Obama capitulates to the Israel lobby

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http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12944

   June 6, 2008
Obama Capitulates
– to the Israel lobby
by Justin Raimondo

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's visit to the U.S. is part of a
concerted effort, by the Israeli government and its American
lobbyists, to convince U.S. lawmakers – and, most of all, President
George W. Bush – that the time to attack Iran is now. The Israeli
newspaper Yediot Achronot reports that Olmert will tell Bush "time is
running out" on diplomacy and that he'd better launch an attack.

In his speech to the AIPAC conference, Olmert's message was harsh and
unrelenting: Iran, he said, "must be stopped by all possible means"
from acquiring a nuclear capability. Yes, sanctions must be tightened,
but these are only "initial steps": what's needed, he averred, are
"more drastic and robust measures" – and that can only mean one thing.

Israel would rather not act alone, but Olmert signaled that he was
willing to do so if pushed: ""Israel will not tolerate the possibility
of a nuclear Iran, and neither should any other country in the free
world," he declared, in what was clearly a threat of unilateral
action. Citing Israel's record in regard to Iraq in the eighties and
Syria last year, Tim Butcher warned in the Telegraph: "The speech
shortens the odds significantly on military action against Iran's
nuclear program."

The U.S. would almost certainly be drawn into the conflict if Israel
carried out its threat, and Olmert knows that. So does Bush, who, in
any case, may not need much persuading. After all, in his speech to
the Israeli parliament last month, the President declared:

"Permitting the world's leading sponsor of terror to possess the
world's deadliest weapons would be an unforgivable betrayal for future
generations. For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to
have a nuclear weapon."

For the sake of peace, we must make war: a familiar refrain that
echoes down through the years, mocking the living and the dead.

The clock is ticking, and time is running out for the War Party: they
must get in their licks before the most pro-Israel president, ever,
leaves office. As Butcher writes: "Among Israeli supporters of
military action against Iran there is concern something must be done
before Mr. Bush's end of office next January as Mr. Bush is perceived
as closer to Israel than any potential successor."

Don't look to Barack Obama for deliverance from this looming conflict.
In his speech to AIPAC, he clearly signed on to the Lobby's latest
project, departing from his prepared text to declare:

"I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a
nuclear weapon. Everything in my power. Everything."

"Everything" includes murdering tens of thousands of Iranians, mostly
civilians – driving the price of oil up above $300 a barrel and
destroying the US economy – and involving us in a war that will make
the Iraq conflict look like a Sunday school picnic. And for what?

The irony, of course, is that Iran is nowhere near obtaining nuclear
weapons, as the President's own intelligence agencies recently
informed him: but no matter. That's a small obstacle to those who
disdain "the reality-based community," and see themselves as Making
History while the rest of us watch, helpless and aghast. As Ha'aretz
recently reported

"Olmert will try to convince Bush to set aside the National
Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear program in favor of data
presented by Israel, and determine the administration's policy on Iran
accordingly."

The coming war with Iran has nothing to do with "weapons of mass
destruction" – no more than the invasion of Iraq ever did. It's all
about preserving Israeli hegemony in the Middle East by wiping any and
all recalcitrant Arab-Muslim states off the map. First Iraq, then Iran
– and Syria will have its turn soon enough, along with poor prostrate
Lebanon, once the jewel of the eastern Mediterranean and now an
economic and political basket case.

It is almost certain we will be at war with Iran before a new
President is inaugurated: now that Obama has capitulated to the Lobby,
nothing but Divine Providence can stop it.

God help us all.

I have to say I was wrong – dead wrong – about Obama. In my eagerness
to find a bright spot in a rapidly darkening world, I grasped on to
his alluring rhetoric and his at-times trenchant critique of the Bush
foreign policy, like a sinking man holding on to a life-jacket. But
looking for hope in all the wrong places doesn't create opportunities
for peace – it only prolongs our illusions. We must face the prospect
of a much more terrible conflict than we have ever known, and look it
squarely in the face, without flinching or looking for false messiahs.
I know many of you are disappointed, and some of you are now
exclaiming "I told you so!" All that we can do now is hope, and pray,
that our country – and the Iranian people – will somehow survive the
coming catastrophe.

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