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The Iranian Threat

By Tali Shapiro at Feb 04, 2009

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I’m not an expert on Iran, but something tells me the threat isn’t what I’m being told (feel free to fill me in on that). I’ve been looking up the apparent next prime minister of Israel, Benyamin Netanyahu and I’ve noticed he has a slight obsession with Iran. No, let me rephrase; It seems that Iran is his main instrument of creating fear in his constituency.

Here’s a choice quote from Al Jazeera:

"In the end of the day there will be no choice but to remove the Iranian threat in Gaza.”

Confused? Here’s the rest of the conspiracy theory:

"There will be no escape from toppling the Hamas regime which is the Iranian proxy in the Gaza Strip… This is the real threat we are facing… If I'm elected, the biggest, most important task of my government will be to fend off the Iranian threat in all aspects...The reality is very clear - any territory we evacuate today will be taken over by Iran..."

But wait! There’s more! You see, unlike other Israelis, that aren’t sure of the US’s support of Israel, Netanyahu sees it as his own private army:


"It will oblige us to work on all fronts, including harnessing the US administration to stop the threat."

Netanyahu has always seemed to me as a little disconnected. Inspecting his propaganda methods, over the years, it seems pretty clear that he takes his cues from the US government, wether it fits with what goes on in Israel, or not. He was the first, out of three candidates, to take his election campaign online, like Obama did. He’s the only one speaking of Iran, throughout the onslaught and beyond. To me, it seems silly and detached, even from his constituency. I’m thinking, maybe he’s stuck in the Bush administration mode and as yet to completely update to Obama mode.


 

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Go back to 1953

By Andrews, John at Feb 05, 2009 01:42 AM

Tali 

Playing the game of If:
 
If the US / UK backed overthrow of Mohamed Mossadeq, the last democratically elected leader of Iran, in 1953, had not taken place
 
then
 
the Shah of Iran would have remained in exile and would not have been able to brutalise the people of Iran.
 
The Islamic Revolution of 1979 may not have followed and Ayattolah Khomeini would probably have remained a clerical cult figure.  
 
The Iraq / Iran war may never have occurred thus saving the life of well over a million Iraqis / Iranians (but then again perhaps it would as the US / UK have always interfered in the affairs of Iraq).
 
Without the Islamic Revolution, I doubt if the USSR would have gone into Afghanistan. The Mujahadeen would have remained in its infancy and Osama bin Laden would probably have stayed in Saudi Arabia. The bloodshed of Chechnya, Kosova and Kashmir may have been avoided; along with the deaths of close on 4000 people in the USA in 2001 and 200 people in Mumbai at the back end of last year to list but a few.
 
Without the Islamic Revolution, Iran would probably have remained a country of rich cultural heritage with a highly educated population and not felt under constant threat of attack from world military superpowers. A ‘contented Iran’ would probably not have had any interest in destabilising the region or supplying arms to Hizbullah or Hamas.
 
A stable Iran would have developed nuclear power stations in conjunction with other countries in the world and would probably have exported their technical ‘know how’ along with their oil.
 
The above ‘thread’ does not address the problems of Isreal but even an old Fascist like Benyamin Nethanyahu would struggle to show a ‘contented Iran’ to be a danger / bogeyman.
 
The problems of the middle east are wholly of the west’s making. The constant interference by the west has resulted in numerous wars, the loss of millions of lives and a very politically unstable region of the world.
 
I’m absolutely certain that +95% of the people of Israel and Iran want nothing more than to get on with their lives and be at peace with all around them. But, there are two crazy governments sitting on the people and these governments are being spurred on in their stupidity by foreign powers and arms dealers.
 
Perhaps the simplistic answer is for the people to get rid of the governments that are meant to serve the people rather than the other way around? Perhaps anarchism in some form is the ultimate solution – no countries, no flags, no borders just people.
 
Best wishes
 
John Andrews

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Re: Go back to 1953

By Shapiro, Tali at Feb 05, 2009 10:05 AM
A history well illustrated and a point well made, John. Thank you for the information and I must say that I agree. I’ve always asked myself what right the US had to “bring democracy to Iraq”, for instance. I like your simplistic answer. Chomsky brought up an interesting point, in that respect: Not governments, but communities. I wonder how that would work out?

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