Read and digest this opening paragraph from Peter Hartcher, international editor of the Sydney Morning Herald:
"Iran is far from Australia. Yet if it goes to war with America the consequences could be uncomfortably near." (Acute problem with US-Iran war, 25/6/19)
If IRAN goes to war with America?
Incredibly, what Hartcher is doing here is reversing over a century of US regime change dating back to the overthrow of the Queen of Hawaii in 1893 under US president Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893) (See Stephen Kinzer's Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq, 2006, pp 11-30)
Typically, Hartcher's only concern is how this will affect Australia - and who does he cite on this matter? Who else but the former Liberal senator and Australian Army commander responsible for the siege of the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004, major-general Jim Molan:
"We are 90 per cent dependent on imported fuel... and we have only around 23 days' supply in Australia." (ibid)
Moving on, however, Hartcher cannot help but deal with the stark reality of the matter:
"The new US President pulled out of [Obama's] Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)]. He was persuaded by the urgings of US hardliners and by the governments of Iran's biggest foes - its neighbours Israel and Saudi Arabia. These countries want Iran crushed, and they want the Americans to do the crushing for them." (ibid)
Will wonders never cease? Hartcher's got Israel right for once!
Now the Sydney Morning Herald of the same day (25/6/19) carried the following report:
"US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is touring the Middle East and Asia looking to build a global coalition against Iran... not only throughout the Gulf states, but in Asia and in Europe... " (Pompeo seeks anti-Iran coalition, Darlene Superville, AP)
Unsurprisingly, in yesterday's (26/6/19) Sydney Morning Herald, we read that:
"The Morrison government has left the door open to joining a co-ordinated international effort to ratchet up pressure on Iran, saying Australia is 'in consultation with our allies and partners' as tensions rise between Washington and Tehran." (Australia open to anti-Iran push, David Wroe)
Could it be any clearer than this? The United States is gunning for Iran, not, as Hartcher has it, the other way around. And Morrison wants in on the action, just like his Liberal Party predecessor John Howard did in 2003. Incredibly, we have learnt nothing as a nation since then.
Showing posts with label Israel/Iran. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Israel/Iran. Show all posts
Thursday, June 27, 2019
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Spotlighting Netanyahu's Role in the US War on Iran
The following article (If the US goes to war with Iran, Netanyahu will be the prime suspect, Chemi Shalev, Haaretz, 16/5/19), is of considerable interest when we consider that Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister at the time of the 2003 Iraq War, felt obliged to keep as low a profile as possible with respect to Israel's crucial role as the key detonator of the war. Sharon relied instead on his US Ziocon assets and the Israel lobby to steer the Bush administration in the direction he wanted, that of regime change and the balkanisation of Iraq, and to utililise the US military, as opposed to the Israeli, to bring this about.
Since that time, it should be clear to all and sundry that the current Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has ditched the pretense of Israel as an innocent bystander in matters of regional regime change and balkanisation, and come out, time and again, publicly swinging in favour of a war with Iran. As Shalev points out, if and when the US takes on Iran militarily, there'll be no hiding the key role of Netanyahu's Israel in initiating the move to Iraq Iran. (Note that I have somewhat truncated Shalev's essay in order to highlight his thesis):
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the only world leader to openly express support for the escalating US campaign against Iran, but his statement is an exception to the general Israeli rule... The attempt to distance itself from an American military operation in the Middle East, as if Israel were merely a fan sitting in the bleachers cheering its favorite team, inevitably sparks analogies to Yitzhak Shamir's policy of restraint in the 1991 Gulf War and Ariel Sharon's similar attitude during the 2003 war in Iraq... And while Israel did not come under direct attack in the 2003 Iraq War, it was nonetheless compelled to defend itself against claims, which proliferated as the war progressed, that it had pushed President George W. Bush to decide on the attack in the first place. In the lead up to that ill-fated war, Netanyahu was once again one of a handful of prominent Israelis who preferred to break the silence. In public testimony before the Government Reform Committee of the House of Representatives in 2002, Netanyahu assured American lawmakers that Saddam either had nuclear weapons or was on the verge of acquiring them... Deposing Saddam, Netanyahu promised, would do wonders for the Middle East as a whole...
"But even without his damning testimony from the past... if war breaks out between the US and Iran, he will be named as the prime suspect as far as its opponents are concerned. Netanyahu... persuaded Donald Trump to abandon Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran. Netanyahu convinced Trump that a combination of crippling economic sanctions and a credible military threat will force Tehran to beg for a new and improved nuclear deal, which will include its malevolent regional activities... Netanyahu become a one-man cheerleading squad for Trump's latest moves.
"But while the campaign to blame Israel for the Iraq War was limited to a relatively small clique of its most vociferous critics - the most prominent of which were Professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer in their book about the Israel lobby - conflagration with Iran would dramatically expand the circle of Israel-accusers... It's situation today is substantially worse. After burning his bridges with American liberals, including most Jews... many Democrats are far more likely to point fingers at Netanyahu the moment the first American soldier is killed... Netanyahu believes that the Iranian leadership, like much of the Arab, understands only force. He is convinced that the intense economic pressure coupled with the nightmarish specter of American bombers laying waste to their country will compel Tehran to come back to the negotiating table on all fours in order to carve out the fabled 'better agreement' that both Trump and Netanyahu claim, with no evidence, is eminently achievable... [But] Iran does not view itself as a weak and vulnerable state that has no choice but to capitulate to US ultimatums, but as an equal rival determined to foil Trump or, at worst, survive him...
"Small wonder that in the past 48 hours, White House officials have started to brief US reporters that Trump is less happy with the bellicose approach of his National Security adviser John Bolton, known as one of Israel's closest confidantes in Washington. The catalyst for Trump's reservations was the leaked story of a Pentagon paper prepared for Bolton that envisaged sending 120,000 US troops to fight against the Iranians. Trump boasted that if it came to open conflict, the size of the US force would be much larger, but distanced himself from what critics describe as the warmongering winds emanating from Bolton's office. Experienced Washington observers claim that, based on previous patterns, Trump will soon start criticizing Bolton in public and, after a short hiatus, boot him out of the White House as well... Netanyahu may have to face the possibility that his all-in bet on Trump has failed to produce the dividends he sought and that the anti-Iran strategy built on his beautiful friendship with the US president could be on the verge of collapse.
"The remaining options are both unpalatable for Netanyahu. The first is that Iran will resist recently fortified economics sanctions and continue to incrementally abandon its commitments under the 2015 nuclear accord, without risking any retaliation from the countries that still adhere to it. The second is a military fare-up between Iran and the US, which or may not cripple Tehran's nuclear infrastructure but is certain to inflict human suffering, financial upheaval, escalating internal strife in Washington and the certainty that Netanyahu will be held responsible for them all. Worse, Trump may eventually reach the same conclusion."
Since that time, it should be clear to all and sundry that the current Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has ditched the pretense of Israel as an innocent bystander in matters of regional regime change and balkanisation, and come out, time and again, publicly swinging in favour of a war with Iran. As Shalev points out, if and when the US takes on Iran militarily, there'll be no hiding the key role of Netanyahu's Israel in initiating the move to Iraq Iran. (Note that I have somewhat truncated Shalev's essay in order to highlight his thesis):
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is the only world leader to openly express support for the escalating US campaign against Iran, but his statement is an exception to the general Israeli rule... The attempt to distance itself from an American military operation in the Middle East, as if Israel were merely a fan sitting in the bleachers cheering its favorite team, inevitably sparks analogies to Yitzhak Shamir's policy of restraint in the 1991 Gulf War and Ariel Sharon's similar attitude during the 2003 war in Iraq... And while Israel did not come under direct attack in the 2003 Iraq War, it was nonetheless compelled to defend itself against claims, which proliferated as the war progressed, that it had pushed President George W. Bush to decide on the attack in the first place. In the lead up to that ill-fated war, Netanyahu was once again one of a handful of prominent Israelis who preferred to break the silence. In public testimony before the Government Reform Committee of the House of Representatives in 2002, Netanyahu assured American lawmakers that Saddam either had nuclear weapons or was on the verge of acquiring them... Deposing Saddam, Netanyahu promised, would do wonders for the Middle East as a whole...
"But even without his damning testimony from the past... if war breaks out between the US and Iran, he will be named as the prime suspect as far as its opponents are concerned. Netanyahu... persuaded Donald Trump to abandon Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran. Netanyahu convinced Trump that a combination of crippling economic sanctions and a credible military threat will force Tehran to beg for a new and improved nuclear deal, which will include its malevolent regional activities... Netanyahu become a one-man cheerleading squad for Trump's latest moves.
"But while the campaign to blame Israel for the Iraq War was limited to a relatively small clique of its most vociferous critics - the most prominent of which were Professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer in their book about the Israel lobby - conflagration with Iran would dramatically expand the circle of Israel-accusers... It's situation today is substantially worse. After burning his bridges with American liberals, including most Jews... many Democrats are far more likely to point fingers at Netanyahu the moment the first American soldier is killed... Netanyahu believes that the Iranian leadership, like much of the Arab, understands only force. He is convinced that the intense economic pressure coupled with the nightmarish specter of American bombers laying waste to their country will compel Tehran to come back to the negotiating table on all fours in order to carve out the fabled 'better agreement' that both Trump and Netanyahu claim, with no evidence, is eminently achievable... [But] Iran does not view itself as a weak and vulnerable state that has no choice but to capitulate to US ultimatums, but as an equal rival determined to foil Trump or, at worst, survive him...
"Small wonder that in the past 48 hours, White House officials have started to brief US reporters that Trump is less happy with the bellicose approach of his National Security adviser John Bolton, known as one of Israel's closest confidantes in Washington. The catalyst for Trump's reservations was the leaked story of a Pentagon paper prepared for Bolton that envisaged sending 120,000 US troops to fight against the Iranians. Trump boasted that if it came to open conflict, the size of the US force would be much larger, but distanced himself from what critics describe as the warmongering winds emanating from Bolton's office. Experienced Washington observers claim that, based on previous patterns, Trump will soon start criticizing Bolton in public and, after a short hiatus, boot him out of the White House as well... Netanyahu may have to face the possibility that his all-in bet on Trump has failed to produce the dividends he sought and that the anti-Iran strategy built on his beautiful friendship with the US president could be on the verge of collapse.
"The remaining options are both unpalatable for Netanyahu. The first is that Iran will resist recently fortified economics sanctions and continue to incrementally abandon its commitments under the 2015 nuclear accord, without risking any retaliation from the countries that still adhere to it. The second is a military fare-up between Iran and the US, which or may not cripple Tehran's nuclear infrastructure but is certain to inflict human suffering, financial upheaval, escalating internal strife in Washington and the certainty that Netanyahu will be held responsible for them all. Worse, Trump may eventually reach the same conclusion."
Monday, May 13, 2019
A Thing Easily Moved
What was it Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu was caught on videotape saying back in 2001?: "I know what America is. America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction."
For example:
"Unusually specific intelligence reports about Iranian threats to US forces in the Middle East triggered a request by the military for additional assistance as a deterrent against possible aggression, Pentagon officials said yesterday. That threat prompted the Trump administration to deploy the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier and its strike group, along with several bombers, to bolster forces in the region." (Spies expose Iranian 'attack plot', The Wall Street Journal/AFP, The Australian, 8/5/19)
Cue Israel:
"News site Axios said [US National Security Adviser John] Bolton's warning came after Israel which has pushed to isolate Iran, passed on intelligence about a possible plot by Tehran 'against a US target in the Gulf or US allies like Saudi Arabia or the UAE'." (ibid)
For example:
"Unusually specific intelligence reports about Iranian threats to US forces in the Middle East triggered a request by the military for additional assistance as a deterrent against possible aggression, Pentagon officials said yesterday. That threat prompted the Trump administration to deploy the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier and its strike group, along with several bombers, to bolster forces in the region." (Spies expose Iranian 'attack plot', The Wall Street Journal/AFP, The Australian, 8/5/19)
Cue Israel:
"News site Axios said [US National Security Adviser John] Bolton's warning came after Israel which has pushed to isolate Iran, passed on intelligence about a possible plot by Tehran 'against a US target in the Gulf or US allies like Saudi Arabia or the UAE'." (ibid)
Friday, August 10, 2018
How a Hot War With Iran Might Look
Former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, Scott Ritter, anticipates how Iran might respond to ongoing USraeli* aggression:
"Iran learned the lessons of Hezbollah's ongoing conflict with Israel, and in particular that of the 2006 war, all too well. To win the war, Hezbollah did not need to defeat Israel, it had only to make sure Israel did not defeat it. This is an ambition Iran readily aspires to - it can shut down the Strait of Hormuz, cripple the global economy and ride out any American military response. In the end, the United States will succumb to international pressure and search for a negotiated settlement, and Iran will emerge victorious simply because it survived. Iran would accept this outcome rather than surrender its hard-won diplomatic achievement regarding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)." From Three reasons why 'fire & fury won't work with Iran, truthdig.com, 3/8/18)
[*USraeli? Of course! Here's Ritter again, laying it on the line in his 2006 book Target Iran: "The conflict currently underway between the US and Iran is, first and foremost, a conflict born in Israel. It is based upon an Israeli contention that Iran poses a threat to Israel, and defined by Israeli assertions that Iran possesses a nuclear weapons program. None of this has been shown to be true, and indeed much of the allegations made by Israel against Iran have been clearly demonstrated as being false. And yet the US continues to trumpet the Israeli claims, and no individual more loudly than the US Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton." (p 208)]
"Iran learned the lessons of Hezbollah's ongoing conflict with Israel, and in particular that of the 2006 war, all too well. To win the war, Hezbollah did not need to defeat Israel, it had only to make sure Israel did not defeat it. This is an ambition Iran readily aspires to - it can shut down the Strait of Hormuz, cripple the global economy and ride out any American military response. In the end, the United States will succumb to international pressure and search for a negotiated settlement, and Iran will emerge victorious simply because it survived. Iran would accept this outcome rather than surrender its hard-won diplomatic achievement regarding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)." From Three reasons why 'fire & fury won't work with Iran, truthdig.com, 3/8/18)
[*USraeli? Of course! Here's Ritter again, laying it on the line in his 2006 book Target Iran: "The conflict currently underway between the US and Iran is, first and foremost, a conflict born in Israel. It is based upon an Israeli contention that Iran poses a threat to Israel, and defined by Israeli assertions that Iran possesses a nuclear weapons program. None of this has been shown to be true, and indeed much of the allegations made by Israel against Iran have been clearly demonstrated as being false. And yet the US continues to trumpet the Israeli claims, and no individual more loudly than the US Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton." (p 208)]
Friday, July 20, 2018
He Did It My Way
"I know what America is. America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction." - Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking to his Israeli settler mates in Hebrew in 2001
***
Now here's another surprise. Not:
"In a video clip aired Tuesday by Israeli television, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted that Israel was responsible for US President Donald Trump's decision to quit the Iran nuclear deal. In the video, which the Kan public broadcaster said was filmed two weeks ago, Netanyahu can be seen speaking to activists and senior members from his Likud party. 'We convinced the US president [to exit the deal] and I had to stand up against the whole world and come out against this agreement,' Netanyahu says in the video. 'And we didn't give up'." (In recording, Netanyahu boasts Israel convinced Trump to quit Iran nuclear deal, Alexander Fulbright, timesofisrael.com, 17/7/18)
***
Now here's another surprise. Not:
"In a video clip aired Tuesday by Israeli television, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted that Israel was responsible for US President Donald Trump's decision to quit the Iran nuclear deal. In the video, which the Kan public broadcaster said was filmed two weeks ago, Netanyahu can be seen speaking to activists and senior members from his Likud party. 'We convinced the US president [to exit the deal] and I had to stand up against the whole world and come out against this agreement,' Netanyahu says in the video. 'And we didn't give up'." (In recording, Netanyahu boasts Israel convinced Trump to quit Iran nuclear deal, Alexander Fulbright, timesofisrael.com, 17/7/18)
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Going for the Soft Underbelly
Cor blimey, if this Mordechai Kedar chap isn't the love-child of Oded Yinon, then my name isn't Sir Mark Sykes:
"We may see reports of the frictions only occasionally, but Iran is always a nation on the verge of fragmenting - and right now things are particularly fragile. The social makeup of Iran's population is complex because there is no such thing as an Iranian people or Iranian nation. There are, instead, Iranian citizens divided into many ethnic groups [...] There is a deep hatred of the ayatollahs simmering inside large sectors of Iranian society, a hatred that burst into the streets in a series of large demonstrations last November... The cry 'death to the dictator' was shouted by many, including many women who stood on podiums in front of the public, removed their head coverings and hung them on sticks to show their mockery for the Islamic law they are forced to observe... This is the soft underbelly to which anyone concerned about Iran must pay heed. It is the target at which arrows must be aimed, straight at those ethnic groups fighting for independence and the restless youngsters fighting for liberty. The civilised world can and should find those anti-ayatollah forces, support them and empower them to bring Iran to the same end that met the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia by creating homogenous ethnic states on the ruins of the artificial state of Iran." (Iran is hardly a nation and will likely fall apart, Mordechai Kedar, The Australian, 17/7/18)
And note how Trump, in his own deranged way, seems to be reading from the same script:
"Later, Mr Trump said Russia's position on Iran was because of trading benefits between Moscow and Tehran. 'It is not good for us or for the world, but they have riots in all their cities,' Mr Trump told Fox News of Iran's situation. 'The inflation is rampant, going through the roof. And not that you want to hurt anybody, but that regime wouldn't let the people know that we are behind them 100 per cent'." (Backing for Bibi unlikely unifier, Jacquelin Magnay, The Australian, 18/7/18)
"We may see reports of the frictions only occasionally, but Iran is always a nation on the verge of fragmenting - and right now things are particularly fragile. The social makeup of Iran's population is complex because there is no such thing as an Iranian people or Iranian nation. There are, instead, Iranian citizens divided into many ethnic groups [...] There is a deep hatred of the ayatollahs simmering inside large sectors of Iranian society, a hatred that burst into the streets in a series of large demonstrations last November... The cry 'death to the dictator' was shouted by many, including many women who stood on podiums in front of the public, removed their head coverings and hung them on sticks to show their mockery for the Islamic law they are forced to observe... This is the soft underbelly to which anyone concerned about Iran must pay heed. It is the target at which arrows must be aimed, straight at those ethnic groups fighting for independence and the restless youngsters fighting for liberty. The civilised world can and should find those anti-ayatollah forces, support them and empower them to bring Iran to the same end that met the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia by creating homogenous ethnic states on the ruins of the artificial state of Iran." (Iran is hardly a nation and will likely fall apart, Mordechai Kedar, The Australian, 17/7/18)
And note how Trump, in his own deranged way, seems to be reading from the same script:
"Later, Mr Trump said Russia's position on Iran was because of trading benefits between Moscow and Tehran. 'It is not good for us or for the world, but they have riots in all their cities,' Mr Trump told Fox News of Iran's situation. 'The inflation is rampant, going through the roof. And not that you want to hurt anybody, but that regime wouldn't let the people know that we are behind them 100 per cent'." (Backing for Bibi unlikely unifier, Jacquelin Magnay, The Australian, 18/7/18)
Saturday, May 12, 2018
MSM: Echo Chamber for Israeli Propaganda
The old 'Arabs strike/Israel retaliates' propaganda meme strikes again:
"Distorting the timelines of events is a longtime Israeli strategy to make its enemies look like the aggressors and pass itself off as the victim. Israel's massive aerial attacks earlier today on [alleged]* Iranians and Syrians - its most extensive cross-border strikes in decades - are carrying out this propaganda strategy to perfection...
"Here's the actual order of events: Just one hour after Donald Trump violated the Iran nuclear deal on May 8, Israel launched missiles against targets south of Damascus, Syria, reportedly killing 15 people, at least 8 of them [allegedly] Iranians.
"In response, Iran early this morning apparently struck back with 20 rockets aimed at the Golan Heights (which is occupied by Israel since 1967 but is still legally part of Syria).
"Hours later, Israeli warplanes attacked dozens of allegedly Iranian targets in Syria.
"The mainstream Western media is falling into Israel's propaganda trap. Most reports are treating the Iranian rockets as the original provocation, and framing Israel's massive air strikes as the (understandable) response... (Israel distorts timeline of events to play victim in the dangerous escalation with Iran and Syria, James North, mondoweiss.net, 10/5/18)
North illustrates with reference to the NYT, WAPO and BBC, but the same formula is used in The Australian/AP of 11/5/18:
"Israel yesterday attacked 'dozens' of [alleged] Iranian targets in neighbouring Syria in response to an [alleged] Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the [Israeli-occupied] Golan Heights... " (Israel hammers Iran in Syria)
(NB: The initial Israeli provocation isn't mentioned until paragraph 10: "Israel is suspected of striking an Iranian outpost near Damascus late on Tuesday, killing 15 people, at least 8 of them Iranians."
And in the Sydney Morning Herald/Reuters of the same date:
"Confrontation between Israel and [alleged] Iranian forces sharply escalated yesterday after [alleged] Iranian forces launched a rocket attack on Israeli army bases in the [Israeli-occupied] Golan Heights, Israel said, prompting one of the heaviest Israeli barrages in Syria since the conflict there began in 2011." (Rocket duel sends loud message, Stephen Farrell)
(NB: The initial Israeli provocation isn't mentioned until paragraph 17.)
[*My square brackets throughout.]
"Distorting the timelines of events is a longtime Israeli strategy to make its enemies look like the aggressors and pass itself off as the victim. Israel's massive aerial attacks earlier today on [alleged]* Iranians and Syrians - its most extensive cross-border strikes in decades - are carrying out this propaganda strategy to perfection...
"Here's the actual order of events: Just one hour after Donald Trump violated the Iran nuclear deal on May 8, Israel launched missiles against targets south of Damascus, Syria, reportedly killing 15 people, at least 8 of them [allegedly] Iranians.
"In response, Iran early this morning apparently struck back with 20 rockets aimed at the Golan Heights (which is occupied by Israel since 1967 but is still legally part of Syria).
"Hours later, Israeli warplanes attacked dozens of allegedly Iranian targets in Syria.
"The mainstream Western media is falling into Israel's propaganda trap. Most reports are treating the Iranian rockets as the original provocation, and framing Israel's massive air strikes as the (understandable) response... (Israel distorts timeline of events to play victim in the dangerous escalation with Iran and Syria, James North, mondoweiss.net, 10/5/18)
North illustrates with reference to the NYT, WAPO and BBC, but the same formula is used in The Australian/AP of 11/5/18:
"Israel yesterday attacked 'dozens' of [alleged] Iranian targets in neighbouring Syria in response to an [alleged] Iranian rocket barrage on Israeli positions in the [Israeli-occupied] Golan Heights... " (Israel hammers Iran in Syria)
(NB: The initial Israeli provocation isn't mentioned until paragraph 10: "Israel is suspected of striking an Iranian outpost near Damascus late on Tuesday, killing 15 people, at least 8 of them Iranians."
And in the Sydney Morning Herald/Reuters of the same date:
"Confrontation between Israel and [alleged] Iranian forces sharply escalated yesterday after [alleged] Iranian forces launched a rocket attack on Israeli army bases in the [Israeli-occupied] Golan Heights, Israel said, prompting one of the heaviest Israeli barrages in Syria since the conflict there began in 2011." (Rocket duel sends loud message, Stephen Farrell)
(NB: The initial Israeli provocation isn't mentioned until paragraph 17.)
[*My square brackets throughout.]
Friday, May 11, 2018
Don't Mention the Israel Lobby
The Sydney Morning Herald's international editor, Peter Hartcher, has no difficulty being objective about the US. Now that it has pulled out of its international agreement with Iran, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the EU, enshrined in UNSC resolution 2231, he declares: "Trump's America has just become a rogue nation." (New world order: US goes rogue over Iran deal, 10/5/18)
(Leave aside the word "just.")
What exactly, according to Hartcher, are the forces at work in the US that have brought about this withdrawal?
He pays lip service to the deal's "unpopularity with Republican voters" (as if they spend their every waking moment worrying about what Iran is or isn't up to) and to Trump's inability to think straight "on even the weightiest of matters." And then there's this quite casual observation:
"The Iran deal has been opposed vociferously by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he carries much of the US Republican Party with him."
Could this then be the real reason for the withdrawal? A foreign power, referred to by Hartcher merely as a "US ally" (but never, God forbid, a "rogue nation") has the Republicans by the balls? And this while Trump, as Hartcher acknowledges, "doesn't care about the interests of America's allies," Britain, France and Germany?
Is this not a most extraordinary state of affairs?
Then why has Hartcher avoided writing about it all these years?
Justin Raimondo could have had the likes of Hartcher in mind when he wrote the following:
"Let's drop the pretenses and tell it like it really is: this is being done for the benefit of Bibi Netanyahu and his amen corner in the United States. For all the brouhaha about foreign influence in American politics, the pundits are eerily silent as the Israel lobby succeeds in an all out effort to drag us into their conflict with Iran. The 'special relationship' has gotten much more special in recent months, according to reports. Trump recently sent Ivanka and Jared to Israel to inaugurate the opening of the Jerusalem embassy, with casino billionaire and pro-Israel fanatic Sheldon Adelson in tow. Adelson gave millions to the Trump campaign and the GOP. While Trump rose to power as a critic of the Iraq war, and, by implication, George W. Bush's Israel-centric foreign policy, he has now positioned himself to replicate Dubya's mistakes - times ten." (From Iran deal exit: America first, or Israel first? antiwar.com, 10/5/18)
(Leave aside the word "just.")
What exactly, according to Hartcher, are the forces at work in the US that have brought about this withdrawal?
He pays lip service to the deal's "unpopularity with Republican voters" (as if they spend their every waking moment worrying about what Iran is or isn't up to) and to Trump's inability to think straight "on even the weightiest of matters." And then there's this quite casual observation:
"The Iran deal has been opposed vociferously by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he carries much of the US Republican Party with him."
Could this then be the real reason for the withdrawal? A foreign power, referred to by Hartcher merely as a "US ally" (but never, God forbid, a "rogue nation") has the Republicans by the balls? And this while Trump, as Hartcher acknowledges, "doesn't care about the interests of America's allies," Britain, France and Germany?
Is this not a most extraordinary state of affairs?
Then why has Hartcher avoided writing about it all these years?
Justin Raimondo could have had the likes of Hartcher in mind when he wrote the following:
"Let's drop the pretenses and tell it like it really is: this is being done for the benefit of Bibi Netanyahu and his amen corner in the United States. For all the brouhaha about foreign influence in American politics, the pundits are eerily silent as the Israel lobby succeeds in an all out effort to drag us into their conflict with Iran. The 'special relationship' has gotten much more special in recent months, according to reports. Trump recently sent Ivanka and Jared to Israel to inaugurate the opening of the Jerusalem embassy, with casino billionaire and pro-Israel fanatic Sheldon Adelson in tow. Adelson gave millions to the Trump campaign and the GOP. While Trump rose to power as a critic of the Iraq war, and, by implication, George W. Bush's Israel-centric foreign policy, he has now positioned himself to replicate Dubya's mistakes - times ten." (From Iran deal exit: America first, or Israel first? antiwar.com, 10/5/18)
Wednesday, May 9, 2018
Don't Mention Israel
The Guardian 'explains' why Trump - who couldn't find Iran on a map of the world even if he wanted to wipe it off said map - wants the Iran nuclear deal scrapped:
"Trump believes the agreement is a bad deal, which falls short of addressing Iran's regional behaviour or its missile program. He is emboldened by a group of Iran hawks in his inner circle, such as the national security adviser, John Bolton, and the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. Critics also say it is another example of Trump dismantling Barack Obama's legacy - the Iran deal was his signature foreign policy achievement." (The Iran deal explained: what is it and why does trump want to scrap it? Saeed Kamali Dehghan, 9/5/18)
"Trump believes..."? In Trump. Full stop. End of story.
Now note how coy the Guardian is on the subject of Bolton and Pompeo. "Iran hawks" doesn't begin to do justice to either.
I've already sketched the former's Zio-con affiliations (AEI/PNAC/JINSA/ZOA) in my 28/3/18 post Bolton Out of the Blue. But there's a further, loopier dimension to this rabid warmonger: "Bolton was shepherded into politics by Senator Jesse Helms, a passionate Christian Zionist and a hero of Jerry Fallwell's, who once admiringly described Bolton as 'the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon...'" (Allies for Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Zionism, Victoria Clark, 2007, p 250)
If Bolton lies at the interface between the US Zio-cons and its Trumpist Christian Zionist hordes, Evangelical Islamophobe Pompeo is, it seems, the real Christian Zionist deal:
"The threat to America is from people who deeply believe that Islam is the way and the light and the only answer. They abhor Christians and will continue to press against us until we make sure that we pray and stand and fight and make sure we know that Jesus Christ as our savior is truly the only solution for the world." (Pompeo in 2014, quoted in Bolton & Pompeo comments on Islam alarm American Muslims, Tom Gjelten, npr.org, 6/4/18)
"This evil [Islam] is all around us. We will continue to fight these battles. It is a never-ending struggle... until the rapture." (Pompeo in 2015, speaking at the Summit Church's God & Country Rally.)
Certainly, Netanyahu is the only political leader anywhere on the planet in raptures over Trump's latest move, but, hey, don't expect the Guardian to factor that into its pathetic little explainer.
"Trump believes the agreement is a bad deal, which falls short of addressing Iran's regional behaviour or its missile program. He is emboldened by a group of Iran hawks in his inner circle, such as the national security adviser, John Bolton, and the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo. Critics also say it is another example of Trump dismantling Barack Obama's legacy - the Iran deal was his signature foreign policy achievement." (The Iran deal explained: what is it and why does trump want to scrap it? Saeed Kamali Dehghan, 9/5/18)
"Trump believes..."? In Trump. Full stop. End of story.
Now note how coy the Guardian is on the subject of Bolton and Pompeo. "Iran hawks" doesn't begin to do justice to either.
I've already sketched the former's Zio-con affiliations (AEI/PNAC/JINSA/ZOA) in my 28/3/18 post Bolton Out of the Blue. But there's a further, loopier dimension to this rabid warmonger: "Bolton was shepherded into politics by Senator Jesse Helms, a passionate Christian Zionist and a hero of Jerry Fallwell's, who once admiringly described Bolton as 'the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon...'" (Allies for Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Zionism, Victoria Clark, 2007, p 250)
If Bolton lies at the interface between the US Zio-cons and its Trumpist Christian Zionist hordes, Evangelical Islamophobe Pompeo is, it seems, the real Christian Zionist deal:
"The threat to America is from people who deeply believe that Islam is the way and the light and the only answer. They abhor Christians and will continue to press against us until we make sure that we pray and stand and fight and make sure we know that Jesus Christ as our savior is truly the only solution for the world." (Pompeo in 2014, quoted in Bolton & Pompeo comments on Islam alarm American Muslims, Tom Gjelten, npr.org, 6/4/18)
"This evil [Islam] is all around us. We will continue to fight these battles. It is a never-ending struggle... until the rapture." (Pompeo in 2015, speaking at the Summit Church's God & Country Rally.)
Certainly, Netanyahu is the only political leader anywhere on the planet in raptures over Trump's latest move, but, hey, don't expect the Guardian to factor that into its pathetic little explainer.
Thursday, May 3, 2018
Sliding into War
Notice how the US Secretary of State echoes his master's voice. No, not Trump's. Netanyahu's:
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stepped up pressure on the US to pull out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, holding a prime-time address on Israeli television to present what he called evidence of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program and a decade of deception... [He unveiled slides] including one that just said 'Iran lied'... The presentation probably didn't come as a surprise to Trump. The two leaders had spoken at the weekend, just as new US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Israel... Late on Monday, US time, Pompeo [said] 'Now that the world knows Iran has lied and is still lying, it is time to revisit the question of whether Iran can be trusted to enrich... any nuclear material'... ('No smoking gun' in Iran claims, Stephen Farrell, Reuters/Sydney Morning Herald, 2/5/18)
However, for those interested in the facts, as opposed to the theatrics:
"Eren Etzion, former deputy Israeli national security adviser who now heads the Israeli-European think-tank Forum of Stategic Dialogue, said on Twitter: 'No 'smoking gun' was revealed this evening, nor was it proven that Iran is today developing nuclear weaponry or violating the (nuclear deal) in any other way'." (ibid)
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stepped up pressure on the US to pull out of a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, holding a prime-time address on Israeli television to present what he called evidence of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program and a decade of deception... [He unveiled slides] including one that just said 'Iran lied'... The presentation probably didn't come as a surprise to Trump. The two leaders had spoken at the weekend, just as new US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Israel... Late on Monday, US time, Pompeo [said] 'Now that the world knows Iran has lied and is still lying, it is time to revisit the question of whether Iran can be trusted to enrich... any nuclear material'... ('No smoking gun' in Iran claims, Stephen Farrell, Reuters/Sydney Morning Herald, 2/5/18)
However, for those interested in the facts, as opposed to the theatrics:
"Eren Etzion, former deputy Israeli national security adviser who now heads the Israeli-European think-tank Forum of Stategic Dialogue, said on Twitter: 'No 'smoking gun' was revealed this evening, nor was it proven that Iran is today developing nuclear weaponry or violating the (nuclear deal) in any other way'." (ibid)
Sunday, April 22, 2018
The Next War
Ominous drumbeats in Friday's Australian, from its full-page interview with Israel's new ambassador to these shores, Mark Sofer:
"... the insidious beachhead of Iranian military power pushing into Syria, which shares a border with Israel." (A NOTE TO IRAN: GO HOME, Adam Creighton)
"... Iran is 'crossing a red line'."
"'The Iranians are sitting there, threatening our existence... '"
"... an Iranian government so belligerent that even Arab nations - former enemies of Israel - are looking to Israel to help contain it."
If Israel isn't gearing up for a war this year...
Some other highlights:
"Sofer is at pains to draw a distinction between the Iranian people - 'very erudite' - and the 'half-crazed lunatics' running the theocracy in Tehran."
Says the representative of the half-crazed lunatics running the theocracy in Tel Aviv...
(Remember what happened after another half-crazed lunatic, George W. Bush, drew the same distinction between the Iraqi people and their leader? "Iraq's talented people, rich culture, and tremendous potential have been hijacked by Saddam Hussein." (A vision for Iraq & the Iraqi people, 16/3/03))
"The country is more than pulling its weight in humanitarian terms. 'We're accepting into Israel a huge amount [sic] of Syrian wounded into our hospitals. We don't make a song and dance about it,' he says, referring to the tens of thousands of Syrians being treated for wounds in the north of the country."
And the Oscar goes to...
"The ambassador displays his nation's famously coy attitude to its own military capabilities. 'We're not a nuclear power. We have always said so, and will always say so,' he says when asked about his country's nuclear development. Try finding a source that argues Israel doesn't have a sizeable battery of nuclear weapons. Can anyone blame Israel, though?"
Certainly, you can't, Adam - not if you want to keep your job at the Australian.
"... the insidious beachhead of Iranian military power pushing into Syria, which shares a border with Israel." (A NOTE TO IRAN: GO HOME, Adam Creighton)
"... Iran is 'crossing a red line'."
"'The Iranians are sitting there, threatening our existence... '"
"... an Iranian government so belligerent that even Arab nations - former enemies of Israel - are looking to Israel to help contain it."
If Israel isn't gearing up for a war this year...
Some other highlights:
"Sofer is at pains to draw a distinction between the Iranian people - 'very erudite' - and the 'half-crazed lunatics' running the theocracy in Tehran."
Says the representative of the half-crazed lunatics running the theocracy in Tel Aviv...
(Remember what happened after another half-crazed lunatic, George W. Bush, drew the same distinction between the Iraqi people and their leader? "Iraq's talented people, rich culture, and tremendous potential have been hijacked by Saddam Hussein." (A vision for Iraq & the Iraqi people, 16/3/03))
"The country is more than pulling its weight in humanitarian terms. 'We're accepting into Israel a huge amount [sic] of Syrian wounded into our hospitals. We don't make a song and dance about it,' he says, referring to the tens of thousands of Syrians being treated for wounds in the north of the country."
And the Oscar goes to...
"The ambassador displays his nation's famously coy attitude to its own military capabilities. 'We're not a nuclear power. We have always said so, and will always say so,' he says when asked about his country's nuclear development. Try finding a source that argues Israel doesn't have a sizeable battery of nuclear weapons. Can anyone blame Israel, though?"
Certainly, you can't, Adam - not if you want to keep your job at the Australian.
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Bolton Out of the Blue
Bush-era Ziocon and former UN ambassador, John Bolton, is now Trump's National Security Adviser.
We already know what he wants to do:
"Just 8 months ago, at a Paris gathering, Bolton told members of the Iranian exile group, known as the Mujahedeen Khalq, MEK, or People's Mujahedeen, that the Trump administration should embrace their goal of immediate regime change in Iran and recognize their group as a 'viable' alternative. 'The outcome of the president's policy review should be to determine that the Ayatollah Khomeini's 1979 revolution will not last until its 40th birthday,' Bolton said. (The 40th of the Iranian revolution will be on February 11, 2019.) 'The declared policy of the United States should be the overthrow of the mullahs' regime in Tehran,' Bolton added. 'The behavior and the objectives of the regime are not going to change and, therefore, the only solution is to change the regime itself.' As the Iranian expatriate journalist Bahman Kalbasi noted, Bolton concluded his address to the exiles with a rousing promise: 'And that's why, before 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran!'" (Here's John Bolton promising regime change in Iran by the end of 2018, Robert Mackey, theintercept.com, 24/3/18)
Now check out Bolton's cv to find out why he wants to do an Iraq on Iran:
"Before joining the Bush II administration, Bolton had been Senior Vice President for Public Policy Research at the American Enterprise Institute and a member of the Project for the New American Century and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). Bolton had been a regular contributor to William Kristol's Weekly Standard. In December 2005, after becoming US Ambassador to the United Nations, Bolton would be the keynote speaker at the right-wing Zionist Organization of America's Louis Brandeis Award Dinner, where he received the ZOA's Defender of Israel award." (The Transparent Cabal: The Neoconservative Agenda, War in the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel*, 2008, p 123)
[*Required reading; see also my 7/1/16 post Tom Switzer Channels Oded Yinon in the Herald.]
We already know what he wants to do:
"Just 8 months ago, at a Paris gathering, Bolton told members of the Iranian exile group, known as the Mujahedeen Khalq, MEK, or People's Mujahedeen, that the Trump administration should embrace their goal of immediate regime change in Iran and recognize their group as a 'viable' alternative. 'The outcome of the president's policy review should be to determine that the Ayatollah Khomeini's 1979 revolution will not last until its 40th birthday,' Bolton said. (The 40th of the Iranian revolution will be on February 11, 2019.) 'The declared policy of the United States should be the overthrow of the mullahs' regime in Tehran,' Bolton added. 'The behavior and the objectives of the regime are not going to change and, therefore, the only solution is to change the regime itself.' As the Iranian expatriate journalist Bahman Kalbasi noted, Bolton concluded his address to the exiles with a rousing promise: 'And that's why, before 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran!'" (Here's John Bolton promising regime change in Iran by the end of 2018, Robert Mackey, theintercept.com, 24/3/18)
Now check out Bolton's cv to find out why he wants to do an Iraq on Iran:
"Before joining the Bush II administration, Bolton had been Senior Vice President for Public Policy Research at the American Enterprise Institute and a member of the Project for the New American Century and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). Bolton had been a regular contributor to William Kristol's Weekly Standard. In December 2005, after becoming US Ambassador to the United Nations, Bolton would be the keynote speaker at the right-wing Zionist Organization of America's Louis Brandeis Award Dinner, where he received the ZOA's Defender of Israel award." (The Transparent Cabal: The Neoconservative Agenda, War in the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel*, 2008, p 123)
[*Required reading; see also my 7/1/16 post Tom Switzer Channels Oded Yinon in the Herald.]
Saturday, February 17, 2018
The Smile
Most interesting:
"After escalating hostilities between Israel and Iran last weekend, the ABC gave Iranian academic Mohammad Marandi an unfiltered platform on Monday morning to peddle Iranian propaganda about Israel on Radio National's Breakfast. Marandi is a well-heeled apologist for the Islamic Republic who teaches American and postcolonial studies at the University of Tehran. Softly spoken with a smile like moonlight on a tomb-stone... " (Iranian slander against Israel goes unchallenged on ABC, Andrew Hastie, The Australian, 14/2/18)
Andrew Hastie, yet another ex-soldier gone on to serve his country in federal parliament, is, you'll recall, the member for Canning, WA. Now quite how he can detect Marandi's smile while listening to him on radio (not to mention the fact that he's wearing boots!) I leave for someone else to puzzle over.
My interest here is that wonderful simile he's deployed. Seems like there's a poet in the man! Is Hastie following in the footsteps, I wonder, of that other literary WA MP, Dennis Jensen? (See my 7/4/16 post Dennis Jensen MP: More Space Cadet than Sky Warrior)
Frankly, Hastie's inspired me. Next time I hear Fran Kelly interview an Israeli apologist for Israel, like Hastie maybe I'll actually get to see his smile and can describe it thus - with a smile like white phosphorus falling on a Gaza slum - or maybe thus - with a smile like that of the Israeli sniper who put a bullet between the eyes of Gaza's Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh.
Feel free to try to write your own.
"After escalating hostilities between Israel and Iran last weekend, the ABC gave Iranian academic Mohammad Marandi an unfiltered platform on Monday morning to peddle Iranian propaganda about Israel on Radio National's Breakfast. Marandi is a well-heeled apologist for the Islamic Republic who teaches American and postcolonial studies at the University of Tehran. Softly spoken with a smile like moonlight on a tomb-stone... " (Iranian slander against Israel goes unchallenged on ABC, Andrew Hastie, The Australian, 14/2/18)
Andrew Hastie, yet another ex-soldier gone on to serve his country in federal parliament, is, you'll recall, the member for Canning, WA. Now quite how he can detect Marandi's smile while listening to him on radio (not to mention the fact that he's wearing boots!) I leave for someone else to puzzle over.
My interest here is that wonderful simile he's deployed. Seems like there's a poet in the man! Is Hastie following in the footsteps, I wonder, of that other literary WA MP, Dennis Jensen? (See my 7/4/16 post Dennis Jensen MP: More Space Cadet than Sky Warrior)
Frankly, Hastie's inspired me. Next time I hear Fran Kelly interview an Israeli apologist for Israel, like Hastie maybe I'll actually get to see his smile and can describe it thus - with a smile like white phosphorus falling on a Gaza slum - or maybe thus - with a smile like that of the Israeli sniper who put a bullet between the eyes of Gaza's Ibrahim Abu Thurayeh.
Feel free to try to write your own.
Sunday, December 31, 2017
The Ziocons are Back!
Here's a guy who feels for the oppressed Iranian people so much that he's tweeting in John Lennon:
Mark Dubowitz @mdubowitz
Imagine a free, democratic, independent, wealthy Iran. Giving full expression to beauty of Persian culture. Tapping into brains & spirit of its remarkable people. No nukes. At peace with its neighbors. Pray for peaceful end to this brutal and corrupt regime. #IranProtests (29/12/17)
Still, not everyone, is convinced:
Omar Baddar @OmarBaddar
It's remarkable how people who never one complained about Israel's nukes or its oppression of Palestinians suddenly discover the virtues of freedom and nuclear non-proliferation when their eyes move just a thousand miles to the east.
But then, Dubowitz is the CEO of the Ziocon finktank Foundation For Defense of Democracies (FDD). That's right, the Ziocons are baaack!
And just to let you know how lucky the Iranian people are that Dubowitz and the FDD have their back, check out this great humanitarian's thoughts on Syria: "When pressed by his interviewer about sectarian bloodshed that could result... from Syria's disintegration, Dubowitz mused that communal violence in Syria 'is not necessarily a bad thing. A Syria that is consumed by its own internal internecine wars,' he said, 'may be certainly less of a security threat than what we're seeing today,' since it would be less able to 'project trouble' in the region and 'cause havoc' for the United States and Israel... " (rightweb.irc-online.org)
OK, but he wouldn't want that to happen to the remarkable and beautiful Persians, would he? Well, sadly, ya know, you've gotta be cruel to be kind: "In particular, he has pushed for sanctions aimed at causing domestic hardship and turmoil inside Iran and argued against adapting US laws to ease the import of sanctions-exempt US medicines." (ibid)
Mark Dubowitz @mdubowitz
Imagine a free, democratic, independent, wealthy Iran. Giving full expression to beauty of Persian culture. Tapping into brains & spirit of its remarkable people. No nukes. At peace with its neighbors. Pray for peaceful end to this brutal and corrupt regime. #IranProtests (29/12/17)
Still, not everyone, is convinced:
Omar Baddar @OmarBaddar
It's remarkable how people who never one complained about Israel's nukes or its oppression of Palestinians suddenly discover the virtues of freedom and nuclear non-proliferation when their eyes move just a thousand miles to the east.
But then, Dubowitz is the CEO of the Ziocon finktank Foundation For Defense of Democracies (FDD). That's right, the Ziocons are baaack!
And just to let you know how lucky the Iranian people are that Dubowitz and the FDD have their back, check out this great humanitarian's thoughts on Syria: "When pressed by his interviewer about sectarian bloodshed that could result... from Syria's disintegration, Dubowitz mused that communal violence in Syria 'is not necessarily a bad thing. A Syria that is consumed by its own internal internecine wars,' he said, 'may be certainly less of a security threat than what we're seeing today,' since it would be less able to 'project trouble' in the region and 'cause havoc' for the United States and Israel... " (rightweb.irc-online.org)
OK, but he wouldn't want that to happen to the remarkable and beautiful Persians, would he? Well, sadly, ya know, you've gotta be cruel to be kind: "In particular, he has pushed for sanctions aimed at causing domestic hardship and turmoil inside Iran and argued against adapting US laws to ease the import of sanctions-exempt US medicines." (ibid)
Friday, October 28, 2016
Wikipoo
Most interesting:
"Public servants and political staffers appear to have made tens of thousands of anonymous changes to Wikipedia that insult a world leader and a former prime minister, scrub embarrassing information and even claim the Holocaust was 'justified'. The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet has ordered the heads of the Defence, Foreign Affairs & Trade, Health, Agriculture and Parliamentary Services departments to investigate possible breaches of government IT policy and report back in a week." (Wiki mischief: public servants changing encyclopaedia entries, James Massola, Sydney Morning Herald, 27/10/16)
As for the aforementioned "world leader," here are the gory details:
"Someone from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade editing the Hassan Rouhani page so it stated the Iranian President 'is diagnosed with Acute Flatulence Disorder (AFD), causing him to constanty [sic] expel gasses and making it difficult for world leaders to be in his presence'. Another edit stated he was born 'to a family of pumpkin farmers' and that his surname meant 'flatulent' or 'farty'."
Question arising: Is this the handiwork of a beyond juvenile (and overpaid) Canberra brat culture (along the lines of the 'Budgie Nine' brats of recent 'fame'), or is it, in the case of the doctored Rouhani Wikipedia page, a tad more ziopolitical?
After all:
"A pro-Israel pressure group [CAMERA] is orchestrating a secret, long-term campaign to infiltrate the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia to rewrite Palestinian history, pass off crude propaganda as fact, and take over Wikipedia administrative structures to ensure these changes go either undetected or unchallenged." (EI exclusive: a pro-Israel group's plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia, Maureen Clare Murphy, electronicintifada.net, 12/1/12)
"Public servants and political staffers appear to have made tens of thousands of anonymous changes to Wikipedia that insult a world leader and a former prime minister, scrub embarrassing information and even claim the Holocaust was 'justified'. The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet has ordered the heads of the Defence, Foreign Affairs & Trade, Health, Agriculture and Parliamentary Services departments to investigate possible breaches of government IT policy and report back in a week." (Wiki mischief: public servants changing encyclopaedia entries, James Massola, Sydney Morning Herald, 27/10/16)
As for the aforementioned "world leader," here are the gory details:
"Someone from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade editing the Hassan Rouhani page so it stated the Iranian President 'is diagnosed with Acute Flatulence Disorder (AFD), causing him to constanty [sic] expel gasses and making it difficult for world leaders to be in his presence'. Another edit stated he was born 'to a family of pumpkin farmers' and that his surname meant 'flatulent' or 'farty'."
Question arising: Is this the handiwork of a beyond juvenile (and overpaid) Canberra brat culture (along the lines of the 'Budgie Nine' brats of recent 'fame'), or is it, in the case of the doctored Rouhani Wikipedia page, a tad more ziopolitical?
After all:
"A pro-Israel pressure group [CAMERA] is orchestrating a secret, long-term campaign to infiltrate the popular online encyclopedia Wikipedia to rewrite Palestinian history, pass off crude propaganda as fact, and take over Wikipedia administrative structures to ensure these changes go either undetected or unchallenged." (EI exclusive: a pro-Israel group's plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia, Maureen Clare Murphy, electronicintifada.net, 12/1/12)
Monday, June 13, 2016
From the Horses' Mouths
One by one the Zionist shibboleths fall:
First there was Israel's deputy chief of staff, Yair Golan, who admitted that "the nauseating processes that occurred in Europe in general and Germany in particular, 70, 80 and 90 years ago" were "here among us, today, in 2016," and called for "national soul-searching."
Then there was the exiting defence minister, Moshe Ya'alon, who told us that Judeo-fascists were now in control of Israel - "[E]xtremist and dangerous elements... have overrun Israel and the Likud Party."
Then the mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai, named Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, not so-called Palestinian incitement, as the reason for armed attacks on Jewish Israelis by Palestinians - "You can't hold people in a situation of occupation and hope they'll reach the conclusion everything is alright."
Now a former Mossad chief, Efraim Halevy, has said the same thing - "[S]ince we are in control of the West Bank... I think one should expect... that there will be people who think that they have to rise up and... fight against it." (Inside Israel's Mossad: Efraim Halevy on Upfront, Al-Jazeera, 28/5/16)
Furthermore, in the same interview, Halevy said of Hamas - "If you go to Israel and speak to the IDF field commanders... Every brigade commander who has been commanding a unit opposite the Gaza Strip believes that the best situation for Israel at this point in time is that the Hamas should be there rather than anyone else."
Finally, he dared to buck the party line on Iran - "I believe there is no existential threat to Israel from anybody in the world, including the Iranians."
In sum, Israeli experts are now telling us that Israel is a hotbed of racist and religious reaction; that armed attacks on Israelis by Palestinians are simply blowback for Israel's brutal occupation of the Palestinian territories; and that banging on about outdated Hamas charters and imaginary Iranian nukes just doesn't cut it any more.
First there was Israel's deputy chief of staff, Yair Golan, who admitted that "the nauseating processes that occurred in Europe in general and Germany in particular, 70, 80 and 90 years ago" were "here among us, today, in 2016," and called for "national soul-searching."
Then there was the exiting defence minister, Moshe Ya'alon, who told us that Judeo-fascists were now in control of Israel - "[E]xtremist and dangerous elements... have overrun Israel and the Likud Party."
Then the mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai, named Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, not so-called Palestinian incitement, as the reason for armed attacks on Jewish Israelis by Palestinians - "You can't hold people in a situation of occupation and hope they'll reach the conclusion everything is alright."
Now a former Mossad chief, Efraim Halevy, has said the same thing - "[S]ince we are in control of the West Bank... I think one should expect... that there will be people who think that they have to rise up and... fight against it." (Inside Israel's Mossad: Efraim Halevy on Upfront, Al-Jazeera, 28/5/16)
Furthermore, in the same interview, Halevy said of Hamas - "If you go to Israel and speak to the IDF field commanders... Every brigade commander who has been commanding a unit opposite the Gaza Strip believes that the best situation for Israel at this point in time is that the Hamas should be there rather than anyone else."
Finally, he dared to buck the party line on Iran - "I believe there is no existential threat to Israel from anybody in the world, including the Iranians."
In sum, Israeli experts are now telling us that Israel is a hotbed of racist and religious reaction; that armed attacks on Israelis by Palestinians are simply blowback for Israel's brutal occupation of the Palestinian territories; and that banging on about outdated Hamas charters and imaginary Iranian nukes just doesn't cut it any more.
Saturday, February 20, 2016
America's 'Strategic Asset' in the Middle East
"In the early years of the Obama administration, the United States developed an elaborate plan for a cyber attack on Iran in case the diplomatic effort to limit its nuclear program failed, according to a forthcoming documentary film and interviews with military and intelligence officials... The US military develops contingency plans for all kinds of possible conflicts, but this one took on far greater urgency, in part because White House officials believed there was a good chance that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would decide to strike Iran's nuclear facilities, and the US would be drawn into the hostilities that followed." (Cyber strike plan if Iran talks failed, David Sanger, New York Times/Sydney Morning Herald, 19/2/16)
Friday, September 4, 2015
Zionzilla vs Uncle Sam: An Update
Iran Deal update from Philip Weiss (See my posts Israeli Desires vs American Interests (17/8/15) & Made in Israel: America's Next War 1&2 (18-19/8/15)):
"You've read it already, but we had to jump on the bandwagon. Today's news that [Senator] Barbara Mikulski [Dem] supports the Iran Deal has put President Obama over the top. Hurray. He has defeated Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Netanyahu's lobby to win the most important foreign policy shift of his administration. And achieve the biggest setback to the lobby's power in a generation. Now it's all about getting to closure: 41 votes, so that the Dems can filibuster the anti-agreement vote." ('Turning point' - Obama defeats Netanyahu & 'destroyers of hope' on Iran Deal!, mondoweiss.net 2/9/15)
So far so good, but the power of Israel over American politicians is still painfully obvious. Just look at Secretary of State, John Kerry's guarded reference to the above:
"... history may judge it as a turning point, a moment when the builders of stability seized the initiative from the destroyers of hope."
In translation: History may judge it as a moment when the US got Israel and its lobby (aka "the destroyers of hope") off its back.
But for how long?
Today's battle may be going Obama's way, but doing something about the big-spending Israel lobby's financial hold over US politicians will require an even bigger battle (war?), as the following grovel by the aforementioned Ms Mikulski indicates:
"For all my time in both the House and the Senate, I have been an unabashed and unwavering supporter of Israel. I have persistently supported the sanctions that brought Iran to the table. I have been insistent on foreign aid and military assistance to Israel that maintains its qualitative military edge on missile defense. With the horrors of the Holocaust in mind, I have been deeply committed to the need for a Jewish homeland, the State of Israel, and its inherent ability to defend itself. And for the United States to be an unwavering partner in Israel's defense. I have been and always will be committed to those principles."
IOW, she hasn't given a moment's thought to what the hell Israel is really all about, and has, therefore, helped ensure that "the destroyers of hope" have, for decades, effectively held the whip hand when it comes to US Middle East policy making.
And why is this?
Is it because she's stoked on the Old Testament and can't differentiate between Israelites and Israelis?
Is it because she once read Leon Uris' Exodus and never recovered?
Or is it because between 4/1/09 and 3/31/15 she received, as a politician, US$132,175 in pro-Israel (monetary & non-monetary) contributions. (See maplight.org)
As Mearsheimer & Walt have pointed out:
"The obvious way to reduce the lobby's influence... is campaign finance reform. Public financing of all elections would seriously weaken the link between the lobby and elected officials and make it easier for the latter to pressure Israel (or simply withdraw US support) when doing so would be in America's interest." (The Israel Lobby & US Foreign Policy, 2007, p 349)
Watch this space...
"You've read it already, but we had to jump on the bandwagon. Today's news that [Senator] Barbara Mikulski [Dem] supports the Iran Deal has put President Obama over the top. Hurray. He has defeated Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Netanyahu's lobby to win the most important foreign policy shift of his administration. And achieve the biggest setback to the lobby's power in a generation. Now it's all about getting to closure: 41 votes, so that the Dems can filibuster the anti-agreement vote." ('Turning point' - Obama defeats Netanyahu & 'destroyers of hope' on Iran Deal!, mondoweiss.net 2/9/15)
So far so good, but the power of Israel over American politicians is still painfully obvious. Just look at Secretary of State, John Kerry's guarded reference to the above:
"... history may judge it as a turning point, a moment when the builders of stability seized the initiative from the destroyers of hope."
In translation: History may judge it as a moment when the US got Israel and its lobby (aka "the destroyers of hope") off its back.
But for how long?
Today's battle may be going Obama's way, but doing something about the big-spending Israel lobby's financial hold over US politicians will require an even bigger battle (war?), as the following grovel by the aforementioned Ms Mikulski indicates:
"For all my time in both the House and the Senate, I have been an unabashed and unwavering supporter of Israel. I have persistently supported the sanctions that brought Iran to the table. I have been insistent on foreign aid and military assistance to Israel that maintains its qualitative military edge on missile defense. With the horrors of the Holocaust in mind, I have been deeply committed to the need for a Jewish homeland, the State of Israel, and its inherent ability to defend itself. And for the United States to be an unwavering partner in Israel's defense. I have been and always will be committed to those principles."
IOW, she hasn't given a moment's thought to what the hell Israel is really all about, and has, therefore, helped ensure that "the destroyers of hope" have, for decades, effectively held the whip hand when it comes to US Middle East policy making.
And why is this?
Is it because she's stoked on the Old Testament and can't differentiate between Israelites and Israelis?
Is it because she once read Leon Uris' Exodus and never recovered?
Or is it because between 4/1/09 and 3/31/15 she received, as a politician, US$132,175 in pro-Israel (monetary & non-monetary) contributions. (See maplight.org)
As Mearsheimer & Walt have pointed out:
"The obvious way to reduce the lobby's influence... is campaign finance reform. Public financing of all elections would seriously weaken the link between the lobby and elected officials and make it easier for the latter to pressure Israel (or simply withdraw US support) when doing so would be in America's interest." (The Israel Lobby & US Foreign Policy, 2007, p 349)
Watch this space...
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Made in Israel: America's Next War - Part 2
Continued from the previous post...
Israel's Proxies and the Obama-Iran Nuclear Accord
"All the major US spy agencies, including the CIA, long ago concluded that Iran did not have a nuclear weapons program. Its nuclear program has been proven to be limited to legal, internationally-sanctioned, peaceful civilian use. When the US intelligence establishment went 'off-script' and cleared Iran of a nuclear weapons program, Israel responded by brazenly assassinating five Iranian scientists and engineers, leaking faked evidence of a nuclear weapons program, and directing its US proxies to push the US toward greater economic sanctions. They escalated their media campaign, demonizing Iran, pushing for an economic and military blockade of Iran using the US naval forces in the Persian Gulf and its military bases in adjoining countries. Israeli officials want yet another US war for Israel along the lines of the Iraq invasion.
"With the recent change in the Iranian government leadership via democratic elections there have been serious serious expressions of greater flexibility with regard to inspections of its nuclear programs and facilities. At the same time, Washington has been confronted with multiple, escalating insurgent wars in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. This provides the context for President Obama's 'pivot' toward negotiations and diplomacy to secure an agreement with Iran and away from military confrontation.
"This has infuriated the Netanyahu regime. Its government leaders and agents met with the Presidents of the 52 Major American Jewish Organizations, leading Zionist Washington insiders like Dennis Ross, super-rich Zionist billionaires, and multiple delegations of notables, and told them to launch an all-out campaign to sabotage the Iran-US-England-France-Russia-China and Germany ('P5+1') nuclear agreement.
"The entire Zionist political apparatus immediately organized a multi-pronged, multi-million dollar campaign blitz to undermine the US President. The American (sic) Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC) mobilized hundreds of its full-time functionaries, invading the US Congress with offers of all- expenses-paid junkets to Israel, political threats, campaign 'donation' enticements, and outright blackmail.
"Influential US Zionist Congress people joined the onslaught with their 'leader', the senator from Tel Aviv, Charles Schumer, accompanied by his fellow Zionist one-hundred percenters. Congress people like Steve Israel, Ted Deutsch, Eliot Engel and Nita Lowery. They have openly chosen to follow the dictates of the Israeli prime minister against their fellow Democrat, US President Obama. Schumer, who frequently boasts that his name derives from 'shomer Yisrael' (Israel's Guardian), flaunts his 'role in Washington' to serve Israel's interest. The unannounced (or undenounced) 'elephant in the room' is their primary loyalty to Israel over the US. The Democratic Congressional Zionists have joined hands with the Republican war-mongers - both in tow to militarists, Zionist billionaires and media moguls. The 52 Organizations brazenly announced a $40 million budget to fund an Israeli front group, 'Citizens for a Nuclear-Free Iran', to undermine President Obama's (and other members of the P5+1) push for diplomacy.
"Netanyahu's 'megaphones' in the US mass media spread his message in their daily reports and editorial pages. The Zionist power configuration ran roughshod over dissident Jewish voters and Congress people who dared to support Obama's Iran agreement - an agreement which has majority support of the war-weary US public and support from US scientists and Nobel Prize recipients.
"President Obama has finally counterattacked this campaign to undermine the agreement, calling attention to the fact that 'the same people who led us into the Iraq war are pushing us into war with Iran'. The President discreetly omitted identifying the Israeli links of 'the same people'.
"Obama understands that the alternative to the peace accord opposed by Israel and the Zionist-led US Congress members will be a devastating regional war, costing trillions of dollars in losses to the US economy, thousands of US lives and hundreds of thousands of wounded soldiers - not to speak of millions of Iranian casualties - and an environmental holocaust! While the Zionist power configuration saturates the airwaves with its unending lies and fear-mongering, each and every major city and community Jewish Confederation have sent their activists to plant stories and twist arms to sabotage the agreement.
"While many US intellectuals, liberals, progressives, and leftists support the US-Iran agreement (see the Scientists' Letter to Obama on Iran Nuclear Deal, 8/8/15, with 29 top scholars and Nobel laureates supporting diplomacy), few would dare to identify and attack Israel's US proxies as they promote Tel Aviv's agenda pushing the US to war with Iran. A brief glance through the sectarian left press, for example, The Socialist Register, New Politics, New Left Review, finds no discussion of the powerful, well-financed, highly organized, elite-driven Israeli proxies and their role in determining US wars in the Middle East, and more specifically the war agenda toward Iran.
Conclusion
"The success or failure of the US-Iran nuclear agreement will have momentous, world-historic consequences that go far beyond the middle East. Obama is absolutely right to pose the question as one between a diplomatic accord or a large-scale, long-term devastating war. But war is what Israel, its leaders, its majority and its opposition parties are demanding and what its US proxies are pursuing.
"The basic question for all Americans is whether we will act as an independent, sovereign country pursuing peace through diplomacy, as we currently see unfolding with Iran and Cuba, or a submissive military instrument, directed by Israel's proxies, hell-bent on destroying America for Israel." (petras.lahaine.org)
Israel's Proxies and the Obama-Iran Nuclear Accord
"All the major US spy agencies, including the CIA, long ago concluded that Iran did not have a nuclear weapons program. Its nuclear program has been proven to be limited to legal, internationally-sanctioned, peaceful civilian use. When the US intelligence establishment went 'off-script' and cleared Iran of a nuclear weapons program, Israel responded by brazenly assassinating five Iranian scientists and engineers, leaking faked evidence of a nuclear weapons program, and directing its US proxies to push the US toward greater economic sanctions. They escalated their media campaign, demonizing Iran, pushing for an economic and military blockade of Iran using the US naval forces in the Persian Gulf and its military bases in adjoining countries. Israeli officials want yet another US war for Israel along the lines of the Iraq invasion.
"With the recent change in the Iranian government leadership via democratic elections there have been serious serious expressions of greater flexibility with regard to inspections of its nuclear programs and facilities. At the same time, Washington has been confronted with multiple, escalating insurgent wars in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. This provides the context for President Obama's 'pivot' toward negotiations and diplomacy to secure an agreement with Iran and away from military confrontation.
"This has infuriated the Netanyahu regime. Its government leaders and agents met with the Presidents of the 52 Major American Jewish Organizations, leading Zionist Washington insiders like Dennis Ross, super-rich Zionist billionaires, and multiple delegations of notables, and told them to launch an all-out campaign to sabotage the Iran-US-England-France-Russia-China and Germany ('P5+1') nuclear agreement.
"The entire Zionist political apparatus immediately organized a multi-pronged, multi-million dollar campaign blitz to undermine the US President. The American (sic) Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC) mobilized hundreds of its full-time functionaries, invading the US Congress with offers of all- expenses-paid junkets to Israel, political threats, campaign 'donation' enticements, and outright blackmail.
"Influential US Zionist Congress people joined the onslaught with their 'leader', the senator from Tel Aviv, Charles Schumer, accompanied by his fellow Zionist one-hundred percenters. Congress people like Steve Israel, Ted Deutsch, Eliot Engel and Nita Lowery. They have openly chosen to follow the dictates of the Israeli prime minister against their fellow Democrat, US President Obama. Schumer, who frequently boasts that his name derives from 'shomer Yisrael' (Israel's Guardian), flaunts his 'role in Washington' to serve Israel's interest. The unannounced (or undenounced) 'elephant in the room' is their primary loyalty to Israel over the US. The Democratic Congressional Zionists have joined hands with the Republican war-mongers - both in tow to militarists, Zionist billionaires and media moguls. The 52 Organizations brazenly announced a $40 million budget to fund an Israeli front group, 'Citizens for a Nuclear-Free Iran', to undermine President Obama's (and other members of the P5+1) push for diplomacy.
"Netanyahu's 'megaphones' in the US mass media spread his message in their daily reports and editorial pages. The Zionist power configuration ran roughshod over dissident Jewish voters and Congress people who dared to support Obama's Iran agreement - an agreement which has majority support of the war-weary US public and support from US scientists and Nobel Prize recipients.
"President Obama has finally counterattacked this campaign to undermine the agreement, calling attention to the fact that 'the same people who led us into the Iraq war are pushing us into war with Iran'. The President discreetly omitted identifying the Israeli links of 'the same people'.
"Obama understands that the alternative to the peace accord opposed by Israel and the Zionist-led US Congress members will be a devastating regional war, costing trillions of dollars in losses to the US economy, thousands of US lives and hundreds of thousands of wounded soldiers - not to speak of millions of Iranian casualties - and an environmental holocaust! While the Zionist power configuration saturates the airwaves with its unending lies and fear-mongering, each and every major city and community Jewish Confederation have sent their activists to plant stories and twist arms to sabotage the agreement.
"While many US intellectuals, liberals, progressives, and leftists support the US-Iran agreement (see the Scientists' Letter to Obama on Iran Nuclear Deal, 8/8/15, with 29 top scholars and Nobel laureates supporting diplomacy), few would dare to identify and attack Israel's US proxies as they promote Tel Aviv's agenda pushing the US to war with Iran. A brief glance through the sectarian left press, for example, The Socialist Register, New Politics, New Left Review, finds no discussion of the powerful, well-financed, highly organized, elite-driven Israeli proxies and their role in determining US wars in the Middle East, and more specifically the war agenda toward Iran.
Conclusion
"The success or failure of the US-Iran nuclear agreement will have momentous, world-historic consequences that go far beyond the middle East. Obama is absolutely right to pose the question as one between a diplomatic accord or a large-scale, long-term devastating war. But war is what Israel, its leaders, its majority and its opposition parties are demanding and what its US proxies are pursuing.
"The basic question for all Americans is whether we will act as an independent, sovereign country pursuing peace through diplomacy, as we currently see unfolding with Iran and Cuba, or a submissive military instrument, directed by Israel's proxies, hell-bent on destroying America for Israel." (petras.lahaine.org)
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Made in Israel: America's Next War - Part 1
There's far more to US politics at the moment than the circus antics of presidential wannabes such as Trump or Clinton.
Although you won't read about it in the Australian msm, there's actually a make-or-break struggle going on between Israel (and its US fifth column) and the US president as to whether more American blood and treasure should be spilled/squandered (this time in a war against Iran) to keep Israel in the manner to which it has become accustomed, namely, top dog in the Middle East.
For the big picture, beginning with the background, and concluding tomorrow with the current state of play, here's the latest must-read James Petras essay:
The Conference of 52 Presidents of the Major American (sic) Jewish Organizations & the US-Iran Nuclear Agreement: The Centrepiece of US Foreign Policy Struggle
Prologue
In the village of Duma, an 18-month-old baby died following the fire-bombing of his family's home by Israeli settlers. The father of the child died of burns a week later and the surviving mother and young sibling are barely alive - covered with burns from racist Jewish arson.
"The United Nations Special Committee to investigate Israel's practices toward Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territory has revealed that the 'root cause' of the escalating violence is the 'continuous policy of Jewish settlement expansion (financed and defended by the Netanyahu regime) and the climate of impunity relating to the activities of the settlers (financed and defended by the Presidents of the 52 Major American Jewish Organizations). (UN News Centre, 10/8/15)
Introduction
The recent US-Iran nuclear agreement, titled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has implications far beyond the ending of nearly 40 years of regional confrontation.
"Several fundamental issues concerning the nature of US policymaking, the power of a foreign regime (Israel) in deciding questions of war and peace, and the role organized power configurations with overseas loyalties play in making and breaking executive and legislative authorities.
"To investigate these fundamental issues it is important to discuss the historical context leading up to the rise of this paradoxical situation: Where a 'global power' is subjected to the dictates of a second-rate state through the strategic penetration and influence of domestic organizations composed of 'nominal citizens' of the subject state with 'divided (to put it politely) loyalties'.
The Centrality of Israel's Unchallenged Regional Supremacy
"The motor force of Israeli foreign and domestic policy is their drive for unchallenged regional supremacy: Military dominance through wars, territorial occupation, brutal armed interventions, extra-territorial political assassinations of opponents and favorable one-sided treaties. To ensure its unquestioned dominance Israel has developed the only nuclear weapons arsenal and largest missile launch capacity in the region, and has openly declared its willingness to use nuclear weapons against regional rivals.
"Israel's repeated mantra that it faces an 'existential threat' from its Arab neighbors and subjugated Palestinians has no factual basis. On the contrary, history has taught the world that Israel, directly and indirectly, has engaged in a series of aggressive wars devastating its Arab and Muslim neighbors. Israel has bombed and/or invaded Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan. Israel has assassinated scientists in Iran and Palestinian political leasers, as well as intellectuals, writers and poets in the Gulf, Jordan and Europe. [And Lebanon: MERC] Even family members have not been spared Israeli terror.
"Israel can brutalize its neighbors with total impunity because of its vast military superiority, but its real power is found in its overseas proxies, the Tel Aviv-dominated Zionist power configurations [ZPCs], especially in North America and Europe. The most important proxy organizations and individuals operate in the United States. Thanks to them Israel has received over $150 billion dollars in economic and military grants and loans from US taxpayers in the past half-century. Each year Israel rakes in billions in tribute, billions in tax-free donations from billionaire Israel loyalists with dual US citizenship, who extract their wealth from American workers, investors and gamblers, and hundreds of billions via unrestricted investments, privileged market access and technology transfers.
"The economic and military transfers to Israel result from the cumulative build-up of political power among powerful US Zionists. No one today disputes that what is dubbed the 'pro-Israel lobby' is the most powerful configuration inside Washington DC today. Focusing primarily on the 'Israel lobby' overlooks the powerful role that influential, Zionist political officials have played in deciding issues prioritized by the Israeli leadership.
"Israeli power over the making and implementing of US Middle East policy has led to the US invasions of Iraq, Syria and Libya; the current economic boycott and blockade of Iran; the breakup of Sudan; and the bombing of Somalia.
"Israeli power in the US operates through various political instruments in different institutional settings. The pro-Israel mass media moguls at the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and all the TV networks unconditionally defend Israel's bombing, dispossession and repression of Palestinians while demonizing any Arab or Muslim states which have opposed its brutality - frequently calling for the US to impose sanctions and/or to launch armed attacks against Israel's critics.
"The US military campaign known as the 'Global War on Terror', a series of brutal invasions and 'regime changes' launched after the attacks of September 11, 2001, was formulated and promoted by fanatical Israeli proxies in strategic positions within the Bush government, especially Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, 'Scooter' Libby, Elliott Abrams and Richard Perle. The boycott of Iran was designed and implemented by US Treasury officials Levey and Cohen. The drumbeat for war in Iraq and the phony 'intelligence' about 'weapons of mass destruction' was propagated by New York Times scribe, Judith Miller, designed by Wolfowitz and Feith, backed by the 52 Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations, and ultimately paid for with the lives of over 5,000 Americans and well over a million Iraqi civilians. The destruction and breakup of Iraq, a long-time supporter of Palestinian national rights, was accomplished without the loss of a single Israeli life - despite the enormous benefit the Jewish state has enjoyed from the war! The extraordinary success of this highest Israeli military priority was due entirely to the machinations of Israel's highly placed US proxies.
"Yet the cost of the war has been very high for the American people (and unimaginably high for Iraqis): Over a quarter million physical and mental casualties among US troops; two trillion dollars and counting in military expenditures crippling the US economy and a vast and growing army of Islamist and nationalist rebels opposing US interests throughout the region.
"The Israeli power configuration within the US led the US into a war which enhanced Israel's dominance of the Middle East and accelerated its annexation of Palestinian land. But Israeli ambition for total regional power is not complete. It still faces a formidable opponent to its conquest of the Middle East: Iran remains a staunch supporter of the people and national sovereignty of Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.
"The regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, backed by the entire Israeli political opposition and the majority of the Jewish electorate, has been aggressively pushing for a US confrontation with Iran - through economic and eventually military warfare.
"There have been scores of public and private meetings in the US and elsewhere where Netanyahu's regime 'informed' (or rather dictated to) the entire Zionist power configuration to launch an economic and military attack against Iran with the open aim of 'regime change' and the ultimate aim of breaking up and destroying the Islamic Republic - similar to the destruction of Iraq, Libya, and now Syria."
Part 2 to follow...
Although you won't read about it in the Australian msm, there's actually a make-or-break struggle going on between Israel (and its US fifth column) and the US president as to whether more American blood and treasure should be spilled/squandered (this time in a war against Iran) to keep Israel in the manner to which it has become accustomed, namely, top dog in the Middle East.
For the big picture, beginning with the background, and concluding tomorrow with the current state of play, here's the latest must-read James Petras essay:
The Conference of 52 Presidents of the Major American (sic) Jewish Organizations & the US-Iran Nuclear Agreement: The Centrepiece of US Foreign Policy Struggle
Prologue
In the village of Duma, an 18-month-old baby died following the fire-bombing of his family's home by Israeli settlers. The father of the child died of burns a week later and the surviving mother and young sibling are barely alive - covered with burns from racist Jewish arson.
"The United Nations Special Committee to investigate Israel's practices toward Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territory has revealed that the 'root cause' of the escalating violence is the 'continuous policy of Jewish settlement expansion (financed and defended by the Netanyahu regime) and the climate of impunity relating to the activities of the settlers (financed and defended by the Presidents of the 52 Major American Jewish Organizations). (UN News Centre, 10/8/15)
Introduction
The recent US-Iran nuclear agreement, titled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), has implications far beyond the ending of nearly 40 years of regional confrontation.
"Several fundamental issues concerning the nature of US policymaking, the power of a foreign regime (Israel) in deciding questions of war and peace, and the role organized power configurations with overseas loyalties play in making and breaking executive and legislative authorities.
"To investigate these fundamental issues it is important to discuss the historical context leading up to the rise of this paradoxical situation: Where a 'global power' is subjected to the dictates of a second-rate state through the strategic penetration and influence of domestic organizations composed of 'nominal citizens' of the subject state with 'divided (to put it politely) loyalties'.
The Centrality of Israel's Unchallenged Regional Supremacy
"The motor force of Israeli foreign and domestic policy is their drive for unchallenged regional supremacy: Military dominance through wars, territorial occupation, brutal armed interventions, extra-territorial political assassinations of opponents and favorable one-sided treaties. To ensure its unquestioned dominance Israel has developed the only nuclear weapons arsenal and largest missile launch capacity in the region, and has openly declared its willingness to use nuclear weapons against regional rivals.
"Israel's repeated mantra that it faces an 'existential threat' from its Arab neighbors and subjugated Palestinians has no factual basis. On the contrary, history has taught the world that Israel, directly and indirectly, has engaged in a series of aggressive wars devastating its Arab and Muslim neighbors. Israel has bombed and/or invaded Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Sudan. Israel has assassinated scientists in Iran and Palestinian political leasers, as well as intellectuals, writers and poets in the Gulf, Jordan and Europe. [And Lebanon: MERC] Even family members have not been spared Israeli terror.
"Israel can brutalize its neighbors with total impunity because of its vast military superiority, but its real power is found in its overseas proxies, the Tel Aviv-dominated Zionist power configurations [ZPCs], especially in North America and Europe. The most important proxy organizations and individuals operate in the United States. Thanks to them Israel has received over $150 billion dollars in economic and military grants and loans from US taxpayers in the past half-century. Each year Israel rakes in billions in tribute, billions in tax-free donations from billionaire Israel loyalists with dual US citizenship, who extract their wealth from American workers, investors and gamblers, and hundreds of billions via unrestricted investments, privileged market access and technology transfers.
"The economic and military transfers to Israel result from the cumulative build-up of political power among powerful US Zionists. No one today disputes that what is dubbed the 'pro-Israel lobby' is the most powerful configuration inside Washington DC today. Focusing primarily on the 'Israel lobby' overlooks the powerful role that influential, Zionist political officials have played in deciding issues prioritized by the Israeli leadership.
"Israeli power over the making and implementing of US Middle East policy has led to the US invasions of Iraq, Syria and Libya; the current economic boycott and blockade of Iran; the breakup of Sudan; and the bombing of Somalia.
"Israeli power in the US operates through various political instruments in different institutional settings. The pro-Israel mass media moguls at the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and all the TV networks unconditionally defend Israel's bombing, dispossession and repression of Palestinians while demonizing any Arab or Muslim states which have opposed its brutality - frequently calling for the US to impose sanctions and/or to launch armed attacks against Israel's critics.
"The US military campaign known as the 'Global War on Terror', a series of brutal invasions and 'regime changes' launched after the attacks of September 11, 2001, was formulated and promoted by fanatical Israeli proxies in strategic positions within the Bush government, especially Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, 'Scooter' Libby, Elliott Abrams and Richard Perle. The boycott of Iran was designed and implemented by US Treasury officials Levey and Cohen. The drumbeat for war in Iraq and the phony 'intelligence' about 'weapons of mass destruction' was propagated by New York Times scribe, Judith Miller, designed by Wolfowitz and Feith, backed by the 52 Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations, and ultimately paid for with the lives of over 5,000 Americans and well over a million Iraqi civilians. The destruction and breakup of Iraq, a long-time supporter of Palestinian national rights, was accomplished without the loss of a single Israeli life - despite the enormous benefit the Jewish state has enjoyed from the war! The extraordinary success of this highest Israeli military priority was due entirely to the machinations of Israel's highly placed US proxies.
"Yet the cost of the war has been very high for the American people (and unimaginably high for Iraqis): Over a quarter million physical and mental casualties among US troops; two trillion dollars and counting in military expenditures crippling the US economy and a vast and growing army of Islamist and nationalist rebels opposing US interests throughout the region.
"The Israeli power configuration within the US led the US into a war which enhanced Israel's dominance of the Middle East and accelerated its annexation of Palestinian land. But Israeli ambition for total regional power is not complete. It still faces a formidable opponent to its conquest of the Middle East: Iran remains a staunch supporter of the people and national sovereignty of Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.
"The regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, backed by the entire Israeli political opposition and the majority of the Jewish electorate, has been aggressively pushing for a US confrontation with Iran - through economic and eventually military warfare.
"There have been scores of public and private meetings in the US and elsewhere where Netanyahu's regime 'informed' (or rather dictated to) the entire Zionist power configuration to launch an economic and military attack against Iran with the open aim of 'regime change' and the ultimate aim of breaking up and destroying the Islamic Republic - similar to the destruction of Iraq, Libya, and now Syria."
Part 2 to follow...
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