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October Surprise: Netanyahu Reportedly Wants to Attack Iran Before U.S. Presidential Election

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly wants to attack Iran before the U.S. elections. If true, it is a demonstration of the predictability of U.S. politics. Netanyahu knows that both Romney and Obama are seeking the support of Jewish voters and would be less likely to denounce such a unilateral attack before November. Indeed, they might even help fund the war with additional U.S. loans and military support. What is equally bizarre is the scene of top Israeli officials going to the ranking Rabbi in Israel to get his approval for the attacks. We are accustomed to seeing such influence by religious figures in Iran, but officials have been shuttling back and forth to get the nod from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

The attack on Iran could unleash a regional conflict and cause widespread destruction. Israel clearly expects that the U.S. will be forced to support it with the likely supply of billions of dollars of loans and replenishment of weapons. Even if Obama had the courage to denounce the attack, Congress would make certain that eventually Israel would be given the financial and military support that it needed.

The very public courting of Yosef to approve the attack included a briefing from National Security Council head Ya’akov Amidror, Interior Minister and Shas political leader Eli Yishai. Israel has long struggled under a political system that gives small religious parties virtual control of the Knesset and does not have the separation of church (or temple) and state that we have in this country. The result is that orthodox parties have radically inflated levels of power in the country and citizens live under laws which openly advance religious practices.

Yosef has criticized secular courts and leaders, including the Israeli Supreme Court which has struggled with the mix of religion and law in the country:

These call themselves the Supreme Court? They’re worthless. They should be put in a bottom court. They, for them [God] created all of the torments in the world. Everything that [the people of] Israel suffer from, is just for these evil people. Empty and reckless… What do they know? One of our children of 7–8 years knows better than they how to learn Torah. These are the people who have been put in the Supreme Court. Who chose them, who made them judges, but the Justice Minister, persecuter and enemy he liked them and he recommended that the President would appoint them as judges. What, were there elections? Who says that the nation wants such judges, such evil [ones]… They have no religion and no law. All of them have sex with Niddot. All of them desecrate the Sabbath. These will be our judges? Slaves rule over us.

The most interesting aspect of these stories however is the alleged timing of the attacks to the U.S. election. The American people could now find themselves clipped for billions more to support yet another war without any meaningful debate. Indeed we may end up an active participant if Iran attacks U.S. assets in response to the Israeli attack. It is the crushing predicability of it all that is so disturbing. The American public has long been opposed to the two current wars, but it has made little difference. There remains a disconnect in the political system as members pursue the course of least risk to themselves and their own reelection. That concern is only magnified by the lingering image left by these reports that we could end up in a new full-fledged war based on the inclinations of an ultra-Orthodox Rabbi in Israel. Hopefully he does not have a veto on the war but this is clearly a decision being made far from our shores.

Part of the concern is that President Obama and his predecessors have gradually gutted the constitutional requirement of congressional approval for wars as reflected in the Libyan War (for full disclosure, I represented the members opposing that war in court). If we were to enter such a conflict against Iran either indirectly or directly, the President has claimed the right to do so unilaterally and many members would privately support the action.

In the meantime, our leaders are reportedly accepting free trips to Israel paid by an affiliate of AIPAC, the powerful Israeli lobby, to skinny dip in the Sea of Galilee
 It could be a perfectly symbolic moment as our leader frolic with abandon in the Sea of Galilee as the country is moved closer to a third war.

What do you think?

Source: Haaretz

110 thoughts on “October Surprise: Netanyahu Reportedly Wants to Attack Iran Before U.S. Presidential Election”

  1. Vineet,

    “Better to take the pain now and fight hard to get rid of the scourge of the Mullahs while they dont have nukes!!”

    Right on baby!
    That’s OUR oil. We should fight to keep it. Just because those towel-heads live over it, they think it’s theirs.

    Alternatively, let’s play the long game.
    Wait until that oil runs out. Then make them pay huge prices for our windmills and solar panels.

  3. And let’s not forget “nuclear winter” Just like we may see problems in this country as items wash up on the shore as a result of the Japan reactor problem the rest of the world would not get away scot-free of they were to engage in this type of battle.

  4. All those naive Americans who want to wash their hands off the inevitable conflict looming in the Middle East forget that their country relies on imports for 50% of its oil requirements. If the Iranian Mullahs are allowed to get to Nuclear weapons, they will muscle the American forces out of the Middle East and blackmail the rest of the world on every issue. Oil proces will shoot up. Better to take the pain now and fight hard to get rid of the scourge of the Mullahs while they dont have nukes!!

  5. Israel is a strong military country so if they want to bomb Iran, go ahead. Ralph,
    Israel has a nuclear capability now so why should they be worried or need our help?
    Starting a war against Iran won’t be like the 7 day war and it will help relations in the Middle East so much?? Just one more reason to stop military aid to Israel. I do not see war with Iran as much of a reality. Except in Netanyahu’s sick mind.

  6. Follow the money. Does that lead anywhere?
    Iran would not dare to fart on Israel. Let’s you and him fight. Who said that? Bathing yet? Ha! (scoffing noise).
    And when do we meet the hostesses?

  7. “reportedly”? ABC said director Tony Scott killed self due to “brain tumor” and wasn’t true. How about waiting for real news instead of speculation and supposedly?
    (and what did they teach Netanyahu at Cheltenham, Pa high school? Maybe this guy is the result of bullying?)

  9. Israel is one of the most aggressive nations on the planet and is a pariah on the international stage. Is not part of the NPT, yet holds a country Iran,in contempt for peacefully using Nuclear power, how the minority Lukid party manages to control the equally aggressive & tyrannical Washington is absurd. Both of these countries need to have their leaders dragged before international courts and charged with war crimes.

  11. Ralph Adamo: “No, the Leftists won’t be happy until they see the Israeli people bombed into submission and Ahmadinijad succeeds in his promise to wipe Israel from the face of the map.”
    ——–
    LOL, hyperbole much? I think you have hit your caffeine limit for the day.

  12. How can you deny such a begging kid ( israel ) Give them what they want, they always gets their way.
    Lets have another uncalled for war, like the war on Iraq, which was also so
    unjustified. Guys, we are used to it.

  13. It’s the United States of America, Ralph, not the United States of Israel. Entitlement to grains of sand in a desert created this problem and it will not end until this entitlement is abandoned.

  15. This article is a wonderful piece of Leftist propaganda. Goebels would be so proud.First, there’s the not-so-subtle hint that Israel’s leaders are just like the Islamic warlords. Then, they suggest that condemning an Israeli attacks would take courage from Obama–as though the morally correct thing to do would be to not support Israel (as the US isn’t doing enough of that already).

    No, the Leftists won’t be happy until they see the Israeli people bombed into submission and Ahmadinijad succeeds in his promise to wipe Israel from the face of the map. Why should Israel exist as the nation, and who needs a civilized nation in the MIddle East anyway? Thwese are the favorite questions the Leftists like to ask when it comes to discussing “the Jewish question.”

    The Leftists prefer the policy of appeasement. They believe that all will be well if only Israel would mind its own business, sign a piece of paper with the Nazis, errr. I mean Iran, and then quietly go away. Hey, it worked for Chamberlain didn’t it? Sure the Jews nearly got exterminated, and some of the best minds the world has ever known were destroyed forever, but that is the price of peace, right?

    Yes, indeed, that is the “right” position to take, according to the Leftists. The Leftists are such moral authorities on what is best for humanity, aren’t they?

  18. If this report is accurate and if an attack ensues, an overreach of this magnitude may result in a response from the US electorate that is exactly the opposite of what is desired. Unintended consequences can be a _____.

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