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Israel, US threats growing against Iran
Linda Heard Comment
ISRAELI and US threats against Iran are growing louder. Israel’s
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon has accused Tehran of
conducting insincere negotiations and says his country’s the
threatened military option is no bluff. His warning echoes that of
former Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh, who maintains that
Israel will strike before the end of this year if the UN Security
Council fails to agree upon “crippling” anti-Iranian sanctions.
Cheering from the sidelines is Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of
Staff Michael Mullen, who says a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten
Israel’s existence. Secre-tary of State Hillary Clinton says the US
will strengthen the military capabili-ties of Gulf states in the
event Iran goes nuclear.
However, there is one sensible voice amidst the orchestrated yada
yada, that of Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. He says Iran does
not pose an existential threat to Israel. No country does, he
says...and he’s right. Let’s suppose for a moment that Iran
literally wants to see Israel wiped from the map and possessed
nuclear missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv. First of all, it
would be suicidal to launch them. Before you could say ‘hey presto’
Israel and its ally the US would retaliate in kind leaving most of
Iran obliterated.
And even if this were not the case, how could Tehran nuke Israel
without killing Palestinians or seriously polluting Lebanon, Syria
and Egypt? If Iran were to develop a nuclear arsenal it would only
be useful as a deterrent to ensure that its enemies would think
twice before initiating a first strike. If launching a nuclear war
were that easy, then Moscow and Washington would be rub-ble by now
or Islamabad and New Delhi incinerated. A visiting extraterrestrial
would surely be perplexed how the only nation ever to have dropped a
nuclear bomb, partnered with another which smugly conceals its
nuclear capability, have the collective chutzpah to threaten a
country that holds to its NPT obligations. Iran has a perfect right
to enrich uranium under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty for
peaceful purposes and, until now, there is no hard evidence to
indi-cate otherwise. Moreover, Iran isn’t threatening any country
militarily, doesn’t have expansionist ambitions and does not have a
history of invading its neigh-bors. The same cannot be said for
either Israel or the US.
Methinks the brouhaha over Iran’s nuclear program is nothing more
than a red herring. If Iran were a client state of the US there
wouldn’t be a problem. The fact that Iran is one of very few
independent Middle East nations refusing to toe Washington’s line is
the real issue along with its support of Syria, Hezbol-lah and Hamas.
The West actually wants regime change in Iran. It wants the rul-ing
ayatollahs replaced by a pro-Western puppet and to that end the US
is sup-porting anti-government groups. In the meantime, Israel is
hyping up the ante against Iran by claiming that Hezbollah is
readying itself for another war. Israel says it has seized a ship
loaded with hundreds of tons of Iranian weapons bound for Hezbollah,
which Has-san Nasrallah, the organization’s leader, has denied. The
idea that Nasrallah would ignite another conflict is preposterous at
a time when Lebanon has just announced a new unity government to
include Hezbollah and when the country’s economy is on the
up-and-up. If Hezbollah’s military-wing is, in fact, re-arming then
such would only be for defensive purposes.
Israel does have very real fears but these have little to do with
Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Of far more pressing concern is the
growing demographic imbalance be-tween Arab Israelis/Palestinians
and Jewish Israelis, which bolster increasing international calls
for a one-state solution based on one-man one-vote. Secondly,
Israelis worry about losing the backing of American Jews as growing
numbers are distancing themselves from Israel’s treatment of the
Palestinians and the Netanyahu government’s hard-line policies.
The new pro-Israel lobbying organization J Street, which is pushing
for two states living side by side in peace, exemplifies this new
trend. At the same time, Israel is concerned that President Barack
Obama isn’t such a pro-Israel champion as his predecessors. And,
indeed, the relationship between Tel Aviv and Washington is
currently strained over Israel’s settlement expansion and
Netanyahu’s reluctance to return to the peace table based on
parameters agreed by previous governments.
But most of all, perhaps, Israel fears that international justice
will finally catch up with it. Despite Netanyahu’s furious lobbying
of Israel’s allies, the 575-page Goldstone report on war crimes
committed in Gaza was last week over-whelmingly approved by the UN
General Assembly by 114 to 18. The UN Security Council earlier
debated the report but declined to call a vote due to vehement US
opposition. Nevertheless, the General Assembly has sent Israel a
strong mes-sage and unless it complies with the report’s
recommendation to hold an enquiry into Operation Cast Lead, its
officials may become liable to universal jurisdic-tion when they
travel.
Moreover, according to the Israeli English-language daily Ha’aretz,
“concerns are growing in Israel’s government over the possibility of
a unilateral Pales-tinian declaration of independence within 1967
borders” which “could potentially be recognized by the UN Security
Council. Its unease is fueled by reports that the Palestinian Prime
Minister Salam Fayyad has garnered a green light from the White
House for the Palestinian National Authority to file “a claim of
sover-eignty” jointly with the Arab League. Fayyad also plans to
replace UNSC resolu-tions 242 and 338 with a new one drawn-up to
attract the support of the interna-tional community, the paper says.
Nowadays, the Palestinians are playing by the book. In spite of a
mountain of obstacles they are presently choosing legal channels
over violent resistance. In the court of public opinion Israel is
losing. Its illegal settlement expansion, illegal apartheid fence
and its wanton destruction of Gaza using illegal weapons have been
spotlighted for all to see. As long as the Palestinians stay on
track without succumbing to provocation there will come a day when
Israel will have nowhere to hide with one exception. Big bad Iran is
out to nuke poor defenseless Israel. Believe that and I’ve got a
pyramid going cheap! |
