MJ Rosenberg says what I've been saying all along:
Bottom line: The purpose of these articles [about an imminent Israeli attack on Iran] is not to predict an Israeli attack but to force the United States government into piling on sanction after sanction (with war always an option) rather than pursue a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
It makes no sense. And yet, due to the pressure of the pro-war lobby, it is diplomacy that is barely on the table, while war, always the direst option, is front and center.
Yup. And their goal?
Sanctions up to a point. War, if deemed necessary, farther down the road. And ideally a war fought by the United States and not Israel, to preserve not Israel's security but its regional hegemony.
If the American people allow that to happen, we are truly out of our minds.
So I guess we'll see. But the Leveretts don't sound too optimistic about the chances that Obama can break the AIPAC death grip on US foriegn policy:
The case for serious U.S. diplomacy with Iran could not be clearer. But seriousness, in this context, will require very significant changes in U.S. policy and Washington’s overarching attitude about the Islamic Republic. We hope that we are wrong, but we do not think it likely that the Obama Administration will be up for this, especially not at the President continues his re-election bid.
There seems to be increasing amounts of comments coming from both the US and Israel suggesting that war will be on the cards by the end of 2012. Interestingly the UK's foreign secretary, William Hague, has suggested that the UK do not favour a war with Iran but are keen to keep the pressure on with increased sanctions, this suggests to me that they probably would support a war with Iran but are hoping to force Iran to make the first move. I am starting a petition at http://www.saynotowarwithiran.com to show that people of all nations do not support a potential war even if they have no affiliation with either side.
Posted by: Rick Lindley | February 22, 2012 at 01:31 PM
About the Bergman article in the NY Times, Bergman himself writes:
"We have another expression in Hebrew: “Hold me back.” Like in a street fight: hold me back so I don’t hit that other guy. Israel is trying to send a message like this to the United States and Europe. Do something to Iran, otherwise we will do it."
http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/behind-the-cover-story-ronen-bergman-on-israeli-plans-to-strike-iran/
Posted by: Tim | January 30, 2012 at 01:37 PM