What is the significance of Meir Dagan's recent defections from the Netanyahu agenda-- on the Green Line and Iran? Arnaud de Borchgrave has a great column about the fight inside Israeli leadership over an attack on Iran, and how such plans reflect Israel's desire to divert attention from the Palestinian statehood initiative in the U.N. On which there will be two dissenters, de Borchgrave says, the U.S. and Israel. Thanks to Blankfort:
Netanyahu faced an ugly low upon his return from a U.S. high.
[Dagan] The man who ran Israel's formidable Mossad for eight years is criticizing Netanyahu for ignoring the 2002 Saudi Arabia peace plan — to which all 22 Arab governments subscribed. Israel was to withdraw to the pre-1967 war frontier with minor rectifications on either side. And all Arab governments agreed that in return they would recognize Israel diplomatically and commercially.
This, essentially, was the plan that Obama dusted off and Netanyahu shelved.
But ex-Mossad chief Meir Dagan is a dagger in Netanyahu's body politic. And Dagan isn't alone. Several former intelligence chiefs are lined up with Dagan. They also know first-hand how anxious Netanyahu is to detract from Palestinian pressure for their own state in the West Bank and Gaza — by bombing Iran's nuclear installations.
As Dagan put it, "This would mean regional war and in that case you would give Iran the best possible reason to continue its nuclear program."
And the regional challenge that Israel would then face, said the spy chief, "would be impossible." He and his intel colleagues know that Iran has formidable asymmetrical retaliatory capabilities — from Bahrain, homeport for the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, with a local population that is two-thirds Shiite, many of them pro-Iran, to the Hormuz Strait, Qatari and Saudi oil terminals, and Hezbollah and Hamas rockets and missiles.
Dagan, Yuval Diskin, head of Shin Bet, the internal security agency, and Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, the military chief of staff, all stepped down this year, And Dagan made clear he and his retiring colleagues served as a brake on the gung-ho Bibi Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
According to Israeli media reports, a week before retiring, Dagan tried to send a message to the Israeli public to warn about Netanyahu's plans for an attack on Iran. But military censorship blocked any reporting of Dagan's views. He was no sooner officially retired than he evaded the censors.
Haaretz front-paged a commentary by Ari Shavit that said, "It's not the Iranians nor the Palestinians who are keeping Dagan awake at night, but Israel's leadership."
Dagan appeared on stage at Tel Aviv University last week, where he told Shavit he is deeply worried about the next turn of the Palestinian wheel at the U.N. General Assembly in New York next September. This is when the Palestinians will request recognition of a Palestinian state with its pre-1967 war borders.
The vote is expected to be unanimous — other than two dissenters: the United States and Israel.
This is when Dagan expects Netanyahu to attack Iran. By going public now, he hopes to put the kibosh on the well-rehearsed plan.
“Would Netanyahu try and head off Palestinian statehood initiative by bombing Iran?”
Is the Pope Catholic?
Thanks for the laugh
The pope is a bear who does unspeakable things in the woods.
RE: “Would Netanyahu try and head off Palestinian statehood initiative by bombing Iran?” – Weiss
MY COMMENT: Is George W. Bush a doofus?
Is “Pricky Dick” Cheney an evil, manipulative war criminal?
FROM WIKIPEDIA: …In 1998, Dresser merged with its main rival Halliburton and became known as Halliburton Company.[2] Dick Cheney negotiated the US$7.7 billion deal, reportedly having done so during a weekend of quail-hunting. In 2001, Halliburton was forced to settle the asbestos lawsuits that it acquired as a result of purchasing Dresser, causing the company’s stock price to fall by eighty percent in just over a year.[8]…
SOURCE – link to en.wikipedia.org
P.S. My goodness! All of those fat, no-bid, ‘war on terror’ contracts came just in the nick of time for Cheney and Halliburton. And the Iraq war was truly a Godsend for them. [wink, wink]
I urge everyone to visit Wikileaks and search for cables containing Dagan’s name.
The rift between Dagan and Netanyahu is merely a disagreement over tactics. That is to say that both want to see Iran fragmented like Iraq.
Israel is going to try to put those bunker busters that the US sold to them to a very destructive and dangerous use
link to haaretz.com
One of the best interviews with Seymour Hersh and former weapons inspector Scott Ritter. The whole interview is worth it
link to youtube.com
Iran/Israel/US
link to youtube.com
Thanks, Kathleen.
First link: an amusing Freudian slip at 8:10.
“…and the Israeli’s got serious problems, they said it will be faked [I mean] fact-based analysis from now on…”
Maybe Israel should just go ahead and bomb Iran and we can get the whole
Masada 2 complex sorted out forever.
I read somewhere that Dagan recently said that he and some other high ranking cabinet members put the kibosh on a plan supported by Netanyahu and Barak to attack Iran at a meeting one year ago. I am sorry, but I can’t find the link. Dagan made it seem like they were really ready to go with the attack.
There is a good article in the Guardian here:
link to guardian.co.uk
Also, this article for the Hebrew readers from Ma’ariv:
link to nrg.co.il
It is pretty juicy. According to an anonymous high ranking official, Dagan said, “There is something not right about him (Netanyahu).”
It is all very strange since Dagan is known as an Arab hater and aggressive right-wing lunatic. He has really pissed-off some Israeli officials, though.
I think MRW or someone here at Mondoweiss posted that Guardian article the other day and then I re posted. Surprised Phillip and team have not focused more on some past and present Israeli officials who think Netanyahu is headed towards a cliff. Maybe they have and I have missed it
Hi Kathleen,
You know a think this is going to be a big, big story. It seems to be a very real power struggle. I don’t think it has hit the English press, though.
I just read Ben Caspit in Ma’ariv (as establishment as they come) who has an incredible column which talks about the Israeli officials who are against the attack on Iran and against Bibi and Barak. He says that when the dissidents speak about Netanyahu and Barak they do so with words that are the most bitter and profane and which could not be printed. Ben Caspit also hints that many more high ranking officials agree with Dagan than has been reported. I got the same impression from reading Amos Harel in Ha’aretz (this is hopefully translated into English).
The big news from Ben Caspit: The focus of the dissidents is not Netanyahu, but Barak. Ben Caspit claims Netanyahu is just being dragged along. Also, the article claims that Gabi Askenazi agrees with everything Dagan is saying, although he disagrees with the way to is going about challenging B & B. God, isn’t this unbelievable!!!!
thanks. Iran will not take an attack lying down. They will attack back. All hell would break loose. Dagan and team have to know this. He was an intelligence man.
We are not talking about the Palestinians here. Iran has real fire power. They will fight back if attacked
Dagan is not exactly a saint (I’m not saying that you claimed he was). The leaked embassy cables show Dagan was pushing for regime change in Syria and Iran by supporting sabotage operations and certain minorities to destabilize the regimes from within.
As such, Netanyahu and Dagan simply disagree on the tactic, on the methods. But, both seek to bring down any counterbalancing regime in the region so as to maintain Israel’s regional hegemony.
Agreed. Dagan is no saint. He is a bastard and lunatic that has led all manner of covert operations against Iran, killing scientists, sabotage, the Stuxnet virus, regime change and who knows what else, just as you say. But those have not caused a regional war which I assume an attack on Iran would. I guess that is the debate.
Also, I think this is more about a power struggle between Dagan, Askenazi and other against Barak and Bibi’s leadership.
Read this by Ben Caspit. What do you think?
link to nrg.co.il
No one can ever convince me that Feith, Wolfowitz, Cheney, Luti, Cambone, etc did not know that by sending in too few troops, allowing the looting, Bremer replacing Garner (who wanted to work with the Iraqi forces all ready intact). Bremer came in and let tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers etc go, putting these people out on the streets no way to make a living. Protected oil sites while allowing looting at Iraq’s national historic sites. These mother fuckers knew exactly what would happen . They knew they were taking the lid of the decades long hatred between Sunnis and Shiites. They knew there would be brutal, horrific in fighting. I thought this early on and then when I saw the documentary “No end in Sight”. Along with hearing from my dear friend Peggy Gish who was in Iraq before the invasion and has been back and forth since then. She said that the majority of the Iraqi people absolutely believe this. That the Bush administrations agenda was to cause extreme chaos, take control of the resources.
Sort of a Sabra and Shatilla. But on a much bigger scale. Provide the environment for the death and destruction. Grab the goods
Feith, Wolfowitz, Cheney knew they knew.
What he wants to head off is getting closer and closer to reality: Al Ahram: Abbas secures two thirds of UN votes on ‘state recognition’ : Palestinian officials reveal that President Mahmoud Abbas has received assurances from 140 nations that they will vote in favour of recognising the state of Palestine at September’s UN General Assembly meeting:
That’s very interesting and better (even if some of the 140 back down) than I was – in my cynical mood about that international community of ours – even close to expecting. But I see that the Ahram article takes the view that the pro-Palestine vote, even if supported by two thirds, will not be veto proof.
“…On which there will be two dissenters, de Borchgrave says, the U.S. and Israel.”
With absolute certainty, our bootlicking Prime Minister will add Canada to that shameful list.
While this is giving some of those Ottawa types pause: they got duped by the USA government and the Secret Service, no less (the Secret Service part was in the IDG News Service account of this)…follow the links:
link to nakedcapitalism.com
Chet is absolutely right – I was going to mention this.
@Kathleen,
Feith, Wolfowitz and other neo cons are discredited. They took the flak for the failed war, though there were other criminals like Cheney, whose oil company Haliburton benefitted from the war.
Don’t compare that situation with this one today. Israel is not going to strike Iran, nor will the USA. That would be suicidal.