A team dispatched by Central Command chief General David Petraeus briefed Joint Chiefs Chairman Michael Mullen on the implications of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to larger American interests in the Arab world and elsewhere in the region, in January, according to Mark Perry writing for FP.com’s “Middle East Channel.” His account of the briefing was that “there was a growing perception among Arab leaders that the U.S. was incapable of standing up to Israel, that CENTCOM’s mostly Arab constituency was losing faith in American promises, that Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardizing U.S. standing in the region and that [envoy George] Mitchell was .. ‘too old, too slow .. and too late.’”
The briefing followed December visits in the region by officers directed by Petraeus to speak with Arab leaders. Perry cites a Pentagon officer familiar with the briefing who said, “Everywhere they went, the message was pretty humbling .. America was not only viewed as weak, but its military posture in the region was eroding.” The briefing was followed up, two days later, by a request from CENTCOM to adjust the Unified Command Plan (UCP) — the U.S. military’s division of worldwide geographic responsibilities for combatant commands, like CENTCOM — to shift Gaza and the West Bank from the European Theater to Central Command’s area of responsibility (AOR). Petraeus’ rationale was, according to Perry, to demonstrate to Arab leaders that the U.S. military was engaged in “the region’s most troublesome conflict.” [CENTCOM's AOR includes 20 countries, including most of the Arab nations, stretching from Egypt into Central Asia.]
Although the UCP request — shifting Gaza and the West Bank to CENTCOM — was “dead on arrival” the tenor of the CENTCOM briefing to Mullen “hit like a bombshell.” FP’s Perry noted, “The Obama administration decided it would redouble its efforts — pressing Israel once again on the settlements issue, sending Mitchell on a visit to a number of Arab capitals and dispatching Mullen for a carefully arranged meeting with the chief of the Israeli General Staff, Lt. General Gabi Ashkenazi. While the American press speculated that Mullen’s trip focused on Iran, the JCS Chairman actually carried a blunt, and tough, message on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: that Israel had to see its conflict with the Palestinians ‘in a larger, regional, context’ — as having a direct impact on America’s status in the region. Certainly, it was thought, Israel would get the message.”
It didn’t. Witness the diplomatic row that erupted last week when Israel announced it would built 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem — undermining the Obama Adminsstration’s efforts to get peace talks back on track — while Vice President Joe Biden was in Israel.
Check Mark Perry’s “The Petraeus briefing: Biden’s embarrassment is not the whole story.”
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