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Biden, Israel and Iran
Gary Leupp
Counterpunch
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Vice President Joe Biden, apparently speaking on behalf of the Obama administration, has just given Israel the green light to bomb Iran.
“Israel can determine for itself — it’s a sovereign nation — what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else,” he told ABC’s “This Week” in an interview broadcast Sunday. “Whether we agree or not, they’re entitled to do that. Any sovereign nation is entitled to do that. But there is no pressure from any nation that’s going to alter our behavior as to how to proceed. If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice,” he declared.
The statement is presented in logically abstract terms. Any sovereign nation is entitled to do what’s in its interest regardless of what “we” think, surely. How very reasonable—magnanimous, even, coming from the mouth of the vice-president of the superpower that’s in the last eight years brutally imposed its will on two sizable Southwest Asian countries.
But to test Biden’s universalist logic imagine yourself in 1939, substitute Germany for Israel and Poland for Iran and ask whether “any sovereign nation is” really “entitled to do that.”
Of course Israel doesn’t have any “sovereign right” to attack Iran! And Biden’s implied distaste for the attack (“That is not our choice”), which may presage a calculated distancing from an action in the future, doesn’t undo the fact that he explicitly validates such action here.
They’re entitled to do it, says Joe. Just as presumably they’re entitled to remain outside the nuclear nonproliferation treaty regime, and produce and stockpile the only nuclear weapons in the Middle East, while claiming that the Iranian nuclear program (begun under U.S. encouragement under the Shah) can only have military intentions and can only be designed to produced a “nuclear Holocaust” to destroy the Jews.
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Just as presumably they’re entitled to deploy vast resources to pressure the U.S. government to bomb Iran for them. (But no worry about the impact on U.S. foreign policy. “There is no pressure,” says Joe, “from any nation that’s going to alter our behavior as to how to proceed.” What he really means is: There’s actually a whole shitload of pressure from Israel on us to bomb Iran. But we might not do that. Because Obama thinks that the Israeli-demanded attack on Iran, like the assault on Iraq, might be a “strategic blunder.”)
One could argue, of course, that in positing Netanyahu’s “sovereign right” to bomb Iran, a nation which has not attacked another in modern times, Biden is just shooting off his famous mouth again. But there are at least two reasons his comments should be taken very seriously.
First of all, there is obviously much conflict within the U.S. power structure over the wisdom of a U.S. attack on Iran. The Israel Lobby demanding one may have suffered a defeat at the hands of the Pentagon, which sees such an attack as complicating the imbroglios it faces in Iraq and Afghanistan (and down the road in Pakistan?), and the intelligence community which knows that Iran does not possess a nuclear weapons program threatening the world.
Secondly, the state of Israel continues to depict the Islamic Republic of Iran as an “existential” threat to itself, while threatening to attack it with missiles if the U.S. does not do so. The Bush administration always endorsed Israel’s vilification campaign and conceded the possibility that it might act “on its own” (as though it could really do so without a green light from Washington). Dick Cheney told Don Imus on MSNBC in January 2005 that “Given the fact that Iran has a stated policy that their objective is the destruction of Israel [sic (disinformation)], the Israelis might well decide to act first, and let the rest of the world worry about cleaning up the diplomatic mess afterwards.” He implied that if the U.S. didn’t take action, the Israelis would be justified in doing so.
This remains the U.S. position under the Obama administration. And having decided for geopolitical reasons to adopt a tougher line on Israel’s illegal settlements on the West Bank, Washington is perhaps particularly disinclined to deter Israel should it opt to create the mess of which Cheney spoke. “That was not our choice,” it will say.
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19 Responses to “Biden, Israel and Iran”
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July 7th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA IMPEACH OBAMA
Wez the Aussie Reply:
July 7th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Impeach is a good start. Then “END THE FED”.
Madman Reply:
July 7th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Obama is just the puppet man, get rid of the WHOLE LOT of them, each and everyone… including the GOOD ONES… and once it’s done, and they system is clean, have people elected to their positions, minus the Dem / Republican lie.. abolish the Fed, and the Party system, and pull our men and women out of the war zones, and other countries…
July 7th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
More trouble coming. The RAND corporation must be busy.
July 7th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
the way I see it is if isreal has the right to attack Iran then Iran has the right to attack Isreal and who are we to say one is right and the other is wrong? this is all bullshit and we need to stop killing people in the middle east. They are fighting for there own rights to be free and we need to start fighting for ours here in america before we end up in the same situation. we need to protest in a big way. lets all take a look at reality here we the middle class of america are under attack and lossing. fuck ireal and iran unless they come here lets not worry over all the main stream bullshit. The war is closer than we think and it is time for us to let them know we unterstand what is going on. I call for liberty or death !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Truth Is Power Reply:
July 7th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
ISRAEL (not Isreal) is a puppet of the U.S./E.U./Vatican/BritishEmpire/NWO. IF it appears that Israel attacks Iran (and I adamantly say it will NOT), it is BECAUSE the NWO wants to BLAME THE JEWS AGAIN. It is their favorite tactic. They KNOW the people of the Book know who they are!
Dave Reply:
July 7th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Bullshit. The Israel lobby controls U.S. policy in the middle east, a plethora of scholars have documented it and people who’ve been in the government and have seen it first hand such as Paul Findley and Cynthia McKinney have described it. Israel’s been caught spying on the U.S. repeatedly, and it was Jews who were doing the spying. The ‘NWO’ is run by Rothschild and other Jewish international bankers.
yn Reply:
July 8th, 2009 at 4:44 am
Co-sign. this “truth is power” guy is such an Israel shill, he goes around defending them constantly. Glad to see its not working.
Woodgoat Reply:
July 8th, 2009 at 12:50 am
“People of ‘the book’”, are you kidding me? The jews of the old covenan (the book) died app. 2000 years ago. The “book” has become irrelevant because the 613 laws of “the law” (the book) cannot be fulfilled anymore. The only significant “people” that is left, is the “people of ‘the covenant’”. Sadly, the jews walked away from that.
July 7th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
##########US PLANTED BOMB IN IRAN###########
http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....ty_-2.html
July 7th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
It is called PEAK OIL. That is the reason for all the carbon tax BS. And the need to control Iran’s Oil
Did you ever play a board game called DIPLOMACY? It’s a great game. Totally absorbing a fun, despite the underlying darkness. It’s kind of like RISK, only with no dice. All of the moves are done simultaneously, as written orders are submitted and then read together. Anyway….the fun thing about Diplomacy is that your success in the game is totally dependent upon your ability to negotiate, make deals, break deals, stab your friends in the back and still be able to laugh with them over a beer, etc. But despite the fun, the game is also extraordinarily dark. In a kind of weird, microcosmic way, DIPLOMACY (the game) takes a pretend snapshot of what actually happens on a global scale—where billions of actual lives lie in the balance—between nations whose leaders and chief diplomats play “the game” for real. And here’s the thing: The leaders of nations will do anything, say anything, lie about anything, to win the game. Because of course the way they see it, the very survival of their way of life, and of the nation whom they purport to represent, is at stake. And why do I make this point? Because if you believe one iota of what your governmental leaders tell you, then you are a fool. And I do not mean that in a pejorative sense. I mean it in a most real and basic sense. If you believe the words of your political leadership, you fail to recognize that they will say and do and lie about anything in order to win the game. Winning the game is all that matters. Means and ends and all of that moral and ethical stuff? Not even a consideration…unless of course employing the ethics or morality “game card” can help you win. So as we listen to all of the words coming out of Washington—-whether it be Bush or Obama or Clinton or Reagan or Ike or Truman or whomever—understand that these words are not intended to be true. They are only intended to help sway public opinion in favor of the speaker so that he might gain a leg up on his opponent in the game. And as we watch our government undertake actions and create policies in our names, understand that they do so not because such policies or actions are moral or ethical or justified; they do so to beat their opponents and to win the game. Winning the game is all that matters. End of story.
truth911 Reply:
July 8th, 2009 at 5:27 am
its called greed
July 8th, 2009 at 2:07 am
I heared 200 aging nuclear warheads have already “dissapeared” from Ukraine. GOOD! Russia should arm Iran as long as good old USA keeps on arming Israel! SCREW THE NPT treaty! NUKES FOR EVERYBODY!!!
July 8th, 2009 at 5:25 am
well he dam sure aint speaking on behalf of the american people because we the people know oue own government are bought off criminal cowards
July 8th, 2009 at 6:13 am
[...] and ask whether “any sovereign nation is” really “entitled to do that.” Read more Share and [...]
July 8th, 2009 at 9:26 am
It is in fact NOT a sovereign right of one nation to attack another. Such an attack by Israel does NOT meet the definition of “preemptive” attacks. IranAffairs.com has explained this in detail.
July 8th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Sorry I agree with Israel in this. Because I see it this way: If some guy has his firearm in his hand and is telling me he is going to blast me off the friggin earth just as soon as he clears the jam. Whether I am an evil man or a good man: guess what? He’s going to be eating ATLEAST two of my Hornady 9mm JHPs right then and there. Unlike Israel, I wouldn’t wait. And I hope Israel has the mind to not just shoot blindly, I mean, I only want to hit the guy threatening me with a gun, not the poor folks behind him who have nothing to do with it. Despite the severe consequences to the world economy and stability of the wild wild (middle) east. I hope Israel grows a set and does this even when they can’t run and hide back behind daddy’s legs. Show us you have a set of nads Netty… show us!
July 8th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Blah, blah, blah, we are all screwed!
Get rid of government.
July 10th, 2009 at 4:42 am
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