"Visa for Key Israeli Aide Still in Doubt"

Richard Sale, via SST.

"As the governments of America’s President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continue to take soundings of each other’s stances, outlooks and agendas, notable points of conflict have emerged, according to several U.S. officials. “There is a distinct chill in the air,” said a State Department official....

Washington made its displeasure felt in late March when Israel’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi, was denied interviews with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and was forced to cut short his visit, according to U.S. officials.

Ashkenazi was able to meet with National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones and Iran envoy Dennis Ross, these sources said.........

Yet one of the most important tests of wills appears to center on the matter of a U.S. entry visa for Dr. Uzi Arad, the prime minister’s top advisor on Israel’s national security. Arad’s post of director of Israel’s national security council is one that will require frequent and sensitive consultations with senior U.S. policymakers, U.S. officials said.......

As first reported by the Inter Press Service and confirmed by State Department officials, Clinton had been briefed about Arad’s background and told that he was the “foreign person” identified as Franklin’s accomplice in U.S. court records. She was planning to meet Netanyahu, Arad and other aides, but her most important new contact was to be Yitshak Molcho who is expected to act as an unofficial back channel from Netanyahu to the White House.

According to U.S. officials, Clinton, accompanied by Special Envoy George Mitchell and U.S. Ambassador to Israel James Cunningham, suggested to Netanyahu that each side in the meeting should limit itself to three people. Netanyahu agreed, and then, unaccountably, asked the Israeli Ambassador Sallai Meridor to leave the room. “It was either totally tone deaf, tactless or designed as an insult, and Clinton reacted accordingly,” said a U.S. official. She had no liking for Arad and his presence smothered any chance of openness of discussion, U.S. officials said......

Asked about Arad’s visa, an Israeli Embassy spokesman referred the ME Times to the State Department, saying that he did not know the status of the visa dispute, and a State Department spokesman referred us back to the Israeli Embassy, noting that information on visas is classified."