This weeks UN General Assembly certainly brought out the drama of the people still living in their day-to-day inability to face reality. From Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Benjamin Netanyahu, the world seems to be full of ranting on and on about the other.
Bibi Netanyahu, the reinstated Prime Minister of Israel, even brought documents that evidence the Holocaust, which of course is not only unnecessary, but also bowing to the ludicrous statement by the Iranian President that it never existed.
Unfortunately not one of these has taken the time to look at themselves.
Ahmadinejad can talk until he is blue in the face about being legitimately elected while refusing to acknowledge that he terrorized his own people to stay in power, but none of us are buying it. Nor are we acknowledging that his own democratic misjudgments were our fault.
Further no one believes Bibi's rant about Iran being the only government building nukes and persecuting people while his continues to hide their own weapons and occupy, displace and repress over 3.7 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza.
The dynamics are to say the least ironic.
While Israel pretends not to have the nuclear bomb, Iran says its not making one, while Israel continues to displace Palestinians, Iran continues to imprison opposition. And both have an over zealous religious right that is unduly influencing practicality. The world powers are appropriately banding together to pressure Iran with crippling sanctions if it doesn't comply with international will and law. Obama has promoted a brilliant strategy of making this a global effort, the only way to coerce Iran to change.
Unfortunately, there is no international or American will to challenge Israel's bad behavior. Netanyahu for his part has been making it his only priority to shift all eyes toward Iran so everyone forgets about a Palestinian state.
Most Americans have no idea that pro-Israel lobbying groups launched a Capital Hill initiative on what they called and "Advocacy Day on Iran" promoting fear and pressuring American representatives to begin beating those war drums. As if the Untied States doesn't have enough American soldiers fighting in wars half way across the world already. Makes you wonder whose interests are running whose?
Obama should be applauded for the strides he is making in the international community in reference to Iran. Iran wants engagement; it now has it in the form of all member of the G5 telling it the world has had enough.
It is time, however, to tell Israel the same. To be fair, Israel must declare its nuclear arsenal; it must work with the US, its largest supporter (not to mention the US's largest recipient of aid), to finally bring peace to the Middle East. It is in Israel's interest and it is unquestionably in the US's as well.
The US Congress and its Administration must show the same backbone they are showing on Iran. If the Iranians don't like international or American policies, they are directly confronted, this time by the entire world. If the Israelis don't like them, we say "Oh well?" Something seems a bit unbalanced there.
The US should immediately cut off all military, economic and development aid. Especially after the way Netanyahu rebuked all efforts by the American President at the UN meeting he was trying to initiate. Shameful.
At one point in Netanyahu's speech to the UN General Assembly he questioned the legitimacy of giving Ahmadinejad the stage because he is a denier. The other did the same -- Ahmadinejad invoking the case of the Palestinian.
To our dismay, neither listened to the call of the United States President. A call to come together, to "begin a new chapter of international cooperation, one that recognizes the rights and responsibilities of all nations." Instead, they both chose to ignore their own responsibilities for the current situation, deny their own actions hang on to history and hate.
All parties, not just these two, must pledge, as Obama says, to " act boldly and collectively on behalf of justice and prosperity at home and abroad." The alternative is a future consumed by ongoing strife and propensity for never-ending war.