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Lerman the Prophet: The non-second guesser second guesses

Eran LermanAs executive director of American Jewish Committee’s Israel-Middle East office in Jerusalem since 2001, Eran Lerman has kept his finger on the pulse of US-Israel relations, “but we do not second guess Israel on issues of life and death, of its own national security.”

On July 2, all of that will change. Lerman will become a deputy to the national security advisor in the Israeli government. His specialty: foreign policy.

Lerman will go from bridging the gap between American Jewry and the Israeli government, to utilizing his diplomatic and analytical expertise to present papers to Benjamin Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet — on issues of “life and death,” Israel’s national security. 

Lerman’s final weeks at the helm of the AJC Israel-Middle East office have certainly been eventful, from the elections of Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu and their discord, to Obama’s landmark Cairo speech.

In Denver for the annual meeting of AJC’s Colorado chapter, Lerman shared his analysis with the Intermountain Jewish News, with just days to go before assuming his new post. Lerman is already talking like an insider.

AJC normally operates very quietly, Lerman said, but the organization “very clearly supports a two-state solution” on the assumption that the Palestinians will renounce terror, recognize Israel as a Jewish state and be willing to compromise, a concept that Lerman says is quite alien to the Palestinians, even to those willing to negotiate.

When Lerman spoke with the IJN on June 12, he said he didn’t think the Israeli government, namely Prime Minister Benjamin Minister, was totally against a two-state solution. He predicted the acceptance of a two-state proposal with limitations. He said limited sovereignty is not unprecedented, pointing out that after WW II, the US negotiated the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in Micronesia in 1947, with certain limitations on sovereignty.

Two days later, on June 14, Netanyahu accepted just that. He said that favored a Palestinian state if it were disarmed, and the Palestinians must recognize Israel as the “state of the Jewish people.”

LERMAN also pointed out that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, when in he came into office, was very blunt about rejecting the 2008 Annapolis template for the “Road Map” peace plan, but said that Israel is committed to the Road Map itself.

“The Road Map is not rejected out of hand — it’s how you get there that is the issue,” Lerman said.

The media make it sound as though Jewish settlements in the West Bank are the only issue dividing Israel and the Palestinians, but Lerman believes the settlements have unnecessarily become a political issue, overshadowing the Palestinians’ responsibilities under the Road Map.

“It is true there are problems with the way this issue was handled in recent Israel administrations. Israel didn’t always carry out the understanding that outposts were to be taken out.

“What the Obama Administration is pushing for — that all Jewish settlements be pushed back to the 1967 lines — is illegitimate. That would theoretically include the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem. Could you imagine?”

The Bush Administration agreed to continued construction of existing settlements within municipalities. That, Lerman says, may be the key to the settlements issue: Draw municipal lines for existing settlements instead of political lines, and by doing so, keep the footprint of the settlement movement in place, unenlarged.

“Once you cross this threshold, practical arrangements are possible.”

Lerman thinks the apparent discord between Obama and Netanyahu is “good for us.” It shows the world that the US and Israel are not synonymous. It says to the Arabs, ‘Look what Obama is doing to Israel, and we can still work with this guy.”

Lerman admits the Israelis’ honeymoon with Obama may be over, but it all depends on who one talks to in Israel.

“The extreme right is upset,  the left is elated again, and would like to see an imposed solution. But the mainstream Israelis are a bit rattled because of the political tension.”

LERMAN says all Israelis need to read Obama’s Cairo speech which he feels did offer some good news for Israelis:

  • The President reaffirmed the Jewish yearning for a homeland.
  • He was straightforward in rejecting Holocaust denial.
  • Obama reiterated the unbreakable bond between the US and Israel. “That is very important.”
  • He was very clear on Hamas.  Lerman said it is troubling  that Obama never used the term ‘terror’ in his speech and that “needs to be addressed,” but, he said, the President “described what Hamas does in language that hits home, referring to bus bombers not as ‘heroes’ but as ‘cowards’ who kill old ladies.” 
  • What is perhaps more important to Israel than what was said in the speech is what was not said. Obama did not embrace the Arab interpretation of UN resolution 242 calling for a retreat to the 1967 lines. By not mentioning that, the President was leaving it open to negotiation, according to Lerman.

Also, there was no reference to Annapolis, and Obama failed to mention Syria.

Lerman was disappointed in how “soft-spoken” Obama was regarding Iran in his speech.

Lerman also reflected on the Gaza War earlier this year. He thinks it may have put Hamas in its place to a certain extent.

“What happened to Hamas [in the Gaza campaign] is not insignificant.

“We had two weeks of ground combat with 1,500 Hamas men in arms, and they killed only four Israeli soldiers.

“I think this taught Hamas a lesson, and they are internalizing this lesson.

The Egyptians, too, “woke up during the Gaza campaign,” according to Lerman.

“They were infiltrated, penetrated by Iran’s agents. The Egyptians have reacted to this and are much more determined” to distance themselves from Hamas and Iran.

Another bit of optimism on Lerman’s part: Israel is not as isolated from the international community as her detractors would like to think. He points to solid relations between Israel and China, India, many African nations, Turkey, Central Asian republics such as Azerbaijan, and “even relations with Russia are better than they used to be.”



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IJN Associate Editor | [email protected]


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