In Iran's Ambition, Israel's Dark Cloud

By Nora Boustany
Wednesday, May 24, 2006

D avid Landau , editor in chief of the Israeli daily Haaretz, said Monday that Israel hoped to link its need for a stronger defense against the Iranian nuclear threat to its stated willingness to pull out of more occupied Palestinian land.

The agenda of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert 's official visit this week was dominated by Iran and the controversy over its nuclear potential, Landau told Washington Post columnists and reporters. Israel has its own nuclear arsenal, which it does not openly acknowledge.

Iran's nuclear ambition "is hanging over this visit like a black cloud," he said. But he added, "Maybe this black cloud could have a silver lining."

The silver lining would be a package linking Iran's nuclear threat and Israel's defense needs to the sea change in Israelis' attitudes toward occupation, which could spell further unilateral withdrawals from Palestinian lands after last year's pullout from the Gaza Strip.

Unlike his predecessor, Ariel Sharon , Olmert will not be able to "soft-pedal the Iranian issue," given the anxiety over the rhetoric of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in recent months, said Landau, who arrived Sunday evening from Israel.

Landau was one of 50 journalists accompanying Olmert to Washington on a three-day visit.

"Israel cannot countenance a nuclear Iran. It crosses . . . even the dovish fringe of the Israeli spectrum," Landau added.

Having no military credentials, Olmert would be politically vulnerable if he told his countrymen the Iranian issue should remain on the back burner, he said.

Landau suggested that President Bush 's own declining political stock at home would make him more receptive to Olmert. "Maybe the depth of his unpopularity will be a spur for him to listen," he said of Bush.

"Support for Israeli deterrence against the Iranian nuclear threat can be put in the context of getting out at long, long last from Palestinian land, which could be defined as a key American interest."

He said bringing Israel under America's nuclear defense umbrella, with early warning systems and diplomatic and economic pressure, was necessary in a situation in which "a balance of terror" alone was insufficient, "because Israel is so small and close to Iran."

Thinking the unthinkable scenario of Israel being attacked with a nuclear weapon is cause for many sleepless nights for someone like Olmert, he said. Putting himself in Olmert's shoes, Landau said he would "want to be able to deter Iran so it knows, if Iranians tried" the nuclear option, "they would live to regret it."

An Italian Feast for Troops

Leave it to the Italians to worry about food.

Until May 1, co-owners Hal Koster and Marty O'Brien had organized and helped sponsor free Friday night dinners at Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steak House for recovering American military personnel from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.

Then Fran O'Brien's was evicted from the Capital Hilton because of a lapsed lease.

So when Italy's ambassador, Giovanni Castellaneta , met Koster and O'Brien through an Italian acquaintance, he offered to host U.S. service members undergoing treatment in the Washington area for dinner.

Taking a break from Washington's lavish spring galas, Castellaneta and his staff helped serve 30 military people who were accompanied by family members and aides to a sumptuous Italian dinner of risotto, lasagna, veal roast, and stew made with Barolo wine and vegetables.

Embassy spokesman Luca Ferrari said the dinner was attended by World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz , the former deputy defense secretary who was a frequent guest at the Friday night dinners. The embassy dinner was held in the foyer of the chancery on Whitehaven Street because it was accessible to veterans in wheelchairs or on crutches.

"The meaning of the event was to underline our gratefulness, and our closeness with American servicemen as they serve side by side with Italian soldiers in many theaters abroad," the ambassador said Monday. "It was also done in the hope of creating a precedent within the diplomatic community," he added. "We have had our own dead and our own disabled."

Before the dessert course of tiramisu and fruit salad, Army Sgt. 1st Class Antonio Giuliano sang arias from the opera "Vincero" and others, as well as "Amazing Grace" and other songs, while two colleagues accompanied him on the piano.

French Aid for War Orphans

French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte had his welcome mat out Friday for Aschiana, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the schooling of street children, vocational training and land mine awareness programs in Afghanistan.

Designed to reach out to war orphans and child soldiers who need to be reintegrated into society, Aschiana, which means "the nest," also provides help to thousands of children with hot meals and recreation, according to its founder, Marie Kux , a French American. Kux felt compelled to do something after she visited Kabul a couple of years ago and was moved by the faces of children and mothers fending for themselves in the street.