Lawrence J.
Haas
Read Larry's bio and previous columns
May 12, 2009
U.S.
Takes Risky Approach to Iran and the Middle East
As President Obama
prepares to host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington
next week, the United States and its allies are crafting an approach
toward the Middle East that carries high risk to Western interests and
leaves Israel increasingly alone in an ever-more turbulent region.
The Obama
Administration plans to travel the well-worn path of its predecessors –
pursuing peace between Israel and the Palestinians, seeking a U.S.
agreement with Syria that would separate Damascus from Tehran, and
coaxing Iran to abandon its quest for nuclear weapons and renounce
terrorism.
Meanwhile, a skeptical
Netanyahu hopes to convince the United States and its allies instead to
heed the words of Abba Eban, the former Israeli foreign minister, who
cautioned some 30 years ago, with a bit of wry humor, that “political
leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.”
And which “political
leaders” does Netanyahu have in mind? The very ones with whom, the
administration hopes, the United States and Israel will craft agreements
– those of Iran and Syria, of their terrorist clients Hezbollah and
Hamas, and of the supposedly more “moderate” Palestinian Authority.
These leaders have made
clear that they have other priorities. Iranian leaders threaten the
United States and Israel and pledge to pursue their nuclear program no
matter what. Iran and Syria recently reaffirmed their support for
Hezbollah and Hamas – groups who do not recognize Israel and work every
day to destroy it. And even Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud
Abbas refuses to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
Rather than admit the
obvious, the West – the governments and opinion leaders in Washington,
London, Paris, Berlin and other capitals – ignores such words and deeds
and adopts the posture of a stubborn child, hands over ears, who screams
“I’m not listening” loudly enough to drown out all other sound.
Worse, when forced to
explain the continuing violence in a troubled region, the child-like
West screams “Israel,” blaming Jerusalem for the terrorism that comes
its way, for the lack of an Israel-Palestinian deal and a larger
Arab-Israeli accord – and for all other manner of suffering there and
elsewhere.
Consider: International
inspectors believe Iran has enough uranium for one atom bomb, it has
built the centrifuges that would produce two bombs a year, and it is
between months and a year or two of passing the “point of no return”
when it comes to the technology and know-how of nuclear weaponry.
With nuclear bombs (and
with ballistic missiles that already could blanket Israel and the Arab
world and reach southern Europe), Iran would be even freer to withstand
outside pressure while confronting its enemies, supporting its terrorist
clients and extending its influence across the region.
Not surprisingly,
Netanyahu focuses foremost on Iran’s nuclear pursuit. Increasingly, so
do Arab states, including Egypt to Saudi Arabia, who privately urge
Washington to concentrate more on the problem and have announced they
will launch their own nuclear programs in an obvious effort to
counteract Tehran.
But the administration
– hoping to improve America’s image – pressures Jerusalem to focus on
Israeli-Palestinian peace-making in the time-honored but misguided
notion that the Palestinians will accept land for peace, and that
success in this endeavor will presage success across the region.
Success will not come
there anyway, no matter what Israel offers or however much time it
spends on the cause. The terrorists will not support it, their sponsors
in Tehran and Damascus would not allow it even if they did and, for all
their suffering, the Palestinian people do not seem to want it.
Were negotiations ever
to get serious, Hamas and Hezbollah would do what they always do –
launch terrorist strikes, the former from Gaza and the latter from
southern Lebanon, that would derail the talks, force Israel to respond
in kind and set things back to square one.
As the administration
prepares to pursue forlorn paths in the region, Iran rushes ahead with a
nuclear program that would threaten the United States and its allies
(both Israel and the Arab states), destabilize the region, inoculate
Hezbollah and Hamas against attack and feed Tehran’s regional
aspirations.
Time is short and the
risks are high. The White House will soon face the choice between the
frightening reality of a nuclear Iran or the kind of sanctions, economic
or otherwise, that might finally get Tehran’s attention.
© 2009
North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
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