Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s presentation to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday illustrated the extent to which he has become obsessive to the point of being delusional about Iran. Hopefully the world has opened its eyes and is aware of how barking mad paranoid Netanyahu now is over Iran.
While many Israelis are unable to avoid the overwhelming anti-Iran propaganda emanating from the right-wing Israeli Zionist press, they, nonetheless, are able to discern the path that Netanyahu is taking them down. And while Israelis have little time for many of Ahmadinejad’s pronouncements regarding the future of Israel, they are also very wary of being sucked into a war that will involve a lot more that taking aim at a few of Iran’s nuclear facilities. They are very much aware that a war against Iran is also a war against Hezbollah, Hamas and, more than likely, every hotshot Jihadist in the region that will come to fight against Israel’s forces.
In a recent poll it was found that only 27% of Israelis supported an attack against Iran. Most Israelis are very much aware of how devastating such a war could be for Israel. Israel’s government, however, is unlikely to take little notice of Israeli public opinion as most senior members of the government are dead set on using such a war to destroy Hezbollah and Hamas and, at the same time, use the opportunity to ultimately annex the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and, so they hope, south Lebanon up to the Litani River. They hope that the US will deal such a massive blow to Iran that it will induce regime change.
So far, US President Obama has not gone along with Netanyahu’s plans though has not ruled out the possibility that eventually, if the certain circumstances prevailed, he would indeed launch an attack against Iran. What Netanyahu wants is for Obama to spell out exactly what those certain circumstances might be. Netanyahu wants Obama to establish ‘red lines’ which would trigger a US attack against Iran.
But, with the presidential election looming just weeks away and Obama being an everything to loose president, he has refused to commit America to any ‘red lines’ knowing that in doing so he could drastically reduce his chances of a second term due to the American people being in no mood for any more wars for Israel. Netanyahu knows this but is keeping the pressure up anyway by suggesting that Israel may launch a ‘unilateral’ attack against Iran.
The problem here is; Israel is in no real position to launch a unilateral attack against Iran for reasons I have explained before at this blog. This, however, has not stopped Netanyahu’s rhetoric in an effort, not so much to convince Obama and the Western leaders of the need to attack Iran but to convince public opinion – especially Israeli public opinion – of the need to attack.
Supporting Netanyahu a little more vigorously than Obama is the Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney who is backed in turn by the neoconservatives who know exactly what Netanyahu is trying to achieve.
Netanyahu knows that Obama is unlikely to act this side of the election but Netanyahu also knows that after the election, no matter who wins, he will have his war and the US will be there to finish off Iran for Israel.
An Obama win may well not suit Netanyahu’s own timetable. If it seems likely that Obama might prevail, Netanyahu might out desperation feel inclined to force Obama’s hand by instigating some false flag event which would be blamed on the Iranians. This could even possibly happen prior to the 6 November elections rather than soon after. While the next Israeli election are not scheduled to take place until October next year, the precarious nature of Israeli politics could dictate an election at any time if any one of the somewhat frail alliances with some of Israel’s other minor government parties break down. This makes Netanyahu a desperate man who is hell bent on achieving his lifelong ambition of creating a Greater Israel.