Gray and solemn pronouncements about Israel acting “by itself” were issued by the Israeli prime minister at his Cabinet meeting today and mark Israel’s sudden isolation from world opinion– and signal division inside the Israel lobby in the U.S.
(Turn on the captions to watch in English.)
Netanyahu doesn’t look to have slept well. A historic mistake, not a historic agreement, he says. “The most dangerous regime in the world has taken a significant step toward attaining the most dangerous weapon in the world.”
There is no effort to seize the moment. “Israel is not bound by this agreement. The Iranian regime is committed to the destruction of Israel.”
And Israel has the right and obligation to defend itself, “by itself,” against any threat.
So Netanyahu wants the existential Islamic terror pot to keep boiling forever, to keep the world’s eyes off the West Bank and Jerusalem.
He ends with this declaration: Israel will not allow Iran to attain nuclear capability.
The ardent supporters of the Jewish state in the U.S. have never been in a worse position. They are largely supportive of this deal. They will have to throw Netanyahu under the bus. Most of them, anyway.
“Israel by Itself”
Israel li wahdha, fi’alan waheeda .
For me this is a breaking point in U.S. foreign policy that should have come 20 some years ago after the fall of the Soviet Union.
There was never any basis for a “special relationship”. The Iran deal unmasked what has always been true: Israel and the U.S. have increasingly sharply different interests in the region. This isn’t surprising: America is becomming more liberal, more secular and more democratic. Israel is heading in the exact opposite direction.
After the 1990s, Israel’s role in the region become severely problematic for America. Bush the first realised this, which is why he pushed for the Oslo accords, as flawed as they were. I think part of the reason why Israel fears that “the interim becomes the permanent” is precisely because that’s what happened to Oslo, it was imperfect but it was meant to be perfected over time. Instead, Clinton ran to the right of Bush I and stayed there because he wanted power and he sold out the Palestinians doing so, by refusing to demand a freeze in settlements.
This has to be in the back of the minds of Netanyahu and many others. What they got away with, Iran can now probably get away with as well.
And the option of Israel attacking Iran was always a hollow threat. If it wasn’t, they would have attacked previously. All the excuses(it was election, sanctions were getting geared up etc etc) are just serving as a delay to reach the inevitable conclusion: the goal was to marshal the political and financial powers of the Israel Lobby for America to do to Iran what it did to Iraq. Including regime change. Of course, once it became clear Iraq went south, the tactic changed to sanctions. But this is what the head of WINEP, AIPAC’s think tank admitted last year. The goal is regime change and total dismantlement.
Well, this isn’t just a policy defeat; this is a sea change.
Israel “alone”. Wah!
Netanyahu feels abandoned, and should be isolated. This is saving Israel from itself.
Let’s see if Netanyahu & Co. can make peace and real justice with the Palestinians– or will they further isolate themselves?
Will the hypocrite sign the NPT and declare his arsenal?
“Israel is not bound by this agreement.”
Has it ever been bound by any agreement?
“The most dangerous regime in the world […] attaining the most dangerous weapon in the world”
Let’s compare the number of wars and aggressions started by Israel and Iran and will see which one is the most dangerous regime and which one has already the most dangerous weapon in the world. The hypocrisy…
and this
“Ignoring a UN Security Council decisions”
Is this for real? Israel is the state with the most violations of UNSC resolutions, and Netanyauh has the nerve to state that!
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/study-israel-leads-in-ignoring-security-council-resolutions-1.31971
and finally, this
“Lieberman: Israel must consider alternative allies”
one can only hope!
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.559781
Remember all the poor Jews in Israel who don’t have enough to buy food for the big festivals.
https://www.meirpanim.org/campaign/2013/chanukah/
How does permanent war benefit them ?