[Peace-discuss] In Cairo, Obama Can Score With Changed U.S. Policies Towards Palestine and Iran

[C. G. Estabrook]

The Obama administration's current actions are an enactment of -- not a 
departure from -- the long-term US policy in the region.  The goal of that 
policy is to continue US control of ME energy resources as a check against our 
real economic rivals in the world, the EU and northeast Asia.

US policy has been consistent for two generations in what President Eisenhower 
called "the most strategically important area in the world." In the early 
post-WWII years, the US in effect extended the Monroe Doctrine to the Middle 
East, barring any interference apart from Britain, assumed to be a loyal 
dependency, and quickly punished when it occasionally got out of hand (as in 
1956). The strategic importance of the region lies primarily in its immense 
petroleum reserves and the global power accorded by control over them; and, 
crucially, from the huge profits that flow to the Anglo-American rulers, which 
have been of critical importance for their economies. It has been necessary to 
insure that this enormous wealth flows primarily to the West, not to the people 
of the region. (Chomsky)

"The U.S. genuinely wants a different relationship with the Muslim world than it 
had during the Bush Administration" only to the extent that it can pursue that 
goal by force or persuasion. But the administration does remember the diplomatic 
maxim of "no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, only permanent interests" 
  -- where that interest is the US "national interest," i.e, the interests of 
dominant social groups making up a small fraction of the population, interests 
opposed to those of the large majority.

Israel fears Iran not primarily because of nukes (everyone realizes that an 
Iranian nuclear weapon would be a defensive weapon) but because the greatest 
threat to Israel is democracy between the Jordan and the Sea, and Iran supports 
groups -- notably Hezbollah and Hamas -- pressing for that.  Democracy  is 
indeed an "existential threat" to a racist state. (Hence the fascist laws that 
Uri Avnery analyzes this week.)

But the US needs Iran for several reasons -- partly its military and political 
support in Iraq and Afghanistan, but principally its energy resources.  The most 
ominous event of he week for the US administration was the announcement on 
Wednesday in Beijing that Iran has replaced the French energy company Total with 
a Chinese company to develop Iran's South Pars gas field.

The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is already a major partner in 
Iran's energy projects. The head of Total had said that talks with Iran on 
developing South Pars were advancing slowly due to the US pressure. The South 
Pars gas field has reserves of about 14 trillion cubic meters of gas -- or about 
eight percent of the world's reserves.

What the US most fears is Iran's slipping into the Asian energy grid, dominated 
by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization -- essentially Russia and China. The US 
is willing to antagonize its chief client, the Israeli government, to prevent 
that happening.  That's the reason "Obama has opened space between U.S. policy 
and Israeli government policy on relations with the Palestinians and on 
relations with Iran."  --CGE


Robert Naiman wrote:
> President Obama has the opportunity to make history in Cairo on Thursday, the
> kind of history that President Eisenhower made when he rebuked the 1956
> invasion of Egypt by Britain, France and Israel. Eisenhower's stand won
> tremendous goodwill for the U.S. in the Arab world. If Obama stands firm on
> his policy differences with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, he can win
> tremendous goodwill for the U.S. in the Arab and Muslim world.
> 
> In the run-up to the speech, Obama has opened space between U.S. policy and
> Israeli government policy on relations with the Palestinians and on relations
> with Iran. The degree to which Obama can meaningfully differentiate the U.S.
> from the Netanyahu government in terms of policy will be a key determinant of
> whether he can convince Arab and Muslim audiences that the U.S. genuinely
> wants a different relationship with the Muslim world than it had during the
> Bush Administration.
> 
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/in-cairo-obama-can-score_b_210263.html
> 
> 
> http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/6/2/111941/0262
> 
>