Moshe yaalon speaks object concerns about the Iran Nuclear Deal in washington, d. C. This is just over an hour. Good morning, everyone. And thank you all for coming. Im joseph gildenhorn, former ambassador and Wilson International scepter board of trustees. Thank you for being here. Let me recognize an Important Group who are central to the success of the wilson center. We thank our outstanding president james harmon who regrets she cannot be here today, but extends her best regards. Let me also acknowledge andre barke. The plam continues to be a key form in washington for serious discussion of northeast issues. Were also pleased and honored to be joined by israels outstanding ambassador to the United States, ron derr who is here with us today. Thank you, ron. And i would like to welcome and recognize Major General yako yakov iashe accompanying the minister. And sandra gerber, a member of our cabinet. Never has the middle east region been as unstable and challenging as it is today. Syria is in chaos. Iran continues to assert its power in the region. The Israeli Palestinian conflict continues with no end in site. Russia is now a new factor in the equation in syria. We asked how does israel, a small yet powerful country that sits in the middle of this region prioritize these challenges. And more importantly, what is israels current stat strategy for dealing with them . There are no better people qualified to address these nen the minister of defense mosh moshe yaalon who is in washington to meet with ash carter whos also a very good friend of the wilson center. We are so pleased to have you, mr. Minister. Welcome to washington. It is also my pleasure to welcome aaron david miller, Vice President of the wilson center, and middle east expert who will lead this conversation. Please join me in welcoming them both. [ applause ] joey, thank you so much. You have done so much for the wilson center. You have no idea how greatly we appreciate your efforts. Mr. Minister, you were here in 2012. I want to welcome you back to the woodrow Wilson International center for scholars, the living memorial to 28th president , the only ph. D. President and the only president buried in washington, d. C. Which is perhaps a commentary, however sad, on what our president s thought of the Nations Capital in their time here. The two of us go back a long way. At least since the late 80s and early 90s. We have watched the u. S. s relationship develop, we watched the ups, mostly downs, when it came to the pursuit of arabisraeli peace and even when we disagreed, i always appreciated the clarity and economy of language with respect to your analysis. I continue to believe that if you want to change the world, you have to first understand it and that requires at times sober judgments on the way the world is rather than the way we want it to be. The format today is to have a 20, 25 minute conversation what are the key challenges and are you pretty confident that in fact, there will be an agreement. Good morning, everybody. Thank you, ambassador, for the introduction. Thank you, everyone, for hosting me tonight. In thinking about our discussion here in 2012, so many issues have been changed, so many developments in our region that we have to discuss. First of all, im here to discuss the cooperation between the United States of america and the state of israel regarding defense. We do enjoy a stable relationship when it comes to the pentagon or minister of defense, similarly between the secretary of defense, ash carter, and myself, the armed forces both sides, intelligence agencies, for the benefit of our two countries, talking about common values and no doubt common interests shared between our two countries and though we might have a couple of disputes which we have in the last couple of years and even now regarding the challenges ahead of us and the way that we should deal with them. The issue is on the table. We hope to conclude it as soon as possible. I have agreed with the secretary of defense about the capabilities available to the state of israel to keep what we call our collective military edge in the region and hopefully we will be able to sign the mou sooner rather than later. Of course, when we talk about the u. S. Support to our country regarding defense, we are very appreciative. We are thankful to the administration led by president barack obama but we do have regarding the future. We believe iran of today is more confident and free to act in the region with more money as a result of the sanctions relief, violating many u. N. Resolutions, International Resolutions regarding the proliferation of arms and more money now as a result of sanctions relief to finance hezbollah in lebanon, to finance hamas and other rogue elements in the region and to go on with the terror infrastructure in five continents, including north america, south america, europe, asia, africa and the middle east. So they havent changed their nature. They chant death to america, they consider america as the great satan, we are likely to be considered as a minor satan. Very provocative regarding the Ballistic Missile which is a violation of u. N. Resolution. Just provocative tests last week on one of the missiles and believe israel should be wiped off the map. Those reasons are part of the consideration when we talk about mou for the next decade and of course, the arms race in our region as a result of the deal, the sunni regime in the region share a lot of common interest with us nowadays are going to procure weapons for about 200 billion. So in this case, issue of the mou has to be concluded and we hope it will be concluded very soon. Im going to push you on the u. S. israel relationship just a bit. We both watched this relationship develop over the years and there have been tensions, differences of opinion between american president s and israeli Prime Ministers before. The current Prime Minister in his first term and bill clinton. Bush 43 and ariel sharon. This relationship, though, has been battered and hammered and there seems to me to be a loss of an absence of trust and confidence. Israeliu. S. Relationships can be dysfunctional but productive. We have seen in the ones i mentioned that yes, theres dysfunction but its also they can also produce things. This relationship seems to be kind of defying the laws of political gravity. I guess my question is when the Administration Says whatever the difference is between the Prime Minister and the president , that it is committed to security relationship and institutional nature of the u. S. Israel relationship is sound, closer than ever, is that a statement you would agree with or has the relationship between the two at the top begun to affect the nature of the u. S. Israel relationship . Our relationship, talking about the relationship between United States and state of israel, are connected by open channels on a daily basis, intelligence sharing knowhow, experience, technologies. When it comes to certain challenges, we might have differences. The big difference, our approach to the deal with iran. We do have differences regarding what should have been done in syria, what should be done in syria. The fact is this regime in tehran has become Central Party in order to solve the problems in the middle east. Why . Because they are ready to fight daesh. To allow them to gain hegemony in the region and this is the case so far, because i would say the shiite radical axis led by iran, hezbollah in lebanon, the houthis in yemen, shiite elements in bahrain, saudi arabia, this axis is exploiting the deal now to gain hegemony. For sure the hegemony in tehran, in a way hegemony in baghdad with the government, hegemony in beirut regarding hezbollah and now there is going to be hegemony in damascus. So to perceive iran as a central player in solving or settling, bringing about stability to the region, no way. So to leave us, talking about syria, with iran dominating syria, we cant believe it. And this is the case so far. Looking to the last two years, going back to the last two years regarding terror attacks perpetrated on syrian soil, in golan heights, the ten of them, that were all of them, actually, ten terror attacks, perpetrated, operated by Iran Revolutionary guard. Not even one attack by sunni and they did it from governed in the territory. Not one attack forms opposition to territory. Whether it was rocket launchings, explosive along the border and so forth. Revolutionary guard and quds forces. So to allow now iran to be situated on our border, we dont share a border with iran. Of course, we dont have any dispute with this regime whatsoever. But they still want israel to be wiped off the earth. Why . Because of their ideology. There is no room for a jewish state in what they call the islamic state. To allow iran to dominate syria is disrespect. We have a dispute about situation in iran. We didnt favor the Muslim Brotherhood government. Of course, we do not intervene even in syria. We have very clear policy regarding our experience. But when 30 million egyptians went to the street to get rid of the Muslim Brotherhood government, we thought that to allow general assisi, my counterpart at that time, to take over the military abilities, to become the president , it should have been western interest, lets put it this way. That was a dispute. And of course, when it comes to [ inaudible ], what is the call of the public . This occupation since 67 occupation since 48, which is our existence. So lets deal with it first of all by common understanding of the challenge. If you dont understand, if you dont agree about this, how can you agree about the. [ inaudible ] 1500 casualties. Its about so many misconceptions regarding the conflict. And not make more mistakes. As we did agree in the past we made many mistakes. Today we have a situation in which no doubt we are going through geopolitical [ inaudible ]. Long story but basically the nation, artificial nation state collapsed. Thats now the lesson of history. Why did it happen . Western leaders were sitting after world war i creating artificial borders, ignoring gadhafi, ignoring the culture, the mentality in the region, seeking to the middle east. Forgetting that in europe, it took about 200 years for the agreement and even in europe, yugoslavia, was a collapse or the failure. Again, sectarian differences, sectarian religious differences and so forth. We claim it was a result of western mistakes, whether it was naivete, Wishful Thinking or patronism. We try to implement what we believe is a realistic strategy in the region. We dont claim they should become [ inaudible ]. To propose, to offer, you cant for democracy by election. One person, one vote, once, no Second Chance for the opposition. It might have happened in egypt. They exploited the rules of the game not to bring about democracy. So this kind of difference should be discussed. We believe that living in the region, we have some understanding regarding the challenges. We have many ideas, many thoughts about what should be done in this chaotic situation. By avoiding naivete, by avoiding Wishful Thinking and by avoiding patronism the way that it was done in the past about the middle east. Mr. Minister, if its true that where you stand in life is driven by where you sit, im wondering whether or not there isnt a structural divide which is very difficult to bridge. We miss it with nonpredatory neighbors to our north and south and fish to our east and west. One historian called our liquid assets. These oceans are very important. You sit in a different environment and in a different region. Regardless of whether theres a republican or democrat in the white house, seems to me that those differences particularly in view of the geopolitical earthquake youre strike and the instability, can only grow. Im a great believer in the special nature of this relationship. I worry about it from time to time as well. Before we move off this, because i do want to get to questions from the audience, what is the one thing in your view that you think washington, hard to speak about official washington, but we will keep it generic to avoid the r and d problem, what is the one thing in your view that washington gets wrong about israel . And the National Security challenges it faces . You will allow me two things . I will. One is the challenge of iran. As i said earlier, we do argue. I also believe that the deal might bring about a change in the atmosphere in iran and to have more moderate regime in tehran. Our assessment that we are not going to expect in tehran. And this regime in a smart way, in a very smart way, succeeded in keeping the indigenous capabilities to have a nuclear war. They didnt have to destroy anything regarding the Nuclear Project which is very important for them. And within 10 to 15 years or even earlier, they might acquire the capabilities. I believe that if and when this regime will feel confident regarding the economy, rehabilitation of the economy, they might decide to break off. It might be five years, seven years, ten years or waiting until the end of the deal which is 10 to 15 years. So this regime actually was giving up its timetable of the project, they havent given up neither the vision nor the aspiration to acquire and for me to gain hegemony of the region. This is ideology. How come lebanon, we have a lebanese government but the one who has to make the decision to go to war is hezbollah . The government is irrelevant. Bashar al assad is dependent on iran and hezbollah. Bad news. In yemen, they did the same with hezbollah. They armed the houthis since 2009 and when they felt confident, they went out from the county to take over, almost dominating the state controlled by iran, this is the strategy. They are still ambitious, undermining the sunni regimes in the region. They acted ready to sacrifice. They were ready to pay for those elements before taking account of the Economic Situation inside iran. We dont agree. The second is about the israelpalestine conflict. First of all, what is the place of this . We still hear about the instability in the middle east is the result of the palestine conflict. You cant stabilize the middle east. It was ridiculous in the past, its ridiculous today. What is the linkage between the uprising . The revolution in egypt what is the connection between the ongoing civil war . Almost half a billion casualties. This is because of israel. The sectarian violence in iraq. There is a conflict between us and the palestinians and there are many misconceptions. Does it cause a problem whether it is occupation since 67 or the reluctance to recognize our right to exist as a nation state with the jewish people. It has been proved many times, rejected in the last several years, otherwise talking about settlements and borders. Why . In this case, just to get, not to give anything. Lets talk about everything. When he closed the door in front of both secretary of state february 2014 and president obama march 2014, he wasnt blamed. Why . Hes too weak to be accountable. The issue of accountability what is the most important value which is missing in the middle east is accountability. Our neighbors are used to deny accountability. Officially he is governing gaza but he is not accountable. Hamas is accountable. Hes not accountable for his people. They cant survive without us. Going back to the economy. Because of corruption, because of incompetence, because of coo of denial of accountability. So when he closed the door in front of president obama, she should have been blamed. He should be accountable. In our days we try to make progress. I can tell you that we dont want to govern the palestinians. Were happy they enjoy political. Theres a political institution, municipalities, they decided to be divided into two political entities. Fine. What about the accountability for the economy, incompetence, cooperation . Thats why theyre depending on us, even in gaza theyre depending on us. So when it comes to what to do with it as you dont want to govern them, we propose, lets make progress step by step from the bottom up. Lets improve the economy. Lets improve the competence to governor, security, learn order, judicial system, whatever. Two weak to be accountable. So its an honest mistake. The kind of differences makes all strategy regarding the middle east as lon one. Last question, well go to the audience. You know, youve had so much experience operationally, strategically, but most important for me, analytically. Because i dont think that wise policy can be made without sound analysis. We get ourselves into all kind of trouble by seeing the world the way we want it to be rather than the way it is. Israel is a relatively Young Country in its modern form. I mean, 68 years after our independe independence if you looked at the United States you would have seen a fundamentally different country than the one exist today. Neither our borders were agreed nor the character of our nation. Now, i would argue to you that at 68, you can make the same argument, that neither the borders nor the state of israel nor perhaps the character, theres great disagreement among israelis, arab israelis. My question to you involves the impact of nonresolution of this problem. I dont know who, including in this administration, would continue to make the argument, that the key to middle east stability or u. S. Credibility was an unresolved or the resolution of the Israeli Palestinian problem. I bought it at one point, things were different then. Theyre no longer that way. Its very important. But as an israeli, thats my question to you. No resolution leads to what . I wish to solve the israeli, palestinian conflict. Its not going to be settled in my lifetime. And there are alternatives. Im trying to avoid Wishful Thinking. Its a matter of alternatives. And lets imagine that we will not now deployed somalia in the west bank, im sure the first we would have face hamas in the west bank as we as it happened. Armed with rockets, snipers in je ruz lrusalem and so forth an forth. Its like its a c