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Michael Oren: Israel Remains a Strategic Asset for the U.S.

(Jerusalem Post) Herb Keinon - In an interview published on Friday, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren stressed, "Our security relationship with the U.S. is very important for the U.S., not just for us. We provide security benefits that the U.S. can't get from any other country in the world, whether in intelligence sharing, weapons development or just the mere fact that Israel has a sizable army that is highly trained, highly motivated, highly disciplined and under the authority of a democratically elected government that can field that army in a matter of 12 hours. Think about that. What other country in the Middle East can remotely do that - remotely. There is no substitute for Israel in the American security universe - nothing." Oren dismissed as "nonsense" the so-called "realist" foreign policy camp in the U.S. which argues that Israel is a strategic liability for America. "What are they going to do, build a strategic alliance with Syria, with Kuwait - where is the benefit? There are people in Washington who say this, there are think tank people who say it, but I have never heard anyone in the administration remotely intimate it."
2010-07-01 10:45:18
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