Israeli envoy rejects Mideast ‘linkage’

Foreign-policy crises in Iraq and Iran will not be eased by pressuring Israel to cut a peace deal with the Palestinians, Israeli Ambassador Sallai Meridor said in an interview yesterday.

Mr. Meridor, in a luncheon with editors and reporters at The Washington Times, firmly rejected the idea pushed by Arab allies of the U.S. that an Israeli-Palestinian accord would reduce ethnic and sectarian violence in Iraq or slow Iran’s quest for a nuclear bomb.

“Frankly, we don’t see any connection between our dispute with the Palestinians and the level of violence on Haifa Street in Baghdad,” said Mr. Meridor, who assumed his post in early December.

“And there is no linkage in my mind between the Israeli-Palestinian question and what Ahmadinejad is planning for the region and the world by pursuing a nuclear weapon.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said this week that Israel does not intend to use military force against Iran, which Israel suspects is building nuclear bombs.

In addition to Iran’s nuclear program, Israel considers the Islamic republic a threat because of repeated declarations by Mr. Ahmadinejad that the Jewish state should be wiped off the map.

Mr. Peres spoke Tuesday during “the Doha Debates,” a project in which world leaders discuss current events with students in the Persian Gulf sheikdom of Qatar.The central role of Israel’s disputes with its Arab neighbors in fueling regional tensions was a key finding of the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan panel led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, Indiana Democrat.

Mr. Meridor said in the interview that he saw the beginnings of a realignment in the Middle East, linking Israel and the United States with moderate Sunni Muslim Arab states fearful of the rising power of Shi’ite Iran. But he said it was too soon to tell whether an anti-Tehran coalition would form.

“We think that, yes, there is a convergence of interests of many Arab countries in the region and Israel today in recognition of the threat to the entire region from Iran,” he said. “Whether that can be translated into action and a new alliance, we will have to see.”

Moderate Arab governments have long argued that the Israeli-Palestinian dispute has fueled tensions throughout the Muslim world, providing popular support to extremist groups.

“The continued denial of Palestinian rights is a fire starter,” Jordan’s King Abdullah II told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this week. “If you don’t fix the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you can’t have stability in the region.”

The Iraq Study Group recommended renewed U.S. pressure on Israel to deal directly with the Palestinians, with Syria over the Golan Heights, and with Lebanon over the threat posed by the Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah.

“The United States will not be able to achieve its goals in the Middle East unless the United States deals directly with the Arab-Israeli conflict,” the panel concluded.

Israel has long feared pressure from Washington to make major concessions to the Palestinians to further other U.S. foreign-policy goals in the region. Mr. Meridor said a push for a peace deal now is complicated by the deep political divisions within the Palestinian territories.

“Nobody is more interested in a real two-state compromise than Israel, as we have demonstrated time and time again,” Mr. Meridor said.

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