The Iran nuclear negotiations are over, the scripted rhetoric and posturing goes on, and all parties involved, directly or indirectly, are looking for fig-leaf-talking-points behind which they could claim their side won the day.
Obama is crowing like a rooster; Iranian leaders are screaming told you so; presidential candidates from both sides of the aisle are jumping the band wagon for ‘n’agin (because of political expediency, more of the latter); in typical Clinton fashion, Hillary’s riding coat tails and claiming a measure of credit for herself; the Huck-Huckstering preacher (who sees no shame in taking gambling money) is crying vile; the thuggish theocratic Saudis and their regional like-minded cousins are going to plow more oil resources into weapons that will benefit U.S., British, and French coffers (arms that will no doubt be handed over to Neanderthal ISIS-like types); and the howling Israelis, always playing the victim card, have gone deeper into an imagined abyss of existential threat.
I find much metaphorical irony in John Kerry’s breaking his leg in the final weeks of this marathon colloquy and, drawing on this metaphor, the negotiations hobbled back and forth to a fruition; the result was an agreement which will no doubt make the world safer; Iran will not go nuclear, and Israel’s insatiable appetite for warmongering will be dulled – only briefly. Future American presidents have been defanged on the need to wage war on Iran to prove their mettle, and that includes tough gal Miss Hillary, the architect of the destruction of Libya and the Bill Boy diva who supported the embargo on Iraq. One half million innocent Iraqi children died as a result, and another one million plus Iraqi civilians died when she cast her vote to support Bush’s misadventure, the outcome of which opened the gates of hell across the region.
While Congress has 6 months to debate and approve the deal, American, British, French, German, Chinese and Russian businessmen are lighting their candles, counting the rosary beads of business contracts, and praying at the altar of the Dollar/Euro/Rubble/Yuan, DERY for short.
I predict that even with all the Congressional posturing, play-acting, and Israel-placating-theater of the absurd, and even with all the castigation mouthed by the Fundies and their tribes, in the end, Obama will get a good squeaker through. Profits Prevail, always.
With an infinitely more affirmative response from the European and Chinese negotiators, and a fairly confident Obama and his Wall Street supporters, today Iran is much like a very pretty but not smashingly exotic eligible bride whose restored 150 billion dollar dowry is making lascivious American, European, and Chinese suitors salivate at the prospect of proposing to bed with her to lay claim to her rich gold chest. With a projected 20 billion dollar deal to replace Iran’s aging commercial planes, Boeing and Airbus are drooling at a recently hinted “possible Iranian purchase” of 400 commercial passenger planes. While the aforementioned are already eying 15% of this dowry, just imagine what a great windfall the other 130 billion (85% of the dowry) will be for the scavenging suitors.
While the blushing Iranian bride is carefully screening her suitors’ intents and while she still is, just past her prime, her erstwhile friend and distant cousin, Israel, realizing that a wedding is about to take place, has acted like the jilted lover whose prime is waning. Even with all the support of her Congressional kindred and hangers-on, she sees the handwriting on the wall. To pacify her and to keep her from scratching eyes, she will not only be very handsomely rewarded, but she will forever remain the mistress who can exact retribution on her opponents, cry foul, and exact an exorbitant alimony settlement – all the while displaying her ability to blackmail and extort.
All kidding aside, with an otherwise disastrously anemic foreign policy, Obama’s legacy hinges on this deal, and his Wall Street bankster/buddies/suitors will come through and eventually contribute generously to his presidential library and appoint him and Michelle on lucrative corporate boards. Europeans will benefit from an abundance of Iranian natural gas, China will benefit by selling cheap, made in China consumer goods and have access to much-need cheaper oil, and, with the potential increase of oil production that will create an international oil glut, the industrialized world and the poorer nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America will pay less for oil. Another benefit of the increase in oil production, albeit a miniscule one, will translate into less spending money that’s been pouring into the coffers of oil-rich theocrats, and perhaps less money to bomb, kill, and maim Syrians, Yemenis, and others.
In spite of all its wailing and flailing, and in spite of all the Congressional sycophantic Israel, Israel, Israel litany of refrains peppered in every other phrase, Israel stands to win big.
While he trapezed over the obvious — (that a deal with Iran is in America’s best interest) — in order to sell the deal and help make it more palatable to Israel’s Congressional lap dogs, Obama has been singing the It Is Good For Israel Refrain. Not to worry, billions of dollars’ worth of bunker busting bombs and a host of the most advanced weaponry have been promised, free and compliments of U.S. taxpayers, to Israel. After all the abuse he suffered by Netanyahu, Obama is still Bibi’s water boy, even to the extent of ingratiating himself by planning to sabotage France’s attempt to bring the Israel/Palestine matter for a U.N. debate.
Absent from Obama’s press conference was the dead-center core issue of the Near East morass. At no point did Obama mention Palestinians, future Palestinian State, or the resolution of the Palestine/Israel conflict.
While Bibi’s narcissistic affectations and love for absurd dramatic oratorical bombast (he envisions himself to be both the proverbial Shakespearean Mark Anthony as well as the attentive Roman forum-audience) failed to sway a world who saw him for what he is (silly diagrams and pompous rhetoric), his final goal, the prize, if you wish, was never the disarming of Iran. I mean really, does anyone think that Iran, or, for that matter, anyone, even the U.S., NATO, Russia or China would dare attack nuclear-armed Israel?
The prize has always been the gobbling up of the rest of the West Bank and denying Palestinians the right to live in dignity in a state they can call their own. A Greater Israel Über Alle was, is, and will always be Israel’s goal.
Frustrated and humiliated by Netanyahu at every turn, Obama punted and offered the Palestinians as a sacrificial lamb at the altar of Zionism. If ever there was hope for a Palestinian state, Obama’s tucking his tail and walking away dashed these hopes. He has, in effect hammered the last nail in a coffin called Palestine, thus paving the way for further future conflict.
What makes this particularly ironic is that the Confederate flag just came down in South Carolina, and 2015 marked the fiftieth anniversary of landmark American legislation that made it possible for Obama to attain the highest office of the land and the most powerful position in today’s world.
Could he not have given the Palestinians even a glimmer of hope and dignity?
