The Middle East Report, Presidential Hopeful Biden Visits Israel Mar. 7, 2016

Syrian sitrep Mar 7, 2016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36BIawKTTRE

US Vice President Joe Biden will start his five-day Middle East tour in Israel Tuesday, March 8, by presenting the multibillion financial and defense aid package promised by the Obama administration to redress the imbalance in Israeli security generated by the nuclear deal with Iran. Prime Minister’s Netanyahu was also quietly tipped from Biden’s close circle that he may decide to use the handover of this package as the opening shot of his run for the Democratic presidential nomination, despite past repudiations.

Israeli officials in charge of staging the Biden visit were directed to handle the visitor to all intents and purposes as a candidate running for election to the White House on Nov. 4.

His presentation of an impressive US assistance program is meant to convey Obama’s desire to straighten out his rocky relations with Netanyahu before his departure, while also portraying his vice president to American Jews as a successor who will continue to look after Israel’s security interests.

The two governments have been negotiating for months on the size of US military assistance committed by Washington for preserving Israel’s qualitative military and security edge in the next decade, in the course of which Iran and the Islamic Republic’ will substantially upgrade the military capabilities of its armed forces and radical Revolutionary Guards Corps.
In recent talks between US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Israel put in a bid for $50 billion to be spread over 10 years, so raising the US military aid package for Israel from $3.5 bn to $5 bn a year. The Americans said this sum required further negotiation.
According to sources close to the prime minister, the vice president will be bringing the administration’s compromise proposal of between $40 billion and $50 billion, to be spread out over 13-15 years. He will also throw in to the deal US weaponry and items of cutting-edge military technology withheld hitherto from the IDF.
That list was agreed last week when Gen. Joseph Dunford, the Chairman of the US Chiefs of Staff sat down in Tel Aviv with IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkot and his top officers.
As for Biden’s intentions, on Feb. 19, he sharply criticized the campaigns run by Democratic hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders. He accused them of “doom and gloom” and not doing enough to combat the idea that the country is in decline.

Political observers who are familiar with the vice president’s thought patterns say those comments were well calculated. They expect him to continue to stay in the wings of the campaign and watch Hillary get tied in knots over events in her past, not least the affair of the private emails she sent as Secretary of State. He expects her to be forced by the baggage she carries to give up her run for the presidency. Biden will then step in as the shining savior of the Democratic Party.  He and many of his backers are sure that he is the only Democrat capable of stopping Donald Trump’s inexorable run for the presidency.
At the annual Gridiron Club anniversary dinner Saturday night, March 5, Joe Biden was reported to have quoted a reputed comment by Winston Churchill, “When eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber,” he said, adding: "Our kids are watching. The world is watching. The American people are better than this.”

Moscow is planning to send the "Admiral Kuznetsov" to the Mediterranean sea in the summer to lead a permanent naval group, said a high-ranking source in the main command of the Russian Navy. It will be upgraded for new types of aircraft and munitions, including the new MiG-29K and "other planes.”  The Kuznetzov can carry forty  SU-33, Mig-29 and SU-25UT fighter jets and 24 helicopters.