14 thoughts on “Anti-Iran Lobby Steps Up Its Game Before Deadline for P5+1 Talks – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. @Richard

    “.. David Petraeus, former CIA director, adulterer and compromiser of U.S. national security, Robert Einhorn, the State Department’s sanctions czar, James Cartwright and Stephen Hadley, Dick Cheney’s national security adviser.”

    You may want to put a semi colon in there, if not, you run the risk of libeling Robert Einhorn.

  2. “You won’t find “Israel” mentioned a single time here. You won’t hear of the interventionist role Israel has played in regional affairs for even longer than Iran”

    Maybe because Israel isn’t a party to the negotiations?

  3. Thanks for this rich and detailed analysis of the politics playing out about the Iran deal. I know for a fact that Israel’s “damaged goods” status is encouraging anti-Zionist organizations and activism in the US.

    1. Seconded. Richard, this is perhaps the best-written article I have seen from you; very well laid-out, very very persuasive.

  4. I don’t think Filkins was a good war correspondent– when embedded with the Marines he denied that there were high civilian casualties in Fallujah because he saw no bodies– but he also saw no insurgent bodies until the Marines took him to see one at his request. Not all the civilians fled Fallujah and no one knows how many bodies both insurgent and civilian were buried in rubble. That is what he should have said, but he took a stand based on what he didn’t see– on the same logic he should have said only one insurgent died in Fallujah in the November 2004 battle.

    In short, I think you can trust Filkins to tell the truth about what he saw with his own eyes, but beyond that take his analysis with a truckload of salt.

      1. ” The fact that you are anti-Semitic, or racist, doesn’t preclude you from being interested in survival,” the president said in the interview. “It doesn’t preclude you from being rational about the need to keep your economy afloat; it doesn’t preclude you from making strategic decisions about how you stay in power; and so the fact that the supreme leader is anti-Semitic doesn’t mean that this overrides all of his other considerations.”

        Neville Chamberlain probably said the same things about “Herr Hitler” (and would have been dead wrong).

        1. That is about the extent of Bibi’s historical repertoire. Any diplomatic initiative he doesn’t
          like is promptly compared to Munich. The comparison has been done to death. The world has since long stopped to listen.

        2. @mitchell Blood: Obama is a politician. Politicians do and say absolutely stupid things for short term benefit and impact. Obama did precisely that here. It is an absolute comment rule violation to abuse Holocaust/Nazi references by implying any connection to Iran or its leaders. I put you on notice: Such references will get you moderated promptly. Read the comment rules carefully.

  5. What if the Republicans prevent ratification of a deal but the Security Council (if it is not prevented to do so by a veto) endorses it?. The US is, after all, not the only nation dealing with Iran here. All the permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany are involved. They can ignore votes by the US Senate.

    This would leave the US isolated. Iran could happily deal with the world outside the US (and there really is one though many Americans are probably inclined to forget it) and even seek to share in the new international financial institutions that Russia and China are trying to create – and where would that leave the US? With strengthened ties with its “indispensable partner” Israel? Big deal.

    1. Exactly, sanctions are dead. The rest of the world has already put the contracts in place, waiting only for the formal end of the SC sanction regime to implement.
      Iran knows this, even USA knows this and that is why, in spite of AIPAC etc. Obama will continue to talk. Either the USA comes on board, with the best that it can get at this time, or they will be completely sidelined.
      Russia and China are allowing the USA (with little France earning brownie points in Tel Aviv) to stall a little more, but they will get impatient and move forward anyway if it takes much longer. They are only interested in trade and economics, not pandering to political donors.

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