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
Right on, Mike!
Vote me with Mike Spindell on this one. I’m so tired of the layers and layers of misunderstanding that have come into chaos-play because of Bibi and his band of thoughtless bombasts. Problem is, real people’s real children are going to be in real danger real soon because of all this and so long as Bibi has his comfortable combative rhetoric, he doesn’t take responsibility for increasing that danger on all sides. I’m utterly sick of him and his ilk.
don’t hold back Mike, tell us what you really think.
spot on too, imho
Nick,
You asked for my take on this and I ‘ll give it succinctly. Bibi is an idiot controlled by right wing American Republican Jews (a minority of a minority), the Rabbi is a blasphemous ass who in his egotism pretends to know God’s thoughts and Mark in his comment above has it right.
Gene H.
Have you ever read the Old Testament? Out of many examples just look at what happened to all of the Egyptians who pursued Moses. They all drowned in the Red Sea. God’s chosen people should be protected at all costs.
The problem comes where people try to do what God does with physical force . Humans are prone to do that. When they do that they do what the devil wants..
Israeli protesters warn against war as government appears to prep Iran strikes
Israeli protesters are wise wanting to save their soul not wanting to harm others. I wish the government would do the same.
I am a staunch defender of the Israelis to do what it takes to survive. The images I grew up with will never leave me. I’ve seen many other images since but nothing quite matches the systematic extermination of so many innocent people. On the other hand, I am disgusted by extremism coming from Israel just as I am with extremism coming from anywhere else and by any party. The ultra-orthodox rabbis views on women really get to me, BIG time. I have from time to time followed the absolute infatuation by what appear to be many Evangelical Christians with the Jewish people of Israel and I don’t trust the former at all. This ‘love’ has deeper reasons like the ‘armageddon’ theory mentioned earlier, and of course business, and of course an ally in the volatile Middle East for the US. When I moved here from Belgium I was sure I’d be the staunchest supporter of Jewish people and of the Israeli state but I have found that I can’t match the supposed love-fest seen for Israel in the US. I was criticized in Belgium for being a ‘Jew-lover’ and here I am a an anti-semite when I criticize some actions of some in the Jewish government. This isn’t right. Whether I am a liberal or not, my sense of justice says this isn’t right. I don’t know the answer to the Iran problem but I do know the Iranian community here and they hate Ahmamenidjad like nobody else but boy, do they hate the idea of America getting involved in a war with Iran. Again, it’s all about religion and seemingly radical religious people are winning. I don’t like it a bit.
Don’t protect your soul. . Lose everything..
Satan is the only one who like destruction, and you know it. Save your souls. Be like Jesus is who exercised more restraint than any man having ultimate power at his fingertips not using it.
It’s thinking like that that has kept you out of some of the finest war colleges in the world, Jim.
“Willing to” and “intending to” are not the same thing. The power is in the threat of the thing. The actual application of this particular tactic is a game of diminishing returns in addition to the fact that tactically deploying even one or two nuclear weapons or a limited exchange would have to be done in a very careful way so as to avoid Armageddon. Even then, studies have shown that setting off more the a few medium yield multiple warhead weapons would likely screw the Earth’s ecosystem anyway. Nuclear weapons are a weapon of coercion, applicable in extremely limited circumstance and for last resort use only. Anyone “intending” to use them because they have them? Is insane and/or wants to meet Jesus in person (not mutually exclusive states). The only people who win a full out nuclear war are the cockroaches.
And this is coming from a guy who has advocated using them as a deterrent backed by limited use in narrowly defined scenarios before.
Intend?
Holy shit, Jim. You’ve said some loopy theocratic things before, but that? That’s simply monstrous. Would Jesus have used nukes on the Romans simply because he had them? Eh, I don’t think so.
Let me guess. You just misused one word.
Jim: I see. The Truman Doctrine.
Jonathan Hughes
SlingTrebuchet
Why have the bomb if you don’t ever intend on using it?
Yeah.
Let’s drop the big one on them.
Neighbouring countries will be grateful.
What could possibly got wrong?
Kraaken
I say drop a bomb on them now and avoid many casualties later.
Think to drop a bomb on anyone, and one has already exploded in the soul of the one wishing that a bomb was dropped. Think the dropping was good, and the soul of the one wishing -will stay dead.
Rev, love your posts. However, while i hesitate to advocate for Iran, I have to say that Iran has the right, as an independant nation, to defend itself. Look at it this way. Iran is surrounded by countries whose governments are hostile to it (Israel, for example). Now they aren’t exactly blameless here. A lot of the hostility they engendered themselves. But seems to me when you have the governments of, say, the US, GB, Germany, etc, in other words, the countries which are nuclear powers (we don’t know about Israel, but it’s a pretty good guess that they have at least ONE bomb and we probably gave it to them) banded together against you, one can hardly blame them for seeking to defend themselves. We have taken the view that we have the right to tell these countries what to do and how to do it. To me, it’s no wonder that Iran is trying to develop a bomb. They need one to defend themselves from US and our friends.
This is an interesting article. But the author has made the same ignorant miscalculation as nearly every other observer of American-Israeli politics. American Jews are overwhelmingly opposed to war with Iran. So are most Israelis. It’s not the Jews whose vote Netanyahu hopes to manipulate. It’s the Evangelical followers of Bibi’s paymasters in the Christian Zionist movement. The “Jewish lobby” is actually a Dominionist cabal.
http://rt.com/news/israelis-oppose-iran-war-936/
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Israelis-Against-War-on-Ir-by-Stephen-Lendman-120817-410.html
Netanyahu wants to war, and go Yahoo, Romney the roman is anti Christ too!
NuttinYahoo and Romney must have been talking. Romney says that we need another one hundred thousand American troops, more ships, more airplanes, more minors at rest stops. More everything.
Ralph,
“That is why Islam (Leftists) and Nazis (Right-Wingers) are blood brothers, and always have been.”
Get some help with your one-liners. Satire requires at least a shading of truth. It’s done with a scalpel, not an ax.
I do have to admire your packing so much delusion into one sentence.
Islamic people are not leftists.
Islamic people and Nazis, or Right-Wingers, are not even acquaintances.
I get the contradictions, but why is that funny?
Your heavy-handed attempt at social satire is not amusing.
We were trying to discuss a serious problem.
Netanyahu wants to war, and go Yahoo! Romney the roman is anti Christ too.
Sling Trebuchet said, “Wait until that oil runs out. Then make them pay huge prices for our windmills and solar panels.”
How about our water?
Iran is intent on getting nuclear bombs. Iran is more dangerous than any country since Nazi Germany or Japan in WWII. Much more dangerous than the Soviet Union was. Why? Because they have this mullah crap coming out their ears and they want to exterminate Israel and the United States. Take them at their own words and watch their every day deeds in sending missles into Israel from Gaza. Bomb all of their nuclear facilities and then some. Dont invade. We might have to invade Syria.