Posted on 05/06/2009 7:44:10 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Washington Times reports that Barack Obama may counter demands from Israel to confront Iran over their nuclear program by confronting Israel over theirs. Eli Lake has the exclusive on the Obama administration’s strategy to force Israel under the umbrella of the non-proliferation treaty, apparently as a condition to getting Iran to surrender their nukes. The effort will include India and Pakistan, and comes from a 2006 Saudi peace plan that would leave Israel at the mercy of the armies surrounding the state:
"President Obama’s efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons threaten to expose and derail a 40-year-old secret U.S. agreement to shield Israel’s nuclear weapons from international scrutiny, former and current U.S. and Israeli officials and nuclear specialists say."
The issue will likely come to a head when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Mr. Obama on May 18 in Washington. Mr. Netanyahu is expected to seek assurances from Mr. Obama that he will uphold the U.S. commitment and will not trade Israeli nuclear concessions for Iranian ones.
Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller, speaking Tuesday at a U.N. meeting on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), said Israel should join the treaty, which would require Israel to declare and relinquish its nuclear arsenal.
Gottemoeller has a track record of demanding Israeli disarmament:
" However, Ms. Gottemoeller endorsed the concept of a nuclear-free Middle East in a 2005 paper that she co-authored, “Universal Compliance: A Strategy for Nuclear Security.”
“Instead of defensively trying to ignore Israels nuclear status, the United States and Israel should proactively call for regional dialogue to specify the conditions necessary to achieve a zone free of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons,” she wrote.
The paper recommends that Israel take steps to disarm in exchange for its neighbors getting rid of chemical and biological weapons programs as well as Iran forgoing uranium enrichment.
The Obama administration appointed Gottemoeller, fully cognizant of her thinking on this issue. One has to assume that her appointment to the senior position at State constitutes an endorsement of those positions. It wouldn’t be the most radical thinking about Israel from this administration; Samantha Powers, who works between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UN Ambassador Susan Rice, once called for a Western occupation of Israel and forced disarmament of their entire army.
Gottemoeller’s speech had to have been cleared by the Obama administration, and so appears to represent their foreign-policy position. The Bush administration and its predecessors handled the situation more tactfully, supporting a “nuclear-free Middle East” without naming names. Why? The position of Israel in the Middle East is unique. They are not just simply another nation among many. They had been the one successful continuous democracy in that region, save Turkey, and quite obviously surrounded by nations explicitly threatening to annihilate them. Israel had to develop a deterrent that would keep a nation of 5 million people alive among 100 million enemies.
Over the years, some of those neighbors have moderated their stance somewhat towards Israel; Egypt and Jordan have diplomatic relations with Israel, but in Egypt’s case only because Washington pays them to do it. None of the rest of the nations in that region even recognize Israel’s existence, and two of them — Syria and Iran — have a long-running proxy war of terror running against Israel. Under those conditions, Israel can be forgiven for thinking that a deterrent is still a damned good idea.
Besides, the Iranian nuclear program threatens the US as well. We want to stop Iran from building nukes to keep them out of the hands of terrorists, and not just those aimed at Israel. They don’t call us the Great Satan out of respect, after all, and Iranian leadership has been just as annihilationist towards America as it has been towards Israel. Instead of disarming our allies, maybe we should just concentrate on disarming our enemies.
He can’t be that stupid, the guy is a sell-out.
Israel should tell BO to cram it. Sideways.
Giving up their nukes would be insane, it is tantamount to suicide.
If this is true, it’s madness.
Criminals don’t give up guns. They like gun control because it makes their jobs safer.
Same deal with the mullahs. They’re not about to give up nukes because Mr. Obama asks them to do so.
Nor are the Israelis.
Mr. Obama, apparently, has yet to grasp the notion that, in the middle east, if you show any degree of weakness, it’s “lights out” for you.
The mullahs only understand strength. Weakness they abuse with great pleasure.
I don’t recall Israel calling for Islamic states to be “wiped off the map”.
This is the kind of logic Hitler uses when he called Czechoslovakia “a dagger aimed at the heart of Germany”.
Israel poses absolutely no threat to anyone who leaves her in peace. The only people who question this are those who question Israel’s right to exist. It’s a fair question, I suppose, but if that’s your point, come out and say it.
BTW, to paraphrase Ed Koch, any Jew who voted for Obama has to be out of his mind. Any Jew who would work for this administration has allowed ambition to conquer principle.
Trust me, oh Israel, it’s OK to recognize that a black man does not have your interest at heart.
What about Iran????? Since when does the President control other countries. The new world leader needs to be shut down.
{throwing hands into air & shrugging}
"They DO NOT CARE ABOUT ISRAEL."
Apparently.
Explains why I don't honestly know while at the same time taking for granted they'd be very engaged in opposition.
It's nuts, literally the world turned upside down.
"They DO CARE about being narcissistic fashionable self-styled "progressives", accepted by all the cool cohorts of modern sleaze society."
NYCity has the most Jews, as a NYer you'd have a much better finger on the pulse of the tribes.
If you say it's so, to me, it's so. ;^)
"Obama is their golden calf."
What a wonderful, excellent in its simplicity analogy my friend.
Can't explain why, but it really resonates with me.
Y'know?
For a NYer, you're OK. ;^)
Kidding aside --while you *are* OK-- I've ragged on New Yorkers while not considering what it must be like to live there as a conservative. Not be able to leave for viable, valid reasons and then. I learned empathy. :^)
Iran doesn’t have any nukes. What’s to surrender?
Obama just wants to disarm Israel.
Bibi should tell the apostate Muslim to take a Dudley!
I agree with your analysis. You said it well, too.
And just how is he going to make them do that?
Bibi needs to tell Bami to go suck an egg.
Well, there it is folks, Obama has pulled out the Israeli nuke strawman.
Just trying to create the coming argument for Americans to give up our arms! “Well Israel disarmed ‘cause we guaranteed her safety!”
This makes for a philosophical monoculture that is self-reinforcing and impervious to reason or ridicule.
The desire to be seen as cool, and accepted by others in the social climbing world, trumps everything. Yes, their niche in the social pecking order is seen as far more important than trifles like the very existence of the Jewish state.
The relentless anti-Israel propaganda has taken its toll, decade upon decade.
The solution to this is very simple. Since neither the US nor Israel have acknowledged the existence of Israeli Nukes, all Israel need do is continue to deny their existence.
I disagree ... he can be that stupid.
Just listen to Obama: he's got these lovely utopian ideas, and a sure sense that he can convince everybody to do what's right (as Obama defines "right.") He's a malignant narcissist, and this is how such people operate.
This is not at all unprecedented behavior. All you need to do is go back to the example of the earnest but misguided efforts of Jimmy Carter, or the British governments of the 1930s, to see a similar dynamic at work.
As to being a sell-out .... perhaps. More likely, though, he's being run around by smart, cynical folks who know just how to massage Obama's ego to get their way with him.
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