Axis of Fanatics -- Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad

[Wordie]

Axis of Fanatics -- Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad
by Norman Solomon
January 07, 2006

With Ariel Sharon out of the picture, Benjamin Netanyahu has a better chance to become prime minister of Israel.

... The guy is smooth -- fluent in American idioms, telegenic to many eyes -- and good at lying on camera. So, when Israeli police killed 17 Palestinians at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque in October 1990, Netanyahu led a disinformation blitz asserting that the Palestinians were killed after they'd rioted and pelted Jewish worshipers from above the Wailing Wall with huge stones. At the time, his fable dominated much of the U.S. media. Later even the official Israeli inquiry debunked Netanyahu's account and blamed police for starting the clash.

... When Ahmadinejad declared in late October that "Israel must be wiped off the map,"; he did a big favor to the most militaristic of Israel's major politicians -- Benjamin Netanyahu -- who demanded that Prime Minster Sharon take forceful action against Iran. Otherwise, Netanyahu said in December, "when I form the new Israeli government, we'll do what we did in the past against Saddam's reactor, which gave us 20 years of tranquillity.";

The specter of Netanyahu and Ahmadinejad fueling each other's madness as heads of state is frightening. In such a circumstance, the primary danger of conflagration would come from nuclear-armed Israel, not nuclear-unarmed Iran.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=9478

The article goes on to say that fortunately, both men appear likely to fail in their aims. Netanyahu's candidacy is not doing well in post-Sharon era election polls; Israelis are apparently rejecting his extremist views. Similarly, Ahmadinejad is facing problems of his own: hardline clerics are shifting power away from him and to Hashemi Rafsanjani, a relative moderate, whom Ahmadinejad defeated in the presidential runoff last year. The Iranian president is also having problems developing political support in parliament; several of his ministerial appointments were blocked, something unheard of in Iran's governmental history. Some ministers even tried to institute hearings on his "lack of political competence."

The author concludes by pointing out the ways in which the fanatacism of each is bolstered by the other, but points out that "many in Israel and Iran know the dangers of such posturing."

And he asks if the US will be so wise.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. These religist fascists should just go and slug it out on the Temple

Mount.

Winner takes all.

[pelsar]

2. hmmm....

the article is comparing one head of state that has declared numerous times that he would like to "wipe israel off the map". (kill 6 million people)..and additional remarks, with an ex prime minister, head of small party, whom i dont believe ever expressed such extremist ideas.


usual shit..trying to very hard to show israel is no better than its neighbors whom it appears are still trying to wipe out israel....how many kassams were shot at israeli cities today?

nothing new here...

[Wordie]

3. Israel is saying the exact same thing (silently) w/ 400 nukes. eom

[Behind the Aegis]

4. No, it is not. n/p

[Wordie]

6. Iran percieves a significant threat coming from hawkish Israelis.

There's no way around that, bta. So, in the Iranian view, the threats that Netanyahu has made are at least equivalent to their own threat, imho.

Seeing as how the Iranians have very little way to back up their threats, I see them more in the realm of rhetoric - ugly and unacceptable rhetoric, but words, as compared to actual nukes possessed by the Israelis.

Here's some other relevant facts:

The Myth of the Iranian Nuclear Threat

The Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff, Daniel Halutz, has categorically denied that Iran represents an immediate nuclear threat to Israel, let along the United States. According to Haaretz (12/14/05), Halutz stated that it would take Iran time to be able to produce a nuclear bomb ­ which he estimated might happen between 2008 and 2015.

Israel's Labor Party officials do not believe that Iran represents an immediate nuclear threat and that the Sharon government and the Likud war propaganda is an electoral ploy. According to Haaretz, "Labor Party officialsaccused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and other defense officials of using the Iran issue in their election campaigns in an effort to divert public debate from social issues".

In a message directed at the Israeli Right but equally applicable to AIPAC and the Presidents of the Major Jewish Organizations in the US, Labor member of the Knesset, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer rejected electoral warmongering: "I hope the upcoming elections won't motivate the prime minister and defense minister to stray from government policy and place Israel on the frontlines of confrontation with Iran. The nuclear issue is an international issue and there is no reason for Israel to play a major role in it" (Haaretz, December 14, 2005).

Israeli intelligence has determined that Iran has neither the enriched uranium nor the capability to produce an atomic weapon now or in the immediate future, in contrast to the hysterical claims publicized by the US pro-Israel lobbies. Mohammed El Baradei, head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has inspected Iran for several years, has pointed out that the IAEA has found no proof that Iran is trying to construct nuclear weapons. He criticized Israeli and US war plans indirectly by warning that a "military solution would be completely un-productive".

More recently, Iran, in a clear move to clarify the issue of the future use of enriched uranium, "opened the door for US help in building a nuclear power plant". Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, stated "America can take part in the international bidding for the construction of Iran's nuclear power plant if they observe the basic standards and quality" (USA Today, Dec. 11, 2005).

http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=500595 (article originally published in Counterpunch)

The article goes on to say that in a move to clarify it's intent, Iran offered to allow the US to help in building a nuclear power plant.

[Behind the Aegis]

10. Still not even close to being the same..AT ALL!

[Coastie for Truth]

5. I am being hyper polite

but that borders on racism.

[Violet_Crumble]

12. Saying that Iran has security fears is NOT racist...

n/t

[pelsar]

11. well then so is egypt...

since just "having weapons" means you are threatening to wipe out your neighbors...guess that means Egypt with the chemical weapons (that have used them)....is also threatening to wipe out israel (quietly...)


minor detail....egypt, jordan, syrian already TRIED to wipe out israel and failed...meaning there is a history here of repeated attempts to wipe out israel....iran it appears is now joining that list

israel?..please show me where israel either threatened or actually tried to WIPE OUT/ remove from the map any other country..

i just love the way little israel having fought several wars of survival is now compared to its neighbors who STILL talk about wiping israel out.

and when iran gets the nbomb?....and still talks of wiping israel off the map.....it will just be "rehtoric" (and just what if its not?...) i guess the answer will be like the answer to the kassams being shot everyday in to israel, as was the answer to the nazis, the progroms in russia.....silence

please excuse us if we dont trust that "silence" to keep me from being slaughtered, like my aunts and uncles.

_____________
israeli intellience?...remember 1973..saddams wmd?....two glaring examples of some parts of israeli military intelligence being wrong...i got a couple 1,000 additional examples if you would like)

[bemildred]

7. Tsk, left out Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, and dozens of others. nt

[Wordie]

8. Good point; they're every bit as bad. eom

[Wordie]

9. But can you imagine a Robertson with nukes??? Yikes!