The Value of a Written Commitment

Rick Richman
Contentions/Commentary
21 November '10

An Israeli official noted on Friday that the U.S. had still not produced a letter confirming the promises made to Benjamin Netanyahu the week before, including the pledge to give Israel 20 F-35 stealth warplanes worth $3 billion, which produced this reaction from Benny Begin:

"It looks like the free stealth fighters have slipped," said Benny Begin, a minister from Netanyahu's Likud party who is opposed to the proposed U.S. deal, warning that Washington was setting a trap to extract major concessions later down the line.

"One may wonder if you cannot agree to understandings from one week to the next, what could happen over three months," Begin told the Army Radio on Friday.

With this administration, it is a good idea to get oral understandings in writing, since Hillary Clinton famously argued last year that a six-year unwritten understanding of a "settlement freeze" (no new settlements or expansion of the borders of existing ones) was "unenforceable" " and that henceforth every new apartment (or announcement of one) would be considered a "settlement." No wonder the Israeli security cabinet decided that an oral understanding would not be worth the paper it was written on.

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