Ex-Mossad Chief: US-Israel Cooperation ‘Never Better’

Military, intelligence and security cooperation between Israel and the United States has never been as strong as it is today, Ephriam Halevy, the former Mossad director, told a meeting of Israel Policy Forum in New York on Monday.

Israel owes Barack Obama incredible gratitude for his direct intercession with Egyptian authorities this past weekend, which is the only thing responsible for the rescue of the Israelis at the Cairo Embassy, Halevy said, according to Elihu Davison of Morristown, NJ, an IPF founder. If Obama had not acted as quickly and effectively as he did, those Israeli diplomats would have come home in body bags, and the Israeli government could not have survived that, said Halevy, who headed Israel’s National Security Council under Ariel Sharon.

Halevy said he considered the presidential intervention extraordinary because the President made the phone call to Cairo within moments of speaking to Netanyahu and did not wait for any consultation with allies or with in-house foreign policy staff. Surprisingly, and unfortunately, he added, there has been scant mention of this mitzvah in the American media.

In a rare positive accolade for Obama, Netanyahu said in a national speech Sunday:

I would like to express my gratitude to the President of the United States, Barack Obama. I asked for his help. This was a decisive and fateful moment. He said, "I will do everything I can." And so he did. He used every considerable means and influence of the United States to help us. We owe him a special measure of gratitude. This attests to the strong alliance between Israel and the United States. This alliance between Israel and the United States is especially important in these times of political storms and upheavals in the Middle East.

Having said that, will Netanyahu now tell his minions to curtail their anti-Obama whispering campaign and collusion with Congressional Republicans to paint this president as anti-Israel?