Haaretz is reporting today that “The Unites States’ most recently appointed envoy to the Middle East, retired General Jim Jones, is expected to arrive in Israel Monday night in order to take part in a number of meetings with both the defense establishment and political officials Tuesday … His stay in Israel will be for 24 hours during which he will meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, IDF Chief Gabi Ashkenzi and the U.S. security coordinator in the territories, General Keith Dayton. It is still unclear how the two generals will split the work load between them. Political officials said Monday that the purpose of the visit was so that Jones would familiarize himself with the situation while explaining to the Israeli side exactly what his position entails. ‘Jones will only be working a ‘part time job’ and so there apparently will be an additional American official who he will work with and who will serve as the actual arbiter’, a gov’t official said“.
The Haaretz report on Gen. Jones first visit is here.
There are a number of unanswered questions here: Was Gen. Jones at the Paris Donors conference? Will he be seeing only Israeli and American officials? Has he met any Palestinians to date?
OK, I’ve just seen the Jerusalem Post report, which answers the first question — YES, “Jones met Monday in Paris with Palestinian officials”. The JPost continues: “Senior Defense officials said Jones was a ‘professional’ who could be counted on to look at the intelligence material and draw the proper conclusions … Diplomatic officials said that unlike Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, the US official charged with helping the PA build its security forces, Jones will not be stationed here, but will come and go periodically”. The JPost report is here.
Funny, I asked an American public information official Monday when Gen. Jones would be arriving, and she said (rather evasively, it seemed — especially in retrospect) that she had nothing on that yet …
At 19:00 Jerusalem time, the Israel Defence Forces spokesman sent out an information note, saying: “The Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi, met for the first time this afternoon with the United States Special Envoy for Middle East Security, General James Jones. The meeting took place in the Chief of Staffs office at the Kirya Base in Tel Aviv
During the meeting Lieut. Gen. Ashkenazi presented General Jones with a strategic assessment of the region and the security challenges facing Israel . He also briefed General Jones about IDF operations with an emphasis on the Judea and Samaria region and the severe situation in the Gaza Strip“…
Tags: Gen. Jim Jones