Israeli News: A Daily Analysis Aipac Case Closed

A Daily Analysis

May 3, 2009- AIPAC Case Closed, New Israeli Ambassador to US

Good news finally over the past few days. The US Justice Department decided to end their prosecution case against Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman of AIPAC. The dubious prosecution had taken place under a 1917 espionage Act. THE CHARGE : that they had passed on information; classified information, on the deliberations of the executive branch, and about Iran, to representatives of Israel. THE SECRET : that Iranians were planning to kill Israelis in Northern Iraq. A complete fabrication created to entrap Rosen and Weissman. It was the first time any non-employee of the government has ever been charged with passing on secrets of this nature.

This was a very strange case. A case that should never have been brought; one that clearly had tinges of anti-Semitism tied to it. As recently as two weeks ago, information was leaked that Representative Jane Harman had somehow been involved. The NYT carried this item as a lead article- and as I wrote then, it was very strange. Read the Wall Street Journal Editorial from Saturday called " " Do not hold your breadth to read a similar editorial in the New York Times.

Michael Oren is Prime Minister Netanyahu’s pick to be Israel's next US Ambassador. Finally, someone was chosen for a job because he might be good at it and not because it was necessary to appoint him for coalition reasons. Oren, who is American born, was educated in Princeton and Columbia. In the past few years Oren has authored two bestselling, outstanding books. The first, T he Six Day War and the Making of the Modern Middle East is considered the definitive account of the Six Day War. His second book, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present is a fascinating account of the America’s involvement in the Middle East from the early days of the Republic. Oren is well spoken, telegenic and understands the underlying politics of Washington. His political views are idiosyncratic and cannot be easily categorized. Oren's one area of weakness could be his lack of any administrative or diplomatic experience, but that has not slowed President Obama down, and my guess is that Oren’s intelligence will easily compensate for any lack of experience.

Today, the Israeli government voted to cut the budget over the next two year by 50 billion shekel. At the same time, it established three new government ministries, the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, the Ministry of Intelligence, and the Ministry of Public Affairs and Diaspora. Labor and Shas Cabinet members all voted against the budget decrying the decrease in government spending in the midst of a deep recession. Minister of Education Gideon Sa’ar of the Likud also voted against the budget claiming it would not provide enough money to fund education, which he said needed to be a national priority.