Posts
Is
Israel Escalating War on Gaza to Foil US-Iran Deal?
The
flare up of violence between Israel and Gaza looks like its about to
escalate, with an Israeli airstrike today killing a Hamas commander
and Israeli military leadership talking openly about the possibility
of an expanded war on Gaza, possibly including a ground invasion.
14
November, 2012
This
escalation occurs just days after widespread reports about newly
reelected Obama mulling a grand bargain with Iran over its disputed
nuclear program. Barbara Slavin and Laura Rozen at
Al-Monitor reported on
Monday that US officials told them Washington was considering
offering a “more for more” deal with Iran, based on the fuel swap
deal from Obama’s first term.
So
what does Israel’s impending war on defenseless Gaza have to do
with Iran diplomacy? Here’s a
tweet from
the Tehran bureau chief for the New
York Times, Thomas
Erdbrink:
Thomas Erdbrink@ThomasErdbrink
#Iran leaders
can never be seen as talking to US, while its "eternal"
ally Israel assassinates Iran's ideological allies
15 Nov 12
I
suspect this point was not lost on the Israeli leadership, either.
So, is Netanyahu knowingly escalating military tensions in order to
avoid a successful diplomatic overture? I’m speculating, but it
isn’t far fetched. We know from extensive reporting, mainly in
Israeli media, that in 2010 – just as President Obama requested a
freeze on Jewish settlements in the West Bank with the aim of
resuming peace talks – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu tried
to provoke Iran into a war with Israel that
would eventually drag in the United States.
It
reminds me of what former CIA Middle East analyst Paul
Pillar referred
to this week as “Netanyahu’s
tension-stoking brinksmanship: to divert attention from continued
Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and inaction on the
festering Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” “[T]he Iran issue,”
Pillar has previously
written,
provides a “distraction” from international “attention to the
Palestinians’ lack of popular sovereignty.” Now the situation
seems reversed: Israel is escalating war with Gaza to maintain
deadlock with their favorite scapegoat, Iran.
Israel,
lest we forget, instigated this
resumption of missile exchanges last week when two Palestinian
civilians were shot and killed and Israeli tanks intruded into Gaza,
prompting Gaza militants to respond by targeting Israeli soldiers,
which then gave Israel an excuse to unleash successive airstrikes.
And Israel had numerous chances to pacify the situation, considering
Hamas publicly offered
to establish a total ceasefire and
Egypt appeared
about to broker a truce between
the two. Israel has intentionally inched towards escalation from the
beginning. Are we to believe this isn’t strategic?
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