On Mon, Apr 15, 2024 at 04:39 AM, Michael Meeropol wrote: > > Biden is TRYING to get Israel to "take the win" but unless he threatens a > real cut-off in aid, I think Netanyahu will continue trying to provoke a > REAL war --
As neocon John Bolton told the execrable Wolf Blitzer on CNN yesterday "this is the opportunity to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and I hope President Biden is not trying to dissuade Prime Minister Netanyahu from doing that”. Bolton undoubtedly reflects the thinking of the more fervently pro-Israel congressional Republicans and Democrats. One of Amy Goodman’s guests on today’s Democracy Now podcast - Trita Parsi of the liberal Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft - noted Bolton’s use of the word “opportunity” and said "this is how some of the hawks view this. They see this as an opportunity to materialize the war between the United States and Iran and Israel that they have been seeking for more than 25 years. And that includes Bibi Netanyahu. I think it should not be forgotten that Netanyahu has been trying to start a war between the United States and Iran for more than two decades and has seen him being actually rebuffed by several presidents in a row, who may have been very hawkish on Iran, who may themselves have contemplated the idea of going to war with Iran, but who nevertheless rejected the pressure from Netanyahu to do so on behalf of Israel. But Bolton is reflecting that view, the idea that this is an opportunity to have a much larger war in the Middle East." Asked to comment on Biden's apparently contradictory stance that Israel has the “ironclad” support of the US but that the U.S. would not participate in any kind of retaliation, Parsi correctly gauged that "at the end of the day, there will be no distinction between offensive and defensive measures the second the war actually breaks out. So, consider this scenario. The United States does not support and does not participate in Israel’s counterstrikes against Iran, and the Israelis may follow Bolton’s advice and try to target Iran’s nuclear facilities. The Iranians then respond in kind with a much larger barrage of missiles. Clearly what they did this time around was choreographed to minimize damage and make sure that there’s no casualties. Next time around, they won’t do that. "Once the Iranians have started their counterstrikes, then the United States is dragged into the war, because Biden said that he will participate in the defensive measures. And then, regardless of what the previous measure was by the United States, the U.S. will be at war in the Middle East. And as a result, Netanyahu now has a clear pathway on how to drag the United States into this war. All he needs to do is to escalate further. The U.S. will reject that, but then the U.S. will be there once the Iranians are responding. And at that point, any distinction between offensive and defensive is meaningless.” Also some interesting comments on Iran’s drone and missile strikes by other guests Ha’aretz columnist Gideon Levy and Tehran-based journalist Reza Sayah. Transcript here: https://www.democracynow.org/2024/4/15/iran_israel_middle_east_escalation -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#29920): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/29920 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/105515975/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
