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| Iran Deal Looms as U.S. Defense Secretary Meets With Netanyahu | Iran Deal Looms as U.S. Defense Secretary Meets With Netanyahu |
| (about 4 hours later) | |
| JERUSALEM — It was never going to be an easy meeting, but a face-to-face session on Tuesday between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, the first high-level Obama emissary here since the Iran nuclear deal was struck last week, was so fraught with tension that the two balked at even making the obligatory statements at the beginning. | JERUSALEM — It was never going to be an easy meeting, but a face-to-face session on Tuesday between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter, the first high-level Obama emissary here since the Iran nuclear deal was struck last week, was so fraught with tension that the two balked at even making the obligatory statements at the beginning. |
| Instead, Mr. Carter, looking stiff, and Mr. Netanyahu, looking grim, shook hands before the cameras at the prime minister’s office and bolted for the stairs, their aides trailing them. | Instead, Mr. Carter, looking stiff, and Mr. Netanyahu, looking grim, shook hands before the cameras at the prime minister’s office and bolted for the stairs, their aides trailing them. |
| There were none of the usual public pronouncements about the historical ties between the two countries or even any of the America-will-look-after-Israel’s-security talk that is at the top of the Obama administration’s strategy. Instead, the two men huddled for more than an hour behind closed doors. | There were none of the usual public pronouncements about the historical ties between the two countries or even any of the America-will-look-after-Israel’s-security talk that is at the top of the Obama administration’s strategy. Instead, the two men huddled for more than an hour behind closed doors. |
| Afterward, a senior defense official, pressed by a reporter, shrugged and said, “It was a meeting.” | Afterward, a senior defense official, pressed by a reporter, shrugged and said, “It was a meeting.” |
| Mr. Carter himself was slightly more descriptive. Speaking to troops at an air base in Jordan on Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Carter said that he and Mr. Netanyahu had held “good discussions.” | Mr. Carter himself was slightly more descriptive. Speaking to troops at an air base in Jordan on Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Carter said that he and Mr. Netanyahu had held “good discussions.” |
| He added: “We don’t agree on everything, and the prime minister made it quite clear that he disagreed with us on the nuclear deal with Iran. But friends can disagree.” | He added: “We don’t agree on everything, and the prime minister made it quite clear that he disagreed with us on the nuclear deal with Iran. But friends can disagree.” |
| A second senior defense official said later on Tuesday that “we were not there to convince him. We were there to have a conversation about the whole spectrum of our relationship.” | A second senior defense official said later on Tuesday that “we were not there to convince him. We were there to have a conversation about the whole spectrum of our relationship.” |
| Before leaving for Jordan, Mr. Carter gave one last reassurance that the United States would look after Israel despite the disagreement over the Iran nuclear deal, which would lift sanctions on Iran in exchange for restrictions devised to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon. | Before leaving for Jordan, Mr. Carter gave one last reassurance that the United States would look after Israel despite the disagreement over the Iran nuclear deal, which would lift sanctions on Iran in exchange for restrictions devised to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon. |
| At the Yad Vashem museum, which memorializes the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, Mr. Carter, flanked by Moshe Yaalon, Israel’s defense minister, wrote in the guest book: “My country will never forget the tragedy that is recorded here. And that memory is a buttress for our long and everlasting relationship as friends and security partners.” | At the Yad Vashem museum, which memorializes the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, Mr. Carter, flanked by Moshe Yaalon, Israel’s defense minister, wrote in the guest book: “My country will never forget the tragedy that is recorded here. And that memory is a buttress for our long and everlasting relationship as friends and security partners.” |
| But that partnership is frayed now as it has rarely been before. Even as American defense officials were making promises to increase Israeli security, Israeli officials were discussing with journalists and Israel allies in the United States whether they had a chance at mustering the 13 votes in the United States Congress needed to override an expected veto by President Obama if Congress were to vote against the Iran nuclear deal. | But that partnership is frayed now as it has rarely been before. Even as American defense officials were making promises to increase Israeli security, Israeli officials were discussing with journalists and Israel allies in the United States whether they had a chance at mustering the 13 votes in the United States Congress needed to override an expected veto by President Obama if Congress were to vote against the Iran nuclear deal. |
| The hope among Mr. Netanyahu’s close allies, according to one Western diplomat, presumes that Congress will vote against the deal. It then presumes that Mr. Obama will veto the congressional action, and that Congress will have to come up with enough votes, relying heavily on Democrats, to override the veto. | The hope among Mr. Netanyahu’s close allies, according to one Western diplomat, presumes that Congress will vote against the deal. It then presumes that Mr. Obama will veto the congressional action, and that Congress will have to come up with enough votes, relying heavily on Democrats, to override the veto. |
| Publicly, Israeli officials were more muted Tuesday on their congressional hopes. Dore Gold, the director of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, would not say whether Israel believes that a congressional override is possible, nor specify how the government might work toward that goal in coordination with the $20 million campaign begun last week by the pro-Israel group Aipac. The group formed a tax-exempt lobbying organization, Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran, with the sole mission of educating the public about the dangers of the proposed Iran deal, a spokesman for the organization said. | Publicly, Israeli officials were more muted Tuesday on their congressional hopes. Dore Gold, the director of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, would not say whether Israel believes that a congressional override is possible, nor specify how the government might work toward that goal in coordination with the $20 million campaign begun last week by the pro-Israel group Aipac. The group formed a tax-exempt lobbying organization, Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran, with the sole mission of educating the public about the dangers of the proposed Iran deal, a spokesman for the organization said. |
| “What’s important here is not so much the question of, ‘Are Israelis going to be more present in Washington in the next two months, yes or no?’ ” Mr. Gold said at a news conference here. “We’re in a world now where you can put forward your views, they’re on the Internet wherever you’re sitting, you don’t have to change your location wherever you’re sitting.” He said, however, that “any discourse about the Iranian agreement has to be done through mutual respect” because “the United States is a very important ally of Israel.” | |
| Mr. Gold said Israel’s primary strategy would be “to tell the truth” about the agreement. Alongside Israeli intelligence information about potential violations, he cited as a tool Israel’s “rich community of Iranian Jews” fluent in Persian “who get right to the source, quickly, and can put forward how they understand Iranian thinking.” | Mr. Gold said Israel’s primary strategy would be “to tell the truth” about the agreement. Alongside Israeli intelligence information about potential violations, he cited as a tool Israel’s “rich community of Iranian Jews” fluent in Persian “who get right to the source, quickly, and can put forward how they understand Iranian thinking.” |
| Mr. Gold, a former ambassador to the United Nations, cited as Israel’s primary concerns the deal’s proposed 24-day wait for inspections of undeclared sites and the freedom for Iran to develop long-range weapons, as well the broader issue of pumping money into a nation that calls for Israel’s destruction and that, he said, finances terror. | |
| “One set of problems we have with the agreement is these nuts and bolts,” Mr. Gold said. “The other is the windfall of cash coming into the hands of Iran as sanctions are removed.” | “One set of problems we have with the agreement is these nuts and bolts,” Mr. Gold said. “The other is the windfall of cash coming into the hands of Iran as sanctions are removed.” |