The ‘Peace Train’ is a confluence of disparate trends and energies that is working to make big scale war increasingly unacceptable to ever larger publics. The Middle East continues to be the prime focus of the Peace Train, for many essential and obvious reasons.
This weekend things have been very quiet on the Peace Train after the kerfluffle, which many thought no truffle, of the rejection of the Iranian agreement by France at the last minute at the last meetings. The next meetings this week will likely prove decisive. In between we had the pleasure of hearing diverse arguments that are becoming increasingly recognized as the empty twisted thought forms spun by magicians losing their power.
Over the top Iran reactions raise concern: Is Israel on the verge of a nervous breakdown?
Israel and its supporters in Congress demand that Obama’s every third sentence should mention the military option that is still on the table, one insider says, and then they turn around and tell anyone who cares to listen that Obama is weak, irresolute and would never dare attack, under any circumstances. No one has undermined the credibility of Obama’s military threat on Iran, a source close to the White House told me, more than the Israelis themselves.
When unnamed U.S. sources confirm an Israeli attack on Syria or when Thomas Friedman writes a critical column in the New York Times, Israelis are convinced that these are all part of a coordinated Administration conspiracy. But when a concerted campaign of defamation and deligitimization is conducted in Israel against both Obama and Kerry, when they are accused on a daily basis of betraying Israel, sticking a knife in its back, kowtowing to Islamic jihadists or openly backing terrorists – that’s accepted, that’s OK, because, you know, Israelis are entitled.
It’s perfectly fine to obsessively compare Obama and Kerry to the appeasing Neville Chamberlain, the 20th century’s most scorned statesman, the man who kowtowed to Hitler and the Nazis, because everyone seems to be doing it, from the prime minister on down. But Israelis? They still haven’t forgotten or forgiven Time Magazine for comparing Menachem Begin to Charles Dickens’ Fagin 35 years ago. “You’re excellent at dishing it out, but pretty weak in taking it yourselves,” as one bitter U.S. insider told me.
Here’s some dark Israeli spin….
An investigation by the Daily Beast also reveals that the “Obama administration began softening sanctions on Iran after the election of Iran’s new president last June, months before the current round of nuclear talks in Geneva…” The report notes that Treasury Department notices show “that the US government has all but stopped the financial blacklisting of entities and people that help Iran evade international sanctions since the election of its president, Hassan Rohani, in June.”
Obama’s desperately eager posture towards the smiling Mullahs has doomed any negotiation to failure by signaling that the US fears confrontation more than anything else. Obama’s pathetic approach to the world’s most pressing national security threat also makes US military action virtually impossible from a public relations and diplomatic standpoint because it promotes the naive idea that more diplomacy will resolve what a decade of talking hasn’t. And as long as the Iranians are “talking,” world opinion will also oppose an Israeli military strike, so naturally Iran will find ways to keep talking until it’s too late for Israel to act.
Obama’s ‘pathetic approach’ to the world’s most pressing national security threat? That doesn’t sound like bff talk. What do you say Obama?
Report: Obama rejecting calls from Netanyahu amid tension over Iran
Al Jarida, which has previously reported information that was later verified about a leak investigation taking place in Netanyahu’s bureau, says that on Friday, Obama refused more than once to speak to Netanyahu on the telephone and had U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry take the call instead. The paper cited a source it says is familiar with the issue.
According to the report, which was written by a reporter in Jerusalem, U.S. Jewish leaders are trying to get the White House to decrease the tension and snag Netanyahu an invitation to meet with Obama in Washington.
Oh no! Barry not taking Bibi’s calls. That’s not the way it’s suppose to work!
`Geneva talks a facade, US-Iran worked secretly on deal for past year’
Channel 10 reports Obama team has been negotiating terms with Tehran, didn’t fully coordinate with Israel, intended to present a fait accompli in Geneva.
Despite ostensible full coordination between the US and Israel over strategies for thwarting Iran’s nuclear weapons drive, the administration did not keep Israel fully informed on those talks, Channel 10 news reported, but Jerusalem nonetheless has a pretty clear picture of what has been going on in the secret channel.
Sunday’s Channel 10 report was not the first to assert a secret US-Iran channel involving Obama aide Jarrett. In November of 2012, the daily Yedioth Ahronoth said Jarrett — a Chicago lawyer born in Shiraz, Iran, to American parents, and good friend of Obama’s — was “a key figure in secret contacts the White House is conducting with the Iranian regime.”
Here’s the real scoop. The deal is done. A little kabuki, of course, but this deal is done. Here’s why I’m pretty confident about that. In an excellent article, Why the Iran Nuclear Talks Failed, Ismael Hossein-zadeh, an academic in Iowa says this….
Although details of the issues discussed during the 3-day negotiations are kept “confidential,” especially by the Iranian negotiators, the leaked information by Western negotiators and media indicate that under the potential deal, Iranian negotiators would agree:
(a) to halt its enrichment of uranium to 20 percent purity;
(b) to render unusable its existing stockpile of such (20 percent) fuel for further enrichment;
(c) to limit its enrichment of uranium to only 3-5 percent purity;
(d) not to use the more advanced IR-M2 centrifuges for enrichment, which can enrich nuclear fuel five times faster than older centrifuges;
(e) to consent to more intrusive inspections;
(f) not to activate its heavy-water reactor in Arak, capable of producing plutonium.And what would Iran get in return for all these concessions? Not much.
He is articulating the Iranian hardliner sentiment here and goes on to suggest that the US and West have a history of not being sincere in their approach to the talks. He makes some very good points and it’s definitely worth reading his post to gauge the Iranian political mindset right now.
But now check THIS out!
French President Hollande was in Israel to get his strokes for saying ‘nyet’ (old cold war snark there) to the treaty. And it is reported…..
Hollande went on to lay out four points that his country deemed essential for the signing of an interim agreement. France, Hollande said, would demand that all Iranian nuclear facilities be put under international control immediately, that enrichment of uranium to 20 percent be suspended, that existing uranium stockpiles be reduced, and that construction at the Arak heavy water facility be immediately halted.
“These are essential points that we require for an agreement,” he said. “France requires a serious, stable agreement, verifiable, with all guarantees, and we will stand strong in the face of pressure.”
Other than the diplomatically ridiculous ‘all Iranian nuclear facilities be put under international control immediately’ (change ‘control’ to ‘monitoring’ and they are already there!), all the elements for the FIRST step are in place, IF the West is really ready to do the deal. The SECOND step is after being good for six months (confidence building measures), Iran gets to have sanctions removed and agrees to the final limits on its program, including the Additional Protocols which allow spot inspections. The Iranians need to have that spelled out in the FIRST step agreement, though, because Imperialists and Zionists. So still some subtle points to detail out.
This week is crucial. Enjoy the transformations.
Israel, Saudi Arabia Threaten War as West Prepares for Iran Nuclear Deal