Mordechai, in Amman, defends the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon
Israeli Transport Minister Yitzhak Mordechai has defended the recent Israeli air raids against civilian installations in Lebanon and considered them as having positive results in halting the escalation by the Lebanese resistance against Israel. The Israeli minister downplayed the effect of these raids on Tel Aviv's relations with the Arabs, especially with Jordan.
In a press statement he made on Monday at the Israeli embassy in Amman, Mordechai added, "Israel has achieved a positive goal when it hit the infrastructure in Lebanon, because this prevented any escalation in the resistance," adding that Israel had a similar experience in 1996 when its attacks against the Lebanese infrastructure resulted in suspending resistance activity against northern Israel.
He continued, "We are always ready to defend out state and soldiers. But this does not mean we want to provoke any crises with our neighbors or threaten them."
After he described the Arab reactions to the Israeli strikes against Lebanon as "exaggerated," Mordechai stressed, "Crises which emerge as a result of Israel's stand towards any country do not change our strategy aiming at achieving peace in the region and our attempt in seeking a better future for us and for our neighbors."
During his short visit to Amman, Mordechai met with King Abdullah II and Jordan's ministers of foreign affairs, tourism, and transport and the director of the Jordanian intelligence, Samih al-Bateikhi.
He refused to disclose the details of his talks with the Jordanian king, and he confined himself to saying only that he "conveyed to the Jordanian king a verbal message from the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak." He said that his visit "aimed at achieving the aspired peace and giving a push forward to the peace process in the region."
On the Syrian-Israeli negotiations, Mordechai said Israel "is awaiting the signal from Syria to reset the negotiations into its right track."
He stressed that Barak's decision to "withdraw from Lebanon in July came as an embodiment of the Israeli interest, in the first place."