'We must let you make your decisions'

[Donald Ian Rankin]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1243346493164&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

While bombing Iran's nuclear facilities should be regarded by Israel as a "last resort" to halt the threats to wipe out the Jewish state, and would endanger the free world, US President Barack Obama "can never dictate to Israel to follow a path that would lead to harming itself," Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.

Interviewed during a short visit, Lautenberg - a consistent backer of Israel who is also a Democratic Party supporter of Obama - said, "Israel didn't ask us permission to drop bombs twice on Syrian nuclear facilities. I didn't hear America scolding Israel for what it did then. Hypothetically, if Israel were able to get rid of Iran's nuclear bomb-making capability, I'm sure that America would not send Israel a chastising e-mail message. We have to give Israel the courtesy of make its own decisions."

He added that if Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad failed in his bid for reelection on June 12, "we'll celebrate - unless there is someone worse in his place... Bombing Iranian nuclear facilities would be a desperate act for Israel. I'm certainly not promoting it. But all free countries are endangered. The battle has to be fought together. Obama is a leader, and he will do what is necessary."

The senator - one of 13 Jews (not all recognized as such according to Jewish law) in the 100-member Senate - said he disagreed with Obama's policy of linking US action against Iran with an Israeli limitation of settlement activity.

"I agree that each is a major problem deserving of attention, but one is not dependent on the other," he said.

... (more at link)




This, in essence, is the reason I don't expect to see peace in the Middle East. If Israel is allowed to make its own decisions, there is no hope whatsoever - even stopping expanding settlements is regarded as a step too far, let alone removing them. The only possibility for peace is if, like South Africa before it, Israel is forced to do the right thing by the international community even though it doesn't want to. The only institution with the power to do that is the US government, and I think that too many of the Senate think like Senator Lautenberg for that to happen.

[LeftishBrit]

1. Foreign policy is so often a choice between the evils

Letting countries make their own decisions without pressure from nations often = unfettered ultranationalism leading to war.

Not letting countries make their own decisions, and stronger nations or combinations of nations applying pressure = a degree of de facto colonialism.

Between a rock and a hard place...

In the case of the Middle East, I think that a bit of 'knocking heads together' and external pressures toward peace are preferable to complete laissez faire. At least there won't be the same pressures toward war as under Bush.

[Sezu]

2. If that same community does not force Palestinians to do the

"right thing," too then it's fucking hypocrisy so let's just be clear on that before we resort to any "force."

[Donald Ian Rankin]

3. Israel is already applying more than enough force to the Palestinians.

If Israel can be pressured into ending the occupation and withdrawing to its own borders, the international community will not need to put any pressure on the Palestinians to get them to make peace.