ISRAEL LOBBYING CONGRESS TO SUPPORT WAR AGAINST IRAN

During all of the time the administration has been negotiating together with the so-called P5+1 team for a deal with Iran lower sanctions, Israel has been demanding any such deal be contingent on Iran dismantling its nuclear program and facilities entirely. Netanyahu hasn’t budged one bit from this demand and nor have his hard right Zionist supporters both in Israel and their supporters in America and around the world.

While Secretary of State John Kerry has been beavering away working on a deal that would partially relieve sanctions on Iran in return for a halt to further enrichment, the Israel lobby in the US has been working just as hard to undermine Kerry’s efforts in support of Netanyahu’s demands.

Most Democrat and Republican Congressman not only support Netanyahu’s demands for tougher actions if Iran doesn’t dismantle its facilities entirely, but they would very likely, if push came to shove and Netanyahu decided to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran, call for the US to support with all of its military might any war Israel initiates against Iran.

As negotiations continue and look increasingly like there may be some sort of settlement in the wind, the likelihood of Netanyahu taking matters into his own hands vastly increases.

On the other side of the coin, the administration is warning that, if sanction are not reduced, Iran will likely continue doing whatever it’s doing which inevitably will lead to war.

The fact is; Netanyahu has been hankering for war for years. He knows that war with Iran means war with Hezbollah, Hamas and the Palestinians in the West Bank. It will be the only opportunity Israel will ever get to attempt to defeat all of its enemies and, at the same time, put an end to the question of what to do about a Palestinian state – there simply will never be one. The West Bank will become the district of Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip will be re-occupied together with south Lebanon up to the Litani River which will later become annexed and part of Greater Israel just as they did with the Golan Heights. Under the cover of all-out war Israel will eliminate all of its enemies just as it attempted to do in 1982 when Israel facilitated the slaughter of Palestinian refugees at Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon.

It’s not a matter of ‘if’, it’s just a matter of ‘when’. All Netanyahu is waiting for now is an opportunity. When all the right conditions line up, he’ll strike.

ISRAEL GETTING READY TO STRIKE IRAN

Netanyahu is becoming increasingly desperate to start his war against Iran. According to a report in Haaretz citing a report in Britain’s Sunday Times, Saudi Arabia has offered help to Israel in order to facilitate an attack against Iran. According to the report, Saudi Arabia will allow Israeli strike aircraft to transit Saudi airspace in order to reach targets in Iran. Saudi Arabia will also allow refuelling tanker aircraft, drones and rescue helicopters to be in Saudi airspace.

According to another report, Yaakov Amidror, who only recently left his position as Israel’s national security chief, has said that ‘Israel has the ability to strike Iran and is willing to go it alone’. Amidror concedes they don’t have the same wherewithal as the US but believes Israel would be able “to stop the Iranians for a very long time”.

Until recently, for the Israeli air force to get strike aircraft to Iran was a major hurdle against being able to attack. If they were not able to use Saudi airspace, they would have to have used Jordanian and Iraqi airspace, refuelled over the Persian Gulf, then returned to Israel the same way. However, Iraq was never going to give permission for the Israelis to use their airspace and it would be highly unlikely that Jordan would. The alternative would have been a long flight south down the length of the Red Sea, then east north-east across the Arabian Sea skirting Yemen and Oman and then into the Persian Gulf to attack Iran. Refuelling aircraft would need to be stationed at least two points along the way to refuel strike jets both on the way out and on the way back to Israel. This route would have been long and arduous for already stressed aircrew and they would almost certainly lose any element of surprise they may have hoped for.

The decision to strike Iran will very much depend on what course the next round of talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 takes. If an agreement is made whereby Iran is allowed to proceed with limited enrichment in exchange for an easing of sanctions, then there is a very strong chance that Netanyahu, who is insisting on nothing less than a complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear facilities, will order a strike.

His hope will be that, once he has launched the initial strike, the US will then launch follow-up attacks against Iran using its Persian Gulf forces and long-range bomber forces to prevent Iran launching retaliation strikes against Israel.

Israel will also likely launch strikes against Hezbollah and Hamas also in order, so they will say, to prevent retaliatory strikes from either or both of these organisations at Israel’s doorstep. Israel may also launch a full-on invasion of the West Bank to thwart any possibility of West Bank Palestinians launching a third Intifada against Israeli occupation.

Clearly, Netanyahu is determined – one way or the other – to have his war against Iran, not because he thinks Iran is an existential threat to Israel, but because it is the only way that Netanyahu will be able to realise his and his fellow right-wing Zionists lifelong dream of creating a Greater Israel and preventing the Palestinian people from ever having a state of their own.

THE NEOCON LIE OVER IRAN

Jonathan Tobin, one of neoconservatism’s leading propagandists, writes in Commentary today that, “If those pushing for more sanctions really wanted war, they wouldn’t be bothering with more sanctions”.

What Tobin neglects to mention is that it is he and the entire neocon movement, together with the right-wing Zionists of Israel, who are the ones that ‘really want war’. And the reason why they are bothering with sanctions is three-fold; first, they are aware that the vast majority of Americans and most of the planet aren’t in the slightest bit interested in war and to just come right and say ‘Let’s go and bomb Iran’ is simply going to get them laughed at. Secondly, the reality is that it is sanctions that are the only route to war because then it provides an excuse to attack Iran when they claim that the sanctions have failed – which brings us to reason three: The neocons and the right-wing Zionists know full well that, no matter what, the Iranians will not give up their rights to nuclear power and, since the Israelis are insisting on nothing less than a complete dismantling of all of Iran’s nuclear facilities, it will leave the Israelis with no alternative but to attack Iran as they have always threatened to do if the sanctions fail – as they know they will.

But it’s not just about Israel. The neocons know that Israel can’t possibly destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities without the help of the US. As I have mentioned before many times at this blog, Israel needs the full connivance of the US in order to strike Iran. And that, as far as the neocons and the Zionists of Israel are concerned, is the fly in the ointment. Obama is unlikely at this time to support any unilateral strike against Iran. However, if Israel decides to launch a small pre-emptive strike against one or two of Iran’s nuclear facilities then Obama may have little choice other than to enjoin Israel in attacking Iran in order to prevent Iranian retaliatory strikes against Israel – and this is exactly what Israel will be hoping for.

The ultimate goal once war gets underway is not just the destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities, but complete regime change which the Israelis and the US hope will happen after a massive bombing campaign designed to force the Iranian regime into capitulation.

Meanwhile, to complete their war aims, the Israelis will launch an all-out attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The neocons and Zionists want nothing less than war. Squeezing Iran with sanctions that they know Iran won’t give in to is their path to war.