Two additions to Nima Shirazi’s inventory of Israeli efforts to push an American war with Iran. As Nima notes, the mainstream US press is not covering this stuff. Simply amazing.
First, from the Times of Israel, a report that Israel with David Axelrod is trying to broker a political commitment from Obama to attack Iran by next June.
American and Israeli officials are working to arrange a meeting between US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at which the White House will assure Israel that the US will use force to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons drive by next June at the latest if the Islamic Republic has not halted its program by then, Israel’s Channel 10 news reported on Tuesday night.
The meeting will take place in New York or Washington at the end of September or the very beginning of October, the report said. David Axelrod, senior strategist in Obama’s re-election campaign, is coordinating arrangements for the meeting, the report said.
The key formulation being discussed for Obama to assure Netanyahu is that the US “will attack Iran by June 2013″ if the Iranian nuclear weapons drive has not halted by then, the report said.
Next, a sanity check from Shaul Mofaz, the chairman of the opposition Kadima party in Israel, who attacks Netanyahu for promoting a war as a means of political intervention in the US election:
“Over the past few months, Israel has waged an extensive and relentless PR campaign with the sole objective of preparing the ground for a premature military adventure.”
“This PR campaign has deeply penetrated the ‘zone of immunity’ of our national security, threatens to weaken our deterrence, and our relations with our best friends. Mr. prime minister, you want a crude, rude, unprecedented, reckless, and risky intervention in the US elections. Tell us who you serve and for what? Why are you putting your hand deep into the ballot boxes of the American electorate?
/ check from Shaul Mofaz, the chairman of the opposition Kadima party in Israel,/
Opposition my ass…
Speaking of Wag the Dog, I saw Act of Valor recently and was stunned when, in the middle of the high test action, one of the masterminds of the terror plot, a kidnapper and torturer of CIA agents, and supplier of high tech explosives to suicide bombers, turns out to be a billionaire Eastern European Jewish drug and arms smuggler named “Christo,” of all things. Christo is concerned the CIA is on to him, and so is trying to extricate himself, to “retire South,” while supplying a last set of exploding vests that are not detectable by metal detectors to his old friend, a sort of Eastern European Muslim Swingali character, who recruits and sends off naive Filipino women as suicide bombers. With deep involvement by active duty SEALS, and functioning as a virtual USN recruitment film, introducing a Jewish character in this way seems like a fictional reaction or countermeasure to the journalistic taboo. It has earned it some condemnation from the hasbara machine, but the reference seems to blow over the heads of most Americans – an insignificant plot detail. I always wonder what experience movies come out of, and would love to see that issue explored with the film’s writers and directors. This is the kind of movie elite US forces will see over and over again, and it is indeed dangerous and reckless for Bibi to try to interfere in the US election, to parlay that into a new war commitment, and for the news to be suppressed in the MSM, although readily available on the internet. Kadima asks, “tell us who you serve and for what?” It is almost as if the Settler movement has a secret end-game in mind, in which the bulk of Diaspora Jews, i.e., the Americans, find it necessary to relocate, and those who got there (and theirs) sooner are proven to be prescient. The best way to predict the future is to invent it yourself.
phil, this report came out the same day as “Israel demands statement from Obama about Iran attack by Yom Kippur” https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2012/08/israel-demands-statement-from-obama-about-iran-attack-by-yom-kippur.html
the date is tied to Netanyahu is already tentatively scheduled to fly to the US at the end of September to address the UN General Assembly.
that would be the very same UN General Assembly the palestinians have already announced they are addressing, again, making their bid for a palestinian state but skipping the security council this time.
so, guess what’s sucking all the air out of the room? you got it. iran. that’s the point of this date…
RE: “First, from the Times of Israel, a report that Israel with David Axelrod is trying to broker a political commitment from Obama to attack Iran by next June.” ~ Weiss
MY COMMENT: I, for one, am hedging my bets. No more battered
spousevoter syndrome for me!• Jill Stein for President – http://www.jillstein.org/
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Eh, more psychological warfare.
1. Israel won’t attack before the election. This goes beyond Obama. If Israel goes against any U.S. administration, the view inside the professional military & national security establishment will go from ambivalent to apocalyptic.
2. Israel cannot strike Iran alone. A bombing run is just step one. A war would last several weeks and Israel’s navy is not even close to a snowball’s chance in hell to be able to defeat and control Iran’s naval assets without major disruptions. America won’t be able to protect the oil price, but it would do a far better job.
3. Since Israel cannot strike alone – and therefore must wait for America – it won’t attack before the election. Again, it’s tiresome how easy people fall for psychological propaganda.
Also, do you really think Obama would have promised a strike by June 2013? A year ago, he promised a strike by June 2012 if nothing had happened.
This is more saber rattling and leads to nowhere. If Israel will attack it will be post-election and it would have to be in a global recession, because then the world economy is already knocked out and the oil price is ultra-low.
If the world economy goes into recession late this year, yearly next year then expect a strike to happen in 2013. If the economy bumbles along next year, no strike.
No recession = no strike. As simple as that. The U.S. is not going to allow Israel to crash the economy, but it’s willing to give the impression to scare Iran.
The sanctions do really work well. The price of chicken in Iran has more than tripled over the past year. Inflation is running at 20 % per month. People are totally knocked out, and the corn drought will cement the nail in the coffin. Iran’s people are getting very impoverished. However, it’s unlikely that the regime will fall. Saddam managed to stay on for decades despite very harsh sanctions in Iraq.
Sanctions will fail because historically they almost always fail. Diplomacy can succeed but Israel doesn’t believe in it, and frankly, Iran probably doesn’t either. At this point they are not just going to drop everything they’ve been building for years.
It’s regime change, and sanctions are aimed for that, soften the conditions, send in the CIA moles, re-boot the ‘green movement’ and wait for a global recession(while delaying a strike by sabotage via another computer virus, assassinations of scientists and so on) until a possible strike and then aim for regime change.
The notion that Israeli media would leak a deadline out in the open is totally bogus and hilarious.