Dear friends,
Below please find comments made on Wednesday in Egypt and today in Israel by Robert Gates, US Defense Secretary. Please check the link below, and I have also included the whole article.
In Egypt on Wednesday, Gates voiced support for postponing the parliamentary and presidential elections, scheduled for June and August respectively. He underscored that the Egyptian military is scheduling the elections much too soon, that there will be no time for the revolutionary elements to develop political parties and to develop organization and structure for their campaigns.
In Israel today, Gates said that there is a need and an opportunity for bold action to move toward a two-state solution, urging Israel to make progress in peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a way of getting ahead of the wave of unrest sweeping throughout the Middle East. Gates also added, according to a senior US defense official, that although uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain and Libya are focusing for now on domestic political and economic grievances, that could change; and that showing real progress on the peace track with the Palestinians would put Israel in a much better position for where the region's likely to be in six months or a year from now. As you will recall, friends, I wrote, since the glorious 25 Egyptian revolution, the identical argument in three sizable emails, they are:
- Egypt - The United States - Israel, Feb. 10,
- Egypt: the Israeli dilemma, Mar. 3, and
- Egypt: the Israeli dilemma, Part 2, Mar. 7.
I am glad that someone in a highly authoritative position like Gates is now addressing the critical issues of the upcoming elections in Egypt, and of Israel and the Palestinians. The latter is an issue that, I am convinced, if resolved, will head the region on its way to comprehensive peace, freedom, justice, democracy and the chance for prosperity for ALL nations and ALL people in the Middle East.
Hussein
Fri, Mar 25, 2011 19 Adar II, 5771 |
Gates calls for bold action to reach two state solution
By YAAKOV KATZ03/24/2011 19:32
US secretary of defense discusses with Barak ways to ensure Israel’s qualitative military edge in changing Middle East.
"There is a need and an opportunity for bold action to move toward a two-state solution,” Gates said during a press conference with Defense Minister Ehud Barak at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on Thursday.
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Gates said that he did not remember a period like now when Israeli-US security relations were so strong particularly in the field of missile defense.
Gates arrived in Israel in the afternoon from Egypt and was met by an honor guard at the Defense Ministry. He said that his impression from his talks in Egypt was that the current leadership led by Defense Minister Mohammed Tantawi took the peace treaty with Israel seriously and intended to retain it. He said that he offered the Egyptians US help in combating the continued smuggling of arms into the Gaza Strip.
Gates' visit on Thursday is his second trip to Israel as defense secretary. His first visit was in April 2007 when Amir Peretz still served as defense minister. Gates is on a tour throughout the Middle East reported to be part of a farewell trip ahead of his planned retirement this summer.
Gates met later Thursday with President Shimon Peres and is scheduled to meet on Friday with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu following his return from Moscow.
During their hour-long meeting, Barak and Gates discussed ways to ensure Israel’s qualitative military edge in a changing Middle East as well as ways to ensure Israeli security so the government will feel confident to move forward with the Palestinian peace track.
Israel is concerned with the possibility that radical Islamists will gain power in some of the countries undergoing revolutions – particularly in Egypt – and is seeking ways to ensure its qualitative military edge.
On Wednesday during his visit to Egypt, Gates reportedly voiced support for postponing elections.
"I would simply say that we believe it is important to allow those new elements that have become active in Egyptian politics, some of them for the first time, to have the time to develop political parties and to develop organization and structure," Gates was quoted as saying in the Wall Street Journal, so that "they can play the same kind of leading role in Egypt in the future that they played in bringing about this change in the first place."
Before his meeting with Barak on Thursday, a senior US defense official told reporters traveling with Gates that the defense secretary planned to urge Israel to make progress in peace talks with the PA as a way of getting ahead of the wave of unrest sweeping throughout the Middle East.
Although uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain and Libya were focusing for now on domestic political and economic grievances, that could change, the official suggested.
“Showing real progress on the peace track with the Palestinians would put them in a much better position for where the region's likely to be in six months or a year from now,” the official said.
Hussein
© Dr Hussein A Amin 2011
