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Israel worried over its relation with US

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Press TV has conducted an interview with Eugene Dabbous, political commentator, about National Director of the pro-Israeli Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Abraham Foxman saying the Tel Aviv regime cannot bank on the US over Iran any more as Washington seems to be avoiding confrontation with Tehran.

What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Mr. Dabbous, do you think here that the United States is actually adopting very different policies that are actually endangering the security or the interest of Israel?

Dabbous: Well the United States rightfully so is worried about a military confrontation with Iran because the policy up until now has not worked properly.

I think the ADL is realizing that their position has been weakened over the years because they have not in any way been interested in comprise but either a position which is uncritical of Israel or a position that would be damned by them.

So at the moment I would say that they are in retreat. They realize this. Their language is becoming radicalized. The US is not in a much more diversified situation. The situation in Syria is not going their way. They are actually upset about some of the things happening in Egypt and Tunisia. So they are becoming much more nuanced which is something that does not fit into the ADL’s policies.

Press TV: Well we are seeing at the same time Mr. Dabbous, the United States continuing to vocally express the support that it’s being giving to Israel all along its alliance with Israel. We are seeing the new trade deals being signed and now the helicopter planes, if I am not mistaken, that are going to be delivered to Tel Aviv and Tel Aviv being the first ally of the US to get this kind of military aircraft from the US.

Do you think that the United States is even considering changing the way it deals with Israel? Why should be Israel so afraid do you think or concerned about its relationship with the US?

Dabbous: Well the question is not whether Israel remains an ally of the US. Israel is one of the most important allies as is Germany or France or Britain.

The question is whether their position or their relationship with Israel remains to be uncritical and I think what Obama has shown over the last year and a half, especially since he was re-elected, is his willingness not to criticize Israel also to try to work from within Israel to support a more moderate position within the country which is something which will probably increase over the next couple of years until he leaves office.

At the moment he is a little bit holding back because he needs to re-take the Lower House of Representatives next year, but as of the elections next fall, I think you are going to see a much more pro-active and from the position of the ADL probably, aggressive position vis-à-vis Israel which will of course remain an ally but an ally with which one has to dialogue and sometimes be critical.

Press TV: And quickly before we leave you, we are seeing some analysts referring to a new order, so to speak, in the Middle East right now with the situation in Syria, Iran, etc.

Do you think that right now we could say that Israel and Saudi Arabia are very much teaming up and at the same time becoming isolated with regards to the rest of the world?

Dabbous: Well obviously both Israel and Saudi Arabia are not in a stronger position as they were previously. And I think this is something the ADL is not used to. They are not used to, in a sense of a spoiled child and now that they are just one player among many, and the US is looking at, even looking at Iran for its options there, I think that they just have to get used to this because in the end as Norman Finkelstein said Israel is an ally, the US is not a servant of Israel.

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