“I told my friends in the Cabinet that we need to respect American sovereignty. They have their own opinions, and we must listen to them. We must respect them. There has never been a perfect symmetry. We must protect our own sovereignty, but, at the same time, promise that we won’t destroy our relationship with the US President, or with the American public. The relationship was not destroyed, but it was damaged. Both US Secretary of State John Kerry and President Obama invested a lot in helping us, and they failed. Rabin and Peres also failed; also I failed. We can’t use this to curse them. We must respect them,” former Israeli Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak spoke with CNN anchor Richard Quest at the 2014 "Globes" Israel Business Conference, when asked about the deterioration in US-Israel relations.
"Financial Times" chief foreign affairs commentator Gideon Rachman, who also participated in the discussion with Quest and Barak, when asked how the world perceives Israel, said: “In the Western world, there is a sense that Israel is drifting right, and this is dangerous for Israel. If there is a government that’s not interested in two states for two nations, it’s dangerous for Israel.”
Barak added, “When calls to boycott Israel come from Europe, it’s serious, and we must take this into account. Europe is Israel’s number one partner - not the US, and not China.”
Barak attacked Netanyahu, who sided with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the last US election, and said, “We cannot get involved in US politics!”
Rachman added, “There are a lot of people in Washington who are angry, off the record. The fact that they rejected Obama regarding the settlements… he was humiliated. If Netanyahu has ties with the Republicans, the Democrats won’t like it. It’s like siding with the enemy.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 8, 2014
©Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2014