Israel Matzav

Bibi for President?

Andrew Sullivan goes off the deep end, naming Prime Minister Netanyahu as President Obama's most dangerous GOP opponent. Let's fisk this paragraph.

So Israel would, without warning, put US troops and Western civilians at direct risk of terrorist assaults, would likely tip Pakistan into even more outright hostility to any cooperation with the West, and rally the Iranian opposition to its foul regime.

It isn't exactly without warning and it's not putting US troops in danger. US troops are already in danger of terrorist assaults. And the US will know immediately when an assault starts, as will the rest of the world. But the mistrust level between Israel and this administration is so high that no one wants to take the risk that Obama gets advance notice and uses it to tip off Iran. Of course, Sullivan ignores that because if he even acknowledged it, he'd have to deal with the reality that the Obama administration is the most anti-Israel administration since at least the Eisenhower days.

As to Pakistan, it's beyond hope and most of America knows it. Pakistan's approval rating in the US is 15%. Nothing the US can do short of implementing Shari'a law will make Pakistan happy.

It is far from clear that Iranians will rally around Ahmadinejad if Iran is attacked by Israel, especially if it is done in a manner that minimizes civilian casualties.

It would destroy the global coalition against Iran,

Which coalition would that be? The one that doesn't include Russia or China? The one where Turkey keeps saying that they're not bound? The one where Germany continues to do more than $4 billion in annual trade with Iran? Do I need to go on or can we agree that there is no coalition?

increase even further its own global isolation,

Whom is he calling isolated?

and only set back Iranian nuclear development for a few years

That was all we did in Syria and Iraq and they never resumed their programs afterward. A lot can change in few years. And some people think it could be more than a few.

- and make it, or a Third World War based on religion, inevitable. My own fear is that global recruitment for Jihad would boom as well - reversing all the gains of the last three years.

What gains?

The war would also galvanize Islamist parties in the new Arab democracies,

As if they're not already.... giving Israel more ammunition in blocking any rapprochement between the US and the Muslim world. And following this essential blackmail, the Israeli government would doubtless rally much of the US Congress, the entire GOP, its media outlets (like Fox, and the Washington Post), and a key part of the Democratic fundraising machinery to side entirely with Israel against the US president. Comical. Scarily comical.

Read the whole thing. Sullivan is a conspiracy theorist when it comes to Netanyahu and the Republicans. And we don't consider Obama an anti-Christ, although we have considered the possibility that he's the 12th imam. (Just joking...).

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Campaign 2012, Iranian nuclear threat, Israeli attack on Iran

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:18 PM