Panetta’s Visit Angers Israeli Motorists
Visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta tried to
calm Israeli leaders Wednesday on the Iranian nuclear threat, but his motorcade
infuriated motorists, stuck on major highways that were turned into Israel’s
largest parking lots.
Instead of moving him around by helicopter, officials
decided to have him travel by car from Ben Gurion Airport to Jerusalem Tuesday
night. Police closed off Highway 1, leaving motorists stranded for half an hour
shortly after the evening rush hour.
The timing Wednesday morning was even worse, coming at
8:30 a.m., when drivers were prevented from using the Ayalon Highway through
the city as well as the exit from Highway 6 (Kvish 6), Israel’s high-speed
north-south toll road.
Other than angering motorists and creating traffic jams,
Panetta kept his public remarks on a highly diplomatic if not non-committal
level and without content. He told Defense Minister Ehud Barak, "There is
much to discuss as there are great and many problems."
Panetta is visiting Israel after beginning his week-long
Middle East tour in Tunisia and Egypt.
Iran and Syria top the agenda. He admitted that sanctions
against Iran have not achieved their propose of stopping Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s unsupervised nuclear development, but he maintained that
further pressure will convince Iran to "do what's right."
Before leaving Cairo for Israel, Panetta denied media
reports on Tuesday that he would discuss possible military attack plans against
Iran during his visit to Israel.
"I think it's the wrong characterization to say we
are going to be discussing potential attack plans. What we are discussing are
various contingencies and how we would respond," he said.
As usual, he left the “military option” on the table, but
emphasized, “The discussions that I hope to have with Israel are going to be
more about what is the threat that we're confronting and to try to share both
information and intelligence on that."
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