If President Barack Obama sent advisers to Israel to try to promote Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition in the upcoming election, he made a mistake that could likely backfire, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Danny Ayalon said Wednesday on "America’s Forum."
"The administration would be well advised not to meddle in Israeli internal politics," he told the
Newsmax TV program.
"If this is true, this is something which is very wrong and a clarification should come out. I don't think
President Obama should send his political advisers to help any of the parties in Israel, but I'm not sure it will help. It could backfire, and if this is the case, Israelis may resent any intervention from abroad and in defiance to that they may even go back.
"Some people who decided not to vote for Bibi Netanyahu may now rethink that position and vote for him just as defiance to this foreign interference."
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Concerning Hezbollah’s deadly attack on an Israeli convoy Wednesday, Ayalon said there’s no question that Iran is connected to the terror group.
"We know for a fact that Hezbollah is an integral organ of the terror machinery and infrastructure of Iran and whatever Hezbollah does is by order of Tehran," Ayalon said.
"We are in a slippery slope now. The more we see Syria disintegrating, the more we see subnational groups taking over, and there's no address and no responsibility. These jihadist radical Islamist terrorists are taking over, and when they are taking over they are attacking wherever they can."
Six million Jews died in the Holocaust because they were defenseless, Ayalon said, and Israel will make sure that never happens again. Iran, he asserted, is planning to take over the Middle East and beyond, making it more important than ever to keep them from becoming a nuclear state.
"This is why they have now these long-range ballistic missiles that can reach North America," he said. "Iran is a danger not just for Israel, but for the entire international community.
"You cannot negotiate with these terrorists. They only understand when you have the upper hand and today, the international community has the upper hand and with oil prices sliding, Iran is very vulnerable. This is not the time to save face," he said.
"They are the ones breaching materially all of their agreements. We do have the power to do it. We won't have to resort to any military means because we can achieve it diplomatically if we make the right moves."
He also weighed in on
Jordan’s decision to swap an Iraqi woman prisoner who participated in a deadly 2005 hotel bombing for a Jordanian pilot captured in December by the Islamic State (ISIS). He characterized hostage situations as "the most excruciating dilemma for any leader in office."
"There is no good decision here," Ayalon said. "It's almost a lose-lose situation. The problem is that once you negotiate with terrorists, even if you do it through a third party, it gives them recognition, it gives them some legitimacy.
"But the most important thing is it gives them the incentive to hijack more for more ransom, and for more release for their own prisoners. So this is something that you have to be very tough [on] and sometimes just bite the bullet."
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