Photo Courtesy of Associated Press: Iranian President Ahmadinejad inspecting a nuclear facility in Tehran.
Nathan Crites-Herren
The Paw Print
As the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu continues to play a tit-for-tat clandestine war with the Iranian regime, the US government and corporate media juggernaut are helping to frame the xenophobic anti-Iran dialogue that has been flooding the air waves in the past weeks.
The fact that the US and Israel are “two peas in a pod” is nothing new, US presidents since Israel’s formation shortly after 1947 have always been allies of the Israeli state. President Obama continues that tradition by following Netanyahu’s skewed logic on the supposed threat that Iran poses towards Israel.
Iran’s recent gains in its nuclear program are not something to be ignored by the international community, however this development doesn’t signify an imminent threat to Israel as Netanyahu claims.
The political realties in a very unstable and isolated Iran do not demonstrate the required political support needed to create an armed conflict with Israel. In the past six months, a combination of greatly improved Western economic sanctions, covert action by Israel and other intelligence agencies aimed at Iran’s nuclear establishment and the continuing instability of the Arab Spring has severely tested the regime’s ability to hold together the domestic constituencies that keep it in power. Given Iran’s relative desperate isolation, the concerns of Netanyahu over Iran and its nuclear program are based on fanatic Zionist attitudes, with a larger political goal of Israeli expansion and dominance in mind.
The fundamental lack of communication between Iran and Israel along with the US has created tension between the three nations that has been exacerbated for quite some time and is expressed in the rhetoric between the leaders of these three nations. This lack of communication is strikingly similar to the infamous buildup of the Iraqi War, which allowed then President Bush to fabricate reasons for his 2003 invasion.
Israel accuses Iran of clandestine assassinations attempts, which most recently include the attempted bombings of Israeli diplomats in Georgia and India. These bombings have been unequivocally blamed on the Iranian regime and its president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without any substantial proof to back up those claims. In conjunction with the accusations made by the Israeli government over Iranian perpetrated terrorist attacks, Iran claims that the recent murder of four high profile Iranian scientists, working on the nuclear energy program were committed by the hands of Israeli military agents. This accusation as well as the prior is not based on any hard facts, but they do help to fuel the fire of mistrust between Israel the US and Iran.
The fact remains that Iran’s increasingly aggressive responses to the powerhouse of Middle Eastern politics, which comprises the US, and Israel is a natural progression. The Iranian government has recently changed its strategic calculus and its strategic outlook, and has said very plainly multiple times that they will now respond to pressure with pressure.
The weak and empty threats that Iran makes towards Israel should be seen not as unprovoked lashings of an untrustworthy power, but rather as expected responses from a regime desperate to hold on to its power and salvage some legitimacy in the face of two superpowers.
If Iran is really not the threat it seems to be, then why are the western powers pushing so hard to increase tensions with Iran? Perhaps they seek to induce the proper setting for yet another military intervention in the Middle East. The US already has Iran encircled with military bases in virtually all bordering countries and the recent Obama administration drone attacks in Yemen have definitely created the possibility for tremendous blowback in the region.
No other geographical region has been filled with such tension and ambiguity for the US and Israel than the Middle East. This is a conflict that will continue for as long as Israel continues to exert its force in the region, all the while dragging the US along for the ride.
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