Ron Paul Institute: America Must Reject Netanyahu's War Cry on Iran

[Anna]

Amidst all the rah-rah for Netanyahu's speech, thought it only fair and balanced to present the opposing logic:

America Must Reject Netanyahu's War Cry on Iran

Sheldon Richman
Ron Paul Institute
3/4/15

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to Washington this week to prepare the American people for war against Iran. Backed by American neoconservatives, the Israel lobby, and assorted other war hawks, Netanyahu insists that Iran intends to build a nuclear weapon and thus is an “existential threat” to Israel. He has no confidence that President Obama will negotiate an agreement that once and for all will end Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions.

Thus the prime minister’s objective is nothing less than to wreck the current negotiations and push America into a regime-changing war against Iran.

Netanyahu’s narrative is a fabric of lies and omissions.

To begin, Iran has not sought a nuclear weapon, and the country’s leader declares such weapons contrary to Islam. (For details, see Gareth Porter’s well-documented Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare.) For a quarter century, Netanyahu has warned that an Iranian bomb is imminent. But US and Israeli intel say he’s wrong.

Iran nevertheless wants to reassure the world so that crushing economic sanctions will be lifted. Hence, the current negotiations. (Iran made similar overtures before.)

Iran’s government is a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), subjecting it to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which can account for every atom of uranium.

Members of the NPT are free to have a civilian nuclear-power program, including the ability to enrich uranium, and Iran insists that it be treated as other members are. Nevertheless, for decades the US government has exerted pressure to stop Iran from having a civilian nuclear industry. When Iran a few years ago agreed to forgo enrichment and obtain enriched uranium from abroad, the US government blocked the deal. Netanyahu and his American allies oppose Iran’s having any enrichment capability.

Moreover — and this ignored fact seems rather important — Israel is the nuclear monopolist of the Mideast. That hardly anyone talks about this is at once remarkable and unsurprising. But think about it: Israel has hundreds of nuclear warheads — some of them on invulnerable submarines capable of surviving a first strike. Even if Iran built one warhead, it would be useless — except as a deterrent against Israel — and the country’s rulers know it. Israel has not signed the NPT and does not submit to IAEA inspections. It is a nuclear rogue state.

Read the rest here

[Anna]

And this:

Netanyahu's False Narrative

Marjorie Cohn
Consortiumnews.com
3/4/15

On March 3, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an impassioned plea to Congress to protect Israel by opposing diplomacy with Iran. Referring to “the remarkable alliance between Israel and the United States” which includes “generous military assistance and missile defense,” Netanyahu failed to mention that Israel has an arsenal of 100 or 200 nuclear weapons.
The day before he delivered that controversial address, Netanyahu expressed similar sentiments to AIPAC, Israel’s powerful U.S. lobby. He reiterated the claim that Israel acted in the 1967 Six-Day War “to defend itself.” The narrative that Israel attacked Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in self-defense, seizing the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and the Sinai Peninsula in 1967, has remained largely unquestioned in the public discourse.

Israel relies on that narrative to continue occupying those Palestinian lands. And the powerful film “Censored Voices,” which premiered at Sundance in February, does not challenge that narrative.

But declassified high-level documents from Britain, France, Russia and the United States reveal that Egypt, Syria and Jordan were not going to attack Israel and Israel knew it. In fact, they did not attack Israel. Instead, Israel mounted the first attack in order to decimate the Egyptian army and take the West Bank.

Read the rest here

[Anna]

And this:

Netanyahu in 2002 - "If You Take Out Saddam, I Guarantee, It Will Have Enormous Positive Reverberations on the Region"

Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
3/4/15

In 2002, Benjamin Netanyahu already harbored some extremely strong convictions on how to deal with both Iran and Iraq. Back then, his opinions on how to handle the particular challenges each presented were quite divergent. On the one hand, he suggested beaming “reruns of Melrose Place” into Tehran, as a way of inspiring a popular uprising. In contrast, he suggested such an approach could never work in Iraq, and instead advocated for his preferred solution: violence.

Naturally, he believed that a violent overthrow of Saddam Hussein would be a great thing. Specifically predicting that:

If you take out Saddam’s Regime, I guarantee you, that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region.

Fast forward nearly thirteen years, and rather than recognizing that this man’s plan in Iraq only led to death, chaos, and the emergence of ISIS, Congress felt the need to ask him for advice once again. Since as we all know, being wrong in America doesn’t lead to consequences, it leads to promotions.

Read the rest here

[rlm1966]

He's right, it is not our fight. We have enough issues here at home without travelling the world and blowing up people.

[dissimulo]

[intowolves]

um if memory serves, he wasnt calling for war, he was calling for us to get a better deal.
If anything, I believe these negotiations will push Israel into doin something very dangerous.