Telling Israel No
Posted on July 30th, 2009
by Patrick J. Buchanan |
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Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, who is wired into the cabinet of “Bibi” Netanyahu, warns that if Iran’s nuclear program is not aborted by December, Israel will strike to obliterate it.
Defense Secretary Gates’ mission to Israel this week, says Bolton, to relay Obama’s red light, was listened to attentively, but will not be decisive.
Israel will decide.
One trusts Gates got into the face of Defense Minister Ehud Barak. For an Israeli strike on Iran, which Joe Biden foolishly said was Israel’s call, would drag this country into a third war in the Middle East and destroy a policy that is visibly succeeding.
The Iranian regime is still reeling from the June 12 election, widely perceived in Iran and worldwide as stolen, and its tumultuous aftermath. Hundreds of thousands poured into the streets to protest the election, and then attack the legitimacy itself of the Islamic regime.
The government is gripped by its worst crisis since the revolution of 1979. Members of Iran’s establishment with unimpeachable revolutionary credentials have declared the election a fraud.
Ahmadinejad’s selection as first vice president of Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, whose son is married to his daughter, and who has said some kind words about Israel, outraged conservatives.
Ahmadinejad was ordered by Ayatollah Khamenei to rescind the Mashaie appointment. For days he balked, then sent a curt note saying he would comply. Ahmadinejad further affronted the ayatollah by naming Mashaie his chief of staff.
Teheran is now ablaze over reports that scores of street protesters arrested in June may have been beaten to death in prison.
There is talk in Teheran, even before he has been sworn in for a second term, that Ahmadinejad may be impeached or ousted long before he can complete it.
America’s policy of patience is working.
And as Ahmadinejad is Israel’s bete noire, who Netanyahu cites as the religious fanatic who wants to “wipe Israel off the map” and will launch a nuclear weapon on Tel Aviv as soon as he gets it, why would Israel strike now, and reunite Iranians behind this regime?
Why does Israel insist that America has only five months to halt Iran’s nuclear program, or Israel must attack?
Says Bolton: “(W)ith each passing day, Iran’s nuclear and ballistic laboratories, production facilities, and military bases are all churning. Israel is focused on these facts, not the illusion of ‘tough’ diplomacy.”
Now, Iran’s nuclear “production facilities” may be “churning” out the low-enriched uranium of which it has produced enough for one test bomb. But IAEA inspectors still have their eyes on this pile. None of the LEU has been diverted anywhere.
There is no evidence Iran has built the cascade to raise LEU to highly enriched weapons-grade uranium, or that the facilities even exist to do this. The Iranian regime has declared it has no intention of building nuclear weapons, indeed, that their possession would be a violation of Koranic law.
And the United States has not rescinded its own National Intelligence Estimate of 2007 that Iran, in 2003, abandoned its weapons program.
Israel has been saying for years an Iranian bomb is months away.
Where is the proof? Where is the evidence to justify a new U.S. war in the Middle East to destroy weapons of mass destruction that may not exist in Iran, as they did not exist in Iraq?
Iran may wish to have a nuclear deterrent, considering what happened to neighbor Iraq, which did not. But the idea that the regime, having built a nuclear weapon, would launch it on Tel Aviv and bring massive retaliation by scores of Israeli nukes on Teheran and other cities, killing millions of Iranians and all the leaders and their families of all factions of this disputatious people, seems like total madness.
For Israel to launch a war on such reasoning would seem to meet Bismarck’s definition of preemptive war as “committing suicide out of fear of death.”
America lived for decades under a threat of nuclear annihilation. We relied on a policy of containment and deterrence, outlasted the Soviet regime in a 40-year Cold War, and are now at peace with Russia.
Ahmadinejad is not so tough a customer as Stalin, Khrushchev or Mao, who talked of accepting 300 million dead in a nuclear exchange. Moreover, Ahmadinejad has no nukes, no authority to take Iran to war, and is looking like a very lame duck before his second term has begun.
And when one looks to U.S. and Iranian interests, they coincide as much as they conflict. Iran detested the Taliban before we took them down, and no more wants them back than do we. Iran is even more pleased with the Shia regime we brought to power in Baghdad than we are.
Iran needs technology to restore its depleted oil and gas fields, and an end to sanctions to restore an economy whose disintegration helped put the regime in crisis and lose it the support of its young.
Obama should tell the Israelis, “Cool the jets!” literally.
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Filed under: Culture, Economics, Law
So wait a minute is Pat Buchanan endorsing intervention? ..Is he saying America should police the Isreal- Iran situation? .. To involve ourselves in this mess? .. Now Mr. buchanan thinks it would be madness for tehran to strike Israel ..Madness is murdering your own citizens and stoning your wives to death lmao why would they care? ..im very puzzled by America being the policeman of the world..its even crazier when i hear it from people id least expect to endorse us dictacting Israeli policy ..i thought we turned a new page when Bush left office.. Now Obama only emersed himself more into this situation.. we have no business policing .. lets worry about ourselves
Uh, I think Buchanan has been pretty consistent, James. Lifting sanctions isn’t really involving ourselves in the mess, it’s removing ourselves from it.
A concept I heartily endorse.
James,
Did you and I read the same article? I think not. Pat said, “America’s policy of patience is working.” Since when is patience = intervention? You must be one of those “conservatives” who think it is out destiny to tell the rest of the world what to do and kick their butt’s into submission if they don’t. That isn’t traditional conservative principle. Pay close attention to Pat and get schooled in real conservatism.
Keith im not talking about our patience with Iran .I was referring to Pat suggesting that America play policeman and tell Israel no ..kick the worlds but into submission? far from it ..I dont like America dictacting Israeli policy on settlements and when they can defend themselves .. why do we allways have to play cop? ..let Bibi do what he thinks he should do ..Besides how can we tell them no when Obama going to surge in afghanistan so we kill more innocent pakistanis who never attack us .. the taliban never attacked or shot rockets over the mexican borfder at us ..they sheltered bin laden 8 years ago .. i notice when Bush was waging war in the ME the hard left and paleo / libertarian were pissed as hell ..At least with Bush he was a hawk and didnt pretend not to be otherwise .. this community organizer ran on the premise of ending iraq in 9 months ..he told us that since 2004 .. now the lefties, paleos, and liberatrians are really letting Obama slide barely a peep ..
Given the AIPAC stranglehold on our politics, telling Israel no is out of the question.
Modern day Israel is situated on the actual ancestral land of world’s several million Jewry.
And, modern day Muslims are the descendants of their forcefully converted ancestors by Prophet Muhammad and his followers from 600 A.D. and onward.
Historically, Middle-Eastern Jews suffered far more gravely under the Islamic rulers than the European Jews did under the Christian rulers.
Islam is a religion that encourages and rewards inherent aggressiveness of humans. As a result, aggressive humans find deep solace in Islamic ideas and ideals. For further inspiration and learning, please read the original writings of Mr. Anwar Shaikh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_Shaikh).
Islamic Iran (Iran is not a Republic) has become an existential threat to Israeli Jews since 1979. Therefore, Israel cannot sit down and allow that threat to continually grow along with totally worthless talk-shows at the United Nations.
Israel must act.
Now, the question is, should America be involved with every regional problem on Earth, especially when Israel’s problem is not America’s problem? A
nswer is “Yes” or “No”, depending on one’s ambitions.
If you follow Mr. Patrick J. Buchanan, the answer is “No.” Mr. Buchanan prefers time to play its role as it did in Soviet Union and elsewhere.
If you follow Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Clinton, the answer is “Yes”. Because, they prefer the “Old Glory” of America — the supreme military power on Earth!
Finally, the problem lies with President Baraq Hussein Jr.
Because, President Baraq Hussein Jr. wants to please everyone.
President Baraq Hussein Jr. always plays smooth-talk with the AIPAC and, at the same time, wholeheartedly sides with world’s Islamic community.
James,
I am against US military intervention as well, but I don’t think that means we don’t allow ourselves to have an opinion on matters of foreign policy, as Pat is suggesting. If we think an ally is doing something against our interests, Iran’s interests, and yes, even Israel’s own interests, we certainly have the right to say so.
Ultimately, of course, Israel will still retain the right to do what it thinks is necessary for its preservation..all we can/should do is suggest a different, and perhaps wiser, course of action.
Peace be wth you,
Chris
Iran with one a-bomb doesn’t sound like much of a threat to the USA, but once they figure out how to make one, they’ll soon have ten, a hundred, a thousand… And it will be quite uncomfortable for us then.
To say that we need not worry about a new mutually-assured-destruction standoff because the one with the USSR turned out fine in the end is like going driving without a seat belt because you haven’t been killed in a crash yet.
If Pat Buchanan can’t be persuaded to worry much about the Jews of Israel, I urge him then to think about how much better things would have been for Christians in Eastern Europe, if the USSR had never gotten the bomb and thereby deterred the US from supporting the Poles, the East Germans, the Hungarians in their revolts against their Soviet masters.
It’s as if we’re now back in 1947 with the USSR not yet nuclear but on the verge, and a small country somewhere, with a *very* strong stake in the matter, takes it upon itself to disarm the USSR. Would that not have been a good thing for America, the world and all posterity? Well that’s what the Israelis are preparing to hand us on a silver platter (while taking risks far graver than we would face, if we undertook the same project).
How come nobody is up in arms over Israel having nukes. Or is that some kind of “secret” around here. What hypocrisy. Strong smell of neocon in the air. I think all our problems with Iran can be directly traced to unquestioning support for the Shah. They hate us? Go figure.
I don’t know why we support the Israel to begin with. What good have they done for America, except to pit us against the Arabs and Persians. Can anyone imagine a much friendlier MiddleEast. The oil would be flowing our way none stop.
I want our government to stop giving the Israels any more of our hard earned money. And if they have any decency left, they should stop asking and receiving money from us. I’m very sure that rich Jews around the world should be able to provide enough money to the Jews in Israel. And by the way, the land does not belong to the Jews. Once they had left if for, say, two thousand years, they forfeit their ownership. The Palestinians shall be the rightful owner. Otherwise there would be no America. After all the native Indians never left the land.
Great news. We face another world war, because another of Israel’s incredibly inept politicians, this time Ehud Barak, the one who supervised the killing fields of Gaza last December, is intent on the next killing fields - this time in Iran.
Will no one rid us of these warmongers?
ba nguyen: I served in Vietnam in 68-69 with the 11th Light Infantry Brigade, and have written extensively about my experiences during that horrible time. That said, you have my hearty endorsement, particularly about world Jewry supporting Israel, not Americans. Regarding Palestine, only about 9% of Jews are Sephardic, i.e., the “seed of Abraham”. The rest are central Asian Ashkenazi converts from about 700-800 AD and have no historical connection to the land currently called Israel.
I think Mr. PJB knows that if Israel strikes Iran, it would most certainly implicate our support and thus our involvement in the ensuing aftermath. Can Israel attack Iran without overflying Iraq ? Who controls Iraqi airspace? US military.
Therefore, an attack on Iran by Israel will likely automatically involve the US. And they know it. Which is why they keep playing these games (chicken little). Our govt ought to grow a set and tell Israel to p*ss off.
Over 35 million Irishman and Irishwomen in America do not identify themselves as the citizens of Dublin.
But, 6 million Jews in America identify themselves as the citizens of Israel.
That is why, billions of U.S. taxpayers’ dollars go to Israel every year.
In America, African Americans and Jewish Americans have inborn victim mentality.
The words “African American” does not mean much in reality; because, there is no country on Earth named “Africa”.
Africa is a continent that has many countries in it.
But, in America, dark-colored people call themselves “African American”.
In fact, early White Europeans fought for the emancipation of black-colored people in America.
And the irony is, now black-colored people in America want the descendants of White Europeans in America to apologize!
This is because of the fact that black-colored people in America do always think that White Europeans are 100% responsible for their all ills, both social and financial.
Similarly, many Jews in America feel that it is American tax-payers’ job to support the State of Israel til eternity.
That is why, American taxpayers keep on paying the bills of the Israelis.
That is why, after Israel had bombed Lebanon and Gaza, American taxpayers paid all the bills to re-build Gaza and Lebanon.
No wonder American government has always been in debt as it always has to pay other countries’ bills!
@Sternberg–
Let us say for the sake of argument, that Iran has 1,000 nuclear warheads tomorrow. How will they deliver them to the United States? Delivering a nuclear warhead is not like throwing rocks. It first requires miniaturization of the warhead. Then, there needs to be a high-tech targeting system. THEN, you need reliable ICMB technology. The idea of Iran being a threat to the United States is absurd.
The leaders of Iran, despite neocon propaganda to the contrary, are not insane maniacs who wish to be martyred. If the Iranian leadership truly wanted to die and become martyrs, they had ample chances to do just that under the Shah, and even more chances during the Iran-Iraq War. Mr. Ahmadenijad demurred both times. The loud noises they make is nothing more than cynical, empty bluster designed to manipulate domestic Iranian opinion. The logic of deterrence applies to Iran just as it did to the Soviet Union, and to any state actor with nuclear weapons.
Also, I have not even taken into account in my above post the quality and power of American nuclear weapons vs. hypothetical Iranian nukes. We have 1 megaton plus thermonuclear monsters, many of them with MIRVed warheads. They will be lucky to have one the size of Hiroshima.
If Israel chooses to bomb Iran, then it should do so under the assumption that its actions will have consequences, and its government should be able and ready to bear the costs. If they throw their bombs at Iran and then come hide behind Uncle Sam’s money and military like a bunch of sissies, then we’ll know that they made their decisions under the assumption that America will forever be servile to them. A true American would put this plainly to Israel: “Israel’s wars are not Americas, and American taxpayer money is not Israels.”
VA_Paleocon wrote:
“Let us say for the sake of argument, that Iran has 1,000 nuclear warheads tomorrow. How will they deliver them to the United States?…”
Seems to me the argument that the Iranian situation isn’t really a threat to the U.S. goes even deeper than that, and indeed goes to the very nub of the issue. That is … *why* would they deliver them to the United States?
Of course that’s not to diminish what Buchanan noted which is that per the latest IAEA and the U.S.’s own NIE reports Iran isn’t even building nukes. But from there even if they had them the only conceivable reason they would want them targeted on the U.S. would be the U.S. mucking about in their region interfering with their interests. And the fact is we *have* no good reason to be mucking about in their region interfering with their interests.
Even moreso than ideas, the truth has consequences. And the consequences of the truth here that we have no vital conflicting interest with Iran are manifold.
First of course that those who want a conflict with Iran have to use fundamentally false arguments to make their case.
Secondly though, and hopefully ineradicably, is that a U.S. war with Iran simply makes no sense. That truth will simply always want to shine through.
Tragically, as in Iraq or Vietnam, it doesn’t mean we won’t follow the false arguments too far down the path so that when the truth succeeds in shining through it’s too late.
While of course it can get even worse I think it’s already somewhat late. By already almost succeeding having the U.S. extend a formal nuclear umbrella over Israel or anywhere else in the Mideast those who are hot for a conflict recognize the truth and are in essence trying to change it. Because once we announce that umbrella then it more appears that we *do* have some vital interest over there, and it more looks like whatever we do is justified in the service of not having to use that umbrella. In essence, that umbrella just obscures the truth.
It’s really rather breathtaking seeing this country’s hubris to not only possess a strong enough domestic situation so as to justify going around the world telling everyone else what’s what, but to be believing that it truly can impose its will everywhere on the globe too despite the lessons of Vietnam and now, increasingly, even Afghanistan too.
As the Greeks noted, after Hubris comes Nemesis, and especially after the near economic meltdown this country has just experienced perceiving just such a great retribution is getting ever easier, terrifyingly enough.
Cheers,
phoenixtexoma,
I want to express my appreciation for your being there, i.e. Vietnam. Your sacrifice meant a peaceful childhood I enjoyed so much. When I saw images of children in North Korea, I realized how lucky the South Vietnamese were to have had men like you to protect us from the communists.
Take care, brother.
Realist, on August 3rd, 2009 at 2:26 am Said: A true American would put this plainly to Israel: “Israel’s wars are not Americas, and American taxpayer money is not Israels.”
That’s not what politicians in Washington think!
Washington politicians think it is American taxpayers’ responsibility to annually spend 5-10% of the U.S. GDP to buy “allies” in various parts of the world, most specifically in Middle East.
If you do not give a portion of your hard-earned money to your “allies”, they could become your enemies tomorrow.
‘Allies’ don’t napalm American sailors (and then later torpedo) while sunbathing on deck (or otherwise) and then claim ‘it was an accident’, ‘fog of war’ and etc.
And real allies are nice to come by, but when it comes to their interests versus ours, ours must always come first.
Iran has a military budget of a measly twelve billion dollars a year. They are a third world country, currently rationing fuel and other commodities. The suggestion that they would launch a first strike against Israel with nuclear weapons that they do not possess (yet Israel has been claiming since at least 1982 that they do) is preposterous. They are a sovereign nation located in the Middle East and are surrounded by hostile entities; like Iraq, if they do possess weapons, it’s quite understandable.
Israel has been threatening Iran incessantly, not the other way around. If Israel attacks a sovereign nation unprovoked they should be sanctioned, vilified, and embargoed.
We could also always offer to diplomatically recognize them and sign a sweetheart trade deal if they agree to stop their alleged nuclear program, but I guess that would make too much sense!
Just to put things in perspective for everyone out there. The UNITED STATES of AMERICA has always needed a “bad guy”. You know, the guys we can blame all our hardships and woes on. For quite some time now, the UNITED STATES of AMERICA has kept a “bad guy” in it’s “break here in case of peace” box. Unfortunately, we keep going after and killing all the bad guys we deem worthy and are now running out of them. So, let’s find someone else’s bad guy and make them our own,after all we LOVE doing that. It will go on forever ya’ll. If you don’t like it and don’t accept it then leave the country, denounce your citizenship by turning in your SSN, stop using food stamps, financial aid for college, section 8 housing and WIC. The human race is doomed to extinction by it’s own doing and to be completely honest, talking ain’t doing anything about it. Do something about it or be quiet. Oh one more thing, if by chance we DO run out of “bad guys” and there are none left to find outside of the country make no mistake about it we will then begin looking on the inside of our country and begin devouring ourselves from the inside out.
Silverwolf1971 wrote: “For quite some time now, the UNITED STATES of AMERICA has kept a “bad guy” in it’s “break here in case of peace” box. Unfortunately, we keep going after and killing all the bad guys we deem worthy and are now running out of them. So, let’s find someone else’s bad guy and make them our own,after all we LOVE doing that. ”
Brilliant analysis. I’m starting to think we need a second American Revolution. Maybe this time, it will take.
Silverwolf, I think this has to due with all the Cold Warriors who don’t know what to do with themselves now that we don’t have a real (not phony and tinpot) enemy opposing us anymore.
I really don’t understand this mindset. Maybe it is because I only know the Soviet Union from the history books. From what I do know, they seem like they were a hell of a lot more scary than a bunch of reactionary Muslims in caves.
Silverwolf, our bad guy is Osama Bin Laden.
We should continue to pursue OUR enemies, not those foisted on us by Israel and its minions in the States.
Nonsense , DirtyHarriet. The Bin Laden’s were having crumpets and tea with Jimmy Baker III at the Ritz , on 911 ‘01 . They then flew out of the same airport as the patsy hijackers when all other flights were grounded - giggling and patting each other on the back no doubt . The Bin Ladens also rebuilt the African Embassies that OUR guy Ali Muhammad and his volunteer stooges blew up in ‘98 .
Osama is ( or probably more accurately , was ) just playing the role of “bad guy” to provide a pretext for military adventurism , theft and mass murder .