Here's further evidence that Obama will be hawkish on Iran (and pushy about Israeli intransigence on the two-state solution). A piece in the Nation by Robert Dreyfuss on Dennis Ross's power over Iran policy at the State Department. (This really gives the lie to Wayne Madsen's/Philip Giraldi's wishful reports that Ross's former chairmanship of the Israel-based Jewish People Policy Planning Institute would cause him to be sidelined as having a conflict of interest). Dreyfuss:
Like virtually all of his neoconservative confreres, Ross does not argue
that negotiations with Iran should not proceed. Surrendering to the
inevitability of a US-Iran dialogue, they insist instead that any such
talks proceed according to a strict time limit, measured in weeks or, at
most, a few months. In November, Iran specialist Patrick Clawson, Ross's
colleague at WINEP, described any US-Iran dialogue that might emerge as
mere theater…
Putting US-Iran
diplomacy on a short fuse, as Ross and his colleagues want to do,
guarantees its failure, setting the stage for harsher sanctions,
embargoes and the "kinetic action" that Ross has suggested might follow.
"might be" is the accurate term. "will be" is fantasy.
Even trends don't continue in changed conditions.
"the "kinetic action" that Ross has suggested might follow."
All right Mr. Ross. Here's youre rifle and your parachute. Go "kinetic" all you want on Iran, but leave the rest of us the fuck alone.
My greatest fear is that Dennis Ross will be the Obama administration's Elliot Abrams. Ross will undermine every positive peace initiative that might pressure Israel in some way. He's much smoother than Abrams. Hillary Clinton is much more beholden to the Israel Lobby — particularly Jewish donors — than Colin Powell or Condi Rice, so it's unreasonable to imagine that she will stop him.
I've been reading the names of US officials named to George Mitchell's team and others from the State Dept and NSC involved in ME diplomacy: overwhelmingly Jewish. Yet to see an Arab name. What message does that send to Arab nations when the US, with 300 million people, can only appoint Jews to represent the US in ME diplomacy? Something is very, very wrong here. I'm sure the uppermost thought in the minds of Arab diplomats is: more American lawyers for Israel, in the words of Aaron David Miller.
seethelight, I call it discovering the obvious. Your fear is well founded. Dennis is an insidious menace. His history and his resume betray his agenda and it is purely pro whatever Israel wants. But the worst is the commander in chief who thus far has been able to fool most of the people most of the time. Our real enemy is the enemy within.
My father, whose formal education ended in the eigth grade, often said, "If you're smaller than your enemy, you sure as Hell better be smarter." The problem for us is that with each passing day we have a harder time distinguishing friends from enemies.
The idea that, after the colossal failures of the neoconservative movement in the Mid East, there's a man who has worked with them on their hawkish Iran positions – now in charge of the Iran portfolio is truly mindbending.
Why do lefties like Dreyfuss keep insisting that guys like Ross are neo-CONSERVATIVES simply because they are hawkish Israel-firsters? Why aren't they "neoliberals", or "liberal hawks," or "liberal interventionists"? The Democratic Party has been filled with hawkish Israel firters for decades, has pursued a hawkish Israel-first policy for decades, and has also been the primary operating base for the Israel lobby for decades. Ross is merely one of many left-liberal Jewish Zionist ideologues with tons of power in the Party, and his attitudes are a reflection of traditional Democratic policy and thinking.
The whole exercise continues to smack of Orwellian memory holes, and left-liberal scapegoating of conservatives for liberals' own dirty laundry. There's a disgusting Stalinist component of airbrushing history to it all, and an ongoing unwillingness to take responsibility for its own corruption. The Left will never change.
Finally Ed gets something almost right. But it is not the left in the Democratic party that is responsible for the proIsraeli bias. It was silent on the subject for much too long, but the support today comes from the right wing of the party.
Unfortunately, it is looking like the current administration may be falling under their control. There is one thing that leaves me with some optimism. Obama has gained considerable goodwill in the ME with his rhetoric. I do not believe he will throw that away by attacking Iran. There will be negotiations and those negotiations will go on for a lengthy period. Israel will not unilaterally attack either. I say this because the alternative of a US war against Iran is not acceptable. But of course, with Ross close to the levers of power some real mischief could happen.
Sometimes I think that Obama is struggling with a death wish. I mean Dennis Ross, Larry Summers, even Hillary Clinton–does the guy not want a second term?
Or haven't I been looking far enough into the future? Some weeks ago Walt did a post on how he hoped that Obama knows how to fire people. Is Obama setting up these questionable appointments along a firing line? In our Canadian parliamentary system, we call this a "cabinet shuffle," and it happens when the opinion polls get too bad to ignore.
"Persia, the stop-clock is ticking. This is speed chess, not the kind you invented. I'm going out to
tell the crowd we are playing and for how long–be back in a few seconds."
Going out the door whispered aside to assistant: "Watch his moves and the clock, be ready to
knock over the table and kick his ass to the floor if I haven't won the game in the set time."
@delia:
"I mean Dennis Ross, Larry Summers, even Hillary Clinton–does the guy not want a second term?"
Good point, but the Mainstream Media does and will paint a rosy picture and how great and young and cool (…) Obama still is. Do a poll, how many Americans know who Ross and Summers are?
It's up to sites like this and people like us to inform US citizenry before the next election.