Israel Believes Obama Will 'Deprive' It of Political Support for Iran Attack

The Financial Times today talks about something our press can't, why this may be Israel's last chance to hit Iran:

One senior European Union diplomat privately stated this week that he put the chances of such an attack at “50:50” first because Israel believes Iran will master the technology needed to build a nuclear bomb by 2010 and, second, because the possible election of Barack Obama as US president would deprive Israel of political support it would need from Washington to mount an attack.

You'd think that when the Israel may be about to plunge the Middle East into greater turmoil, by attacking Iran, the presidential candidates would have something to say about it, and our press would be talking about Israel's "political support" here. Only Ron Paul has repeatedly attacked the plans to attack Iran and, appropriately, laid them at AIPAC's doorstep. Obama himself has had nothing to say except hawkish statements. And lo, Hillary offered to "obliterate" Iran, on morning television. Yes I agree Obama's progressive ascension may well deprive Israel of political support here for such a move. But why is no one talking about the American interest? Why is Obama politically gutless now? Answer: the large Jewish presence in public life. And so the tail continueth to waggeth the dog.

(Thanks to James Morris and Dan Swanson for headsups).

Comments

[Charles Keating]

Phil, you are right on target.

[the Sword of Gideon]

It's not exactly an earth shaking revelation that a President Obama will do a Neville Chamberlain with the Iranians and roll over like a puppy. But I digress, how many times do the storm troopers here go into the no more wars for Israel rant, and Iraq is just American boys dying for the kikes and all the rest of it, and yes I'm taking about you kameraden Keating, Well here is a case where a nuclear Iran is an existential threat to Israel. You can't forbid them from doing anything about it and not take the responsibility on by the United States. It's intellectually dishonest although for the people that write here that's not exactly a problem. Logic

[Nancy E.]

"You can't forbid them from doing anything about it."

Even if it's done with our weaponry, paid for with our money, protected by our UN vetoes, and physically defended by our soldiers?

[the Sword of Gideon]

Explain to me where the American soldiers are defending Israel.
And the UN is a joke. It's one thing to let the pygmies rant and rave but when they thing that they are in charge it's time to close that baby up use it for a garbage processing plant. Last but not least let me ask you this. Say I buy you a gun to protect yourself from the local camel jockeys. And one day they descend upon you because, well they don't need a reason to cut peoples heads off they enjoy it. Can I forbid you from protecting yourself because if you do the rag heads will then turn on me. And if they rob and rape you, being and infidel and all that, am I in any way responsible.

[MRW]

SOG,

I dont think you're clear what appeasement means relative to Neville Chamberlain, and your camel jockey rant still doesn't prove that what may be in Israel's national interest is in ours, other than as a description of thugs in a back-alley brawl.

I'm American. Sixteen US intel agencies said, unequivocally, Iran is not a threat to us.

[MRW]

SOG,

I dont think you're clear what appeasement means relative to Neville Chamberlain, and your camel jockey rant still doesn't prove that what may be in Israel's national interest is in ours, other than as a description of thugs in a back-alley brawl.

I'm American. Sixteen US intel agencies said, unequivocally, Iran is not a threat to us.

[Oarwell]

The world is taking active measures, through the United Nations and the IAEA

http://www.iaea.org/NewsCenter/Focus/IaeaIran/index.shtml

to ensure that Israel's insecurity not lead to a preemptive strike on a non-existent nuclear weapons programme.

For the Cheneyites, this serves as a convenient sideshow, a fiction, while they busily engage in applying financial sanctions and engineering a naval blockade, both sure steps on the path to war. These steps are routine components of the imperial modus operandi.

All very predictable. Like watching a man drown, very, very slowly.

A useful book to read is Stephen Kinzer's "Overthrow," nicely detailing all the previous occasions the usual pack of war profiteers coupled with the United Fruit of the day to overthrow non-compliant regimes (not complying, that is, with Anglo-American demands to exploit natural resources). Same game, different name.

As Kinzer notes, since the collapse in 1989 of the only effective restraint on American aggression, the U.S. has become quite open about its imperialism. No longer are proxies needed.

We certainly don't need Israel to steal Iran's oil. But Israeli anxiety provides a convenient "moral" excuse, a faux-righteous casus belli that can help the yokels acclimatize themselves to yet another War for Peace.

[MRW]

___________________________________________________________

"Last update - 11:07 25/10/2007

[Foreign Minister] Livni behind closed doors: Iran nukes pose little threat to Israel
By Gidi Weitz and Na'ama Lanski, Haaretz Correspondents

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said a few months ago in a series of closed discussions that in her opinion that Iranian nuclear weapons do not pose an existential threat to Israel, Haaretz magazine reveals in an article on Livni to be published Friday.

Livni also criticized the exaggerated use that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is making of the issue of the Iranian bomb, claiming that he is attempting to rally the public around him by playing on its most basic fears. Last week, former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy said similar things about Iran." [...]
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/916758.html
___________________________________________________________

[Joachim Martillo]

Explain to me where the American soldiers are defending Israel.

I used to supply software for serial cards used at a US Army base in the Sinai. As far as I know, the base is still there.

Real Issue of Nuclear Iran provides a pointer to a useful review of a Ziollywood political documentary that scare-mongers the Iranian proliferation issue.

[Chuck]

SOG, why don't you man up and go join the IDF? Most real Americans don't give a shit about your stinky little Apartheid regime over on the Mediterranean so it's not like you would ever be missed in America.

[LeaNder]

"yes I'm taking about you kameraden Keating"

Sorry SOG, but surely our dear Charles is one person only, while kameraden is a plural.

You may feel your insinuations "storm troopers" "kameraden" are clever; I am afraid they are empty.

[Charles Keating]

21/05/2008 13:34 TEL AVIV, May 21 (RIA Novosti) - The Israeli prime minister has proposed that a U.S. naval blockade be imposed on Iran to stop the Islamic Republic from moving ahead with its uranium enrichment program, an Israeli newspaper said on Wednesday.

According to the Haaretz daily, at a meeting in Jerusalem with the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, Ehud Olmert said, "The present economic sanctions [against Iran] have run out of steam," and proposed "a naval blockade of Iran," using the U.S. navy to limit movement in and out of the Islamic Republic by Iranian merchant ships.

And now we have a bill in congress to blockade Iran. It;s being pushed by the democracts we elected to stop the war in Iraq, as well as, of course, the Republicans. Only Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich have gone on record explaining why they opppose it. Naturally it's not in the mainstream media. Americans are really gullible.

[Charles Keating]

Sword Of Gideon/Bill Pearlman, did you serve in the US military? If so, when? In what outfit? Do you have children who will live in the USA when you're gone? What are you doing here? Why aren't you in Israel?

[jeff]

After reading many comments from SOG and Richard Witty, I also keep asking myself: what are they doing here?

why no "aliyah"?

[jeff]

but then I remind myself that two-thirds of the world's Jews refuse to actually live in Israel.

[Paul Easton, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn]

.
Charles Keating says:

And now we have a bill in congress to blockade Iran. It;s being pushed by the democracts we elected to stop the war in Iraq, as well as, of course, the Republicans. Only Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich have gone on record explaining why they opppose it. Naturally it's not in the mainstream media. Americans are really gullible.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Completely right. The Ruling Class Establishment's Financial/Political/Media Complex is a lot more monolithic than most people want to realize. I would guess it includes 98% of US Congress. If you dont believe me, check out the list of sponsors of the blockade resolution.

It is time for us to get real and admit that US 'Constitutional Democracy' is a dead letter. The Constitution is completely unenforceable and the Democracy is a ludicrous farce. The system is rotten to the core and is way past any hope of fixing. It is decaying exponentialy and cant last more than a few years longer.

The only constructive activity at this point is to plan for what comes next. I'm sure the Right is making plans, along with the grouplets of Leninist Left. It is long past time for the rest of us to come to grips with the reality.

[Charles Keating]

One might argue Obama is a conniving charlatan who hides behind vacuous words like ‘hope’ and ‘change’, allowing each voter to project their deepest desires onto him, which he reflects back. All the time, hiding what the real purpose of his mission in life. I hope we figure this puzzle out before we give him the keys (and power) to the kingdom.

[Paul Easton, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn]

.
What is the real purpose of Obama's mission in life? Obviously pretty much the same as the Clintons and McCain.

Yes I too allowed myself to HOPE. Until I faced the fact that my main hope was that everything he said was a lie, and allowed myself to see how silly that was.

'I hope we figure this puzzle out before we give him the keys (and power) to the kingdom.' Face the facts. He has already got the keys. Unless he gets shot before assuming office.

Now we have Obama voting to let the telcom giants off the hook and to legalize further eavesdropping. Surely he didnt have to if he didnt want to. McCain can never win. But diehard hope addicts will cling to the belief that he didnt really mean it.

Look. There is still hope. Not for *this* republic, but for what comes after.

[Carol Warmington]

I think it's laughable that Jews were told not to BOO Obama at AIPAC - not for anything he's done or said... but because they know they don't own him.

Israel is toast if a future president is even handed at best.

That's why I am increasingly anti semitic. I'm angry at ALL JEWS because ALL JEWS know that our government is wholly owned and operated by Jews for Israel.

I call that treason.

I want Obama to be impartial. And I hope he is as radical as some believe. Perhaps we can regain a little of the respect we've lost since we became Israeli Occupied Territory. Germans didn't like the Jewish boot either.

[John Dickerson]

Iran Red Lines
by Laura Rosen

Washington Dispatch: Mother Jones has learned that a parade of high level Israeli officials are on their way to the White House over the next two weeks to discuss Iran policy. Here's where the two countries differ on what to do next.

While the Israeli government considers the Bush administration highly sympathetic and sensitive to its security concerns, there are growing signs that Washington and Jerusalem may be diverging in their analysis of the urgency of the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program and its defensive military preparations for countering a possible strike, and their subsequent prospective timelines for considering possible military action against Iran......

ARTICE- http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/07/iran-bomb-us-israel-war-threat.html

[A. Magnus]

If Israel want to start a war, let them start it, then let them deal with the consequences all on their own. No billion dollar airlifted military bailouts at the 11th hour, no $4 billion per year in free economic welfare, just Israel picking fights with their neighbors.

The reason there isn't any peace in the Middle East is because there is no incentive for the Israelis to stop starting wars; the U.S. will always bail them out, regardless of whether the war was justified or not. Just like the schoolyard runt who picks fights knowing full well his big brother will clean the clock of any who retaliate against him.

[Charles Keating]

Investment bankers on the homefront, Israel overseas--always get bailed out. Is this a running fact, or not? What does it mean?

[John Maszka]

I certainly hope so.