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Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke yesterday to a group of business leaders gathered in Washington at the Yale CEO Caucus. While discussions during the gathering were off the record, Herzog made his virtual remarks on the record. His main message was to convey a sense of regional solidarity around the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran and what he described as the \u201cNATO-like\u201d response of Gulf neighbors to Iran\u2019s widespread retaliatory bombing, while characterizing the offensive as a prerequisite for Middle East prosperity.<\/p>\n
Herzog also spoke glowingly of America\u2019s role as a partner, saying, \u201cThe incredible cooperation that we have between our militaries is unprecedented, compared even to some of the alignment of the allies in World War II.\u201d While the president acknowledged the cost and controversy around the military strikes, which killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he underscored the urgency of the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran was recharging and reigniting its program, its nuclear program, in clandestine new sites that were extremely sensitive, and we could have missed the opportunity of taking care of them,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cIran was rushing a plan of 20,000 ballistic missiles. They had 2,000 at the opening of this operation. Twenty thousand would have made a sea change of their power in the region for generation or so.\u201d<\/p>\n
As U.S. President Donald Trump has done, Herzog also pointed to Iran\u2019s recent nationwide protests and the regime\u2019s mass killings in response as further justification for the attacks. \u201cTwo months ago, they butchered 50,000 of their people,\u201d Herzog said. (Iran put the death toll at between 3,117 and \u201cseveral thousand,\u201d while groups like Human Rights Watch say the toll is hard to calculate amid a government crackdown and now the war.) Added Herzog: \u201cWe also are hurting the government\/military infrastructure substantially to enable the people to rise up. We don\u2019t know if they will.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attendees asked Herzog about the allies\u2019 long-term plan for Iran and criticism that the attacks were launched without one. \u201cThe grand plan is first and foremost to weaken them substantially, and that is what is being done,\u201d he said, arguing that Iran\u2019s \u201cgrand master plan\u201d was a threat beyond the region. \u201cEvery American leader, every European leader, was talking to us about Iran. We understood that it\u2019s a cocktail of extreme ideology, jihadist ideology, that does not accommodate moderate Islam, Christianity, Judaism, or anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
A plan for prosperity<\/p>\n
The main message for CEOs, though, was that Tehran had been undermining an increasing spirit of cooperation throughout the Gulf region and beyond. \u201cThe real next big horizon in business is the connectivity between Israel and India through Saudi Arabia and the Gulf,\u201d he said, referring to the India\u2013Middle East\u2013Europe Economic Corridor, or IMEC, that was announced during the G20 Summit in New Delhi in September 2023. Weeks later, on Oct. 7, Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,200 civilians in Israel and took more than 250 hostages, sparking a war with Gaza that has killed more than 70,000 people, primarily Palestinians. That has slowed but not halted progress on the bold initiative to integrate energy, transportation, and digital infrastructure across the continents.<\/p>\n
Prior to the \u201cwatershed moment\u201d of Oct. 7, he said, about a million and a half Israelis had been working throughout the region, primarily in UAE and Bahrain\u2014the first signatories to the Abraham Accords, a deal to normalize relations between Gulf nations and Israel that was negotiated under the first Trump administration in September of 2020. Sudan and Morocco later signed on to the accords, and Saudi Arabia had expressed interest in joining. Now, those aspirations for a regional bloc of cooperation are on hold, and Herzog largely blames Tehran: \u201cWe need to be steadfast, take a deep breath, and finish the undermining of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Israeli president acknowledged polls that show a growing number of Americans becoming less supportive of Israel amid ongoing violence in the Middle East, calling it a \u201cvery big strategic issue\u201d that\u2019s not unique to Israel.\u00a0\u201cEvery nation is going to social evolution. There are changes, especially changes with the young generation,\u201d said Herzog, who has a tense working relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Among other things, Herzog has resisted pressure from both Netanyahu and Trump to pardon the Israeli prime minister on bribery and fraud charges and end an ongoing corruption trial. \u201cIsrael is going through an election in about six months\u2019 time. We\u2019re a democracy. We feel and are confident that we are doing the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, he also talked about the need to have \u201ca bipartisan, open, and frank dialogue, explaining to the American people that we in Israel are serving their national security interest.\u201d As he put it: \u201cIf you are the biggest empire in the world, there\u2019s many advantages to it but also certain obligations that you\u2019re meeting by fighting the empire of evil that wants to undermine you.\u201d<\/p>\n
#Israeli #president #delivers #message #U.S #business #leaders #Iran<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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