It Begins: Jewish Organizations In DC Today For Iran Push
Check out this press release announcing Iran Advocacy Day. It's today and it marks the start of the fall push on Iran
The United Jewish Communities (formerly called UJA) is about as mainstream a Jewish organization as exists in this country. It reprents the Jewish grassroots and is not thought of as politically controversial.
No doubt its Iran policy comes from AIPAC, with which it is closely associated.
An excerpt from the press release. "Reflecting support for President Obama's position that Iran's acquisition of nuclear arms capacity is 'unacceptable,' this Advocacy Day is intended to urge implementation of strong economic and diplomatic measures directed at the Iranian regime and the expeditious adoption of key legislative initiatives now before Congress, including the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act.
National and community leaders are meeting with members of Congress because of the grave threat that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose to fundamental U.S. national security interests and to world peace. They will encourage the Administration to take full advantage of the tools provided by the proposed legislation in order to advance the international effort to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear arms capability."
Note the Congressional leaders they are meeting with. The Iran push will be bipartisan with Steny Hoyer and Eric Cantor leading the charge. Bipartisanship at last.
Get ready. Iraq redux. Here's more. And more.
It had already begun with a jump-start from Hillary Clinton's State Department.
news report:
Washington's chief envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency says a recent report by the nuclear watchdog shows that Iran is now either very near or already has enough low-enriched uranium to produce one nuclear weapon. Glyn Davies says that could happen if Iran made a decision to further enrich the material to weapons grade.
Davies says this ongoing enrichment activity moves Iran "closer to a dangerous and destabilizing possible breakout capacity."
Davies spoke Wednesday at a closed session of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors.
http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/09/09/us-serious-concern-that-iran-can-create-a-bomb/
Of course Davies didn't get anywhere near the truth, and that is that Iran's enrichment operations are being closely monitored and there has been no diversion of nuclear material to further enrichment. So the claim that Iran is "closer to a dangerous and destabilizing possible breakout capacity" is just baseless scare talk which is intended to lay the groundwork for further sanctions and a possible attack (Biden has told Israel that the US wouldn't object to an Israeli attack).
So what ever happened to all the campaign chatter about talking to Iran? The US now has that accomplished diplomat (okay, I jest) at the helm of State -- is making baseless charges a new form of diplomacy?
from the "recent report" by IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei's (excerpts):
The nuclear material at [the Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz] (including the feed, product and tails), as well as all installed cascades and the feed and withdrawal stations, are subject to Agency containment and surveillance.
As reported earlier, the Agency had informed Iran that, given the increasing number of cascades being installed at FEP and the increased rate of production of low enriched uranium at the facility, improvements to the containment and surveillance measures at FEP were needed for the Agency to continue to fully meet its safeguards objectives for the facility (GOV/2009/35, para. 3). In the course of a series of meetings, Iran and the Agency agreed on the improvements, which were put in place on 12 August 2009. The next physical inventory verification (PIV) at FEP is planned for November 2009. At that time, the Agency will be able to verify the inventory of all nuclear material at the facility and evaluate the nuclear material balance after the cold traps have been cleaned out.
The Agency continues to verify the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in Iran.
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=8806070749
Bottom line: Despite what the US says, it doesn't matter what decision Iran makes because their nuclear program is closely monitored by the IAEA, and you can't build a nuclear weapon with low-enriched uranium.
September 10, 2009 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am not particularly interested in the precise degree of enrichment or IAEA monitoring in Iran. The ruling theocrats there are dominated by uncivilized power-hungry liars and demagogues, and given enough time they'll eventually find a way to join the nuclear club.
The question is not whether Iran is continuing to try to cheat its way to nuclear weaponry. The question is what to do about it.
1. American voters should ask themselves how many of the chickenhawks beating the bomb-Iran drum now, have spent time in Iraq helping rebuild the mess caused by their last drum-beating.
2. The U.S. Congress should try to remember that it is the Congress of the U.S., not a rubber stamp for AIPAC to wield.
3. The Obama Admin. should get cracking on a working up a "grand bargain." Something aimed at an eventual full de-nuclearization of the entire Mideast, starting with Iran and Israel, and with swift moves towards recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state within (approximately) the 1967 borders.
September 10, 2009 6:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, MJ. Rarely does the odious work behind the conspiracy to kill a nation (Iran) get such a public airing.
Iran is independent of the West. Iran will not bow down to the West. Of course, Iran must be destroyed.
Same song, different verse. How's Iraq going?
September 10, 2009 6:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Iraq is a disaster, and there will be no attack on Iran. If nothing else, Adm. Mullen will not stand for it, and Obama is intelligent enough to listen to him (and if he isn't- the civilian chain of command will privately snap, as it may well have in 2007).
Let's hope Gates, or someone, persuades our bright young President that Afghanistan is a delusion of a similar kind.
September 10, 2009 9:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mystery : despite the complete turnover of administration this bomb-Iran scheme continues straight ahead without pause. Also note this new administration never says a word about the Real Reason we invaded and occupied Iraq.
Do you wonder why this is ? Is this administration in agreement with the Real Reason, whatever it is ? There is a Real Reason - it is not WMDs or 'faulty intelligence'.
Of course the story about nukes is a lie just like last time. Our Dear Ally is not in danger from Iran.
Iran's nuke project, commenced in the time of the Shah, is the pokiest engineering project anywhere. Iran is not serious about nukes: over thirty years they have been piddling around without result.
The Americans would not let Dear Ally start another war unless it was to the benefit of the USA.
So, what is the Real Reason ? To blame Dear Ally is to play along with the distraction - to fall for the fake-out.
Is it oil and gas, colleagues ? Are the Americans taking military control of The Gulf to lock up its oil and gas ?
Does any American president want to stand up and tell the USA that gasoline is rationed, that it is ten dollars a gallon, that we cannot access the oil fields, that the supply has been cut off ?
Why does the military seizure have to be hidden in plain sight ?
Do focus groups show that people prefer the fake reason to the Real Reason ?
We are also not told that a war with Iran could be a hideous, long-long-long term nightmare. Instead we are promised a first-round knockout. But war promoters always promise a quick victory ...
September 10, 2009 7:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
You describe the UJC somewhat misleadingly as a grassroots organization that is not politically controversial. Not controversial to whom? The UJC is an openly Zionist organization which sends most of its money to Israel in one form or another, while spending 15-25 cents on the dollar in each local community. Most communities have strong ties to the local Israeli consul, who is trotted out for frequent pro-Israel events. It's like having an Israeli government representative running an organization that many believe is a kind of "Jewish United Fund."
September 10, 2009 7:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
the jewish psyche has been traumatized and isreal is stuck in a holocaust repetition compulsion syndrome, unconsciously wanting to replay a global existential threat but this time with a different outcome.
freud's repetition compulsion syndrome states that "Repetition compulsion is psychological phenomenon in which a person repeats a traumatic event or its circumstances over and over again. This includes reenacting the event or putting oneself in situations that have a high probability of the event occurring again. This 're-living' can also take the form of dreams, repeating the story of what happened, and even hallucination." [ wiki link ]
September 10, 2009 8:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
MJ, in all honesty I must ask are those people insane? It makes no sense from any angle to attack Iran. It doesn't take a geopolitical genius to figure out that an attack on Iran will be extraordinarily bad new for both the US and for Israel. How can people be so incredibly stupid? Are they suicidal or are they just so blinded by their own fear they do not see how self defeating their unjustified desire to attack Iran really is?
September 10, 2009 11:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have you read B. Kristoll's article in the WAPO about the Obama speech, last night?
BKristoll is horrified that Obama is talking about making Health Care affordable for all Americans instead of planning to bomb an supposed enemy of the US: Iran.
Ask him for his rational or for a drink? He will and I will go for the drink.
September 11, 2009 6:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
"The United Jewish Communities (formerly called UJA) is about as mainstream a Jewish organization as exists in this country. It reprents the Jewish grassroots and is not thought of as politically controversial.
No doubt its Iran policy comes from AIPAC, with which it is closely associated."
If I were an Iranian, I'd take it that "grassroots Jewry" had declared war on me and my country.
As an American, I am tired of being told what is "in American interests" by small ethnocentric groups tied in with a foreign country, lobbies and Think Tanks such as JINSA, AIPAC, etc, what is in MY interests. For a small percentage of the entire population to hold so much political power is becoming truly terrifying particularly as Iraq, Afghanistan and now, if these Jewish groups get their way, what is tantamount to a declaration of war against Iran, IS NOT and NEVER WAS in the interest of my country, this being the United States of America, or in my interest as an American.
I voted for change, so far, Obama has not delivered. If he is so cowed by the Israel lobby that a small country in the middle east can ridicule him by continually building settlements on Palestinian land, can use it's lobby and Diaspora to bully the President of the United States of America, then the other non-Jewish 98% of the population is no politically freer than the Palestinians themselves.
Here's a few of the things I want Obama to change. I want a universal health system. Israel is in better economic shape than we are, I want all aid to Israel stopped. I want these groups clearly registered as agents of a foreign country and charitable status checked where applicable. As an American it is not in my interest to help fund illegal settlements and apartheid roads system in the West Bank.
I want to know exactly what Bernanke did with our tax trillions, I don't want to be threatened that if we have their books opened, something dire will happen to the markets because that sounds like blackmail to me. If Bernanke thinks such a thing could happen, then I think Mr Bernanke should know that such a scenario will be on his and anyone elses head, involved.
America needs it's money back for healthcare, social programmes and REAL jobs IN AMERICA.
September 11, 2009 11:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
RE: As an American, I am tired of being told what is "in American interests" by small ethnocentric groups tied in with a foreign country, lobbies and Think Tanks such as JINSA, AIPAC, etc, what is in MY interests. - Star
MY COMMENT: Unfortunately, "Pastor" John Hagee and the Christian zombies of the far right fervently believe in the "inerrancy" of most of the core neocon tenets. These Christian fundamentalist "sheeple" have become the largest segment (by far) of the U.S. population to have a "dual loyalty". As a consequence of this cult-like devotion to Israel and their bizarre longing for the Apocalypse, these simpletons have an über-priapic determination to see that Iran is attacked (preferably with the U.S. being in on the "action").
September 11, 2009 3:42 PM | Reply | Permalink