CIA Director Telegraphs To Hamas And Hezbollah They Are Not His Concern

CIA Director Telegraphs To Hamas And Hezbollah They Are Not His Concern
Dr. Aaron Lerner 30 January 2024

Here is the “do list” list of the head of the CIA
1. Winding down the intense Israeli ground operation in the Gaza Strip
2. Meeting the deep humanitarian needs of suffering Palestinian civilians
3. Freeing hostages
4. Preventing the spread of conflict to other fronts in the region
5. Shaping a workable approach for the “day after” in Gaza.
6. Resurrecting hope for a durable peace that ensures Israel’s security as
well as Palestinian statehood and takes advantage of historic opportunities
for normalization with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.
7. “Dealing” with Iran – their expansion of its nuclear program and enabling
Russian aggression is cited but it is not clear what “dealing” means.

Here is what is missing from the “do list”
1. Destroying Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups now in the
Gaza Strip.
2. Removing Hezbollah to the north of the Litani River and eliminating their
mid-range and long-range rockets and missiles deployed throughout Lebanon.

“I have spent much of the last four decades working in and on the Middle
East, and I have rarely seen it more tangled or explosive. Winding down the
intense Israeli ground operation in the Gaza Strip, meeting the deep
humanitarian needs of suffering Palestinian civilians, freeing hostages,
preventing the spread of conflict to other fronts in the region, and shaping
a workable approach for the “day after” in Gaza are all incredibly difficult
problems. So is resurrecting hope for a durable peace that ensures Israel’s
security as well as Palestinian statehood and takes advantage of historic
opportunities for normalization with Saudi Arabia and other Arab
countries. As hard as it may be to imagine those possibilities amid the current
crisis, it is even harder to imagine getting out of the crisis without
pursuing them seriously.

Key to Israel’s – and the region’s – security is dealing with Iran.
The Iranian regime has been emboldened by the crisis and seems ready to
fight to its last regional proxy, all while expanding its nuclear program and
enabling Russian aggression. In the months after October 7, the Houthis, the
Yemeni rebel group allied with Iran, began attacking commercial ships in the
Red Sea, and the risks of escalation on other fronts persist.

The United States is not exclusively responsible for resolving any of the
Middle East’s vexing problems. But none of them can be managed, let alone
solved, without active U.S. leadership.”

Spycraft and Statecraft
Transforming the CIA for an Age of Competition
By William J. Burns, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
January 30, 2024 Foreign Affairs
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/cia-spycraft-and-statecraft-wil
liam-burns

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Arab-Israeli relations

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