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Israel raises the ante against Iran
We are in no danger at all of having an Iranian nuclear weapon
dropped on us.
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The Samson Option
We cannot say so too openly, however, because we have a history of
using any threat in order to get weapons ... thanks to the Iranian
threat, we are getting weapons from the US and Germany."
- Israeli author, Martin van Crevled, June 2007.
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Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is on a speaking tour in the
United States, putting her considerable personal charm in the service
of a shrewd salesmanship - of a US war on Iran.
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Barrack Obama Is Given A Message
Although considered a dove by Israeli standards, Livni is now on a
historic mission that has begun with a pre-travel warmer in the form
of a highly publicized telephone call to the Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama, assuring him that there is direct linkage
"between Iran and the terror groups".
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Admiral Fallon Is Out Of The Way
Coinciding with the ominous news that US CENTCOM chief Admiral
William Fallon has resigned - or been sacked - for his opposition to a
war with Iran, Livni hopes to harvest a blowing wind of war against
another Middle Eastern country that dares to challenge Israel's
regional hegemony. It is a familiar story with a recent precedent in
Iraq and a script for action, requiring high-pitched public diplomacy
with the help of a vast network of sympathetic media pundits, that
Israel has fully mastered.
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Rice Bows To Israel
Last week, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's pressure on
Israel "to honor peace obligations" fell on deaf ears and as far as
Israel is concerned the so-called "Annapolis roadmap" - to have a
Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital - is a sideshow
to a sideshow, with the central focus on the "Iran threat", just as it
was on the "Iraq threat" a mere few years ago.
But, of course, the Israelis and their infinite reservoir of support
in the US would rather the world fall into a Nietzschean "sham of
forgetfulness" on how aptly, and cunningly, they sold the perception
of Saddam Hussein's ties to al-Qaeda and even his direct connection to
the September 11, 2001, atrocities.
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Another Israeli Becomes A Harvard Professor
Although the US government has conclusively found no evidence of
such connections, the various pro-Israel pundits who excelled in their
assignment to propagate that false image, refuse to acknowledge their
error, let alone recant.
Chief among the latter is an Israeli-turned-US citizen, Laurie Mylroie,
who was given free access to the US media as a "terrorism expert"
prior to the US's invasion of Iraq, advertising her book on Saddam and
September 11, time and again repeating the line that the September 11
attacks "had to be sponsored by a state", that is, Iraq.
In compensation for a job well done, Mylroie landed a full
professorship at a US university, despite the fully questionable and
empirically refuted nature of her unfounded allegations against
Saddam. Who knows, maybe she is even the recipient of an Israeli medal
of honor for her unique salesmanship of war.
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The Iranian Stakes Are High
This time, however, with the stakes on Iran relatively higher, the
discrete charm of the affable Livni is fully required to pave the way
for another disastrous war in the Middle East, since Israel is
incapable of peace with the Palestinians and is in dire need of other
pretexts to channel public attention away from its oppressive policies
against the Palestinian people.
This is reflected in the Israeli government's blunt announcement of a
new settlement in the West Bank, timed with Rice's visit, which must
have surely sent a signal that no matter how it may be interpreted as
a provocation that belies the peace process, Israel's policy of
annexation and confiscation of Palestinian lands will continue
unabated.
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The UN Condemns Israeli Butchery
But not everything proceeds according to Israel's wishes, given the
United Nations' recent condemnation of Israel's "excessive force"
against the Palestinians in Gaza. Much as Livni and other Israeli
officials hope otherwise, there is a limit to the gullibility of US
public, who are averse toward another costly US "proxy war" on
Israel's behalf. No matter how many US editorials spin their services
in this direction, the fact remains there is a growing healthy concern
in the US regarding the undue influence of Israel on US foreign
policy.
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Iran Is Subverting Gaza
Unfortunately, that healthy skepticism is presently staved off by a
sophisticated public relations ploy on Israel's part that blames Iran
for the death of the peace process and exonerates Israel, while
presenting a caricature of independence-seeking Palestinians as mere
proxies of Iran's "messianic fundamentalists".
Such self-serving image projections of the Iranian enemy conveniently
overlook US-Iran shared interests in the region and, instead, seek
desperately to paint a black and white picture of US-Iran relations as
a zero-sum game. Of course, this is a harder sell, as the US and Iran
both support the same regimes in Baghdad and Kabul and also have a
vested interest in preventing the resurgence of the Taliban in
Afghanistan and the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
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Iran Is Killing US Soldiers In Iraq
Meanwhile, amid new US allegations of Iranian subversive activities
in Iraq, a fourth round of US-Iran talks has been postponed and, per
an informed Iranian analyst, that is simply because the US does not
want to negotiate with Iran from the position of weakness since Tehran
has gained much as a result of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
recent trip to Baghdad. "The US should make a strategic adjustment
with Iran or continue with its cold war crusade that is disfunctional
because Iran and the US have common interests in the region," the
analyst insisted.
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The Ever Clever Israelis
So, the clever Israelis and their friends have mounted a serious
campaign to convince the world that Iran is in bed with the Taliban
and also with al-Qaeda, as well as with practically "every terror
group opposed to the US", to paraphrase Under Secretary of State
Nicholas Burns at his recent talk at Harvard University.
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Zionist Sycophant
Burns, who was the US's pointman on Iran until recently, boasted of
his role in US-Israel strategic dialogue and put a complete seal of
approval on Israel's warmongering policy with regard to Iran. Surely,
this will earn Burns a suitable position in the next US
administration, another reminder of how real change in US foreign
policy is foreclosed by the recycling of complaint, pro-Israel voices
in the US government. [1]
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The Timing Is Perfect
In conclusion, the waning months of the George W Bush
administration represent a golden opportunity for Israel to ignite
another Middle East conflict that, in essence, is rooted in Israel's
structural inability to make peace with the Arab and Muslim world.
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Full Article
Kaveh L Afrasiabi
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