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Iran
What if Bush Decides To Attack Iran on the Way Out of Office?
Ha’aretz’s Ari Shavit poses the following hypothetical:
In November, after Senator Barack Obama becomes president-elect of the United States, outgoing president George W. Bush inflicts a severe blow on Iran. That could take the form of a naval siege, the flexing of American military muscle, or even an all-out air strike targeting Iran’s nuclear program.
Under ordinary circumstances, people would reject out of hand such a wild scenario. The American public does not support the idea of opening a second front in the Middle East, and America’s political, military and intelligence establishments are fearful. A military move, even a semi-military one, carried out by an outgoing president would be unprecedented and illegitimate; it would be perceived as the final insane trumpet call of a thoroughly off-the-wall administration with a committed religious outlook.
He thinks that this scenario may have “little likelihood” of happening, but, he adds, “little likelihood is not zero likelihood.”
The upshot of confronting Iran? Shavit writes:
Sticks and Stones…
JTA reports:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel a “filthy germ” and a “savage beast.”
Speaking of Hezbollah terrorist chief Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated last week, Ahmadinejad said Israel was behind the death of this “righteous man.”
“The West created a dark and filthy germ known as the Zionist regime, which has attacked the countries of the region like a savage beast,” the Iranian president said in a televised speech.
Now, I’m eagerly waiting for Ahmadinejad’s latest remarks to be explained away by the folks who so helpfully iinformed the world that Ahmadinejad’s previous statement to the effect that Israel should be wiped out was actually misunderstood and that, in any case, it was really nothing to be overly concerned about.
Iran’s New TV Network Has No Sense of Humor
The folks who run the Web site of a new Iranian government-sponsored English-language TV network— the Islamic Republic’s answer to CNN and al-Jazeera English —apparently don’t get the concept of satire.
Ahmadinejad Wins, Israel Loses
Ha’aretz’s man in America, Shmuel Rosner, thinks that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at Columbia University was a win for the Iranian president and a clear loss for Israel. He explains that Ahmadinejad’s speech, and the accompanying controversy, helped to underscore his message, namely, as Rosner puts it, “It is not Iran versus the world, but Iran versus Israel.”
Rosner writes:
The protesters outside only served to reinforce his claims, as many were Jews wearing skullcaps who carried signs protesting his Holocaust denial and calls to wipe Israel off the map. To many, this serves as further proof that Iran is only a problem for Israel, or at most for the Jews.
Ahmadinejad aimed precisely for that. “It’s the Israelis, stupid” was his primary message. Forget about the “Palestinian problem,” Ahmadinejad was telling his listeners. “Instead, we need to solve the Israeli problem — and finally bring peace to the Middle East.” While he did not explicitly reiterate his calls for Israel’s destruction, in practice, the message could not have been clearer.
The pro-Israel camp consoled itself with the knowledge that those who are familiar with the regional complexities, and with Tehran’s antics, will surely realize the absurdity of Ahmadinejad’s proposal.
But the average American is not familiar with the regional complexities. He is tired of the region’s fighting. To him, Ahmadinejad’s idea may sound tempting.
Read the full article.
Don’t Worry, Ahmadinejad Only Wants Israel ‘Wiped From the Pages of Time’
Bintel Blog reader James Holstun objects to an earlier post of mine in which I quoted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as having called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” Holstun writes:
I know that this is a widespread accusation — it’s on THE WEB, after all, so it must be true! But people who speak Farsi note that this is a tendentious mistranslation of Ahmadinejad’s comments, and I haven’t seen any refutation… See http://democracyrising.us/content/view/736/164/.
In the era of pre-emptive attacks, it is appropriate to exercise a little caution in one’s accusations, unless one’s aim is precisely to heat things up and prepare the way for a pre-emptive attack based on a non-existent threat. Ahmadinejad is a Jew-hating scumbag, but that’s not an adequate reason to reduce Tehran to a heap of glowing rubble.
There has, indeed, been a great deal of debate over how to translate Ahmadinejad’s now-infamous remark. University of Michigan historian Juan Cole and others have argued that “wiped off the map” is a mistranslation — a mistranslation, moreover, that is being used to beat the drums of war against Iran. “I smell the whiff of war propaganda,” Cole warned The New York Times.
