The following month, December, with Israel's Operation Cast Lead assault on Gaza only weeks away, NATO expanded and enhanced its Individual Cooperation Program with Israel. "The agreement allows for an exchange of intelligence information and security expertise on different subjects, an increase in the number of joint Israel-NATO military exercises and further cooperation in the fight against nuclear proliferation.
"It also paves the way for an improvement of collaboration in the fields of rearmament and logistics and Israel's electronic link to the NATO system."
Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Livni was present for the signing of the pact and said, "Israel's security capabilities are a household name and we see the strengthening of cooperation between Israel and the international security body as a strategic objective that reinforces Israel.
"Israel is a power within the international index when it comes to the
army and its capabilities in the fight against terror; the whole world recognizes this and the expansion of cooperation between Israel and NATO as it was expressed this morning is important proof of this." [51]
On December 8 NATO hosted a delegation from the Atlantic Forum of Israel at its headquarters in Brussels.
On December 27 Tel Aviv began its relentless attacks in Gaza, replete with reports of the use of white phosphorous bombs and depleted uranium weaponry.
The president of the United Nations General Assembly at the time, Nicaragua's Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, criticized the offensive as a breach of international law and said, "Gaza is ablaze. It has been turned into a burning hell." [52]
A week and a half into the attacks a Russian news source wrote that "American planners want to carry 3,000 tonnes of ammunition from the Greek port of Astakos to the Israeli port of Ashdod" and "An even larger shipment of arms, which included laser-guided bombs, arrived in December." [53]
In the middle of the assaults and carnage NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer arrived in Tel Aviv to deliver a speech to the Atlantic Forum highlighted by his contention that "This is a new NATO." In a feature with that title, Israel's Haaretz newspaper printed remarks by Scheffer which included:
"NATO has transformed to address the challenges of today and tomorrow. We have built partnerships around the globe from Japan to Australia to Pakistan and, of course, with the important countries of the Mediterranean and the Gulf."
"[The] Alliance is projecting stability in Afghanistan, in Kosovo, in the Mediterranean (with Israeli support), and elsewhere - including fighting
pirates off the Somali coast - without in any way diluting our core task to defend NATO member states and populations. Finally, we are looking at playing new roles, as well, in energy security and cyber defence...."
"In 2005 and in 2006 Israel participated in two NATO military exercises. In addition, the NATO-Israel Agreement on the Security of Information allows us to share intelligence....In 2006 Israel decided to contribute to NATO's...Operation Active Endeavour in the Mediterranean...."
"Israel has been the first country to finalize with NATO, in October 2006, a very detailed individual cooperation program, which had been revised and
upgraded last November." [54]
Scheffer met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Affairs Minister Tzipi Livni, and Livni and Scheffer "discussed means of cooperation between Israel and NATO with regard to the war on terror and methods of preventing smuggling into the Gaza Strip" even as the fighting continued." [55]
Olmert assured Scheffer that "Israel stands behind NATO and fully supports its struggle against terrorism, just as we expect that you will understand us in our struggle against terrorism...." He also "discussed with him the situation in southern Israel and the Gaza Strip since the beginning of Operation Cast Lead." [56]
The NATO website reported that Scheffer also met with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and now prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In his Atlantic Forum address he said, "Israel has been a most enthusiastic Mediterranean Dialogue partner and that tells me that this country knows full well about the Dialogue and about the benefits that it brings". [57]
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