JINSA Delegation Meets Israeli Military Leaders
A JINSA delegation including senior retired American military officers and others met yesterday with Israeli Defense Minister Itzchak Mordechai. The meeting, held in Washington, D.C., included substantive discussion of American-Israeli defense issues including the U.S.-Israel joint cooperative program, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles in the Middle East, and progress within the security relationship between Israel and Turkey.
A JINSA delegation including senior retired American military officers and others met yesterday with Israeli Defense Minister Itzchak Mordechai. The meeting, held in Washington, D.C., included substantive discussion of American-Israeli defense issues including the U.S.-Israel joint cooperative program, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles in the Middle East, and progress within the security relationship between Israel and Turkey.
Defense Minister Mordechai pronounced Israeli relations with the Pentagon to be excellent and commended JINSA for its long-time work on U.S.-Israeli security matters. He remarked that much had changed in the short time since he last spoke with a JINSA group in Israel and called JINSA one of the most important voices to speak on behalf of U.S.-Israeli strategic interests.
Minister Mordechai said that despite the recent violence, Israel would pursue the peace process with the Palestinians within the Oslo accords. Relations with Jordan are good, he said, and Israel was doing all it could to strengthen the peace with Jordan.
Listing the three greatest threats to Israel today, the defense minister said that terrorism inside Israel was number one because of its ability to force a dramatic shift in Israel’s internal and external policies. Second is Syria’s acquisition of greater numbers of long-range ballistic missiles, especially the Scud-C, and its large-scale chemical weapons program. Third is regional nuclear development programs.
At the request of Minister Mordechai, Maj. Gen. David Ivry, the long-serving director general of the Ministry of Defense, spoke on Israeli relations with Turkey, having recently returned from a mission to the country. Gen. Ivry said the Ankara government is divided between those who favor expanded ties with Israel and those who view Israel as undesirable if not an enemy. The Turkish military, however, is strongly in favor of closer military relations with Israel but overall, the situation is quite delicate, he emphasized.
Thus far, Gen. Ivry reported, all elements of the first agreement between Ankara and Jerusalem have been exercised including training flights of Israeli and Turkish aircraft in the others’ airspace and reciprocal port visits by each country’s navy. The large contract for Israel to upgrade Turkish Air Force F-4 fighters is under way despite the lack of a firm agreement on financing.
Israeli participants in the JINSA meeting included Defense Minister Mordechai; Ambassador to the United States Eliahu Ben-Elissar; Maj. Gen. David Ivry, outgoing director general of the ministry of defense; Ivry’s successor, Maj. Gen. Ilan Biran; Kuty Mor, aide to the director general; Brig. Gen. Yaacov Amidror, Chief of Analysis of Israeli Military Intelligence; Defense and Armed Forces Attaché of the Embassy of Israel Maj. Gen. Yoram Yair; and Avraham Oren, head of the Israeli Military Purchasing Mission.
JINSA participants included: Advisory Board Member Gen. John Foss (ret.), former commander Army Training and Doctrine Command; Lt. Gen. Anthony Burshnick, USAF (ret.), former Vice Commander, Military Airlift Command; Adm. David Jeremiah, USN (ret.), former Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; and, Lt. Gen. Lawrence Skibbie, President of the Defense Preparedness Association.