President George Bush’s visit to Europe is not intended to improve relations with American allies across the Atlantic. What is most important for Bush is to involve NATO in the Middle East turmoil now that Iraq has turned into a quagmire.
The American desire to involve the Atlantic alliance in the Middle East was expressed by the Israeli ambassador to Brussels who told NATO secretary-general that Israel would like to join the alliance. The ambassador stressed that NATO is the place where Israel should belong.
Of course he was not unaware of the fact that some of the new NATO members are former Warsaw Pact countries. His remarks came in the wake of talks about the need for expanding the alliance and the benefits such expansion would bring to its members. NATO was started in 1949 with 12 countries but now has 26 members. It is worth mentioning that Israel was the only state outside the alliance invited to attend the NATO meetings.
Israel has long sought to join the NATO but its application was not accepted for several considerations. It was such considerations that forced NATO leaders not to accept the Israeli request; the issue was so sensitive that they even refused to comment on Israeli request.
All that changed when in 1973 the United States supplied Israel with NATO weapons during the Arab-Israeli war that saw the collapse of the Barlev Line and the near defeat of the Israeli Army.
The US did this without consulting with its NATO allies. That was seen as an indication that Israel will be invited into the alliance.
NATO now believes the time has come for Israeli inclusion in its ranks — a move that would for sure face objections from the people of some alliance member countries as well as from Arab countries.
Some political analysts, however, believe it is inconceivable that Israel would join NATO anytime in the near future citing several reasons, including:
• Objection from the people of several NATO members who have already lost faith in Israel’s credibility though not saying so publicly. A Gallop survey has revealed the real perception among the Europeans of Israel as a racist state and the only country in the world threatening international peace and security.
• Israel could not meet all the conditions required for joining NATO, most importantly the condition that an applicant should not be involved in a border dispute with others. Israel refuses to define its borders, revealing its expansionist designs.
Such opinions may not be true, especially if the face of political realities. No European government would dare openly object to Israel joining NATO membership for fear of being punished by America under the Anti-Semitism laws.
America’s protection Israel though the latter continues to defy international law has no limits. Israel has never implemented a single United Nations resolution.
• Once it becomes a NATO member, Israel would have the right to wage aggression against its neighbors and continue occupying Palestinian lands without the victim having the right to self-defense or counterattack since this would be considered an attack on all NATO members.
• Israel would be joining any dialogue NATO would have with countries of the South including Arab states. This would open the way for Israel to have security ties and conduct joint military operations with Arab states.
• Arab countries would be obliged to recognize Israel since continues rejection of such recognition would turn European governments against the Arabs.
• The door would be wide open for European forces to be stationed in Arab countries on the pretext of defending oil fields.
Any attempt to include Israel in NATO would definitely create more trouble and confusion in the Middle East, resulting in more chaos and political instability in a region already beset with problems. Ending such chaos would require bloody military confrontations, plunging the region into further turmoil and diminishing any hopes for the lasting peace long sought by all peoples of the region with the exception of Israel.
