Leon Panetta in Israel: Will his urgent messages bring action? (The Christian Science Monitor)

Washington – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, traveling at a time of what some analysts say are profound and lasting changes in the US-Israel relationship, is carrying a couple of high-priority messages to America’s closest ally in the Middle East.

On his first visit to Israel as Pentagon chief, Secretary Panetta’s first order of business appeared to be to air US concerns about Israel’s growing isolation from its neighbors – some of whom are also critical partners of the US.

In meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Secretary Panetta is sharing his concern that Israel is endangering its own security with the recent deterioration in its relations with neighbors like Egypt and Turkey.

RELATED: Top 5 issues on the table for Israeli-Palestinian talks

Panetta is carrying another message from the White House to his Israeli interlocutors: Find a way to resume peace talks with the Palestinians.

a€?Panetta is carrying water for the White House with this message that the Israelis need to re-engage in the peace process,a€

The US desire to see peace talks under way once again has more to do with US relations with the region than with any strong prospects for the Israelis and Palestinians to actually make progress towards a peace accord, Mr. Phillips says.

“Every White House wants something going because it’s easier for the US to operate in the Arab and Muslim worlds when there’s a peace process,” he says. “This administration is no different in wanting the Israelis and Palestinians to get up on the two-seat bicycle, even if everybody knows there’s no chance of a comprehensive settlement any time soon.”

Panetta is also scheduled to meet in the West Bank with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minster Salam Fayyad.

Panetta’s visit to Israel, part of a swing through the Middle East before he attends a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels, comes just six months after former Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a similar trip. Mr. Gates was the first US defense secretary to visit Palestinian leaders in the West Bank.

But Gates was also reported (by Bloomberg’s Jeff Goldberg) to have told a summer national security session at the White House shortly before he stepped down that Israel is an “ungrateful ally” that has given the US little or nothing – particularly concerning the peace process – in return for America’s rock solid security guarantees.

Gates also reportedly said that Mr. Netanyahu was endangering Israel’s security by failing to address his country’s deteriorating regional relationships.

In that sense Panetta’s warnings of Israel’s growing “isolation” may have a worrisome echo for the Israeli officials he meets.

Some analysts, like Heritage’s Phillips, are of the view that US-Israel military-to-military relations are stronger than ever, and that any flat notes should be heard as reflecting diplomatic differences between the two countries.

Noting that Panetta publicly made his “isolation” comment before arriving in Israel, Phillips says it could be the US defense secretary wanted to “put that particular US concern out there” before his military meetings. “Maybe that’s a message that’s really better for the politicians,” he says.

But others say there is no getting around the fact that the US-Israel strategic partnership is changing a€“ and that recent turbulence in the relationship reflects not only a changing region but a€“ to some degree and on some issues a€“ diverging national interests.

In a new study analyzing the US-Israel partnership entitled “Crossroads,” Haim Malka of Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies concludes that “rising tensions in the bilateral relationship” reflect one key reality: “The US and Israel have changed and continue to change, but the two countries’ relationship has not kept pace.”

For one thing, the US must treat Israel less as a dependent, Mr. Malka says. And perhaps with something of an echo of Robert Gates, Malka concludes that the US and Israel must develop a relationship “that contains clearer commitments of what each side will do for the other – with an implicit understanding that there are limits to those commitments.”

RELATED: Top 5 issues on the table for Israeli-Palestinian talks

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Messages offer mother, daughter hope amid carnage (AP)

By JILL LAWLESS and BJOERN H. AMLAND, Associated Press Jill Lawless And Bjoern H. Amland, Associated Press – 1?hr?40?mins?ago

OSLO, Norway – Marianne Bremnes' nightmare began with a phone call on a summer Friday afternoon.

It was her 16-year-old daughter Julie, attending a youth camp for members of the Labour Party on the idyllic Norwegian island of Utoya. A crazy man was shooting. People were dying.

Bremnes' agony was made worse by the fact that she was more than 800 miles (1,400 kilometers) away, at home in Harstad, northern Norway. She couldn't reach her daughter, couldn't rescue her, couldn't even talk to her — it was too dangerous to stay on the phone.

"I was terrified, disturbed because I wasn't there to help her," Bremnes said. "I didn't know what to do other than ask her to text me."

As Julie hid from the gunman among some rocks on the seashore, her mother asked her to send an update — "a sign of life" — every five minutes.

And Julie did. For almost an hour and a half, as far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik stalked the island, mortally wounding at least 68 people, mother and daughter exchanged news, words of comfort and potentially lifesaving information by SMS.

"I had to be calm for her," 46-year-old Bremnes said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "She also remained calm so it was easier for me to remain calm."

Julie's first text came at 5:42 p.m.: "Mum, tell the police to hurry. People are dying here!"

Her mother tried to reassure her: "The police are on their way."

Julie's texts were urgent: "Tell the police that a madman is running around shooting people. ... They have to hurry!"

Bremnes kept up the reassurance: Police were on their way and all would be well.

Norwegian police have been criticized for the time it took them to reach the island. Although Utoya is only about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the Norwegian capital, police needed 90 minutes to get to the scene.

"Stay under cover, don't move to another place!" Bremnes texted her daughter. "The police are already on their way, if they have not already arrived."

The words may have looked calm, but inside Bremnes was panicking, terrified. "I was scared there was nothing I could do because I was so far away," she said.

For Bremnes, the minutes crawled by, filled with agonizing peaks and troughs of hope and horror.

There was a heart-stopping moment, at 6:15, when Julie texted: "The police are here."

Her mother immediately warned her: "The person shooting apparently wears a police uniform. Be careful!"

Julie stayed in her hiding place. At 6:30 she texted: "He's still shooting."

At one point, the teenager heard a helicopter. Thinking help was on its way, she emerged from her hiding place, waving her pink rain jacket to attract attention. It wasn't the police, but a news crew, who filmed Breivik surrounded by bodies piled up on the shore and in the water.

"If she had been at the wrong spot she would have been killed, since the police had not arrived yet and the gunman was not arrested," Bremnes said.

Throughout it all, Julie kept her promise: a "sign of life" every five minutes. Some of her messages were basic: "I am still alive." The bare communication was enough to flood her mother with relief.

"I heard from her every five minutes — she did what I told her to do," Bremnes said. "The whole time I knew how she was and where she was. It helped me and I guess it helped her."

Mother and daughter even had time to say "I love you."

"I love you, even though I may yell at you sometimes," Julie messaged. She added: "And I am not panicking, even though I'm s___ scared."

"I know that, my girl," her mother responded. "We love you very much too."

Still the uncertainty went on. "The evacuation is going on now, they're saying on TV," Bremnes told her daughter.

Still Julie stayed in hiding, no rescuer in sight. "Can't they catch him soon?!!" she texted.

"The anti-terror police are there, and they are working on getting him," her mother replied.

Later, Julie said she saw helicopters searching for people in the water. "They haven't picked us up yet!"

At 7:01 p.m., Julie asked her mother for information: What were they saying on the news?

"The police are also on a boat to Utoya, otherwise nothing new," Bremnes said. "It is not clear what happened to the gunman, so you stay still. Wait for someone to pick you up."

Soon after, she was able to send Julie the news they'd been waiting for: "Now they've got him!"

It was not until later still that Julie called: She was on a rescue boat. She was safe.

"And she cried," Bremnes said. "I cried and she cried."

Mother and daughter were reunited the next evening, when Julie flew back to northern Norway with other survivors from the region.

Julie lost five friends in the shooting. Bremnes said her daughter is holding up well — but she worries about the future.

"She is fine," Bremnes said. "But I don't know about the long-term aspects of it."

____

Lawless reported from London.

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