‘NYT’ gives big platform to Israeli journalist to espouse Israeli attack on Iran with OK from Uncle Sam

Ronen Bergman
Ronen Bergman

The New York Times Magazine runs a long piece by Ronen Bergman, an Israeli journalist, saying Israel will attack Iran soon because it must. The piece is pushy: it contains the hope/promise that the U.S. will give a “flickering green light” to this attack, as it did to Israel’s attack on Egypt that set off the 1967 War.

Why on earth should the U.S. do such a thing?

Bergman’s “Israeli perspective,” as he describes it, turns out to be a fearful one, and lacking in all proportion– and offered by a journalist who has reportedly called Iran the world’s “number one terrorist power.” When will cooler heads prevail? This piece is highly reminiscent of Jeffrey Goldberg’s piece in the Atlantic in 2010, envisioning an inevitable strike, and rationalizing it on the basis of Netanyahu’s fears of another Holocaust, and saying the U.S. must be on board. Bergman: 

After speaking with many senior Israeli leaders and chiefs of the military and the intelligence, I have come to believe that Israel will indeed strike Iran in 2012. Perhaps in the small and ever-diminishing window that is left, the United States will choose to intervene after all, but here, from the Israeli perspective, there is not much hope for that. Instead there is that peculiar Israeli mixture of fear — rooted in the sense that Israel is dependent on the tacit support of other nations to survive — and tenacity, the fierce conviction, right or wrong, that only the Israelis can ultimately defend themselves. —

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Phil Zbig has been on Morning Joe the last two mornings. Has said quite a bit about our relationship with Israel. Israel and Iran. And this morning he said that an attack on Iran would be extremely “short sighted” Think you would be interested

Put this up yesterday here at Mondo on one of the threads about Iran. Yesterday Zbig said Israel could attack Iran between now and the election and drag the US into a conflict which would bring down the US even more than the horrific war in Iraq has

Zbig rips it up on MSNBC’s Morning Joe this morning. Speaking about his new book “Strategic Vision.”
Know the Mondo team and others will be very interested. I have never seen Willie Geist, Heileman listen so intently to anyone. Total silence… The MSNBC Morning Joe team really listened without interrupting. Whoa astounding

Zbig :
“I don’t think the (US) decline is inevitable. I think it is avoidable. But it is looming on the horizon. There is a lot of evidence for a relative decline and also an absolute decline in the American standing in the world.”

He goes on to talk about how he is very interested in the US population being educated about world affairs. Public education about the world.

Zbig :
“The fact is we are a democracy we can only conduct a foreign policy that the public supports. The public in America is woefully ignorant about the world.”

And the Israeli lobby, Israel bank on the American public either being kept in the dark about what is really going on in the Israeli Palestinian conflict and the situation with Iran. When have we ever seen Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett on any of these MSM outlets? Two highly qualified scholars who know a great deal about Iran and one a former CIA middle east analyst. Both who were in Bush 43′s administration.

Zbig warns:
“Iran could happen between now and election day. Perhaps in the last three weeks of the elections. Because at that moment if something happens the public opinion would support military action initially”

And we know why this is so. Because MSNBC, CNN, FOX, NPR etc have helped set the stage for an attack on Iran. They have allowed unsubstantiated and inflammatory claims to be repeated about Iran on their programs that go unchallenged. Some of the host of these shows have not only allowed unsubstantiated claims about Iran to be repeated Terri Gross repeats them herself All of these outlets refuse to educate the public about Iran by having highly qualified experts on about Iran. Instead they keep recycling the very individuals who lied this nation into an unnecessary war in Iraq.

Zbig:
“I don’t want the US either stampeded into a war with Iran lets say by an Israeli attack to which the Iranians react probably more against us than against them. Or by a decision by the United States itself reminiscent of the decision to go into the pointless war with Iraq in 2003″

This is a powerful interview with Zbig

Well, judging by the HUGE ovation barry got last night for his ” iron clad….IRON CLAD!!” relationship with Israel line, it seems like the US Congress is on board……..

“only the Israeli’s can ultimately defend themselves” — yea, firing M-16’s, flying F-16’s, shooting US TOW missiles, the list goes on and on. Hard to argue that only Israel can in anyway “ultimately defend themselves” when they are using all this gear from the US and elsewhere…..

Israeli’s talking about “going it alone” is sort of like US Oil Company executives talking about the “free market” after they take their 5 billion in subsidies…..

All this talk about “fear” is BS. Israeli leaders hate Iran for its help to Hizbullah and Hamas. They know Iran has no nuclear weapons, no uranium enriched to where it can be used in a bomb and they know all US. intelligence agencies concluded Iran suspended or ended its nuclear bomb making program in 2003. For a good compendium of articles on Iran that refutes the usual lies see http://www.TheStruggle.org top left link

Perhaps the US could get on board for an attack sooner then we think if those many reports are true of India and China who together account for 40% of Irans oil sales are to trade in gold [ Press tv India to buy Iran oil in gold not dollars] 24 jan 2012. One of the reasons Iraq was attacked, was Saddams threat to the petro dollar by trading in euros. Pepe Escobar has an excellent piece at Asia times [Europe at war with Iran] 25th jan 2012, He says Europe could be cutting its own Geostrategic and economic throat with its threatened total ban on Iranian oil.

It’s an election season. If Israel is now evicting Bedouin, stealing land and demolishing Palestinian homes as though it were a fire sale, wait until November when Israel will feel as though it owns the planet. And who would dare criticize Israel? No presidential candidate would be willing to put his career at the mercy of AIPAC; every one of them will try as best he can to please Israel.

Remember November 4, 2008 when Israel violated the truce with Hamas? This time around Israel may very well attack Iran.