Forum Post: ‘Get ready to fight Iran,’ Washington Post warns in URL

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/08/get-ready-to-fight-iran-washington-post-warns-in-url.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/get-ready-to-fight-iran/2012/08/17/1abe88c6-e7f8-11e1-8487-64e4b2a79ba8_story.html

‘Get ready to fight Iran,’ Washington Post warns in URL by Philip Weiss on August 19, 2012 11 0Facebook1Twitter0StumbleUpon0Reddit0 Google

Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, outside the King David hotel

The Washington Post URL (the internet address for the piece) gives this piece away: "Get ready to fight Iran." I wonder if that is a subversive act by a Washington Post editor. When the actual headline of the story is, "5 steps Obama can take to avert a strike on Iran."

The piece is by Amos Yadlin, the head of Israel's Institute for National Security Studies. Listen to him lecturing the President about US interests in the pages of the Washington Post! Obama must come to the Knesset! Notice him counseling belligerence and propaganda!

Only by framing a nuclear-armed Iran as an impermissible threat to the national interests of the United States and its allies in the Persian Gulf can President Obama bridge this gap between Israeli creed and need. He must convince Israel, Iran, Russia and even Saudi Arabia that the U.S. military option is credible and effective.

A gesture directly from Obama could do it. The U.S. president should visit Israel and tell its leadership — and, more important, its people — that preventing a nuclear Iran is a U.S. interest, and if we have to resort to military action, we will. This message, delivered by the president of the United States to the Israeli Knesset, would be far more effective than U.S. officials’ attempts to convey the same sentiment behind closed doors....

First, Obama should notify the U.S. Congress in writing that he reserves the right to use military force to prevent Iran’s acquisition of a military nuclear capability. This would show the president’s resolve, and congressional support for such a measure is likely to be strong...

Second, Washington should signal its intentions via a heightened U.S. military presence in the gulf, military exercises with Middle East allies and missile defense deployment in the region. Media coverage of these actions should be encouraged.

PS: Yadlin's institute is where Hirsh Goodman works. Goodman is the husband of NYT correspondent Isabel Kershner)

More warmongering from the rightwing site, Israel National News, reporting on a story in the Sheldon Adelson newspaper. Again: this paper is owned by the man who is giving all that money to Romney. Is that a story? What is happening to the American agenda?

President Barack Obama, Congress and the American people would support Israel if it carried out a pre-emptive attack on Iran, Michael Oren, Israeli Ambassador to the United States, told Yisrael HaYom Sunday.

He told the Hebrew-language newspaper that he does not feel there is any pressure on Israel from the U.S. government not to act against Iran, which last week loudly proclaimed it wants to eliminate the State of Israel.

..."The Americans have listened to the Iranian leaders who want to destroy Israel," Oren said in an interview with the newspaper during a short stay in Israel. "It is clear that the Americans are asking themselves, 'What would we do if were in their place?'"

Oren is convinced that "if Israel decides to act against Iran, we will win wide support among the American people" and that the Obama administration "will continue to recognize our right to defend ourselves." He added that an Israeli attack would not ruin American-Israeli relations.

Note that Abe Foxman agrees. He says that the duty of the New York Times is to put itself in Israel's shoes.

Israel is our ally, with existential dangers facing it if Iran should gain a weapon. Putting oneself in Israel’s place should be the first order of business in trying to understand and comment on the situation. Unfortunately, this perspective was completely absent from your editorial.