AFTER AIPAC, IRAN RE-EMERGES AS L’ENNEMI DU JOUR

Even the most ardent of American Zionists are prepared to admit that other events in the Middle East have over-shadowed the immediate existential nuclear threat that Iran was to Israel and, indeed, the world up to only a few months ago, though I can’t imagine, if such a threat were real, what could possibly have been occurring in the Middle East that would have been more important than an Iran that was apparently only months away from launching a nuclear weapon at Israel. Yet Eric Cantor in a speech delivered to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) convention yesterday told delegates “Recent developments in the region have moved Iran out of the headlines…”

So there we have it; the reality of the Palestinians wanting to have their lands back and the Arab peoples getting rid of their dictators is what’s really bothering the Zionists and the Western governments. The immediate ‘existential threat’ of a nuclear bomb being lobbed at them doesn’t really seem to be that important enough to be newsworthy anymore.

But then, as the entire world really knows, it never actually was a threat. Its ‘newsworthiness’ at the time had far more to do with propaganda and rhetoric than actual reality. Cantor’s admission belies that reality.

However, the new threat of a world actually recognising a unilaterally declared independent state of Palestine is bringing pressure to bear on the Zionists to find a way out of this predicament – and what better distraction than to resurrect the threat of an Iranian nuclear weapon that, again, is an existential threat to Israel’s existence. Hence Cantor’s continuing remarks that went thus: “…but it is undeniable: the spectre of a nuclear Iran looms larger than ever. We must never take our eye off Iran”, he said.

But it is what Cantor said next that is the real worry for the world: “And that's why Congress will soon pass the bipartisan Iran Threat Reduction Act, making it official U.S. policy to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability”.

Note what Cantor has said; “…acquiring nuclear weapons capability”. Not ‘nuclear weapons’ but ‘nuclear weapons capability’. This wording is crucial in understanding what is at stake.

The latest proposed Iran Threat Reduction Act gives the appearance of just being a way of tightening sanctions against Iran; however, it does not exclude pre-emptive military action if the US is not satisfied that sanctions are not having the desired effect of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.

The word ‘capability’ has been used before in this same context in previous Iran related Acts but what Cantor has done is given it renewed emphasis by mentioning it to AIPAC. By bringing it to the public’s attention via the media in this way, Zionists can point to it as a casus belli for military action against Iran at any time Israel and/or the US decide they have enough justification. Justification might come via a manipulated or provoked event which Iran or its proxies Hezbollah or Hamas could be held responsible for. Israel is now looking for a way out. Provocation is a weapon Israel is adept at using; and it will no doubt be using it again soon.

Expect to hear with renewed vigour much more about Iran’s ‘nuclear weapons program’.