Mystic Politics

Israel’s New Strategy: Downgrading Iranian Threat and Peace with Palestine?

Mofaz has publicly contradicted the whole thrust of Netanyahu’s strategy by downgrading the threat from Iran and suggesting that a peace settlement with the Palestinians is actually more important.

Do you think they are actually supportive of a two-state solution- or is this just an attempt to pacify critics by going through the motions of due process?

Iran and the Shape of Things to Come

‘Why has Iran’s operational competence suddenly deteriorated so badly, given that our government spokesmen represent it as such a fearsome threat? And why would it seek to hasten a bombing campaign against its own territory as the abortive embassy bombings almost seem calculated to do? And why does the evidence mostly consist of assertions by interested parties?’

Will Israel Attack Iran? -Not Before the Next Presidential Election

‘For Brazilians or Americans who do not follow this issue closely, a process of mass brainwashing is taking place through the major media. Iran, which even the U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has acknowledged is not pursuing a nuclear weapon, is portrayed as hell-bent on getting one. And why? So they can nuke Israel and become the first nation on Earth to commit mass suicide, since Israel has enough nuclear weapons to kill every Iranian several times over. It all makes sense, if you assume that mass suicide is Iran’s deepest national aspiration.’

Israeli official: Iran embellishes nuclear gains

‘Israel’s defense minister said Thursday that Iran’s latest claim of dramatic advancements in its nuclear program is exaggerated, but that Tehran’s nuclear pursuits remain a threat.’

Eliot Cohen and the Return of the Neocons: Romney’s Man on Iran

‘In 2005, a group of graduate students at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced and International Studies (SAIS) participated in the school’s annual diplomatic simulation. The high-pressure scenario required the students to negotiate a resolution to a standoff with a nuclear-armed Republic of Pakistan. Mara Karlin, a student known for her hawkish politics on Israel and the Middle East, played President of the United States.

Though most of the participants were confident they could head off a military conflict with diplomatic measures, Karlin jumped the gun. According to a former SAIS student, not only did Karlin order a nuclear strike on Pakistan, she also took the opportunity to nuke Iran. Her classmates were shocked. It was the first time in 45 years that a simulation concluded with the deployment of a nuclear weapon.

That year, Karlin received a plum job in the Bush administration’s Department of Defense where, according to her bio she was “intimately involved in formulating U.S. policy on Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Israel-Palestinian affairs.” Lebanon was a special area of focus for Karlin. She claims to have helped structure the Lebanese Armed Forces and coordinated relations between the US and Lebanese militaries.’

Bad Journalism: The War Drums of the New York Times

‘“Israel Vs Iran” reads Sunday’s cover of the New York Times Magazine– the words written ominously in ashes from which smoke and flame still rise. Inside the magazine, Ronen Bergman a military analyst for the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth argues that an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities in 2012 is inevitable, though he admits that, even if successful, such an operation might only delay the development of an Iranian bomb by a few months or at most years, and would open Israel to a devastating counterattack by Iranian rockets, some of which can hit Tel Aviv. Once again, we are being presented with war as a fait accompli. But does such reporting function as a self-fulfilling prophecy?’

American & Israeli Propaganda: The Ongoing War on Iran

‘The way in which the growing confrontation with Iran is being sold by the US, Israel and West European leaders is deeply dishonest. The manipulation of the media and public opinion through systematic threat exaggeration is similar to the drum beat of propaganda and disinformation about Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction that preceded the invasion in 2003.

The supposed aim of imposing sanctions on Iran’s oil exports and central bank, measures officially joined by the EU, is to force Iran to abandon its nuclear program before it reaches the point where it could theoretically build a nuclear bomb. Even Israel now agrees that Iran has not yet decided to do so, but the Iranian nuclear program is still being presented as a danger to Israel and the rest of the world.’

NATO and CIA Covertly Arming Syrian Rebels in Order to Weaken Iran

‘A weakening of Syria is a weakening of Iran. ‘President Barack Obama’s National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, speaking a day after the United States announced new measures against Iran over its nuclear program, said that “end of the Assad regime would constitute Iran’s greatest setback in the region yet—a strategic blow that will further shift the balance of power in the region against Iran.””