January 16, 2009
In January 2009, during the last days of the George W. Bush administration, the governments of Israel and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in which Washington and Jerusalem went on record “unequivocally condemning all acts, methods, and practices of terrorism, in particular the recent rocket and mortar attacks and other hostile activity perpetrated against Israel from Gaza by terrorist organizations.”
Under the MOU, signed in Washington on January 16, 2009, the United States further agreed “to work with regional and NATO partners to address the supply of arms and related material and weapons transfers and shipments to Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza.” The memorandum was signed at the end of Israel’s December 2008-January 2009 effort to suppress Hamas rocket attacks against Israel. Should the United States become centrally or peripherally involved in monitoring a cease-fire and the movement of a cease-fire into a new status quo for Gaza, the contents of this MOU could constitute a workable outline for helping enforce calm in Gaza and on its borders.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his June 2009 Bar-Ilan speech, suggested that “real monitoring, and not what occurs in Gaza today,” be employed in monitoring a demilitarized Palestinian state.
— Ken Stein, July 30, 2014
