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Requests to Debrief Netanyahu for Missing Chance to Get Smart Bombs | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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U.S. President Barack Obama (R) meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington, October 1, 2014. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque


Tel Aviv- Although the Israeli people dislike former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, his latest statements against PM Benjamin Netanyahu are going viral. Some officials are requesting to debrief the premier after being accused of missing a great chance to get a first of its kind U.S. financial and qualitative military support.

According to Barak, Israel would receive USD35 billion in aid instead of USD45 billion because of Netanyahu’s poor relationship with U.S. President Barack Obama.

Barak held Netanyahu responsible for depriving Israel from a qualitative weapon, which he refused to give more details about it. Military sources said that Barak was hinting to smart bombs.

Retired military sources in Tel Aviv said that these bombs are the qualitative weapons Israel needs to attack and destroy Iran’s nuclear reactors. However, the U.S. has so far not accepted to pass them to any country, not even its NATO allies.

Sources added that the Pentagon was willing to put these weapons in a nearby base in the Middle East to make them available for Israel in case it was attacked by Iran. The only condition for this deal to be sealed was that Netanyahu stopped objecting to the nuclear agreement that was signed between the West and Iran. But the prime minister wasted this chance.

According to sources, that’s what Barak meant when he said Netanyahu preferred his friends’ interests in U.S. over Israeli security interests.

Senior U.S. officials said that Israel demanded smart bombs and the U.S. was considering several strategies to transfer them to it. Had this step occurred, it would have represented a qualitative leap in Israeli technological potentials.

Netanyahu has rejected to respond to these accusations. One of his advisors was quoted as saying that Barak, who withdrew humiliated from Lebanon, has no right to talk about protecting Israeli security interests.