(Photo entitled "Best depiction of today's protest in Tehran" posted by brl85 over Twitter)
Has there ever been a more tone-deaf speech? As there world sat enthralled with the outpouring of defiance and dissent throughout Iran, here's what Benjamin Netanyahu had to say:
The Iranian threat still is before us in full force, as it became quite clear yesterday. The greatest danger to Israel, to the Middle East, and to all of humanity, is the encounter between extremist Islam and nuclear weapons. I discussed this with President Obama on my visit to Washington, and will be discussing it next week on my visit with European leaders. I have been working tirelessly for many years to form an international front against Iran arming itself with nuclear armaments.
You would think that he might at least try to pander to the international sympathy for Iran's pro-democracy activists, but as Akiva Eldar rightly pointed out the speech was "a patriarchal, colonialist address in the best neoconservative tradition." The problem for Netanayahu is that outside of Bar Ilan University and the right-wing/settler bubble his government exists in, the neocon tradition has lost all credibility.
Even assuming that Ahmadinejad emerges from the current crisis with his presidency intact, the current protests in Iran have made it impossible from this point on to paint Iran as a monolithic country hell bent on destroying Israel. The great irony of the Iranian election is that an apparently repressive anti-democratic effort to fix the results has revealed the amazingly vibrant Iranian civil society. The world is watching democracy in action. The protests have may not have only fatally crippled the legitimacy the of the Ahmadinejad government, but have also destroyed the carefully crafted neocon image of the country as the center spoke of the axis of evil.
Today the world is standing with the people of Iran, tomorrow they are not going to want to turn around and attack them.
Related posts:
- Netanyahu: meeting was all about Iran, and Obama’s committed
- Citing ‘Amalek,’ Goldberg/Netanyahu would seem to prescribe genocide for Iran
- Citing ‘Amalek,’ Goldberg/Netanyahu would seem to prescribe genocide for Iran
- An American rabbi reports on her visits to the ‘oldest ongoing Jewish community in the world:’ Iran
- Netanyahu says Iran is scaring smart Jews out of Israel. But his amanuensis, Goldberg, knows better
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P. Buchanan is employing Philly? Do you have proof of this? My world is rocking.
Yeah, the only paid work Phil gets is writing for the AmConMag.
I'm not sure if agreement from the HillTopYouth is a PR plus.
The neocon New America Foundation has gotten a perch at the neocon Washington Post to spew their 'poll'. The Iranian People Speak http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/ Readers should be aware that these neocons are the same people who lied us into the Iraq war. Their goal is to paint the Iranian people as fundamentally hostile to America as part of efforts to lie us into war against Iran on behalf of Israel extremists. Terror Free Tomorrow and NAF are Likudnik beltway bandits. Talking Points Memo has a link to this bogus poll entitled Counterpoint / Some Experts: Ahmadinejad May Have Won Fair And Square. Calling these yahoos experts on Iran is beyond ridiculous. This is a classic example of neocon influence in the media. http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
Israel is threatened by the settler movement and the status quo de facto support of it by both the USA and Israel, the digging into the ground of ever more fleshly pawns. That is not a long term good thing for the USA or the continued existence of Israel. This is not 19th Century USA. Or, was Goering right all along?
Just curious, have you ever found anything P Buchanan had to say of any merit? Do you agree his POV is a pretty lonely one in the USA Cable TV news medium?
YouTube is not very influential in the over all scheme of USA MSM, politically speaking. We always get our way, and the US taxpayers support us because they know we are righteous.
I'm waiting for Bibi to say that Israel renounces its policy of maintaining a deadly, destabilizing, and demoralizing nuclear weapons arsenal.
The Guardian is now helping spread the TFT neocon disinformation. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifameric...
Here is Dr. Juan Cole on the poll. Informed Comment: Terror Free Tomorrow Poll Did not Predict Ahmadinejad Win http://www.juancole.com/2009/06/terror-free-tomor...
New America Foundation / Terror Free Tomorrow FOLLOW THE MONEY
Hey just make sure you don't report on what Israel does too quickly, especially if you are not a jew: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/06/15/israel-sentenc...
What happened to the responses?
Hi Sir Jack, good to see that the voices have faded into the background, you write so much better without them. Oh and by the way, so sorry to hear about the untimely demise of papa. Still, he went out with a smile on his face, … or was it a glassy stare? :-)
another view: Iran: There Will Be Blood / Steve Clemons http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2009/06...
Hill top youth are Zionist John Walker Lindhs. If they are Americans, they need to go to jail.
The people in Iran protesting Ahmadinejad's victory will become victims of Western aggression just as much as Ahmadinejad's supporters will, and many of those who will support that aggression are today claiming solidarity with those future victims.
Did I ever claim the operation was a success?
It couldn't have anything to do with how such services are used when stoking the embers of a "color revolution", and is more likely due to the "obvious answer" that you never mentioned or explained, right? Instead of answering you threw up a straw man of your own, is that the norm around here? Looks like the debate skills on Mondoweiss are top notch.
Yes, and it involves intervention. I know it probably doesn't conform to the US population's perceptions of exceptional Americans that can do no wrong spreading Freedom to those less fortunate, but it's true.
Perhaps you need a dose of the Daily Dish to amp up your Freedom Fervor? You can become a Rabid Freedom Feral like Andrew Sullivan has morphed into (again, deja vu). I expect nothing less but for Phil to post on these issues using green text and make the banner on his site green. Otherwise he is a freedom hater.
"Authoritarian and dictatorial governments don't need to have the backing of majorities of their electorates; they don't ask the electorates." New thread every one! What did you vote on the referenda to occupy Afghanistan and Iraq?
Very good points. Instead of falling for "where is my vote", we should be asking where is the evidence gathered by the opposition of voter fraud?
Your dead on there Ed. And I'm still on the left.
Did it really take such a long-winded diatribe to say you objected to the Ed's use of the word "host"? You didn't really prove that the term is without meaning in this context. It does have meaning to people on a visceral level – as it will continue to do unless there is significant change within the Jewish community. It's not like its going to break up into two recognized groups of 'good jews' and 'bad jews'. So as ugly as it sounds it denotes a certain unfortunate reality whether we like it or not….
I guess I should tell folks that last time I came across Jack he was doing a very good impression of a vicious, psychopathic, woman hating murderer (no really!). But maybe he has reverted to his true character, stranger things have happened. I often wonder how things would have worked out for Jack if smarty pants Electric Jesus had not worked his magic on him. He would have been better off to leave well enough alone. EJ and his crazy singularity ideas are the real villain in this story.
So much rubbish! It's no use even starting to correct the errors in postings like this…
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