Tweet
At today’s AIPAC conference…
Biden, Netanyahu set tone on Iran for Obama visit to Israel
…Joe Biden insisted on Monday that President Barack Obama was not bluffing about using force to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions if all else fails, even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for a “credible military threat” against Tehran.
Seeking to reassure Israel and its U.S. supporters just weeks before Obama visits the Jewish state, Biden cautioned that all options, including sanctions and diplomacy, must be exhausted to ensure that the international community will be supportive if military action is deemed necessary.
But Netanyahu, speaking moments later via satellite from Jerusalem, used his address to America’s largest pro-Israel lobby to underscore Israeli impatience with U.S. strategy on Iran, a message that could foreshadow his talks with Obama.
“Words alone will not stop Iran. Sanctions alone will not stop Iran. Sanctions must be coupled with a clear and credible military threat if diplomacy and sanctions fail,” Netanyahu said to loud cheers at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference in Washington…
After his speech, Biden met with DM Ehud Barak…!
Now, in today’s Guardian, Glennzilla had this most excellent guest posting…
Why we must resist Netanyahu and the hawks’ reckless push for war on Iran
Now, just as diplomacy is yielding results, has never been a better time to ignore the lobbying of Israel’s prime minister for war
“If Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons, this could presage catastrophic consequences, not only for my country, and not only for the Middle East, but for all mankind … the deadline for attaining this goal is getting extremely close.”
The above quote – from a speech given by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to a joint session of the United States Congress – is notable not only for its sense of urgency and dire threat, but also for the date on which the speech was given: 10 July 1996. That was far from the first time Netanyahu had sounded the alarm for the need to take drastic action against a purportedly imminent Iranian nuclear weapon: in a 1992 address to the Israeli Knesset, he declared, “within three to five years, we can assume that Iran will become autonomous in its ability to develop and produce a nuclear bomb” – an assertion he repeated without irony in 1995, when, in his book Fighting Terrorism, he again predicted full Iranian nuclear weapons capability within “three to five years”.
This past Sunday, Prime Minister Netanyahu declared his belief that ongoing nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 nations were futile and represented merely an effort by Iran to “buy time” to develop a nuclear weapon. Coming from an individual with nearly 20 years of public statements consistently citing the purported imminence of such a weapon, this is a questionable statement to say the least. But given the present atmosphere of heightened tension surrounding this issue, such comments are particularly dangerous and revealing…
MJ Rosenberg had penned another must-read today…
I wonder if all these Democratic politicians who attend the AIPAC pander-fest ever think about the occupation. Has any of them ever been to Hebron?
They should go to Hebron, a major city on the occupied West Bank — one that successive Israeli governments have said Israel will hold on to no matter what. It won’t change their political calculations. They kiss up to AIPAC to for campaign contributions but at least they will know what they are defending in the name of political expediency.
No, I don’t urge Republicans like Ted Cruz, John McCain or Lindsey Graham to go. They wouldn’t see anything wrong with it anyway. In fact, they would love it. Nor the likes of New York Democrats like Chuck Schumer or Kristen Gillibrand who never give the Middle East a thought; they are on AAP, AIPAC Automatic Pilot. I’m talking about the Dick Durbins, Carl Levins, Al Frankens, Tammy Baldwins and the Elizabeth Warrens who actually allow themselves to feel compassion and, if they were honest, rage.
I have visited Hebron a half-dozen times, once as part of an official U.S. government to monitor Palestinian elections. Much of what follows comes from a report I wrote back in 2006 but, note, the situation has only deteriorated…
And to further punctuate the point, just today… “You cannot come on this bus.”
Now, this just blew me away, today, like a tsunami…
Colonizer as Lender: Free Palestine, Occupy Wall Street, Strike Debt
By Folks in Strike Debt and Occupy Wall St.Right in the place where empire was scheming to do its worst, a tent went up—and then another, and then a village. A new community was born there, an act of resistance as well as a nurturing space for eating and sleeping and living. People talked and prayed together. There was an explosion of hope in the midst of hopelessness. But before long the empire had enough. It sent in its army of militarized police, and the village was destroyed.
This is the story of Occupy Wall Street’s Liberty Square in the fall of 2011, yes. But it is also what happened earlier this year in the West Bank. The village of Bab al-Shams, whose name means “Gate of the Sun,” appeared early in the morning on January 11. Two days later, in the dark of night, Israeli soldiers tore it down…
Occupy Everywhere…!
32 Comments
I guess Bibi isn’t impressed by CVN-74 USS John C. Stennis — “the world’s finest warship” according to its website — and its fleet, four months in Iran’s adjacent waters now. (I can’t say that Iran has been too impressed either, although the recent visit of Peyton Manning pumped the sailors.)
Captain Reis, the Stennis CO:
“This great vessel’s inherent capability, brought to life by the courage and commitment of men and women like you, exemplifies overwhelming combat power unlike any other in the world. We employ that to advance peace, deter aggression and defend freedom around the world. Our combat readiness results from two closely aligned factors – the ship’s exemplary condition and the crew’s passion to be the best.”
That’s not a “clear and credible military threat?” Overwhelming combat power unlike any other in the world?
Cheez, I hope the Stennis crew doesn’t take that seriously and have a Rodney Dangerfield moment. This could hurt morale, on top of the sequestration and everything, plus Iran thumbing its nose at the whole ridiculous “macho man” exercise.
Apparently, near as I can figure, Iran is encouraged and emboldened by the dozens of cruise missiles it has zeroed in on the Stennis, ready to fire at the moment the balloon goes up. And Bibi knows this, and concludes the threat is empty. A “duh” moment. (Or some would say *gah.*)
Thank you Bibi. You one smart guy. Too bad you can’t form a government, after the last election. I guess you’re faced with a clear and credible political threat. That’s the breaks, man. Now shut up and go away.
He’s not going away, though I doubt he will be able to form a government that lasts more than a few months.
There is a link between Iran and Hebron. A major, or THE major, objective of the faux “Iran nuclear crisis” is to take the rape of Palestine including settlements off the table. It has been totally successful, give Israel that.
It would seem that a nation the size of New Jersey, with less people, has Uncle Sam by the short hairs. But look at it this way: Washington is playing Israel for a sucker, because this one-nation course of history will result, eventually, in the dissolution of the Jewish state of Israel. That’s a reason why MJ Rosenberg, and others, see the fallacy in current policies which favor the US and not Israel, in the long run.
You can predict the future? Which horse do like at Santa Anita?
My grandpa, after losing $15.00 at Longacres near Renton on a long shot, told me, “Don’t bet on long shots!” That was 53 years ago. We’ll need to wear a lot more garlic poultices before that awful, disgusting Netanyahu is out of our politics, let alone Israel’s.
*heh* Bibi’s Poppa lived to a hundred, ET…! ;-)
This certainly made my day… Advertising campaigns target AIPAC and US aid to Israel across Washington DC… I wonder if it broke any of the AIPAC conventioneers fee-fees…? ;-)
On Iran, the wrongful opinion exists that sanctions will force Iran to give up its rightful supervised nuclear enrichment program. A cursory look at the evidence shows that the opposite is the case. Iran cancelled the “Additional Protocol” which permitted extra surveillance and also passed on the Brazil-Turkey plan for enrichment tom 20% — because the US and its UN operational tool increased sanctions. So it’s obvious that sanctions are actually counter-productive.
On the PBS Newshour today Former U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns promoted this wrong opinion.
Now PBS had this Nicholas Burns on as some kind of expert. This scoundrel Burns is “Ambassador” Nicholas Burns, a former State Department under secretary for political affairs in the George W Bush administration.
Last year — whom Margaret Warner insisted on calling “Ambassador” in spite of a correction from Burns — Nicholas Burns was published in the Boston Globe (now behind a paywall) saying: “Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East and a pernicious troublemaker in Iraq and Afghanistan. That it wants to go nuclear is not contested seriously in any major world capital.”
This is common US BS. There’s no proof of either charge. The latter is fabricated, and the terrorism charge is baloney. There is no evidence that Iran is the world’s prime sponsor of terrorism. The most recent National Counterterrorism Center’s annual report, for 2011, doesn’t even mention Iran.
Report highlights follow:
Finally, the Nicholas Burns is a charlatan. “I was the point person on Iran from 2005 to 2008, and I never once met an Iranian official,” said Burns.
Remember the 2008 Dem primary? Clinton castigated Obama for saying that he would talk directly to Iran and North Korea. Of course “change you can count on” has done neither, something Obama shares with Burns — both are fakers. Obama wouldn’t dare meet an Iranian official, it would jeopardize the Presidential Medal he’s about to receive in Israel
Martin Bashir had fmr Amb. Marc Ginsberg on today… Much hilarity ensued…!
Biden laid it out today.
That’s what the IAEA surveillance of Iran’s enrichment achieves, assurance that Iran is not diverting nuclear fuel to a weapons program.
The IAEA has continually said so in its quarterly reports. “The Agency continues to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material at the nuclear facilities and LOFs declared by Iran under its Safeguards Agreement.” Period. (Applause.) End of discussion.
I hate to break this to Netanyahu, but the US can not conquer Iran.
Destroy her? Yes, but we couldn’t win a “boots on the ground” takeover.
Again, we don’t know if Netanyahu will still be around when Obama visits to get his medal, but if he is, Obama will apparently have to address “a clear and credible military threat” over and above the Fifth Fleet and the oft-repeated “all options on the table.” How to up the ante? will be Obama’s challenge.
The failure of Washington generally to understand other peoples’ culture and history is at work here. Iran went through a terribly destructive war not long ago against a country (Iraq) which was supported by the US. It knows what it’s like to be attacked by a US puppet military force. Iran learned from this. It learned that while it can’t compete on equal grounds, Iran can prevail with asymmetric military tactics.
NYTimes, Mar 19, 2012
U.S. War Game Sees Perils of Israeli Strike Against Iran
And then there was Millenium Challenge 2002
This is what Iran will do. Call it “a clear and credible military threat.” US warships on the bottom of the Persian Gulf. The Navy hates that.
Amano secured his job at the IAEA by assuring the Empire that he would come to whatever “finding” they asked for in any situation.
Obomba’s negotiating tactics are yet another page taken from Dubya’s playbook; agree to what we want beforehand, and we’ll talk in good faith.
I guess I have a stone-age computer. It doesn’t do videos. What happened?
TIME, Oct 18, 2012
The Myth of “Surgical Strikes” on Iran
…The Navy hates that. They also shit-canned Gen. Van Riper, for his efforts…! 8-(
Remember, two essential steps before any attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities:
1. Notification to UN inspectors to vamoose, as Bush-43 did in Iraq.
2. Removal of US Navy warships from Persian Gulf, they are sitting ducks for cruise missiles.
Okay, three — Israelis make out their wills.
Nothing spectacular, just more drumbeats on that Iranian war drum…!
The military despises thinkers. They don’t follow orders well, for starters. I have some experience with that. You too, I suspect.
I’m delighted to see that Margaret Warner had Flynt Leverett on tonight, to counter Burns BS…!
*heh* Having been a Commo Chief, they had to listen to me…! ;-)
Biden today: Iran must “give the international community ironclad confidence in the peaceful nature of their program.” Of course that’s impossible, beyond Iran’s fully supervised nuclear enrichment program. Iran’s a large country, with many military installations and many laboratories in many places. Must US puppet IAEA Chief Yukiya Amano be admitted everywhere in Iran to provide this ironclad confidence? It’ll never happen, of course.
Meanwhile, such strictures are not applied to other countries.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:
Commo memories — love me the AN/PRC-6, so much better than a wimpy cell phone. Roger dodger, over and out. (Perhaps I got that wrong.)
*Pshaw* I had to deal with the transistion from the PRC-77′s and the VRC-12′s to the Sincgars…! I’ve bailed out many an Officer along the way…! ;-)
The Leveretts are patriots. Their new book “Going To Tehran” is being panned by all the people who are pandering to the wrongful US government policy, without much substance to their remarks other than their bias against Iran.
Myself, I tend to give other countries a pass and question my own country. Like Edward Abbey — “I know my own nation best. That’s why I despise it the most. And I know and love my own people, too, the swine. I’m a patriot. A dangerous man.”
In regard to the military, “If I tell you to climb a greased pole, don’t ask why; just git to climbing. If I tell you to shit, ask what color and squat”.
For decades I have supported the existence of Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people. In 1967 and 1973 I fully supported the IDF’s defense of Israel against invasion. To do any less would have made me complcit with those who looked away during the Holocaust.
The cheap anti-semitism so common in Iran and other Muslim centers inevitably recall for Jews similar language from the Christians of the the 1930s and 40s, and they cannot be blamed for that memory. When Hitler set out to murder the Jewish people, they found no welcome in any other nation; even America’s doors were closed to them. In the years after 1945 the survivors of the Holocaust streamed into Palestine. Where else could they go? Jews attempting to return to their old homes in Poland were often killed by their former neighbors. And when the Jews declared an independent state in 1948, five Arab nations attacked them. Had the arabs not attacked, the Nakba, or flight/explusion of Palestinians, would probably never have occurred. The Arab attempt to destroy Israel in 1967 was the direct cause of the annexation of the West Bank and Gaza – and the 1973 attack by the Arab nations convinced Israel of the need to permanently retain the more defensible border along the Jordan River and Golan Heights. Israel will never give up those borders and almost all Israeli leaders actively support Jewish settlements on the West Bank in order to strengthen that basic defense line.
I accept all of the above as beyond debate. I also accept that the Iranian regime is pathologically consumed with anti-semitism and its leaders would destroy Israel if they could do so without harming themselves. The idea of relgious fudamentalists with nuclear weapons is far more frightening than the reality of secular Pakistani and Indian leaders with similar weapons.
Thus far, I dont think I have said anything AIPAC could disagree with. But what they and other supporters of Israel do not grasp is that the past fifty years of history have made the existence of a completely Jewish state obsolete.Zionims served its purpose of saving the remant of the Jewish people but present day Israeli power has made it an anachrnism. And the facts on the ground have made a separate Palestinian state impossible. The only solution that well-meaning people can support is a single Palestinian/Jewish state in the area now occupied by Israel.
The US, the EU and other parties should base all of their policies on a demand for a single state in which all residents are citizens; all citizens have a vote; and all citizens have equal rights to use the judicial system to recover losses sustained from the time of the Nakba onward.
A single, integrated state will provide Jewish citizens with the security it now lacks. When Muslims, Chrstians and Jews live in the same neighborhoods and work together, they will all be safer from attacks aimed at one religious group. It will not be easy and the near term may be chaotic but if South Africa can transition out of apartheid, so can Israel and Palestine.
Lost in all fairy-tales propaganda and cartoons about a non-existent Iran “threat” are the realities of a real-life nuclear weapons program.
Naturally occurring uranium consists of less than one percent uranium-235, but nuclear bombs require something more. Natural uranium must be ‘enriched.’ Gaseous diffusion and gas centrifugation of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) are the primary means that have been used to enrich uranium. Iran enriches uranium for civil purposes up to twenty percent U-235, which is considered to be low enriched uranium (LEU).
A nuclear weapon requires 90%+ highly enriched uranium (HEU). The time required to produce a sufficient quantity of highly-enriched uranium to fuel a weapon is called achieving nuclear “breakout” capability. Estimates of the time required to achieve “breakout” in Iran vary.
David Albright (an Iran critic) has said that breakout could be accomplished in Iran within three to six months. Of course Iran would have to expel the IAEA inspectors prior to any such breakout, then initiate the up to six month process, enriching uranium to weapons grade.
Then, presuming it had the designs ready, it would have to construct a nuclear bomb (or warhead) and test it (important). Then and only then could Iran go ahead with the construction of bombs or warheads. It is unrealistic to believe that the US and others would be sitting blithely by while all this were going on. It would not be a quick process.
So breakout’s not the end. A nuclear weapon cannot be made of gas. The gas must be converted to metal, a difficult and very dangerous process because of the high potential for a critical accident (like a nuclear reactor without shielding) that would kill anyone in the room or nearby.
Then an implosion warhead would have to be constructed. Warheads are complicated little machines. The entire detonation process happens within a tiny fraction of a second so the hard part is constructing a warhead with reliable separation capabilities throughout the various stages. Testing is mandatory to make sure the thing works.
Clinton Bastin, nuclear scientist: “Iran has no experience with this process, and no facilities to carry it out. Assembly of metal components with high explosives is even more dangerous, because a nuclear explosion would kill those within half a mile. Because of the difficulties, Iran would need 10 to 15 years to make a weapon, after diversion of low-enriched uranium, which would be immediately detected by IAEA inspectors.”
Gee, Iranians aren’t allowed to discover plutonium ?
Shape-charge WW II technology can’t be developed ?
WTH is going on here ?
Does anybody believe that the drunk-on-religion narcissists governing Iran are going to go decades without seeking martyrdom ?
Well-said sir!
1. There is no issue of plutonium with Iran, the only issue is uranium.
2. Certainly bomb designs can be developed and/or taken off the web, but they have to be tested with solid uranium enriched to 95%. The Iran uranium program is fully-supervised and the IAEA has consistently stated that there has been no diversion in Iran.
3. WHT is going on here has really nothing to do with any concocted nuclear crisis, but with ME hegemony. Iran has it and the US wants it.
4. “drunk-on-religion narcissists governing Iran?” Actually Iran is managed quite well considering the long-time economic attacks by the most powerful country in the world. Most nations in the world support Iran, as a matter of fact, so obviously thier opinion of Iran’s leaders is different then yours.
That’s also Praise Special Mop! First Class Keyboard Commando’s Prime Directive.