supportive of Palestinians, and closed the Palestine Liberation Organization’s representative office in the US capital.

US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt meets Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the Arab League Summit in Amman, March 28, 2017 (Wafa/Thair Ghnaim)

The US administration remains hopeful that once the plan is released, Palestinian leaders “will realize how much the Palestinians can gain from the plan,” the senior official added.

The US will not try to force either side to accept the peace proposal, he said, adding “but we believe we can put forth a credible, realistic and fair plan that could bring this conflict to an end; to dramatically improve Palestinian lives, maintain Israel’s security and allow Israel to integrate into the region in a way that even two years ago no one would have imagined it could.”

When the plan will see the day of light has not yet been decided, according to the official, acknowledging that there are “numerous considerations” that may play a role and push the date back to mid-May at the earliest. These include the Israeli elections (April 9) and subsequent coalition building process, the Passover holiday (April 19-26), Ramadan (May 5-June 4), and Israeli Memorial and Independence Days (May 7-9).

“Our goal is to release the plan at a time when it has the best chance of success. There are a lot of factors that go into making that decision,” he said.

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump strongly condemned anti-Semitism Tuesday night as he vowed to confront Iran and learn the lessons of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, during his 2019 State of the Union address.

In the speech before a joint session of Congress, in which the president laid out his policy agenda for the next year and lambasted the special counsel’s investigation, Trump spent a fair portion of time on the subject of Jew-hatred.

He contextualized his Iran policy by castigating the regime’s rapacious anti-Semitism.

“We will not avert our eyes from a regime that chants, ‘Death to America,’ and threatens genocide against the Jewish people,” Trump said. “We must never ignore the vile poison of anti-Semitism, or those who spread its venomous creed. With one voice, we must confront this hatred anywhere and everywhere it occurs.”

The need to take a strong stance against Tehran, the president implied, was evident in the attack at the Tree of Life Synagogue — believed to be deadliest act of anti-Semitic violence in American history.

“Just months ago, 11 Jewish Americans were viciously murdered in an anti-Semitic attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh,” Trump said, as he introduced SWAT officer Timothy Matson, who responded to the scene, and Judah Samet, a Holocaust survivor who also survived the attack.

A makeshift memorial stands outside the Tree of Life synagogue in the aftermath of a deadly shooting in Pittsburgh, on October 29, 2018 in which eleven Jews were killed while at Shabbat services. (AP/Matt Rourke)

“He arrived at the synagogue as the massacre began,” Trump said of Samet, who was also celebrating his 81st birthday. “But not only did Judah narrowly escape death last fall — more than seven decades ago, he narrowly survived the Nazi concentration camps.”

Trump visited the synagogue shortly after the attack with his Jewish daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is also his senior adviser.

Earlier this year, the president withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal and renewed sanctions on the Islamic Republic, actions that he said in his speech were intended to “ensure this corrupt dictatorship never acquires nuclear weapons.”

Trump made one mention of Israel in his speech, which lasted over an hour. During an extended segment on his Middle East policy, the president suggested he would diverge from the way previous White Houses had tried to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Our approach is based on principled realism — not discredited theories that have failed for decades to yield progress,” he said. “For this reason, my administration recognized the true capital of Israel — and proudly opened the American embassy in Jerusalem.”

View of the US embassy in Jerusalem’s Arnona neighborhood, May 13, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Trump only briefly mentioned his decision to pull US troops out of Syria, a policy decision to which Jerusalem was deeply opposed. Israel has repeatedly warned in recent years that Iran is seeking to establish a military presence in Syria, where it is fighting alongside its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah and Russia to shore up the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Israeli officials have also warned that America’s absence would open the door for Tehran to create a so-called “land bridge” from Iran, through Iraq and Syria, into Lebanon and to the Mediterranean Sea.

“As a candidate for president, I pledged a new approach.” Trump said. “Great nations do not fight endless war. When I took office, ISIS controlled more than 20,000 square miles in Iraq and Syria. Today, we have liberated virtually all of that territory from the grip of these bloodthirsty killers.”

He continued: “Now, as we work with our allies to destroy the remnants of ISIS, it is time to give our brave warriors in Syria a warm welcome home.”

Iranian state media has released an animated video showing one of the country’s Ghadir-class submarines sinking an American aircraft carrier.

The IRINN news channel aired the clip on February 1, according to a transcription provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

The video opens with the aircraft carrier cruising on an open sea escorted by four smaller ships and carrying two planes on its deck. A green periscope bearing an Iranian flag then appears, sinister music begins playing, and one by one, the American ships disappear beneath the surface.

The clip ends with the submarine towing the American ships underwater past a logo reading “40 years,” a reference to the 40th anniversary of the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, and a voiceover saying, “Our Iran has the technology to manufacture very advanced Ghadir-class submarines.”

Iran’s newly launched Ghadir submarines move in the southern port of Bandar Abbas in Persian Gulf, Iran, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2012. Ghadir class submarines can fire missiles and torpedoes at the same time, and can operate in the Persian Gulf’s shallow waters. (AP Photo/Fars News Agency, Ebrahim Norouzi)

Last week, Iran started celebrating the 40th anniversary of the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the US-backed shah, overturned 2,500 years of monarchical rule and brought hard-line Shiite clerics to power.

The Ghadir class submarines are mini, or midget, submarines that can operate in the shallow waters of the gulf.

The subs have sonar-evading technology and can launch missiles from under water, as well as fire torpedoes and drop marine mines, according to an Iranian state TV report released last year.

Iran began manufacturing Ghadir subs in 2005. The first was unveiled in 2007 and by 2012, five such submarines were incorporated into Iran’s navy.

Iran does not disclose the total number of submarines in its fleet.

In December, the US carrier USS John C. Stennis entered the Persian Gulf, ending a long absence of American carriers in the volatile region.

In past years, Iranian naval forces have harassed US ships in the area, and Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow entrance to the Persian Gulf that is crucial to the international oil trade.