Israel: Bush means business on Iran nukes
Haaretz, By Barak Ravid and Shahar Ilan
Israel is fully satisfied with the results of the visit of George W. Bush, including policy on Iran's nuclear program, senior officials in Jerusalem said yesterday.
"In talks with the president of the United States during his visit it was made clear that Bush's statements on the subject of Iran's nuclear program are fully backed in practice," a senior official said.
The president's attitude on Iran was well known in Israel, and the expectation had been that he would use forceful language against Tehran, both during talks with Israeli officials and in his address to the Knesset, not only on the nuclear question but on Iran's role in the region.
During meetings with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, more data was presented to back the desire for a reassessment of an American intelligence report which concluded that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program.
One Israeli source said that it is hoped that the new information would influence the administration's stance on Iran's nuclear program.
The source said that Olmert will discuss the subject during his visit to Washington in two weeks.
President Bush addressed the Knesset yesterday, promising unflinching U.S. support. "Citizens of Israel, Masada shall never fall again, and America will always stand with you," he said. Bush added that calls for negotiations with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are akin to the efforts to appease Hitler before World War II.
The president opened his speech by saying in Hebrew: "Happy Independence Day." His address focused on the alliance between the U.S. and Israel.
"Israel's population may be just over 7 million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because America stands with you," Bush said.
"You have raised a modern society in the Promised Land, a light unto the nations that preserves the legacy of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And you have built a mighty democracy that will endure forever and can always count on America to stand at its side."
He noted that Israel's Declaration of Independence "was the redemption of an ancient promise given to Abraham, Moses, and David - a homeland for the chosen people in Eretz Yisrael."
The president also presented his vision of Israel in the next 60 years. "Israel will be celebrating its 120th anniversary as one of the world's great democracies, a secure and flourishing homeland for the Jewish people."
His address was interrupted no less than 14 times by loud applause.
"America stands with you in breaking up terrorist networks and denying the extremists sanctuary. And America stands with you in firmly opposing Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions. Permitting the world's leading sponsor of terror to possess the world's deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations. For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon," the president said.
Bush accused Ahmadinejad of seeking to return the Middle East to the Middle Ages by calling for the destruction of Israel.
"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," he said. "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."
After the speech made by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the Knesset in March, it was hard to expect a more pro-Zionist speech. But as a former Knesset speaker, MK Reuven Rivlin, put it yesterday, "I wish our leaders would make speeches like this." Rivlin described Bush as "manifesting the Zionist vision."
Contrary to the applause Bush received for his address, the speech by Prime Minister Olmert was less popular and stirred considerable controversy.
Olmert promised that when there is a peace agreement it "will be approved by a large majority in the Knesset and it will be supported by the vast majority of the Israeli public."
Two MKs from the National Union, Zvi Hendel and Uri Ariel, left the plenum in protest, complaining that the event was "used to promote a political agenda that is opposed by most of the Israeli public."
Hendel issued a statement calling on Olmert "to learn from the president of the United States what Zionism is."
MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) called out during Olmert's speech, "in your dreams."
He later proposed that Bush should replace Olmert.
Throughout the exchanges amount the rival Israeli politicians, President Bush appeared to be enjoying himself. When Knesset speaker Dalia Itzik finished her speech, he offered his hand in a "give me five" kind of move.
Olmert diverged from his speech and said that "we will bring before the Knesset an agreement that is based on the vision of two states for two peoples. This agreement will be approved by a large majority in the Knesset and the entire nation."
On Iran, Olmert said that "the seriousness of the threat demands that no means be discounted." However, he made it clear that "a uniform international political and economic front against Iran is currently in place, and tougher and more effective sanctions are a necessary stage, even if it is not the final stage, on the right way to block the Iranian threat."
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9 comments:
Bush must feel extremely challenged in these types of meetings. He must stand there at times slack jawed and empty headed. We should be proud to be represented by such a fool. Proud? What else...
Who has heard that in the 1930's Bagdad every 3rd citizen was a native Jew? The Sefardi (Safrati) Jews have a 400 year old history and the Mizrahi Jews over 2,500 year old history in the Middle East - outside the location of the state of Israel (Palestine).
Here's the statistics regarding not ONLY the expelsion of Jews from various Moslim countries in the last 60 years that Israel has been an independent state, but also numbers expelled from the Europe in a longer time interval. The Jews are no settlers of colonialism:
http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Expelled-Jews-statistics.htm
60 years of survival. This is statistics, not Zionism. When the military means have lacked the power, it is now a time of a media war to spit on the Jews and curse the Jewish Scriptures. Both the Old and New Testament were written by Jews. Although Jasser Arafat in his books claimed that there never was any Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and that Jesus was not a Jew, he could not deceive the honest spectator
As a matter of fact, the population of Arabs (my beloved friends and brothers, just like the Jews, our common fathers) under the Israeli government was increased ten-fold (10X) in only 57 years. This is close to the world record for any tribe, nation, tongue or culture on the whole planet at the same time interval. The Sefardi Jews were expelled from Spain in the very date when Christoffer Colombo lifted up his anchors and sailed away from Spain. The Jews had to leave and their possessions were stolen. In the case of the Mizrahi, the Jews have lived for millennia all around the Middle East since the first exile of Israel 500 B.C., in what are now Muslim-dominated countries. While much has been made of the 700,000 Palestinians having been made homeless with the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, it's peculiar that there is no official recognition of their Jewish counterparts. A greater number of Jews - some 856,000 - were forcefully expelled from Arab countries after the creation of the State of Israel, their homes forfeited, their belongings seized. They became refugees, migrating to Israel, mainly. But they did not spoke any Hebrew but Arabic and Farsi (Persian).
The Second Intifada is called the Oslo War. Israel has been forced to damage the very infrastructure she has constructed and administrated while hunting the weapons from the milittant "freedom fighters". Between 1967-1993 roads, system of siewers (gutters, ditches), electricity supply, water supply, schools, health care system, and social welfare system to the West Bank and Gaza. Even for the Arab citizens of Israel, ideal was that everyody gets the same salary for the same job, with the same social benefits. This is stated in the law, officially. In contrast, even the official law in Jordan which has the peace treaty with Israel, it is forbidden for a Jew to live in the country. The health care services have been free for the Arab population, only a portion of the price of the drugs must have been paid by the patients. Under the administrations of Great Britain (1920-1947) or Jordan (1948-1967), no universities were established for the Arabs in the country. Also, an independent newspaper has appeared in Jerusalem since 1969, which has never been put under a censorship.
The Palestinian life expectancy increased from 48 to 72 years in 1967-1995. The death rate decreased by over 2/3 in 1970-1090 and the Israeli medical campaigns decreased the child deat rate from a level of 60 per 1000 in 1968 to 15 per 1000 in 2000. (An analogous figure was 64 in Iraq, 40 in Egypt, 23 in Jordan, and 22 in Syria in 2000). During 1967-1988 the amount of comprehensive schoold and second level polytechnic institutes for the Arabs was increased by 35%. During 1970-1986 the proportion of Palestinian women at the West Bank and Gaza not having gone to school decreased from 67 % to 32 %. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in West Bank and Gaza increased in 1968-1991 BKT from 165 US dollars to 1715 dollars (compare with 1630$ in Turkey, 1440$ in Tunis, 1050$ in Jordan, 800$ in Syria, 600$ in Egypt. and 400$ in Yemen).
One-fourth of the judgements of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations strike Israel. Out of the incidences dealt in the Security Counsil one-third is having to do with Israel. I think this resembles the hysteria seen in the Black Plague in Europe, when the European Jews were accused of the pandemia and burned alive. The phobic mob was really scared and saw the peculiar Jews as a threat.
Pauli.Ojala@gmail.com
Helsinki, Finland
PS. Statistics of the beneficial impact of Jewish population to the host country in terms of inventions, science and technology:
http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Indicator.html
Speaking of stupid and insane things I must observe that USPACE's words fit that exact profile. Clearly, and as his writing reflects, he is no student of the Middle East or contemporary American politics. Then again what can one expect of the minority, i.e. the 29% that still think Bush is doing a good job.
I think educating Americans as to what Zionism really is (an ethnically-exclusive para-military nationalist movement) and making sure that everyone understands the difference between being "anti-Zionist" and "anti-Semitic" will do a lot to stem the tide of militarism in the Middle East.
Essentially, the Zionist movement is equal to the neo-Nazi militia movement in the US - a group of ethnically-exclusive people who aim to establish a country for a single race and religion. However, in the US the neo-nazis, militant movements, and KKK are ostracized as "extreme." Not so for the Zionists...
...cont.
If we were able to marginalize the white-supremacy groups in the US, why can't we do the same with the Zionists?
Is it the guilt from standing by and watching 6 million Jews get murdered?
How long will Hitler's actions continue to wreak havoc on the world?
Essentially, the Zionist movement is equal to the neo-Nazi militia movement in the US - a group of ethnically-exclusive people who aim to establish a country for a single race and religion.
A blatant example of Godwin's Law, naive in it's unabashed lack of cognition re facts. So Islamic countries are signal paragons of inclusivity? Sort yourself out.
wilczek-
Pointing out the fact that the Zionist movement is similar to the white-supremacist militia movements in the US is a legitimate observation. Additionally, trying to neutralize an argument by claiming Godwin's law is weak and should be it's own computer/internet/geek law itself.
Did I say the Islamic states were a bastion of "inclusivness?" No, I did not, so you can take back your axiomatic assumptions about my own opinions.
Moreover, why don't you try to actually refute my point that the Zionist movement is NOT an ethnically-exclusive, religiously-exclusive nationalist movement that seeks to establish a homeland free of the "other?" Why don't you try to explain how this is somehow different from the many para-military groups in the mid-western US states that seek to establish an America free of Catholics, Muslims, blacks, and Mexicans?
Otherwise, take your single-line "argument" back to whatever realm of red herring logic you got it from.
Bush is a methodist like Hillary Clinton. 50% of the US citizens reply that he is not spiritual enough.
Barack Obama, in contrast, was born again as a christian when he was adult. Then he was also babtized.
Pauli Ojala
Helsinki, Finland
http://www.helsinki.fi/~pjojala/Dinoglyfs.htm
"Lord Jesus, my Lord and Saviour. Make me a peace maker. Not of the Samuel Colt type of. Peace to Jeru-salem."
Recovering from hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of the brain,
Pauli Ojala
helsinki, Finland
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