[Peace-discuss] Iran in the crosshairs?

[Morton K. Brussel]

I was showing what Israelis are saying, and what they may fear. I  
don't necessarily disagree with your interpretation, but I'm not so  
sure as you about what discussions and strategies are occurring in the  
inner sanctum of the administration. As usual Obama is trying to  
triangulate and propagandize by 1) seeming to support a two state  
solution (without specifying what that would entail), perhaps in order  
to tell the Israelis to back off in their war cries against Iran while  
2) not alienating Israeli apologists/Likudists and 3) while not  
compromising US's hegemonic objectives.

It can be conjectured—all this is conjecture at this point—that George  
Mitchell has a hand in what is going on, expressing sympathy towards  
the Palestinians. But it can also be conjectured that Dennis Ross  
wouldn't mind putting the screws on Iran for the benefit of Israel and  
inciting the Israeli's to continue their threats. It may well be that  
he would like to destroy any possible rapprochement with Iran, so that  
Israel would feel more free to have its way to convince the Americans  
to look the other way in an attack by Israel. . That Ross has been  
given the Iran portfolio would not seem to imply any peace-like  
overtures to Iran. But then again maybe he's opposed by some advising  
the administration, such as  Bryzhinski(sp), Baker, Clinton(?)…. Etc.

It's a complicated scenario. You can almost believe what you want, and  
be cynical with respect to any statements emanating from either  
Washington, Teheran, or Jerusalem (not to speak of Sarcozi, Brown,  
Medvedev/Putin, Abbas, etc.).

--mkb


On Apr 20, 2009, at 7:42 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> This seems backwards. The USG doesn't care what Israel does with the  
> Palestinians, with the important proviso that no part of Palestine  
> should become a base for opposition of the general US control of the  
> Middle East (hence the rejection of Hamas for "terrorism" =  
> resistance to US domination).
>
> So the US and Israel have for a generation rejected the world-wide  
> consensus in favor of a two-state solution.  But now the US (in both  
> the Bush and Obama administrations) and elements within Israel  
> (including Yisrael Beiteinu) are supporting a Palestinian state(let)  
> on the basis that it be a sort of Indian reservation for  
> Palestinians, under Israeli control. They just have to find a  
> Palestinian (probably Abbas) to act as a trustee/jailer for the  
> Palestinians.
>
> But Iran's cooperation with the US in regard to both Afghanistan and  
> Iraq is far more important to the US than what happens to the  
> Palestinians. That's what worries the Netanyahu government so much,  
> and why they keep rattling the saber against Iran so loudly. They  
> keep calling in their markers in the Congress and elsewhere, because  
> they're worried that the Obamans have decided that Iran can do them  
> more good in their general program of control of the Middle East  
> (the "diplomatic revolution") than Israel can.
>
> It's an unstable situation. In a similar impasse a generation ago,  
> the Israelis kept warning Washington that they could "go mad" --  
> e.g., they had nuclear weapons that could reach the USSR...  --CGE
>
>
> Morton K. Brussel wrote:
>> Note especially the interesting 4th paragraph. ---mkb ... /There  
>> appears to
>> be also an American effort to link an operation against Iran with a  
>> more
>> favorable approach by Israel to peace with the Palestinians. An  
>> article in
>> Yedioth Ahronoth last week suggested that the United States is  
>> hinting that
>> its willingness to attack Iran (or permit Israel to do so) will be  
>> directly
>> related to the Netanyahu government's flexibility on issues such as
>> evacuating settlements, pullbacks from the West Bank and progress  
>> on a peace
>> accord with the Palestinian Authority. /
>

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