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Ya'alon: Premature to Consider U.S.-Crafted Security Arrangements
(Defense News) Barbara Opall-Rome - Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon told the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv on Tuesday that the Iranian regime "is now well received in the world despite the fact that it continues to spread its balance of terror in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, the Palestinian theater in Gaza, South America, Asia and Africa." He rejected arguments that failure to conclude a Palestinian peace deal deters Saudi Arabia and other moderate Sunni states from forging a united front against Iran. "People in the Arab countries don't raise the Palestinian issue; it's only lip service for external consumption. What does the Palestinian issue have to do with the Iranian threat?" Ya'alon insisted that it is way too premature to consider U.S.-crafted security arrangements when Palestinians are unwilling to accept Israel's right to exist in the region as a sovereign homeland for the Jewish people. "You can't talk about security coming from unmanned aerial vehicles and sensors. As long as the Israeli flag does not appear on their map...as long as they are unwilling to declare an end of conflict and end of claims until the last Palestinian refugee is satisfied, what is there to discuss? This is the essence of the conflict."