Photo Source U.S. Embassy Jerusalem | CC BY 2.0
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on September 27, took his dog-and-pony show to the United Nations General Assembly, and advised the world that he knew of a secret site of Iran’s (non-existent) nuclear weapons facility. He urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to immediately rush to that site, discover the horrible weapons, and thus condemn evil Iran.
It seems to this writer that we have been down this road with Netanyahu and his various cohorts more than once in the past. Let’s look at the record of Israeli government leaders, when it comes to Iran and its alleged nuclear weapons development program.
* 1992: Israeli officials said that Iran was three-to-five years away from having nuclear weapons. That, of course, was twenty-six years ago.
* 1995: Three years later, Israeli officials made the same prediction: three-to-five years.
* 1996: Perhaps someone suggested that the Israeli government could only proclaim that the sky was falling so many times before their credibility took a major hit. So in 1996, we were all told that Iran was now “getting extremely close” to having nuclear weapons. Perhaps the thought was that leaving the prediction vague would add to its believability.
* 2009: The prediction this year was “probably one or two years away”. Let us point out that that was nine years ago.
* 2012: That year, we were told that Iran was just “a few months away” from obtaining nuclear weapons. That was approximately seventy-two months ago. Can seventy-two be considered “a few”?
While Netanyahu is busy telling the IAEA where in Iran it should send its inspectors, he makes no mention of Israel’s nuclear stockpile. And we must remember that Iran, unlike Israel, is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Also, due to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, IAEA inspectors have been regularly inspecting Iran’s nuclear facilities, which Iranian government officials have always said are for peaceful purposes (note again Iran’s name on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty).
Perhaps the IAEA should inspect Israel’s facilities. Would that rogue, apartheid nation even allow IAEA inspectors within its ever-expanding (illegally, we might add) borders? After any of Israel’s periodic genocidal attacks on Palestine, the United Nations seeks to enter Palestine to investigate possible war crimes. Israel always refuses to grant admittance to U.N. representatives, saying, as always, that it will investigate any charges against it itself. One might as well have asked Charles Manson to serve as his own prosecutor during his trials for the Tate-Labianca murders. The same degree of justice would have been achieved.
There are several questions that arise from Netanyahu’s blatantly dishonest statements to the General Assembly. As is his wont, this writer will attempt to answer them.
What does the esteemed Prime Minister expect to accomplish by saying outlandish things that the entire international community, with the possible exception of the United States, recognizes as lies?
Within that one exception lies the tale. U.S. government officials see their constituencies not as the common man or woman, toiling away in the shop or office, who gets to participate in the periodic farce known as U.S. elections. No, they are of no concern to the members of Congress. They live to serve the special interest groups that open wide their wallets during election and re-election time, and who must not be displeased, or those wallets may close. And in the U.S., pro-Israel lobbies have learned to be very generous to the spineless creatures who have found their way to Congress. So Netanyahu can weave any tale, spin any yarn, invent any fairy story he wishes, and the U.S. Congress will buy it lock, stock and barrel.
Now that he has Congress members exactly where he wants them, he assures that he, Benjamin Netanyahu, will spare no U.S. lives in his quest for completely hegemony in the Middle East. Yes, it is a sacrifice, but one he is more than willing to make. And since the greatest threat to Israeli power and influence in the Middle East is Iran, it must be vilified, even by lies that the most casual observer can observe as such.
Based in his record, and that of his predecessors and other government spokespeople, how on earth can he expect anyone to take him seriously?
Was the reader not paying careful attention? The only people who need to take him seriously are members of the U.S. Congress, who will allow their unstable and deranged president to invade Iran, should he decide on a whim to do so.
Let us consider the Prime Minister’s statement on the eve of another U.S. war. Prior to the disastrous, ill-advised, ill-conceived and illegal invasion of Iraq, he addressed the U.S. Congress and said this: “If you take out Saddam, Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region…the test and the great opportunity and challenge is not merely to effect the ouster of the regime, but also transform that society and thereby begin too the process of democratizing the Arab world.”
That war began in 2003, and ‘coalition’ forces (over 90% U.S. soldiers) remained there, officially, until 2011, but one doesn’t need to look too hard to find them still there. Iraq is in ruins; millions are dead and millions more had to flee their homes. Hostility toward the U.S. in the Middle East has risen greatly. One seeks in vain for those “enormous positive reverberations”.
And Netanyahu said, back in 2002, that the war would “…begin too the process of democratizing the Arab world.” If he is so interested in democracy, why not give it a try in his own country? There, people who are not Israeli do not enjoy the same privileges of those who are; Arabs and people of African descent are routinely harassed and killed, can’t attend the same schools or have the same employment opportunities. The U.S. and Israel are forever proclaiming that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, indicating either ignorance of what ‘democracy’ means (it’s a lot more than periodic voting), or a complete disdain for the intelligence of the populace (probably not much of a stretch). But the Prime Minister attempting to bring democracy to the Arab world is much like a rapist being put in charge of a counseling group for male perpetrators of sexual assault; one’s own house must be put in order first.
Now the U.S. has broken yet another treaty, one from 1955 that normalized relations with Iran. This was in response to the International Court of Justice demanding that the U.S. not impede the importing of food, medicine and airplane parts into Iran. The Court said that the sanctions violate the Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations and Consular Rights. In announcing the U.S. withdrawal from the treaty, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo apparently believes that the U.S. can’t violate a treaty it isn’t a party to. Once again, U.S. credibility, whatever is left of it, takes another hit.
All this is most pleasing to Netanyahu, who is anxious for the U.S. to destroy Iran as it destroyed Libya and Iraq, worked so hard to destroy Syria, and is destroying Yemen. He forgets, or perhaps doesn’t care, that Iran is none of those countries. It is much larger in population, far more powerful in its own right, and has powerful allies. A U.S. invasion of Iran would be catastrophic for the Middle East, and potentially much of the world. But with an almost unlimited number of U.S. soldiers at his disposal to fill body bags on Israel’s behalf, such considerations are meaningless.
It is long past time for the civilized world to stand up to the U.S. and Israel, before those two rogue nations, with their egotistical and madman leaders, destroy life as we know it on the planet.