The right-wing Israeli reaction to the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) is downright insane. I mean, really…could we have any more hyperbole?
…the NIE shows that the US double-crossed Israel. By placing the bait of a hypothetical coalition against Iran, the US extracted massive Israeli concessions to the Palestinians and then turned around and abandoned Israel on Iran as well. What this means is that not only has the US cut Israel off as an ally, it is actively working against the Jewish state.
I can’t think of a statement that is less true than that the U.S. is ‘actively working against the Jewish state’. What we’re doing is placing the Jewish state’s security above our own security. You’d think it would be good news that the Iranians stopped working on a military nuclear program in 2003. Republicans could actually say that they accomplished something positive. But for these right-wing Israelis, there is no good news unless they have goaded America into attacking Iran. Look at this shit:
With the stroke of a pen the US this week has let it be known that it doesn’t have a problem with Iran acquiring the means to carry out the second genocide of the Jewish people in 70 years.
The NIE’s message to Israel and world Jewry is clear. Again we are alone in our moment of peril. It is high time that our political and military leaders acknowledge this fact, stop hoping that someone else will save us, and get to work on defending us.
Iran is not going to drop a goddamn atom bomb on Israel and get obliterated off the face of the Earth in retaliation. Where do they come up with this garbage? The United States co-opted Saudi Arabia, brokered peace with Jordan and Egypt, looked the other way while Israel attacked Lebanon, and permanently destroyed Iraq. And this is the thanks we get? We get accused of fostering a second Holocaust because we told the truth about Iran’s nuclear programs? They are literally foaming mad that we told the truth.
Not that they will concede the truth.
Given the NIE’s assertion that Iran is not a threat, the report is a direct assault on the credibility of Israel’s intelligence services. Moreover, since Israel’s intelligence services insist that Iran’s nuclear program is the greatest threat to global security, the NIE serves to paint Israel’s intelligence community not merely as unreliable, but as hostile to American interests.
So not only does the NIE make it impossible for the US to take action against Iran, it also sets a dangerous trap for Israel. If Israel doesn’t take action against Iran’s nuclear installations it risks annihilation. And if it does take action, it can expect to be subject to international and American condemnation far worse than what it suffered after bombing Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981.
Risks annihilation? Kiss my ass. The people at real risk of annihilation are clearly the Iranians. I’ve never seen a country that so many people want to blow the crap out of as Iran. At this point it is transparent that the Israelis and their American agents and surrogates are determined to prevent Iran from having a civilian nuclear program, even though they are perfectly within their rights to have one. They will say or do anything to prevent Iran from enriching uranium.
And the facts have nothing to do with it. Facts are enemies, too.
The situation among Republicans is not much more encouraging. Although Republicans have greeted the NIE with grumbling rather than glee, it is hard to imagine any of the Republican presidential candidates taking issue with its opening line. Doing so entails the risk of being accused of alarmism and warmongering.
Lord knows, no one cares about the risks entailed in being accused of lying. If Israel wants to know why American support is waning, they should look at their own contempt for the truth, their near limitless ingratitude, and their gargantuan sense of entitlement that shows no concern for our sacrifice in money, lives, credibility, and increased risk.
It’s just sickening to watch this.
By placing the bait of a hypothetical coalition against Iran, the US extracted massive Israeli concessions to the Palestinians and then turned around and abandoned Israel on Iran as well.
Massive Israeli concessions to the Palestinians? Am I reading that right?
What. The. Fuck?
yeah…massive.
As in, they showed up.
Cranial detonation forthcoming!
WTF! Concessions? As in building a wall which puts the old East Germans to shame.
totally irrational bs, painfully so. the israeli hawks are grasping at straws as they watch their influence wane, and they’re going to pull out all the stops in their attempt to continue down the same path they’ve been on since the iranian revolution in 1979.
it’s notable that what few saner voices are to be heard, in israel as well as iran go unnoticed by the msm, and others in both the u.s. and, likely in israel. therefore, in the spirit of the now defunct fairness doctrine, here’s an interesting essay from friday’s asia times about the implications of the new NIE, from an alternative viewpoint:
granted, it has it’s own bias’s as it was written by Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, but interesting, nonetheless.
lTMF’sA
The problem in a nutshell.
The danger simplified.
And for Bush it is too little too late, and Condi will leave her office disappointed. Israel will never allow a “nappy head ho'” to undermine the Israel uber alles theme of the right wing. Apologize for quoting you-know-who, but I can’t help but believe that that is how Condi is perceived by the Israeli right.
are in total denial that 70% of their populations are against an attack on Iran. It is sickening and disgusting. They need to be thrown out into sewage-ridden streets on the ears. As long as wingers prevail, both countries risk absolute pariah status.
But….Labor in Israel is just as bad. Peres was the one calling Ahmadinejad, Hitler last year. The whole government is rotten.
Not many people understand this dilemma.
The only difference between the Labor (so-called left or liberal) party and the Likud (right wing conservative party), as far as Palestinians are concerned, is the difference between Apartheid with and Apartheid without bantustans. No ask me what Likud intends to do with the Palestinians in the West Bank once Israel annexes it, but I suspect that it will be something like walled in enclaves or transfer, another forced ethnic cleansing ala 1948.
All I know is thank god for Ha’aretz, who not only manages to write a lot of clear-headed, SANE articles but can do so without being annihilated by charges of anti-Semitism.
Check out this article and then scroll down to the reader responses. This newspaper is a bastion of sanity. It’s no wonder it’s the #1 English daily in Israel.
Pax
Also published in Hebrew, but who reads it? Not the right wingers.
no. why?
You know why. It’s the truth, but not much appreciated at dk. Too many people with fingers in their ears.
If you like reading the truth, support this site. I don’t care whether Daily Kos likes the truth or not. I find it annoying that what I write doesn’t mean anything unless I post it elsewhere. The issue terrifies everyone. If you like the fact that I am not afraid, spend more time in green than in orange.
I got banned for writing too many diaries critical of Israel. Don’t go there too often anymore.
I’m glad you are connecting the dots and are writing about it.
For the record, despite everything, I support Israel.
I actually think I know how to provide lasting security for Israel, which is why I get so furious about actions and policies that I consider counterproductive.
And the reaction of Israel to this NIE, from Ehud Barak to the furthest reaches of the right, is just despicable.
Utterly and totally indefensible…and it will do real damage to U.S.-Israeli relations.
If they can’t understand this, they are in deep trouble. Their entire agenda has been deeply flawed and they had better tack in a different direction during 2008, because they have put all their eggs in a Republican basket and that basket is about to get stomped.
I don’t agree that this woman’s opinion is the ‘real’ Israeli right wing reaction. The NIE is NOT a betrayal, but can be framed as such for the Israeli Right’s real interests to be furthered – a boon that will allow Israel to back out of any real Peace agreement.
Let’s not forget the Israeli wingnuts’ interest in ‘Greater Israel’ which is definitely NOT a conspiracy theory. Stalemate until the next opportunity for expansion is still the policy as far as I can tell.
Dangle hope, buy time, dangle hope, buy time…
Your words carry insight.
The problem is that the wingnuts are having their way and the occupation and colonization of the West Bank is continuing. They are all wingnuts: from Labor to Likud. It makes little difference what their domestic agendas are. On Palestine, none of the major parties support a Palestinian state beyond the notion of bantustans, again from Labor, to the so-called peace party, Kadima, to Likud and the religious parties.
This mother and her children were killed by an American fighter and American missiles supplied to Israel, free. Is there any other reason for anyone to ask why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is central to American foreign policy.
I don’t support shit like this, all for the sake of the Greater Israel dream. That dream kills innocents like this family. We are complicit.
Everyone supports Israel; not everyone supports Israel’s accomodation to racism in its own laws, or its attempts to nullify the aspirations of the Palestinian people to their own state, their own sovereign nation, on only 22% of what is left of their original country, Palestine, on the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Not much to ask.
Israel exists (in spite of the propaganda meme recently brought out of the closet) but Palestine does not exist. Why? is the question that Israel avoids responding to with anything more than propaganda themes.
Your position is understandable, i.e., crossposting on Daily Kos.
But Daily Kos has taken the position that, contrary to Kos claims that it does not own or control the content, it has wiped the IP conflict, an issue central to American foreign policy, off the site.
The sin of expediency and money deserves similar treatment and I fully recommend to those interested in bringing forth an honest view of foreign policy for the Democratic party, that they have no compunctions about multiple identities if they have been banned for the sole reason that they could not remain “silent” about this human rights injustice that America is supporting.
If liberal Democrats have lost their way to this extent, some solution is necessary, lest the right wing dictate not only domestic policy, as it did during the Clinton administration, but foreign policy as well in the future.
The left wing of the Democratic party must speak out.
how many comments are you going to make in this thread, shergald?
This is the last one: no more comments.
Mattes, I was wondering what happened to you at dailykos. So you got “disappeared”, huh? It’s impossible over there now to have any chance of a rational I/P diary not being hijacked by a group disinterested in any other topic. There appears to exist a rapid-fire response team that within minutes will show up attempting to derail any diary critical of Israeli policies. If I weren’t such a pragmatist, I might even consider it an organized effort, hehe. It’s actually comical that a somewhat progressive Democratic website would ban someone like you, but allow self-proclaimed, card carrying members of Israel’s Likud party to spew their venom and engage in (Israeli) right-wing propaganda.
I post at politicalfleshfeast.com and mlw.com now.
….ya, Markos turned out to be a great disappointment.
…and ps, it is organized. I also got banned from docudharma for the same reasons.
Booman, I don’t support countries that are based on racist policies, being a minority and all….
It’s good to see you in green, mattes!
if an argument falls in left blogistan, but it’s not cross-posted on kos, does it make a sound?
that’s an epistemological question and I won’t answer it for free.
huh? i didn’t hear that answer. it’s not posted on kos.
You will have to come here now if you want to learn about American foreign policy meat without the swiss cheese.
If you want users (especially newbies and lurkers) at dKos to know that they can find frontpagers willing to deal with the truth (especially on difficult issues) here, then cross-posting an occasional diary there would help. If you want newbies to find a niche here, then responding to their comments or giving some mojo would help.
I was reading this editorial from Ha’aretz when I found this paragraph:
This made me realize something I’ve been mulling over for a long time.
What’s the difference between Yitzhak Shamir and Olmert?
What’s the difference between Poppy Bush and George W.?
What’s the difference between Dick Cheney and Richard H. Cheney (his father)?
What’s the difference between Norman and Jonathan Podhoretz?
What’s the difference between Richard Perle and his father Jack Perle?
A couple years ago I wrote a lot of stories about a self-proclaimed mercenary who got himself arrested in Afghanistan. And when digging into the story, it became clear that he was doing all this crap for a deeply psychological reason.
In the mercenary’s case, his father had fought in Iwo Jima in World War 2 and he wanted to out-do his father’s achievements.
Shamir lived and fought through WW2. Olmert was born in 1945 to two parents who lived and fought through WW2.
Almost every neocon nutbag had parents who fought in WW2, who did something that could easily be classifiable as “heroic”. Norman Podhoretz was born in 1930 so he actually saw his parents do heroic things in their escaping WW2 persecution. Cheney, Olmert and the rest all had to just hear tales about their parents.
It’s not just that those who fought in war know the horrors of it and so wish to avoid it. It’s that the children grew up with tremendous feelings of inadequacy that they clearly feel can only be ameliorated by being “more badass” than their parents.
I’m just being an armchair psychologist here but look at the bluster coming out of these WW2 children’s mouths – it’s all stuff like saying “yeah WW2 was tough, but what we face now is EVEN scarier” trying to trump up the dangers in order to inflate their achievements in the face of it.
Pretty farging scary in my book.
Pax
Israel is now the fourth largest arms dealer in the world. Lots of dollars for that little country.
yeah but we’re still #1, baby!!!!
it helps that the arab markets are open to us.
Excellent analysis.. and one that might even get these freaks to question themselves for a second.. if only they could be exposed to it somehow..
Paging Hollywood…