The New York Times says presumed Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facility reflects “yearslong shadow war between Iran and Israel,” but almost all hostility has come from Israel in a transparent effort to scuttle the Iran deal. And the New York Times has only obliquely addressed Israel’s motivation in the attack.
“The operation that killed Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was a dazzling piece of covert work,” the Washington Post says, in a grotesque glorification of Israel’s murder of Iranian scientist. While the NYT suggests using unnamed sources that Iran had a secret nuclear weapons program, when US intelligence reported otherwise.
Ronen Bergman’s book on Israeli killings delights in security sources’ calling Palestinian targets “bugs” and “sewage.” And he travels the US for the Israel lobby group AIPAC. Maybe he shouldn’t report on the assassination in Iran for New York Times?
The dominant message on US cables is that Iran has pursued a nuclear weapon, thereby justifying the Israeli assassination. This is dishonest. And when Tom Friedman rationalized Israeli assassination by saying that Iran is the regional aggressor, he was promptly eviscerated by commenters in his own paper.
The assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist, likely by Israel with the go-ahead from the US administration, is a desperate attempt to use Donald Trump’s last days in office to sabotage Joe Biden’s chances of successful diplomacy with Iran.
Israel has a hidden motive to kill Iranian nuclear scientist: to destroy any possibility of Joe Biden renewing the Iran deal, and “cripple” his ability to make policy. But you can’t say this inside the Beltway.
A nuclear scientist was just assassinated inside Iran, probably by Israel with Trump administration connivance — but, so far, the New York Times is distorting the news.