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Bruce http://www.newsday.com/news/columnists/ny-opklu174978899nov17,0,5785665.colu mn?coll=ny-news-columnists On Iran, U.S. may have to differ with Israel November 17, 2006 For the past six years there has not even been a sliver of light between the positions of the United States and Israel. It's safe to say that no administration has been as supportive of Israel's policies as the administration of President George W. Bush. That's about to change. Just as Israel has declared that Iran - with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calling for its destruction - is a modern version of Hitler, the Bush administration is moving to find a way to open a dialogue with Tehran to help it out of the mess in Iraq. Talking with Iran, even as it makes clear that it wants to become a nuclear power, is almost certainly to be one of the key recommendations of the Iraq Study Group next month. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made it clear to Bush earlier this week that Israel will take Ahmadinejad at his word: His goal is to do away with Israel. Israel's position is clear: Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. As one Israeli envoy said recently: "The world made the mistake of not taking seriously the rantings of another leader and look what happened. We will not let it happen again." I'm not certain the Bush administration has been correct to back Israel 100 percent of the time although - considering the circumstances - the policy was understandable. Bush came to power when Yasser Arafat had decided to wage a war of terror against Israeli civilians. And not long after Arafat died, the radical, no-compromise Hamas took power in the Palestinian territory. Backing Israel was almost a no-brainer. How could the United States be evenhanded, considering what the Palestinians were up to? But with Iran the situation is far more complex. Washington has a huge interest in trying to stabilize the situation in Iraq, and Iran could help achieve that goal. The Iranians have significant leverage over some of the Shia militia causing unrest in Iraq. In a larger sense, the United States, as a superpower, has diverse and sometimes contradictory interests. Certainly Israel's existence as a democratic state in the Mideast is a recognized interest of Washington. There is both a strategic and a moral reality to that. But finding a way to deal with Tehran would also be in Washington's interest - and Tehran's. To paint Iran only with the brush of "the axis of evil," as Bush has done, is a gross oversimplification of a much more complex and nuanced society. Gary Sick, an Iran expert at Columbia University, says it might be too late to stop Iran from developing weapons-grade nuclear fuel. But he says it could well be another decade or more before Iran would actually have a deliverable nuclear weapon; we are not in a crisis now, and we shouldn't be acting as if we were. Bush has demonstrated a very unfortunate tendency to see the world only through the prism of good and bad. If he has any chance of finding a better strategy in Iraq - and it is not clear there is one - he will have to be willing to deal with ambiguity. Israel's many good friends in this country are not going to be happy with this approach. But, then again, I'm not so sure that embattled Olmert hasn't taken a hard-line position as much out of political necessity as strategic analysis. His political standing was greatly undercut by the Israel Defense Forces' relatively poor performance in Lebanon this summer. He has had to back off his campaign pledge to unilaterally withdraw from the West Bank. The rantings of Ahmadinejad are just the type of foil he needed. Don't get me wrong: The world will be a less safe place if Iran has nuclear weapons. If that can be prevented, it would be worthwhile, for sure. But American interests with Iran don't begin and end with the nuclear question. And that reality is going to make for a bumpier road ahead in the U.S.-Israel relationship. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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