Confronting jezebel's brothers.

Publication: Kurdish Life

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"The peace movements of the entire world should be in crisis mode right



now, working on-stop to prevent the U.S. and Israel from starting a war against Iran ... Nothing else is more dangerous to the world, to the Middle East, to the oppressed Palestinians, or to the true interests of the United States is happening today--anywhere." CIA analysts Bill & Kathleen Christison, Counterpunch, 12.29.05

On Christmas Day Dafna Linzer of the Washington Post reported that President Bush "raised AIPAC's concerns in a recent telephone conversation with British Prime Minister Tony Blair when the two discussed Iran ... At issue for AIPAC is Bush's decision last month to hold off on pushing to report Iran's nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council. The president and Israel have favored reporting it for the past two years. But with little support from other key U.S. allies, Bush reversed course and endorsed a Russian offer that would allow Iran to conduct some, but not all, of the nuclear work it says it needs for an indigenous nuclear energy program ... In a statement to members of Congress, AIPAC said that it 'is concerned that the decision not to go to the Security Council, combined with the U.S. decision to support the 'Russian proposal,' indicates a disturbing shift in the Administration's policy on Iran and poses a danger to the U.S. and our allies' ... AIPAC, which describes itself as nonpartisan, has criticized nearly every administration's Middle East policies, often speaking out when Israeli government officials express private frustration with U.S. policies."

In an analysis for Counterpunch, James Petras, formerly professor of sociology at SUNY Binghamton, made these observations: "The major pro-Israel lobbies have lined up a majority in the US Congress and Senate to push for the UN Security Council to implement economic sanctions against Iran, or, failing that, endorse Israeli 'defensive' action. On the side of the Israeli war policy are practically all the major and most influential Jewish organizations, the pro-Israel lobbies, their political action committees, a sector of the White House, a majority of subsidized Congressional representatives and state, local and party leaders ... Most discussion in the US on Israel's war agenda has been dominated by the pro-Israeli organizations that transmit the Israeli state positions. The Jewish weekly Forward, has reported a number of Israeli attacks on the Bush Administration for not acting more aggressively on behalf of Israel's policy ...

"AIPAC's unconditional and uncritical transmission of Israeli demands and criticism is usually clothed in the rhetoric of US interests or security in order to manipulate US policy. AIPAC chastised the Bush regime for endangering US security. By relying on negotiations, AIPAC accused the Bush administration of 'giving Iran yet another chance to manipulate (sic) the international community' and 'pose a severe danger to the United States.' (Dec. 9, 2005) ...

"Pushing the US into a confrontation with Iran, via economic sanctions and military attack has been a top priority for Israel and its supporters in the US for more than a decade ... Despite the near unanimous support and widespread influence of the major Jewish organizations, 20 percent of American Jews do not support Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians. Even more significantly, 61 percent of Jews almost never talk about Israel or defend Israel in conversation with non-Jews (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 1, 2005) ... The Israel First crowd represents less than a third of the Jewish community. In fact, there is more opposition to Israel among Jews than there is in the US Congress ...

"Israeli intelligence has determined that Iran has neither the enriched uranium nor the capability to produce an atomic weapon now or in the immediate future, in contrast to the hysterical claims publicized by the US pro-Israel lobbies ... Although numerous former diplomats, generals, intelligence officials, Reformed Jews, retired National Security advisers and State Department professionals have publicly denounced the Iran war agenda and even criticized the Israel First lobbies, their newspaper ads and media interviews have not been backed by any national political organization that can compete for influence in the White House and Congress. As we draw closer to a major confrontation with Iran and Israel officials set short-term deadlines for igniting a Middle East conflagration, it seems that we are doomed to learn from future catastrophic losses that Americans must organize to defeat political lobbies based on overseas allegiances." (Counterpunch 12.25.05)

Under the caption, "Let's Stop a US/Israeli War on Iran," Former CIA analysts Bill and Kathleen Christison argued along the same lines: "Americans who do not want an eruption of a new world war, started by our own government, ought to be strongly lobbying the Bush administration and all members of Congress against supporting any military action by the U.S. and Israel against Iran. Globally, people who oppose such a war should be lobbying their own governments in similar fashion ...

"Outside the United States, it is widely understood that one of the true motives--not the exclusive motive but a real and significant one--behind the Bush administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq, was the desire of the neocons in Washington to conquer Iraq in order to benefit Israel ... Inside the U.S. ... the pressure of the neocons for war on Israel's behalf, or any hint that Bush himself participates in that pressure, is hardly ever mentioned ...

"This taboo on discussing the Israeli link to the war in Iraq, enforced by the threat of being labeled anti-Semitic, introduces major distortions into practically every effort to examine and change politics that are causing massive hatred of the U.S. around the world ... Every peace activist on the blogs ought to be in the streets and elsewhere lobbying in support of something very simple: do not attack Iran, even if this means allowing Iran to develop its own nuclear weapons ... We should also very definitely support an effort to tie future U.S. aid to Israel to Israel's not engaging in military action against Iran." (Counterpunch 12.29.05)

Professor Petras and the Christisons are not lightweights. Our delusional commander in chief and our expedient legislators on Capitol Hill, have yet to be held responsible for dragging this country into an invasion of Iraq. Having gotten away with that travesty ongoing, they are barreling toward a repeat performance in Iran. Americans put them in office to promote and safeguard American interests--yes, American interests--not the interests and ambitions of any foreign country, including Israel.

When negotiations with the EU-3 broke down because Washington's parrots were offering nothing of substance and refusing to permit Iran to proceed with...

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