"Israel can determine for itself — it’s a sovereign nation — what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else," - VP Biden
If you truly want to support the hardliners in Iran, and give Ahmadinejad all the excuses he needs to stay in power, do what Vice-President Biden did today - give Israel the green light to bomb Iran.
With US objections out of the way, Netanyahu will have the ability to attack Iran and to scuttle any peace prospects between Israel-Syria and Israel-Palestine - all in one fell swoop. Two birds with one stone, so to speak. Netanyahu has made abundantly clear that he has no desire to actually seek a resolution to the continued occupation of Palestine. Israel is doing just fine having all the military power, all the economic power and the support of the world's sole superpower.By bombing Iran and its various nuclear facilities, Netanyahu will partially set back the unsubstantiated nuclear ambitions of Iran, at least for a short time. He will also effectively destroy any chance of Syria and Israel reaching agreement on the Golan Heights, which gets closer every month. In addition to scuttling any chance of further peace talks with the Palestinians or Arab countries in general.
Unfortunately, it is the long-term consequences which Israel has never been any good at foreseeing (See Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the creation of Hizbollah, as well as Israeli support for Hamas to counter the PLO). Bombing Iran's nuclear facilities will only reaffirm the opinions of the hardliners in Iran, that Israel really is their mortal enemy, and that only with nuclear weapons will Iran have an effective deterrent against arbitrary Israeli attacks on their sovereign territory. Any Israeli attacks will also cause a rally-around-the-flag effect, as seen in the US after 9/11, where all discourse except the hegemonic and jingoistic views of the hard line regime will be pushed to the margins.
Essentially, if Israel bombs Iran, all liberal politicians and dissenters will be silenced. This will leave the regime with greater room to maneuver, as well as with a greater drive to arm Hizbollah, Hamas and any other group capable of striking at Israel - resulting in a less secure Israel in the long run.
See the article on Biden's interview here.
1 comments:
My opinion, Israel will never bomb Iran. No up side. They know this. Real threat to them is terrorist access to nuke whether dirty bomb or actual nuke. That will most likely come for North Korean or from the old Soviet Union stock piles. Still, there is a game of brinkmanship going on now and Israel certainly knows how to play.
I still find it interesting that during the all out attack on the Gaza Strip recently, there was very little rocket fire from Lebanon. I credit that with the effective use of force there a few years ago. Though many thought it a military failure on the part of Israel, the terrible punishment it exacted on the Lebanese effectively caused them "pause" when their brothers in arms were lobbing rockets into southern Israel. That is not a popular position to take. I have heard very little about it, but if ever there was a time and place to open a two front war with Israel that was the time and place. It did not happen. Hummmm?
I am still in awe of the silence from Syria on the bombing of their little building out in the desert by the Israeli Air Force. They were caught with their hands in the cookie jar big time. Interesting that it is Israel that is being call a pariah nation on some of your Twitter and blog pages. Personally they seem simply trying to survive.
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