Leon Hadar in Foreign Affairs:
The George W. Bush administration saw its foray into Iraq as a substitute for a diplomatic strategy to bring about Israeli-Palestinian peace. But the notion that the road to Jerusalem led through Baghdad — that transforming Iraq into a pro-American liberal democracy and promoting a "freedom agenda" in the Middle East would empower regional forces supporting peace with Israel — proved to be an illusion. Instead of strengthening the pro-American bloc in the Middle East, weakening the power of radical political Islam, and accelerating the peace process, the Bush administration's policies helped tilt the regional balance of power toward Iran and its satellites, empowering anti-American and anti-Israeli forces in Lebanon and Palestine and generating mistrust and violence in the Holy Land.
Now the message emanating from Israel and some of its supporters in the United States is that the road to Jerusalem leads through Iran….
And any notion that Amman, Cairo, or Riyadh might go so far as to approve and perhaps even applaud an American or Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear military installations is based on wishful thinking. Sunni Arab leaders are concerned about the potential for backlash by angry publics against their regimes after any such attack. They also realize that Iran would be in a good position to unleash its regional proxies against Israel and the United States, rather than vice versa. So Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia would probably hedge their bets as Iran responds to an outside attack while Israel would be exposed to massive Iranian retaliation. That could force the United States into a costly, direct military intervention on Israel's side and throw the region into chaos. At the end of the day, Washington would discover that the chief alternative to invading Iran and toppling its regime was engaging Tehran diplomatically — an option available to it today, without all the messy preliminaries.The Obama administration seems to understand this
This is why everyone voted for Obama instead of Clinton.
Or McCain
Of course it's not just "neocons" – though the anti-Israel crowd wants to spin things that way & whitewash the Iranian nuclear threat (as they do any threat to Israel) Iran's nuclear program and its increased regional influence have replaced the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the main concern of governments in the Middle East, the Obama administration's chief envoy for the region said Thursday. Jeffrey D. Feltman, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing that the fears about Iran have become "the key development in the region." "When you traveled around the [Middle East] five, six, seven years ago, almost everywhere you went, the first thing that came up was the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Feltman said. "When you travel around today, what you are going to hear about is Iran." He reiterated the administration's goal of preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon. Feltman called Iran a "spoiler" in the pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace through its support for Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Lebanon's Hizbullah. Nevertheless, he said, "we want to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in order to remove one of the tools that Iran uses to distract the region from what Iran is doing."
"the anti-israel crowd", huh. Like we were some fad.
Jerusalem should not be a part of Israel. Jerusalem was not included in the 1947 UN Mandate. The US should prevent Jerusalem from becoming a part of Israel by withholding all military and economic aid to Israel until Israel renounces its claims on Jerusalem and removes all of its forces and settlers from it. The road to Jerusalem is paved with innocent blood, and Americans must bear much of the responsibility for it by denouncing and stifling Israel's militant territorial aggression.
Jon: Why does your name point to neocon central over there at TNR? I'm afraid you've proved the point. It is the neocons. And in your case in particular, it's the necons over at TNR. At least we know where you're coming from. By the way, it's no secret who Jeffrey D. Feltman is or that he worked for the Bush Administration as well. Surely, however, he is a good man who will implement the policy. http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyranni... I do envy you though Jon. You're probably getting paid for this. More power to you.
hopefully you are some fad, like those who sup[ported apartheid in South Africa etc… though I suppose with 1.3 billion Muslims who generally favor the 56 Muslim / 22 Arab countries in the world when in conflict with Israel vs. 12-13 million Jews in the world – the odds are stacked in favor of the anti-Israel crowd.
i wish i was getting paid for this if you consider TNR "neocon" then you know little about TNR and probably little about what a "neocon" means too but then, you probably aren't getting paid, lol.
DC and New York should not be part of the US either and Paris should not be part of France And Duluth should be removed from MN immediately Mecca and Medina of course can remain where they are as can Newark and St. Gallen
fad or not, we are exactly like those who opposed apartheid in south Africa, as you know perfectly well.
Israel wanted to take out Iran first, but the neocons convinced them to humor petty Bush first who was annoyed Saddam had hated his Daddy & tried to kill him–since Iraq was second on the Israeli regime kill list anyway. So now, the neocons, which in this area includes nearly all of congress, are picking up the original plan pieces and getting back to the main course, Iran. They have no clue that this time around, the results will be even worse, both for USA & Israel. The USA is really a big dumb goy Goliath. A small stone will really hurt him this next time around–too bad we average Americans will pay the price, all conscripted by shabbos goys & their employers.
Fears that the U.S. intends to let Iran become a nuclear power has sent other Middle Eastern countries shopping around for partners to help them join the nuclear club. Saudi Arabia announced Sunday that it's reached an "agreement in principle" with France to develop a "nuclear industry for peaceful purposes." It becomes the third Arab country – after Egypt and Qatar – to seek French help in joining the nuclear club. Iraq also intends to seek a return to the nuclear club. Last month, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki set up an effort to bring together Iraq's nuclear scientists and invite those in exile to return home. Having triggered the nuclear race, Iran is also playing an active role in proliferation, with signed agreements to help Syria and Venezuela achieve "nuclear capacity." China is negotiating with Iran to build 20 nuclear power stations over the next decade. With no international control over what happens to the spent fuel generated by those stations, Iran could end up having enough material to make hundreds of bombs.
in the same vein, " road to jerusalem leads through…jerusalem". two 10- megaton blasts of radiation therapy will help cleanse the area of the invading cancer. DC and NYC each could use several doses.
jon is projecting from what the sly Israelis did to get their military nukes. Study that history folks. Folks like jon know they are exclusive in tribal nature, so they project the same character defect on non-jews, and then use this predatory paranoid reasoning to justify what they say and do. Bottom line for jon: All non-jews are always ready to stab them in the back, if not today then tommorow, and this has nothing to do with jon's actual deed or heartfelt implementing creed. Before the Nazi's ever articulated the Stab-IN-The-Back theory and rational, those like jon had a copyright on it.
Those who supported apartheid? You mean like Israel? It was the last die-hard supporter–for good reason since the apartheid S African regime furnished the template for how to handle the Pals and also partnered with Israel on finessing full war nuke capabilities. Of course we all know that the Christian racist regime gave up their nukes and their colonial homeland. Israel has done nothing of the sort, nor has it given up its war nukes as S Africa has done. Israel calls this survival–obviously it must be more important to jews to survive as jews than it was for white Christian S Africans to survive as such. This tell you something? The whole point of war nukes is that it dissolves the importance of cannon fodder, of quantity of humans. jon, pls–those who frequent this blog are not idiots. We are way beyond hasbara script.
I'm afraid I know more than I ever wanted to know about neocons, Jon. As for TNR, let me point you to a recent discussion about the gutter reputation of TNR. People are repulsed by TNR, Jon, to such an extent that the magazine has lost whatever redeeming social value it may have once had. So I'm sorry to insult you and your magazine, Jon, but people are saying far worse things than I am. They're saying you have to be a stone racist to even get hired there. Have a look: http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/0...
jon, you need at least one leg on the ground for an analogy stool to even pretend it has a chance of standing up. Go back to your wood play blocks. Try to remember, you need one block on the ground before attempting to go higher.
Err, jon, the nuclear arms race in the region began when Israel snuck in its nukes against the best advice of the USA, and the best attempt of JFK to stop it–arguably, that's why he was killed, some say. The jewish nukes were in the basement, and now they up the basement stairs, and, when Iran meets with Obama, they will be out of the closet. Now, why wouldn't that be a cause for alarm in the region?
The religous and gender apartheid which can be found in the dehumanization and oppression of Non-Muslims, blacks, women and GLBT in many of the 22 Arab/56 Muslim countries today will end one day –even if the consequences of attacking it are much more dangerous and fear-inducing than smearing ISrael and Jews.
you have a may career ahead of you in writing Playskool instructions for wooden blocks – if you try a little harder (better than letting you have actual contact with kids, teach)
Your so advanced…..into the anti-Israel propoganda script….. I marvel at your Wonderland, Alice…
Iran could end up having enough material to make hundreds of bombs… Then Iran will have nuclear parity with the rogue state of Israel, which has no legal claim on Jerusalem. To end all of the Israeli generated conflict about a nuclear armed Iran, the US should save Iran a lot of expense and trouble by giving Iran several nuclear weapons as gifts. That would thaw relations between them, and assure Iran of America's peaceful intentions.
From its founding, TNR has always been an apologist rag for the predatory elite. The shift into TNR's Neocon agenda was an easy one.
jon said: "the dehumanization and oppression of Non-Muslims, blacks, women and GLBT in many of the 22 Arab/56 Muslim countries" When a Zionist can say the same thing about Israel's treatment of the Palestinian Muslim and Christians, maybe Zionists will be taken seriously when they speak of dehumanization and oppression.
Then why aren't you urging Israel to retract its opposition to a nuke-free Mideast initiative? After all, is there any reason Israel rejects this other than it really and truly doesn't mind there being a nuke-*laden* Mideast just so long as Israel is the *only* ME state so laden? You just can't have it both ways my friend. If Israel truly feels ME nukes are bad its gotta offer to verifiably give up its own before the rest of the world will get behind it in saying that other ME countries should not be allowed to have them either. Pretty simple. Just as it's pretty simple that Israel's real desire is to be the sole ME power to be able to threaten others with nuclear annihilation, and yet be free of that fear itself.
anybody who claims that the US military is destroying Asia to protect "non-Muslims, blacks, women, gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender people" living there is living in something worse than La La Land. they're living in a hell of their own making, in which truth means nothing and only the lie empowered by military sadism counts, and their master is the devil incarnate.
I urge it. Iran is not Nazi Germany. If Israel really thought Iran was an existential threat it would already be rooting out its settlements, rather than expanding them: http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/200905111034545...
Atta boy, jon. We see you have been discredited & have nothing of substance to say. You are appropriately named–what's your last name, Porta-Potty? Maybe you should clean yourself out for once.
Citizen: I meant my comment ("Then why aren't you urging Israel to retract its opposition to a nuke-free Mideast initative?") to be directed at jon and his comment preceding yours that talks about Iran triggering the nuke race and seeing a big bogeyman there. I know your good sense, and esp. appreciated your reminding jon of it being Israel if anyone that did the triggering. Interesting the lack of response by jon to either of our comments….