[Peace-discuss] Diplomatic revolution

Tue Feb 24 14:58:49 CST 2009

Thank you for posting this, Carl.  This is a very interesting prospect.

On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 11:36:15AM -0600, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> For fifteen years in the 1950s and '60s America's chief client in the 
> Mideast was Iran, not Israel.  The replacement of the former by the latter, 
> which began in the late sixties, was not complete until the  overthrow of 
> the US puppet in Iran in the seventies.
>
> The overriding goal of US policy in the Mideast for more than fifty years 
> has been and continues to be control of Mideast energy resources -- not the 
> support of Israel.  (It's because Mearsheimer and Walt ignore the former 
> point that they get the latter wrong.)  It may happen, and soon, that a new 
> alliance with Iran, like that which existed for a generation, will serve 
> constant American interests.
>
> It's been suggested that if the new Netanyahu government in Israel shows 
> itself recalcitrant in following orders, the USG may move towards a 
> rapprochement with Iran (which will soon have a new government too).  A 
> friendly Iran will (a) add its own energy resources to those 
> influenced/controlled by the US; (b) aid in the administration of a 
> pacified, Shia-governed Iraq; (c) supply logistic, diplomatic, and even 
> military aid in the geopolitical control of Afghanistan and hence Pakistan; 
> (d) solidify the alliance with India via the Iran–Pakistan–India gas 
> pipeline ("Peace pipeline"); and (e) prevent the incorporation of the 
> region into the Asian energy and defense grid promoted by the Shanghai 
> Cooperation Organization. It will also dampen the much-trumpeted concern 
> about Iranian nuclear power (which the US supported under the Shah).
>
> The phrase "Diplomatic Revolution" is commonly applied to the reversal of 
> longstanding alliances in Europe in 1756: France and Prussia were allied 
> against Britain and Austria in the War of Austrian Succession (1740-48), 
> but France and Austria opposed Britain and Prussia in the Seven Years' War 
> (1756-63). British subjects in North America called the latter the French 
> and Indian War; it formed the background of the American Revolution.
>
> The Obama administration has conspicuously avoided appointing a pro-Israel 
> hack like Dennis Ross to be proconsul for Iran as Richard Holbrooke is for 
> AfPak (or even George Mitchell for Israel/Palestine.  Now comes the 
> following:
>
> ===========
>
> <http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2009/02/22/obama-picks-israel-critic-for-senior-intelligence-post/>
>
> 	OBAMA PICKS ISRAEL CRITIC FOR SENIOR INTELLIGENCE POST
> 	Feb 22nd, 2009 by Richard Silverstein
>
> Oh, the Israel lobby is up in arms over this one! Former U.S. ambassador to 
> Saudi Arabia, Chas W. Freeman, will be appointed to head the National 
> Intelligence Council. The Council prepares national intelligence estimates 
> for the president, and in the Bush administration this became a pivotal and 
> highly charged job. Thus, it is no accident that Obama has chosen an honest 
> broker to tell him where in the world the most dangerous challenges are to 
> U.S. interests. Dare we hope that several Israeli settler pro-terror groups 
> might be added to the State Department list in the coming year?
>
> JTA provides the "damning" evidence of Freeman's heresy:
>
> In 2005 remarks to the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, Freeman 
> said that "as long as the United States continues unconditionally to 
> provide the subsidies and political protection that make the Israeli 
> occupation and the high-handed and self-defeating policies it engenders 
> possible, there is little, if any, reason to hope that anything resembling 
> the former peace process can be resurrected. Israeli occupation and 
> settlement of Arab lands is inherently violent.
>
> And as long as such Israeli violence against Palestinians continues, it is 
> utterly unrealistic to expect that Palestinians will stand down from 
> violent resistance and retaliation against Israelis. Mr. Sharon is far from 
> a stupid man; he understands this. So, when he sets the complete absence of 
> Palestinian violence as a precondition for implementing the road map or any 
> other negotiating process, he is deliberately setting a precondition he 
> knows can never be met."
>
> In 2008, in a speech to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Security 
> Studies Program, he said, "We have reflexively supported the efforts of a 
> series of right-wing Israeli governments to undo the Oslo accords and to 
> pacify the Palestinians rather than make peace with them.
>
> "The so-called 'two-state solution' is widely seen in the region as too 
> late and too little. Too late, because so much land has been colonized by 
> Israel that there is not enough left for a viable Palestinian state 
> alongside Israel; too little, because what is on offer looks to 
> Palestinians more like an Indian reservation than a country."
>
> Imagine a senior U.S. intelligence officials using the term "colonization" 
> and "Indian reservation" in relation to the Occupation. It's shocking. This 
> is the Israel lobby's worst nightmare–that an honest broker will actually 
> have a senior position in the administration and be able to impact U.S. 
> policy, even in an indirect way, toward Israel.
>
> And lest the lobby and Israel's supporters attempt to paint any misleading 
> picture of what this means, we need to remember that Aipac's boy, Dennis 
> Ross, is about to be appointed U.S. special envoy regarding Iran. Obama has 
> not sold his soul to the Arabs or anything like that. He's merely 
> attempting to do what previous U.S. presidents should do–keep a level 
> playing field.
>
> Israel is not used to this. It's used to getting its way when it comes to 
> U.S. presidents and U.S. policy. It's used to having virtual veto power 
> over personnel appointments it sees as potentially threatening to its 
> interests. But it didn't get its way on this one. And this won't be the 
> last time.
>
> 	###
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