(Jerusalem Post) Herb Keinon - If Netanyahu was insisting on an Israeli security presence along the Jordan River before the events in Cairo, he will assuredly be even more adamant about it now. The instability gripping Israel's neighbor in the south, as well as Lebanon in the north, will only strengthen Netanyahu's default setting - that any peace accord must be preceded by ironclad security arrangements on the ground, and that those security arrangements can't be a reliance on any third party. Israel must be present. What if the events in Egypt spread to Jordan? What if King Abdullah II is overthrown and replaced by Iranian-backed Islamic radicals peering through gunsights on the other side of the Jordan River? Who is Israel going to want on the West Bank: U.S.-led NATO forces, or Israeli ones? With Egypt having a heart attack, the parameters of everything have changed overnight.
2011-01-31 11:48:59Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive