“Don’t worry about us,” an Israeli security official told his American counterparts while visiting Washington. Speaking to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, he described his exchanges with senior US security officials: “We will be all right. We’re strong, we’ve seen greater challenges than this. Think what would happen to all your allies. What would happen to Saudi Arabia, what would happen to Jordan. Think what could happen to the Gulf states, to Egypt. There’s no vacuum in the Middle East. Victory over the Islamic State [IS] won’t make the Sunnis disappear. It will only strengthen their will for revenge and make you miss IS.”
Another Israeli security official had spoken to the Americans in the same vein, explained the source. “Take heed,” this second official told the Americans. “A few days before President Donald Trump arrived for his visit in Saudi Arabia in May, the rebels in Yemen fired missiles toward Riyadh. It’s a clear message. The Iranians are already building the capacity to strike with surface-to-surface missiles across a huge belt in the region, which will strike fear among the Sunni regimes. Do you think the king of Jordan would survive this? That stability in Saudi Arabia will be maintained? Do you think that the determination and unity Israel has shown for all these years will also be the lot of the Sunni states, including the fragile and wobbling regimes?
“Whatever happens here after the war in Syria will shape the face of the Middle East, and perhaps the entire world, for generations. If the cease-fire agreement does not also include a Shiite retreat, and not just a victory over the Sunnis, a disaster will happen. You’re disturbing the incredibly delicate balance in the Middle East,” he warned. “The immediate price will be paid by those who live here, but in the end, the bill, once again, will be sent to you.”
That, essentially, is what senior officials of the American security establishment heard from their Israeli colleagues during a visit to Washington Aug. 18. The Israeli delegation included Yossi Cohen, head of Mossad; Maj. Gen. Hertzl Halevi, head of military intelligence; Ron Dermer, ambassador to Washington; Eitan Ben David, deputy head of the national security staff; and former senior Mossad official Zohar Palti, head of the diplomatic security department at the Defense Ministry.
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