President Obama, having dared an unusual show of strength, declined yesterday to reproach Israel for any fault beyond a local violation of decorum. Instead, in his customary manner, he took one step back, one deep breath, and declared:
"Israel’s security is sacrosanct."
The dictionary definition of sacrosanct is "most sacred and holy."
Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, takes up the cue in a New York Times Op-Ed today. As, in a personal letter, the motive for writing often appears in a PS, so in an op-ed by a government official the motive often shows in a single paragraph near the end:
"Though Israel will always ultimately rely on the courage of its own defense
forces, America’s commitment to Israel’s security is essential to give Israelis the confidence to take risks for peace. Similarly, American-Israeli cooperation is vital to meeting the direst challenge facing both countries and the entire world: denying nuclear weapons to Iran."
By the rules of ambassadorial encryption, this paragraph must be read backward. Translation of the second sentence:
"Maybe another way will be found, but we doubt it."
Translation of the first sentence:
"Now that the U.S. has given us the planes, the weapons, and the supplementary intelligence to support an Israeli air attack on Iran, why not come all the way and give us permission to bomb? The risk is ours, but it always is. We do what you Americans would do if you had the courage."
For a country allegedly so dependant on the US, Israel is sure ready to accomodate US demands.
Uh oh. Dennis Ross wants George Mitchell’s job now, his mouthpiece Laura Rozen tells us. link to politico.com
“Israel’s security is sacrosanct.”
is like “Fair and Balanced News”.
If you have to repeat it all the time, you know it isn’t true.
“Now that the U.S. has given us the planes, the weapons, and the supplementary intelligence to support an Israeli air attack on Iran…”
US soldiers are in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Israel Lobby is promoting US sanctions and war against Iran which just happens to sit smack dab between both countries.
Bromwich doesn’t give the Israel Lobby the credit it deserves for promoting war against Iran, the security of US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan be damned!
Beating the drums for war against Iran is not new. Some are even old hands at doing so.
link to newstatesman.com
Published 19 February 2007
“American preparations for invading Iran are complete, Dan Plesch reveals.”
link to americanthinker.com
March 18, 2010
“‘They [the US] are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran,” Dan Plesch.’”
Israel is insane. Period.
The original Clean Break strategy, PNAC is still in place, although a few deck chairs have had to be rearranged on the Titantic as it tilts ever so slightly, heading for the ice berg’s full underwater strength. It’s Obama’s turn to support it; and he will. The US government at this level is still in place, and the MSM pundits assure it. The face of it might look less deadly (for US & world interests), more nuanced than when Shrub was at the helm, but this is an illusion, a mirage caused by desperate Hope lacking water, but the truth is there is nothing presently that indicates otherwise–the creed is in the deed. Don’t forget the next AIPAC meeting. And the subsequent MSM coverage of it.
We must all pray that Obama is a break from the Clean Break strategy. It appears that the military is backing him up. I’m encouraged actually.
I meant that I’m praying that Obama can stand up to these people.
Well, something’s up –Obama has now delayed his trip to Indonesia until the summer.
I wish I were smart enough to be able to fully articulate just how it is that health care reform and bombing Iran are related.
Israel has an interest in both of those factors; Israel has the US Congress (and now, apparently, Obama also) so thoroughly by the nose hairs that if an American wants to know how to plan the next X years of his life, he should look to Israel’s plans for its own aggrandizement at the expense of the US, of Iran, and pretty much the rest of the world. A bleak prospect, from an American pov.
Israel’s security is sacrosanct because Israel was chosen by G-d. Election by G-d is the whole problem with the Ultra Orthodox settlers. They don’t work because studying Torah is the ultimate expression of the Jewish bond with G-d. They have to be housed and secular Israeli Jews don’t want them in their nice neighbourhoods. The answer is free land in the West Bank. Human rights mean nothing if you have been chosen by G-d to fulfil a covenant. Israel has been feeding this bullshit to these people for the last 62 years. It is very hard to see how Israel can reverse out of this cul de sac without destroying the country.
You mean without destroying the US? I don’t they care so long as their agenda is maintained to the finale.
Destroying Israel as a Jewish ethnocracy. Have you read “the Jewish prison” by Jean Daniel ? Isrel is heading into uncharted territory. The world expects a Palestinian state and Israel has spent the last 42 years strangling the possibility of a Palestinian state. Meanwhile you have over a million Ultra Orthodox who believe they are G-d’s gift to humanity. The cruelty inherent in the Occupation would be impossible without the chosen people angle. How to shift Israel onto a human rights framework, the one the rest of the world (or at least Israel’s key trading partners) operates on is going to be the defining challenge for Israel.
israel must, for the sake of its survival, transition into a secular democracy that is pluralistic, period
apartheid won’t be tolerated, the ongoing war-crimes won’t be tolerated, the institutional racism won’t be tolerated, and this notion of a “jewish state” was and is a non-starter – the illusion and the horrors visited upon a subject population to maintain this illusion must come to end
radical religious nuts in any society belong on the margins – these radicals who have been coddled for their political value in israel must be marginalized
You know this isn’t going to happen.
Transition? Do you mean “change”?
Arabs are to blame, the problem of Arab countries is that trust so much western countries, they did it with the british empire and they lost Palestine, today they keep believing in hope less America.
“We do what you Americans would do if you had the courage.”
But what would Americans do if they had any sense?
Talking about translating, the Haaretz story on the bombing of the Gaza tunnels reads different in Hebrew and English.
In the original Hebrew, the Israeli Air Force bombed “smuggling tunnels” aka tunnels between Egypt and Gaza as well as “terror tunnels” aka tunnels between Gaza and Israel.
The English version leaves out the “terror tunnels.”
P’raps because that sounds just too ridiculous in translation?