War on the Way? White House Officials Discuss Iran With Israeli Government Representatives, Netanyahu Goes Public
Michael Springmann/Arab America Contributing Writer
On April 26, National Security Advisor John Bolton, Special Envoy Jason Greenblatt, and Jared Kushner, the White House staffer charged with crafting the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, met with Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Lieberman—an anti-Iran hawk who holds extreme, right-wing positions toward the Palestinians—said that he and administration officials saw eye-to-eye on conditions in the Middle East.
Speaking directly on Iran, Lieberman opined that the regime in Tehran was nearing its final days in power, and he vowed to strike the Iranian capital should Iran challenge Tel Aviv. Lieberman also met with Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who appeared to echo Lieberman’s sentiment about the probability of military conflict with Iran. During a congressional hearing on the defense budget, Mattis warned lawmakers that Israel and Iran seemed to be on a crash course for confrontation, likely in Syria.
John Bolton
Widely known for his extremist views, joined the Trump Administration on April 9, 2018, as National Security Advisor. In a 2015 New York Times Op-Ed piece, Bolton advocated war with Iran over its alleged nuclear program, writing “Time is terribly short, but a strike can still succeed.”
Jason Greenblatt
Donald J. Trump’s Chief Middle East negotiator is a Zionist who supports Israel’s interests over those of the United States. He backed Israel’s “stance on negotiations with a future, Hamas-run Palestinian government in the West Bank and in Gaza.” According to the Jerusalem Post, Greenblatt said “…any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognize the State of Israel, accept previous agreements and obligations between the parties – including to disarm terrorists – and commit to peaceful negotiations. If Hamas is to play any role in a Palestinian government, it must accept these basic requirements.”
Jared Kushner
President Trump’s son-in-law is known to be heavily pro-Israel in his approach to dealings with the Zionist Entity. Nevertheless, he is the point man on America’s Middle East relations. Astonishingly, he is without any experience in government or politics. Moreover, his family has made significant donations to occupiers colonizing Palestinian land.
Avigdor Lieberman
The former Israeli foreign minister is another hard-line fanatic with far too much political power. He claims that Israel has three problems: Iran. Iran. Iran. Defending past Israeli attacks on Syria, Lieberman asserted “Iran is trying to destabilize the whole region, not only in Israel. Look at what is happening in Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria,” the defense minister said. “Iran supports and creates proxies around Israel. Hamas and Islamic Jihad would not survive one week without Iranian support.” Like Donald Trump, Lieberman claimed that the nuclear deal with Iran was a huge mistake.
James Mattis
He was reportedly was pushed out of the armed forces by Barack Obama for his hawkish views on Iran. Additionally, President Trump admires him for his tough, no-nonsense “talk”, such as “There’s nothing better than getting shot at and missed”…Mattis, said Ricks (a journalist for a military news site) is a ‘natural-born killer.'”
And now?
With the Chicken Hawks meeting and seeing eye to eye on Iran (and Syria), what are the prospects for peace and stability in the region? Is war in the offing?
- Donald J. Trump fired missiles into Syria because his daughter, Ivanka (married to Jared Kushner) saw the Netflix propaganda movie “The White Helmets”. He shot more missiles into Syria because the White Helmets and others claimed, without substantiation, that Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, was using chemical weapons on his own people.
- Israel has been attacking Syrian military sites connected to Iranian advisors from Lebanese airspace. Israeli forces operate with impunity inside Syria and provide medical care to terrorists wounded by government forces.
- President Trump talks about removing U.S. forces supporting rebel groups from Syria yet does not. Some speculate that the objective is to divide the country.
- Turkey, a NATO member, is engaged in warfare in Syria and Iraq.
Whether the U.S. and/or Israel, with or without France and Britain, will attack Iran directly lies in the realm of speculation. Some have suggested first going after Lebanon and a further expansion of violence in Syria, then Iran.
The rationale behind a wider war in the region is that Iran is supporting the Syrian government, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza. Therefore, to achieve peace, war with Iran and Iran’s advisors in the Levant is necessary.
Certainly, Iran, which has not invaded another country in centuries, will react to its forces being targeted. When, how, and how much Iran will respond is not yet known. But the constant intemperate language coming out of Washington and Tel Aviv bodes ill for peace. Donald Trump and his Chicken Hawks blame Iran for Saudi Arabia’s destruction of Yemen. They also assert that it’s the Shi’i of Iran (and not the Wahhabi Sunni) who are responsible for all the upheaval in Southwest Asia. The United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, with weapons from Britain, they claim, have no role in the violence and are desperately seeking peace.
What we seem to have is an international Frankenstein’s Monster that speaks English, French, and Hebrew.
And the Hebrew part is most dangerous.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented April 30 that Iran has always lied about its nuclear weapons, violating the terms of its agreement with the U.S. and Europe.
However, on May 1, 2018, distinguished journalist Gareth Porter noted “Netanyahu hasn’t just repeated old history about an alleged Iranian nuclear weapons program, as news media have suggested in their coverage of his theatrical presentation. He has revealed that the whole collection of documents (that were used by the Bush administration to indict Iran for having such an alleged covert nuclear weapons program) was fabricated by the Israelis themselves. Telling details in his presentation not only show these are the documents that surfaced in 2004 but that they were crude forgeries.
Michael Springmann is an attorney, author, and political commentator. He has written Visas for Al Qaeda: CIA Handouts That Rocked The World and a second book Goodbye, Europe? Hello, Chaos? Merkel’s Migrant Bomb. Both are available on Amazon. The books’ website is: www.michaelspringmann.com