An
alarming headline appeared in the English language Jerusalem
Post February 8: �Washington Watch: banging the war
drums.� The article below it, written by Douglas Bloomfield,
president of Bloomfield Associates Inc., a Washington
lobbying and consulting firm, noted that Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, �who has a penchant for dabbling
in American politics,� will be in Washington to speak
March 3 at the annual policy conference of the American
Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) and meet with
President Obama.
�Look for him to whip up the activists
long schooled in lobbying for a get-tougher Iran policy,�
wrote Bloomfield.
�They�ll take the message to Capitol
Hill with enthusiasm.�
Bloomfield knows of what he speaks.
He served nine years as AIPAC�s legislative director and
chief lobbyist.
Last year�s AIPAC confab drew 10,000
delegates and guests - including 70 U.S. Senators and
270 members of the House of Representatives. This year
a group calling itself Occupy/AIPAC plans to demonstrate
outside the Washington Convention Center.
�If past performance is any indicator,
Obama will tell the Israeli leader that sanctions are
showing results and, along with diplomacy, should be given
more time to work.� Bloomfield wrote. �Netanyahu will
respond that the Iranians are not serious about diplomacy
and use it only to stall while they go full speed ahead
on their nuclear program. Obama will repeat assurances
of �ironclad� US support, and Netanyahu will dodge the
president�s plea for patience and his request for advance
notice.�
�It is no secret that senior American
officials across the board distrust Netanyahu, believing
he does not level with them, does not keep his commitments
and is manipulative,� continued Bloomfield. �Israeli analysts
suggest Netanyahu could decide to hit Iran during this
election year, believing Obama would be reluctant to try
to block him for fear of offending Jewish supporters.
The window of political opportunity is wide open, in Netanyahu�s
view.
�Republicans are trying to make support
for Israel a wedge issue and are accusing Obama of being
hostile to the Jewish state. They say his willingness
to negotiate with the Iranians is a sign of weakness.
The president has been in make-nice-to-Israel mode, effectively
shelving any effort to revive peace negotiations, which
pleases Netanyahu. The president�s assumption is that
peace process progress is impossible, so why ruffle any
feathers among Israel�s friends. Netanyahu has argued
there can be no progress in peace talks until the Iran
problem is resolved.
�If Netanyahu does decide to strike
Iran this year, with or without US administration backing,
Republicans could be expected to turn that into a campaign
issue against the Democrats.�
At first glance it might seem strange
for such a candid view of what the right wing Israeli
government has in mind for the U.S. to appear in a conservative
Israeli newspaper that supports the policies of Netanyahu�s
Likud Party-led government. However, a kind of bravado
often seeps into the paper�s coverage � a kind of transparency
of motive and intent.
Prime Minister Netanyahu�s threats
have more to do with challenging Washington than with
actually attacking Iran, wrote Arkansas Times columnist
Gene Lyons on Salon.com last week. He wrote, �When
articles invoking the Holocaust and urging �creative destruction�
in Iran appear on the same day (Feb. 7) in the Washington
Post, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Bloomberg
News, a skeptical observer might be forgiven for suspecting
a well-coordinated propaganda campaign.�
That is clearly what is afoot.
It is doubtful that the government
of any other country in the world could so boldly inject
itself in the internal affairs of the U.S. without being
called to task. And this incursion comes at a critical
and volatile moment in this country�s political life.
Netanyahu and friends are not just �dabbling� in our politics;
this is a full court press.
Netanyahu�s mission in the U.S. will
clearly have two objectives: to raise the level of threats
against the government of Iran over its nuclear program
and gain support for Tel Aviv�s continued hold on the
occupied territories in the face of near complete international
disapproval. There is widespread concern that Israel might
carry out a unilateral military attack on Iran at some
point between now and November, confident that Washington
would not demur, this being an election year.
Asserting that an attack on Iran
�could set the entire Middle East aflame,� Lyon wrote
on Salon, �You�d think the Israelis, of all people,
would recognize that threatening a people with death and
destruction hardens their resolve. Yet the New York
Times reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu �told visitors that he believes the Tehran government
to be deeply unpopular, indeed despised, and that a careful
attack on its nuclear facilities might even be welcomed
by Iranian citizens.��
Needless to say, bombs over Bagdad
didn�t bring cheering crowds into the streets, nor would
bombs over Teheran. But of course, Netanyahu knows that.
�Assuming that the Israeli prime
minister�s motives for threatening a unilateral Israeli
strike against Iranian nuclear facilities are as reported
- I suspect they are not,� continued Lyon. �To put it
bluntly, it�s not so much the regime in Tehran that Netanyahu
is keen to destabilize as the one in Washington. The question
now is how far he�s willing to take it.�
Lyon went on to note that in his
State of the Union speech, Obama, while reiterating his
determination to prevent Iran�s getting nuclear weapons,
�also expressed hope that international sanctions could
lead to a peaceful resolution.�
�On cue, Washington Post columnist
Richard Cohen called this �startlingly na�ve.� Only a
fool or a Frenchman, the same pundit once opined, could
doubt the existence of Saddam Hussein�s WMD. Bombs away!�
�Netanyahu
appears to see an Obama second term as an impediment to
further Israeli expansion into the West Bank � and has
cast his lot with the Republican right,� Lyon wrote. He
noted that the Israeli leader has made public appearances
with such reactionary notables as Glenn Beck, �End Times�
evangelist John Hagee and multibillionaire Las Vegas casino
tycoon Sheldon Adelson, who has largely financed Newt
Gingrich�s futile attempt to gain momentum in the Republican
Presidential primary race and who has signaled that he
is prepared to throw his weight and his dollars behind
anyone in a relentless drive to defeat Obama.
Rob Kall, editor and publisher of
OpEdNews.com, wrote last week that if there is
any truth in the picture that people like Lyon draw of
Israeli intent to jump into the U.S. Presidential election,
�then progressives need to take action, particularly Jewish
progressives. They (we) need to do a lot more to stand
up in opposition to the right-wingers leading Israel.
Democrats need help articulating a conversation that enables
them to support Israel while opposing the hawkish, politically
motivated threats and machinations purportedly about Iran,
but practically, aimed against US Democrats.�
Interestingly, Bloomfield is clear
on what is at stake in the threat of an attack on Iran.
�Obama can expect to be accused of forcing Israel to attack
by failing to stop the Iranian nuclear program, and blamed
for any Iranian retaliation. War in the Gulf, even a brief
one, will certainly cause a major disruption in oil supplies
and a spike in fuel prices, and if Iran carries through
on its threats to close the Straits of Hormuz, it could
damage an already fragile global economy.
�America is vulnerable to Iranian
retaliation because it has extensive assets in the region,
including ships, bases, tens of thousands of troops and
civilians and many American businesses. Retaliation against
them would trigger a major American military response,
sparking a wider war this country cannot afford.�
�The American public does not want
another war in the Middle East, and President Obama will
be blamed if one erupts, whether triggered by an Israeli
attack or Iranian retaliation,� noted Bloomfield. �Republicans
may criticize the president for cautioning against another
conflict, but Jewish voters, who traditionally support
Democrats 3:1, are not likely to shift to the GOP because
it bangs the war drums loudly and wants to follow Netanyahu
into battle with Iran.�
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member
Carl Bloice is a writer in San Francisco, a member
of the National Coordinating
Committee of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy
and Socialism and formerly worked for a healthcare union. Click here to contact Mr. Bloice.