Israel and Iran Alone Again Naturally, the Ike and Chiang Precedent?………
“U.S. President Barack Obama has warned his Chinese counterpart that the United States would not be able to keep Israel from attacking Iranian nuclear installations for much longer, senior officials in Jerusalem told Haaretz. They said Obama warned President Hu Jintao during the American's visit to Beijing a month ago as part of the U.S. attempt to convince the Chinese to support strict sanctions on Tehran if it does not accept Western proposals for its nuclear program. The Israeli officials, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the United States had informed Israel on Obama's meetings in Beijing on Iran. They said Obama made it clear to Hu that at some point the United States would no longer be able to prevent Israel from acting as it saw fit in response to the perceived Iranian threat……..”
Middle East media of the old oligarchies of the New Middle East are running away with this one. They are thinking this interception will lead to a touchdown, potentially a 14 point turnaround. One or two daily Gulf rags from my own hometown, long frustrated in their quest for a new war fought by others on behalf of their masters, are in a near-orgasmic state. But they’ll be mightily frustrated in the end, (I was a teenager once and being teased that way is no fun at all). One daily has a byline screaming that the plan is to attack and neutralize Hezbullah first then attack Iran. I could have sworn that they already had their attack on Hezbullah in 2006. Presumably all they have to do now is send a few bombers from the feisty Republic of Georgia………
What they don’t understand is that the West is applying the “Friedman” plan, as expounded by him (Thomas and not the late Milton Friedman) in the N Y Times a few weeks ago. I commented on that at the time. The idea is to make the mullahs think that Israel will attack and that the US will allow her, sort of like Eisenhower threatened once to unleash Chiang Kai-shek against Mao. In other words: a bluff.
But unfortunately, Friedman gave away the plan, reporters always do these days; apparently he didn’t think Khamenai reads the N Y Times every morning with his sarsheer and nan (there will be no eggs and bacon for him anymore than there will be sheep's liver and other ovine discrete delicacies for his holiness the Pope). Or most likely it is Ahmadinejad who read it.
Who knows it may work, but it can be risky, especially in view of what Ahmadinejad opined recently; something that seemed rather fatalistic to me.
Cheers and Happy Holidays
mhg
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