17 thoughts on “Israel’s Iran Policy Doomed to Fail Whatever the Choice – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. Pillar writes that some (Republicans?) believe that: “Iran is ruled by the “equivalent of al-Qaeda,” that its “theology teaches” that its objective is to “create a calamity,” that it believes “the afterlife is better than this life,” and that its “principal virtue” is martyrdom”.

    Well, isn’t this — in fact — close to the teaching of (some) fundamentalists in American evangelical churches who support Israel in the hope of bringing about the war of Armageddon and a calamity, a catastrophe, whereby the end of the world occurs and all non “saved” Christians go to Hell (Jews better convert, now, ya hear?). And hasn’t USA’s (and fundamentalists’ ) support for Israel tended exactly toward war (to say nothing of cruelty and oppression)?

    So this quasi fear of Iran is really a sort of psychological projection of the warlike attitudes of those who hold it — and “takes one to know one” takes on new meaning.

  2. I strongly recommend a visit to Mondoweiss and a brief video of a young, courageous woman standing up against AIPAC and assorted apostles: http://mondoweiss.net/2012/03/young-activist-disrupts-aipac-panel-about-israel-on-campus.html/comment-page-1#comment-430154. Richard, you may be quite morally, even strategically, correct about President Obama’s vacillations: “If someone with leadership could’ve just looked Bibi in the eyes and told him to go to hell without worrying about Aipac or the Jewish vote and pro-Israel donors.” But then you might also want to consider that he is one shrewd cooky who would rather not commit political suicide. Hopefully this attitude of his means clever moves on the political chessboard in the name of justice and not on the other hand that he is willing to commit war, even as he has unfortunately committed the 5th Fleet to the Persian Gulf. But then again, referring to the young warrior in the video, I feel she has shown a far greater active commitment in the cause of human rights and justice vis a vis Israel than occurs, say, in your blog, which tirelessly and, yes, significantly lists countless Israeli, AIPAC and associated outrages, but somehow, it seems to me, never seriously discusses what should be done about them. Easily declaring that America should not be a part of the outrages and that the international community must act remains nothing more than glib and safe expressions, surely no more courageous than Obama’s declarations. Perhaps as merely another visitor to your important blog I’m wrong in suggesting you function differently from the way you presently do, but because your blog does really signify something shouldn’t it in addition serve as a forum not just inventorying those aforementioned outrages, but seriously, honestly, courageously discussing what to do about them? Instead by and large we seem to depend on that pitiful lament: “Lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh, my!”

  3. … listing Israeli, AIPAC and associated outrages … without proposing what to do about them.

    I think that to do something we need to have a consensus that there is a problem. War mongers believe that everything can be solved by force and threat and that we should “eliminate” from the world regime and political movements that are “evil”, and that national and international law should be used only when it helps us, and otherwise ignored.

    Very recently we have seen war-monger approach to allocation of TV frequencies. Send the troops. The idea that military forced should not be used unless necessary is totally alien to “certain regimes”. The paradigm is to instill fear and live in fear. One has to convince Americans that far from being admirable and worthy of emulation, we have to get rid of that paradigm.

    About USA attacking Iran, powerful action lead to powerful reactions. Russia, China and India do not cherish USA rampaging across Eurasia, and USA can be methodically booted out from the region. Our wobbly positions in Central Asia and Afghanistan will be first to go. Our domination of banking settlement system would probably go away too.

    1. They have overwhelming influence via cash contributions (rather than number of votes), media influence, bought politicians, and pressure group apparatus built to ensure their sway is not going to be untethered by any means available within the legal system or regular system of society.

      That means the revolution has to be in the mind. Ignorance is the frontier. Thus, listing these outrages is but the first step to providing the body with the neuronal impulse we call the motivation to act.

      No need to micro manage. Trust in people to realize right/wrong once they are enlightened with truth. Those that do not get it simply need to be shown the truth in a different way to overcome false apprehensions to what just IS.

  4. One has to remember that what motivates Israeli policy-makers, strategists and tacticians alike, is “gaining” yet more time on the Palestinian front, where “Time is Real-Estate”.

    All else are either diversion tactics or manoeuvres to impact American politics.

  5. This is a coup d’etats by the Koch Bros/Netanyahu against President Obama. The Iran tensions ratchet up gas prices. It is a direct attack on the pocket of Americans and thus influences their perception of the economy greatly.

    Netanyahu’s first prong of regime change in America is finished with the soft launch, and now here’s the grand opening.

    I stay silent as to who has the upper hand in this equation. But please, Mr. Netanyahu, speak your mind. Go on TV Mon-Fri and tell us how Israel NEEDS a war and wants to drag us into it. This is a great idea. You’ve become a bright man today. Mazel mazel.

    1. So why does Obama take this attack lying down? He should fight back, address the nation over television, and explain just what is going on.

      1. Great idea. I will write Obama and suggest just that. It would not break him as a politician as everyone seems to think — it would make him because everyone I talk to has had it with the two parties and the congress of poison. But he won’t risk it.

        I’m not making fun — wouldn’t it be great to hear some truly wise words about the pressures on the President and from whence they come and then about true American interests etc?

        I’m just not going to hold my breath.

  6. How far we have come since “A day that will live in infamy”. When I was a kid (before Vietnam) it was a point of pride that the US had never lost a war. It was also a point of pride that we had not started one (nobody pays attention to the Spanish-American war).

    The US was able to keep itself out of WW2 until after it was attacked by Japan and then Hitler declared war on us.

    Now, not only do we start wars on the other side of the world for trumped up reasons, we put ourselves in the service of a tiny nation that forced itself in demands its neighbors do as it tells them to do.

    Could there be a policy any closer to national suicide than this? We have become the proxy of what was our proxy!

    Israel is a pariah for what it is doing and has done to the Palestinians. The U.S., once the hope of the world carrying the banner “Liberty and Justice for All” now binds itself to the pariah who is actively, deliberately and forcefully denying liberty and justice to an indigenous people.

    As was said in the 60’s, it is even more true today: the whole world is watching.

  7. “They got the oil, we got the matches” is an old Israeli expression dating back at least to the 1970s (and probably earlier).

    While BB seems to be trying to cash on it as best he can these days, I doubt he’s got the means, let alone the nerve, to actually ignite the powder keg his sitting on. The trouble is, talking alone can sometimes prove incendiary enough and these days might prove to be one of those times.

  8. 1. From Chapter II, paragraph 4:

    All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations. (Do they even care if this matters anymore? It does to the brown eyed, blue eyed, green eyed children in Iran) Weasel words.
    2. Obama is not done with diplomacy. “I firmly believe that an opportunity remains for diplomacy backed by pressure to succeed.” In Iran’s Friday elections the Majalis came out well, signalling there is a ‘permanent solution’ to the standoff. The election has demonstrated they have rational actors in Iran, Obama would be a fool not to make a deal.

    Personally I can’t to see Bibi and Obama thrown out of their jobs.

  9. I just finished read Fidel Castro’s autobiography (as told to Ignacio Ramonet in a bunch of interviews edited together into a book). Castro and Cuba had made fools of this country and its governments for well over 50 years now.

  10. RE: “I was just reading Paul Pillar’s incisive essay in the Washington Monthly which puts the argument against war with Iran about as strongly as anyone can.” ~ R.S.

    ALSO SEE: Would God want Israel to attack Iran? ~ By (Rabbi) Michael Knopf, Haaretz, 3/04/12

    (excerpt). . . With the American war in Iraq still fresh in our collective memory, Judaism’s standards for just wars become especially poignant. A decade ago, Bush Administration officials began calling for military action against Saddam Hussein. They contended that Hussein had secret weapons stockpiles, was producing weapons of mass destruction, and was supplying weapons to terrorists. Given Hussein’s belligerent attitude toward the West, his defiance of the international community, and his track record of brutality at home and abroad, these pieces of evidence were, at the time, offered to prove a clear and imminent threat to the U.S.
    So the U.S. invaded, igniting a nearly ten-year war that reportedly resulted in more than 150,000 deaths. Only amid the rubble and corpses did we discover that most, if not all, of the arguments in favor of the war were false. We let fears, not facts, govern our decisions. Our goal was to save innocent lives; we took many, instead.
    The Talmud teaches that, in 586 BCE, Judea was destroyed not because its defenses were too weak, but because the Jews were indifferent about shedding blood (Shabbat 33a). Let us pray that history does not repeat itself.

    ENTIRE COMMENTARY – http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/would-god-want-israel-to-attack-iran-1.416343

    P.S. RE: “We let fears, not facts, govern our decisions.” ~ Rabbi Knopf
    MY CONTRIBUTION: “Sticks and stones may break our bones, but facts will never sway us.” ~ Neocon Creed

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