Drumbeats of War - The Door Shuts, The Window Opens
Tonight, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu left Washington without bowing to the dictates of Barak Obama.
That is the news of this moment. No announcements were issued at the end of two days of intense and sometimes stormy confrontations behind closed doors.
No photographers. No agreement.
According to front running sources in Israel, the next step is an open break between the Obama administration and the government of Israel.
For the first time in history, an American president may now decide to dictate the terms of peace between Israel and the Palestinians which will be acceptable to the United States, effectively preventing Israel from seeking peace on their own terms. That’s the rumor… more than a rumor, actually.
Whether that would be a good thing or a bad thing depends on one’s point of view. There are political parties in Israel who would be very pleased. There are Americans, Jewish and non-Jewish, who would rejoice at the thought of it. And many who certainly would not be pleased at all.
But whatever the merits of such a radical stance might be, current events evince a split between the US and Israel that has not been been seen for more than half a century, when President Eisenhower required Israel to leave the Sinai peninsula or face consequences. Israel left. Which some say led to the wars between Arab nations and Israel in the 60’s.
There is very little doubt that the US is purposefully distancing from Israel, with a unique degree of ill-will.
It seems certain that Israel has been denied the armaments requested by Israeli Defense Minister Barak.
There is every appearance that the US does NOT want Israel to attempt a first strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. There is an increasing volume of articles in the press saying the US has accepted the reality of a nuclear Iran, and that the Israeli’s should get out of the way so that a US policy of ‘containment’ can be forged and put into place.
Despite our Sec. of State Clinton’s vow for ‘crippling’ sanctions… oh, wait, that was downgraded to ‘biting’ sanctions a couple of days ago… there are no sanctions on any horizon that have the slightest tinge of reality to them. The possibility of a US blockade of Iran seems to have evaporated like dew on a summer morning.
You have two choices.
Believe that the US will do everything possible to keep Israel from taking out the Iranian nuclear sites, and force-feed peace to the Middle East in a confidence born of the victory of the Health Care legislation passing. And that Israel will no longer be a most favored nation in the eyes of the United States.
Or suspect there’s a wink and a nod between Israel and the US, and the distancing is simply a drama to enable the US to say, we told them not to do it but they did it anyway.
I don’t know which is true. Both are believable. Either are likely to start a very serious war.
And the window for it to begin is very narrow.
