“We share the challenge though our timetables are not the same,” the defense minister says at a pre-Rosh Hashana political even.<\/p>\n
PHOTO: ALON BASON\/DEFENSE MINISTRY<\/p>\n
Defense Minister Ehud Barak appeared to hint on Thursday night that he believed the United States would join Israel in a strike on Iran to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a pre-Rosh Hashana toast for activists of his Independence Party at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds, Barak noted the meeting that he had earlier in the day with Adm. James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, and said they dealt with all the developments in the region, but especially Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe State of Israel will make its decision about its future and its security alone, but the United States is our most important partner,\u201d Barak said at the toast.<\/p>\n
\u201c[America\u2019s] cooperation, intelligence-sharing and military support for Israel is extraordinary in its depth and its comprehensiveness, and I\u2019m convinced that it will continue to be that way in every future test,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Barak, who received an update from Winnefeld on America\u2019s preparedness for dealing with the issues in the region, praised the steps that America had taken to deal with a possible confrontation with Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe share the challenge, though our timetables are not the same and we have our differences,\u201d the defense minister said.<\/p>\n \u201cIsrael maintains for itself the right to make decisions about its sovereignty and the United States respects that, but we cannot mistake the impressive depth of American preparedness to handle the threat [of Iran] from every standpoint,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Barak said that thanks to American generosity, Israel had been able to improve its situation defensively, noting advances in the Iron Dome, Magic Wand and Arrow antimissile systems.<\/p>\n He said the systems increased Israel\u2019s flexibility and freedom to act.<\/p>\n Winnefeld smiled broadly, exchanging pleasantries with Barak in his office at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv in a brief video released by the Defense Ministry.<\/p>\n The visit comes after Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, dismayed Israeli officials by saying that Washington did not want to be \u201ccomplicit\u201d in an Israeli strike on Iran.<\/p>\n Dempsey\u2019s comments were seen as a rebuke to Israel\u2019s stepping up threats of carrying out a unilateral strike against Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities before the US presidential election on November 6.<\/p>\n Washington has urged Israel to hold off in order to give economic sanctions and diplomacy more time to curb Iran\u2019s uranium enrichment.<\/p>\n US Ambassador Shapiro said that the visit “was part of the regular coordination between the US and Israeli militaries on the common challenges we face in the region,” in a post on his Facebook page Thursday. He added that the visit aimed at strengthening defense cooperation.<\/p>\n Army Radio reported that the visit began several days ago and included an inspection of Israel\u2019s Iron Dome rocket-defense system, which is jointly funded with the United States.<\/p>\n In its press release, the Defense Ministry also included photographs of Winnefeld and Barak appearing to measure, with their thumbs and index fingers, the size of Israel on a map of the Middle East on a wall in Barak\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Since Dempsey\u2019s comments, Israeli officials have been careful to be complimentary of the United States and its support for Israel. Before Barak\u2019s comments on Thursday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman praised US President Barack Obama\u2019s foreign policies, saying that \u201cto the credit of the United States, it is the only country that stood by our side in our struggles at the United Nations, the Security Council and UNESCO.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe US increased funding for the Iron Dome. Even if we disagree sometimes and even if there is commentary that suggests otherwise, we must say that we have no better friend than the US,\u201d the foreign minister continued.<\/p>\n Liberman hinted at support for a possible Israeli strike on Iran when he said that Yisrael Beytenu\u2019s presence in the coalition made the government \u201cmore serious and determined to defend the interests of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n By\u00a0GIL HOFFMAN<\/p>\n “We share the challenge though our timetables are not the same,” the defense minister says at a pre-Rosh Hashana political even. PHOTO: ALON BASON\/DEFENSE MINISTRY Defense Minister Ehud Barak appeared … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6782"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1001harf.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"