Earlier this month the U.S. and Israel agreed that the U.S. will deploy a high-powered early-warning radar system (the Joint Tactical Ground Station, or JTAGS, system) in southern Israel. The radar will be manned by American personnel. This raises a question: Is this the American way of telling Israel to defend itself, rather than attack Iran? Apparently, the answer is open to interpretation.
The other day, Aluf Benn and Barak Ravid reported in Haaretz:
Senior defense officials view the radar system deployment as a signal of Washington’s opposition to an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program.
Caroline Glick wrote for the Jerusalem Post:
The US’s willingness to deploy the system is largely the consequence of ardent lobbying efforts by US Congressman Mark Kirk. Kirk’s successful push for the deployment of the X-Band system in Israel is a great boon for the country’s defensive capabilities… far from sending a message that the US would work to block an Israeli preemptive attack against Iran, Kirk argued that the deployment of the X-Band system manned by a US crew “will send a message to Iran, that Israel has powerful political support from its ally against any Iranian threat.”
Glick went further, blaming the report in Haaretz for “helping leftist politicians demoralize the public into believing that we have no option of defeating our enemies and must therefore simply try to appease them as best we can.” I think that’s an overstatement, but have to admit that I have my biases. Benn is a good friend with whom I wrote a weekly column for two years. He is also a well-connected, reliable reporter. If he writes that this is what Israeli officials believe–than this is exactly what they told him.
And anyway, the interesting question here is not the journalistic battle of Glick against Haaretz (I worked for Haaretz for twelve years, and know its many qualities and flaws in and out. I never thought it was perfect). It is the question of whose analysis of the U.S. move is correct. And the answer is, well, both.
Glick got the facts right: Kirk was a driving force behind the gift, and he never intended the system to limit Israel’s options. But Benn and Ravid are also right: Pentagon officials, delivering the goodies, have their own motives. The JTAGS coalition–like many coalitions–was working for a shared practical goal (system deployment) for different reasons (encourage/discourage Israel).
