Israeli Airsrike on “Nuclear Cache” in Syria
What a load of rubbish. There is scant evidence that the target of Israel’s latest incursion into neighbouring territory is, in actual fact, nuclear at all. Although there is a distinct possibility that North Korea has supplied Syria with more missiles, I immediately read between the lines of the Israeli and American press releases. They are encouraging talk of nuclear arms in Syria to justify this massive affront to local diplomacy and to whip up fears of Middle Eastern nuclear capabilities.
Tabloids and even some broadsheets would have the Western populace believe that nuclear capabilities in Iran and Syria are worthy of hysteria and military action. However, the only nuclear state in the Middle East is Israel. The most active local military in the area (in traditional combat terms) is the Israeli Defence Force, which far from defending has made incursions into two neighbouring countries in the past year. Whilst the Israelis and their Western counterparts profess to fear nuclear capabilities in Syria and Iran -they summarily dismiss the fears of Iran and Syria who are faced with a hostile nuclear power within firing range -namely Israel.
Once more, I will say that the best prospect of reigning in Iran is to stop making threats, dismissing the people of Iran as “Evil” and to engage the Iranian government in mature, statesmanlike dialogue. The only thing keeping the Iranian government in power is the vitriolic anti-Americanism which bolsters an unpopular government. There are plenty of modernising, reformist elements in Iranian society. However, as any self-respecting patriot the world-over would tell you, no-one reacts kindly to being told what to do by the American government.
A friendly Iranian government will only arise once the West chooses to respect the wishes of the Iranian people. The 1979 revolution itself was a result of the Americans and British deposing a much less-radical leader in favour of reimposing the useless Shah. Meddling always comes back to bite foreign policy makers -just look at the CIA trained Bin Laden (who I nevertheless suspect is not as culpable as claimed).
The time has come to stop posturing in the Middle East and to cut off the support of repressive regimes by catching them on the wrong foot -through cordial, helpful and constructive behaviour.
RSS
After this article was published, John Bolton (the former US Ambassador to the UN) was interviewed on SBS. When asked about the Israeli airstrike on Syria he adopted a sarcastic stance saying: “well poor little Syria” implying that Syria is an underhand and potent aggressor and deserved to be bombed by Israel. On these terms, surely we could judge that Israel also deserves the same treatment?
Despite acknowledging that there is a complete lack of reliable evidence to show that Syria indeed had a cache of nuclear weapons, John Bolton deemed it sufficient evidence to say: “well I don’t think that Israel would go to the trouble of bombing Syria if there wasn’t a serious threat” and “well there was a North Korean tanker that unloaded something”.
Another remark from this former hawk that served to incense me was his reference to an “Islamo-fascist threat”. I doubt very much that groups like Jemaah Islamiyah are taking their cues from a fat, bald Italian like Benito Mussolini. Although authoritarianism may be a common thread between the aims of the 1930’s blackshirts and the militant Islamists of today, this is a rather clumsy historical parallel for Mr Bolton to draw.