{"id":4187,"date":"2011-02-23T09:29:59","date_gmt":"2011-02-23T05:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=4187"},"modified":"2011-02-23T09:29:59","modified_gmt":"2011-02-23T05:29:59","slug":"israeli-muscle-flexing-could-harm-u-s-interests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-politics-analysis\/israeli-muscle-flexing-could-harm-u-s-interests\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli ‘muscle flexing’ could harm U.S Interests"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The earth\u00a0reportedly shook<\/a> as two Iranian naval boats approached the Suez Canal on Tuesday morning. For the U.S., though, the building tension over the passage could result in diplomatic, not literal, earthquakes.<\/p>\n

When the news was first\u00a0announced\u00a0last week that the two warships would pass through the canal, Israeli reaction appeared split. Now it seems Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has\u00a0joined<\/a> his foreign minister in\u00a0ratcheting up the rhetoric, saying, \u201cIsrael takes a grave view of this Iranian step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following closely on the\u00a0U.S. veto<\/a> of a UN Security Council resolution denouncing Israeli settlements, Israel\u2019s blustering approach to the Iranian warships may provide yet another instance where the \u201cspecial relationship\u201d causes the U.S. to choose between its ally Israel, on one hand, and international law and maintaining regional influence on the other.<\/p>\n

Egyptian approval of passage for the Iranian ships was first reported when Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the move amounted to a \u201cprovocation\u201d by Iran. \u201cThe international community must understand that Israel cannot forever ignore these provocations,\u201d he warned ominously.<\/p>\n

Covering the comments, the Wall Street Journal<\/a> pointed to fissures over Lieberman\u2019s blustering and the quieter approach preferred Ehud Barak and the Israeli Defense Ministry.<\/p>\n

At the time, Lieberman\u2019s comments seemed to be made for U.S. consumption.\u00a0Ethan Bronner\u2019s\u00a0New York\u00a0Times piece<\/a> had this nugget (my emphasis):<\/p>\n

The first word came from\u00a0Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in an address to a group of American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. The speech, which\u00a0hinted at a possible response, was closed to reporters\u2026<\/p>\n

The bellicose comments led\u00a0National Interest\u00a0writer Jacob Heilbrunn to\u00a0comment<\/a>: \u201cIsrael\u2019s foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman isn\u2019t just a thug. He\u2019s also a moron.\u201d On Sunday, Netanyahu\u00a0told<\/a> his cabinet, \u201cIsrael takes a grave view of this Iranian step.\u201d<\/p>\n

A former State Department senior intelligence official\u00a0called on Israel \u201cto stand down and avoid any provocative actions.\u201d Middle East Institute scholar\u00a0Wayne White <\/a>told\u00a0LobeLog\u00a0that Israeli \u201cmuscle-flexing\u201d and a perception of \u201chigh-handedness\u201d now could be harmful to U.S. (and even Israeli) interests on a wide range of issues. He mentioned the still-developing and fluid situation in Egypt, anti-regime protests in Iran itself, and uncertainty in Jordan, which is facing some unrest and, like Egypt, has a peace deal with Israel.<\/p>\n

White\u2019s list of examples gives a taste of just how many crises the U.S. is facing in the region. With protests in several U.S.-allied countries like Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Tunisia, and even Iraq, the U.S. wants to keep things relatively calm. As White points out, another crisis, with Israel and the U.S. pitted against Iran and Syria (whose waters the Iranian ships are reportedly bound for), could easily inject anti-U.S. and anti-Israeli sentiments into the anti-government movements that have been sweeping the region or permit besieged autocrats to divert popular attention and agitation.<\/p>\n

The other elephant in the room is the notion of Suez passage itself. So far, the U.S. has taken a measured tone. State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley\u00a0said<\/a> on Friday: \u201cIf the ships move through the canal, we\u2019ll evaluate what they actually do.\u201d He said the potential issues were the ships\u2019 cargo and destination. Crowley seemed eager to move onto a new topic, repeatedly interrupting the questioner(s).<\/p>\n

The lack of U.S. focus on passage itself is perhaps a nod to both the Constantinople Convention (1988) governing Suez Passage and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1983, in force 1994), which allows\u00a0\u201cinnocent passage\u201d<\/a>through even territorial waters. The\u00a0Constantinople convention\u00a0states<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Suez Maritime Canal shall always be free and of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the High Contracting Parties agree not in any way to interfere with the free use of the Canal, in time of war as in time of peace.<\/p>\n

One of those contracting parties is, of course, Egypt, which may not interfere or block anyone\u2019s passage. The U.S. relies on this status quo as much, if not more, than any other country. Indeed, if the right of \u201cinnocent passage\u201d is questioned in this case, think of all the possible ramifications for the U.S. Navy and its 11 aircraft carrier groups that span the globe, if not always to the acclaim of the natives. It\u2019s not for nothing that the Navy has been the country\u2019s biggest advocate for Senate ratification of the Law of the Sea Convention.<\/p>\n

If the Israelis keep pushing back against Iran, rumblings of the diplomatic sort could soon follow for the U.S. Once again, as when Israel backed ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak until his last days and relentlessly pressed the Obama administration to cast his UN Security Council veto on a resolution that was entirely consistent with U.S. policy since 1967, Washington\u2019s \u201cspecial relationship\u201d with the Jewish State could become burdensome to broader U.S. strategic interests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALI GHARIB, MONDOWEISS: Two Iranian warships pass through the Suez Canal and the Israelis howl in protest. The U.S administration quickly falls into line…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":4189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,82,60],"tags":[3472,18303,2275,2313,18300,3041,2553,2323,18306,18321,18311,4811,726,18305,1253,2317,2321,1808,2204,3967,2839,4222,18330,3715,18322,2454,387,18302,4809,2020],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}