President Obama responded calmly and masterfully to a heckler at one of his New York fundraisers this week. "Hold on there, young lady, nobody's announced a war just yet," he said. The protester demanded the U.S. not take military action against the escalating threat of Iran's nuclear arms program.
No such action is in the offing. Mideast adviser Dennis Ross, who is forever counseling administrations of both parties on how to make nice with Israel's not-so-nice neighbors, assures us that Iran will not be able to "surprise" the West during any negotiations. He says Iran is not like Japan.
Really? How does he know that? Aggressive. Insular. Driven by a sense of the superiority of their own culture and religion. Willing to engage in suicide bombings. That's an apt description of the pre-Pearl Harbor Japan, or Iran under the Mullahs today.
The president tells his heckler not to "jump the gun" in assuming that he, Barack Obama, has decided on military action against Iran. "Nobody's announced a war just yet." That reminds us of the slogan of the anti-war Left in the 1970s: "Suppose they gave a war and nobody came?"
Mr. Obama's riposte makes about as much logical sense as that bumper sticker mentality from the Age of Aquarius. Suppose, Mr. President, Iran gave a war and you didn't notice? Starting in 1979 with the seizure of our embassy in Tehran and the 444 days of captivity for our 52 hostages, Iran has been engaged in acts of war against the United States. The murder of 241 Marines and Navy Corpsmen in Beirut in 1983 was an act of war against us by proxies widely assumed to be acting on instructions from Tehran.
What kind of reassurance can Israel take from the statements of Mr. Obama's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Gen. Martin Dempsey said Iran is a "rational actor" on the world stage. If you assume that that means they have taken this president's measure and will act accordingly, the general may actually be right.
Recall President Obama's first act in foreign policy. He signed an Executive Order requiring closing within one year of the U.S. detention facility at Guantànamo Bay. That was more than three years ago.
Gitmo remains open. It should remain open. In one of its last acts, the Lame Duck 111th Congress -- one of the most liberal Congresses in history -- required by law that Gitmo remain open. Mr. Obama's flourishing left-handed signature of Executive Order Zero is proof that you don't need to take what this president says too seriously.
The Iranians obviously don't take him seriously. Neither should the Israelis. President Obama recently told an interviewer from The Atlantic magazine:
We, immediately upon taking over, mapped out a strategy that said we are going to mobilize the international community around this issue and isolate Iran to send a clear message to them that there is a path they can follow that allows them to rejoin the community of nations, but if they refused to follow that path, that there would be an escalating series of consequences.
But the Iranian Mullahs have shown no concern about rejoining the community of nations. They are happy enough dealing with Castro Cuba and Venezuela's anti-American dictator Hugo Chavez.
Contrast the feckless Obama administration's handling of nuclear threats to Israel with that of Ronald Reagan in 1981. When the Israelis struck the Osirak reactor being built by Saddam Hussein, Israeli military leaders were invited to the Pentagon. Instead of being censured for their unilateral action, Reagan military chiefs wanted to know how they achieved such a stunning success.
Amos Yadlin, former chief of Israel's military intelligence, argues in this week's New York Times that now may be the Jewish state's "last chance" to stop Iran's nuclear bomb.
We should never have allowed it to come to this. As Charles Krauthammer says, "Israel was founded to prevent a second Holocaust, not invite one."
Now is the time: Let Israel be Israel.
Needless to say, it is obvious their opinion is biased.
The US has been involved in Iranian affairs dating back to the overthrow of Mossadegh, a democratically elected Prime Minister. They fail to acknowledge the olive branch by Iran after 911, which we ignored. Should we also consider the killing and maiming of hundreds of US servicemen on the USS Liberty an act of war by Israel? Israel seems to be moving toward is an Iranian halocaust, when all intelligence points to no attempts by Iran to build nuclear weapons. More WMD's?
"Let Israel be Israel" has been the problem throughout. While the United Nations have passed resolutions condemning Israel, causing eternal friction in the Middle East by it's defiance of International laws, the Israeli High Court, past US presidents-Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Bush, and Obama.
Give the keyboard a rest.
oh.
for a minute there I thought you were talking about Amerika.
"or Iran under the Mullahs today."
F/F
So, loyal American, go join "everybody in the middle east"
My money says you're already there
distrustful alliance ( CIA has one of the largest spying departments dedicated to the prevention of Israeli spying on the US) between the US and Israel should be applauded instead of "wishing" them off to the Middle East.
Tonge criticized the relationship between the United States and the Jewish state, describing Israel as “America’s aircraft carrier in the Middle East,” adding that there would come a day when the people in the United States would say “enough is enough.” “It will not go on forever, it will not go on forever and Israel will lose its support, then they will reap what they have sown,” Tonge, who has previously been sacked from the party for remarks similar on the Jewish state, said."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Mar-01/165150-british-politician-resigns-over-critical-comments-on-israel.ashx#ixzz1nrdbh48k
'Palestine' isn't a nationality or culture or language. They are arabs. They speak arabic. Oh, and they already have a country that is 80% of the Palestine mandate. Does anyone know its name?
As far as language and culture goes, |$rae|'s neighbors are just as rich in that regard. They may lack PR tools to be all over M$M and glossy magazines but just because you or i can't understand @rabic, doesn't mean there's any weight in that department.
P@|estine? Of course it's a nationality, it was a nation long before |$rae| was created on top of it, not that long ago...
As far as the culture goes, @r@bs share many aspects of customs and traditions that transcend boundaries and borders. Similar yet different enough...
Great... Defending |$rae|'s legitimacy comes down to pointing fingers at others who might in your opinion occupy 80% P@|3stine? So much for all that talk about it being a miracle.
And guess who sits at the helm in J0rd@n? Another "Friendly" strongman....