--- In [email protected], "peterklutz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "authfriend" <jstein@> wrote: > > > > --- In [email protected], "Patrick Gillam" <jpgillam@> > > wrote: <snip> > > > Apparently one big reason the U.S. is coming down so > > > hard on Iran is that if we don't do it, Israel will, and then > > > the world of Islam will *really* be pissed. > > > > Except that I've been reading that Israel doesn't think > > Iran is that much of a threat to it. > > Where did you read that - Al Jazeera dot com?
Uh, no, a post by Steve Clemons on TPM Cafe. See some quotes and a link at the end of this post. Not sure why you'd think that would be an Al Jazeera position. Seems to me the Al Jazeera position would be exactly the opposite. The context was criticism of the administration's fear-mongering, as opposed to Israel's purportedly more sensible perspective. That Israel is likely to attack Iran, so we need to do it first, is a talking point of Bush's supporters, so of course it has been given great prominence in the mainstream media. > "On 7 September 1997, the CBS newsmagazine Sixty Minutes broadcast > an alarming story in which former Russian National Security Adviser > Aleksandr Lebed claimed that the Russian military had lost track of > more than 100 suitcase-sized nuclear bombs, any one of which could > kill up to 100,000 people." > > http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/News/Lebedbomb.html And the relevance of this to Israel's position on Iran's nuclear capabilities is what, exactly? >From Clemons's post, titled "U.S. War Planners Should Listen to Israel Regarding Iran": As I stated on Christopher Lydon's NPR show, Radio Open Source, tonight -- one of the take-aways from my recent Israel trip is that Israeli national security bureaucrats -- diplomats and generals -- have far greater confidence that there are numerous potential solutions to the growing Iran crisis short of bombing them in an invasive, hot attack. One of the issues that came up in many of the national security related discussions I had was that Israel has maintained and cultivated a very strong human intelligence network inside Iran. The two nations were close strategic allies 25 years ago -- and continue, in many behind-the-scenes ways, to communicate and possibly even to coordinate certain actions. It doesn't mean that Israel is ready to appease Iran's regional ambitions, but it does mean that I have witnessed far more worries about Iranian President Ahmadinejad's anti- Holocaust and anti-Israel rhetoric in the U.S. than I did in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Many serious Iran watchers in Israel think that chances are relatively high that "internal developments" will emerge in Iran to constrain Ahmadinejad's "political options and political life."... Yes, those putting war plans together for Iran think carefully. We have botched so much already; don't repeat errors. And in this case, TALK TO THE ISRAELIS -- the ones responsible for national security there. I found their sensibilities on Iran to be remarkably well informed, nuanced, confident, and sensible. Nearly everyone I spoke to in Israel who ranged in political sympathies from the Likud right to Maretz left thought that the tone of the AIPAC conference had been too shrill and that Israel thought it wrong-headed and too impulsive to be engaged in saber-rattling with Iran at this stage. In the past, I've been occasionally critical of Israeli influence over U.S. decisionmakers when I felt that American and Israeli national security interests were not as convergent in some respective case as some argued. However, in this instance on Iran, Israel's national security thinkers and diplomats are on the side of logic -- and it is in American national interests to hear the Israeli position and consider the roots of their surprising position. Steven Clemons is Senior Fellow and Director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation and publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note. http://www.tpmcafe.com/node/28567 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/UlWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
