http://www.juancole.com/2015/08/listening-netanyahu-anything.html
Why is the GOP listening to Netanyahu on Iran? They just hate Obama & anything he does
Hamid Zangeneh | (Informed Comment) | – –
We
have been bombarded with a great deal of punch and counterpunch with
regard to the nuclear deal reached between Iran and 5+1 countries. It
is somewhat difficult to separate facts from fictions, especially when
it comes from fear-mongers/warmongers who oppose the deal. Here are
some general clarifications.
First of all it is a narrow deal. It
is only about nuclear proliferation and has nothing to do with the
normalization of relations between Iran and the US. Therefore, while
important, freedom of American citizens jailed in Iran for whatever
reasons, legitimate or otherwise, was not a part of the negotiation and
therefore is not included in the deal. It is one of those diplomatic
undertaking that no one can claim credit for pursuing it and when it is
done and achieved people usually dismiss it as a part of the job.
Nonetheless, from what we can understand both FM Zarif and Secretary
Kerry have been doggedly poking relevant respective authorities to get
them released and take the subject off the table so they can have a
better environment for other important bilateral and multilateral
affairs.
On another front, some people expect or expected that
Iran would tuck tail and resign from politics and international
activities to achieve this deal, which is, to say the least, foolish
expectation. Iran’s involvement in financial, moral, spiritual, and
material connection with Hezbollah of Lebanon, Hamas of Gaza, Houthis of
Yemen, Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society of Bahrain, and Bashar
Al-Assad of Syria were not on the table either. It is important to
understand that Iran, just like any other country, was and will remain a
player in the region irrespective of the deal and its fate in the US
congress. Iran will, as any reasonable intelligent individual would
expect, pursue its national interests, which may or may not please Saudi
Arabia, Turkey, and/or Israel. These pursuits might include support
for some groups or individuals similar to what Saudis, Turks, or
Israelis are doing ̶ not to mention what Britain, France, Russia,
China, and the US are doing throughout the world.
Even though
Israel’s PM Netanyahu has been pretending to be the omniscient
foreteller of the world above and beyond everyone else in the last
couple of decades, he has been wrong and misleading at every important
juncture. He was wrong on Iraq when he said removing Saddam would bring
peace and tranquility to the region, he has been wrong on Iran then and
now by repeatedly saying Iran is 2-3 months away from testing a nuclear
device. Something that we know now has been baseless, to say the
least.
Republicans in their unbelievable personal hatred of
President Obama have gone beyond party politics and have united with
right wing Jewish-American groups such as AIPAC and have been promoting
and elevating PM Netanyahu to be their supreme leader and superior to
our own President in determining what is good for the US national
interests. It seems like Republicans have abrogated their oath of
office and have ceded their constitutional responsibilities to the
Israeli PM.
It is understandable for PM Netanyahu to ignore his
detractors but it is unimaginable that Republicans ignore, to the
detriment of US national security interests, all the independent
security, military, diplomatic, and scientific experts who support the
deal, This exclusions is not confined to the Americans. The
substantial number of Israeli intelligence and security personnel who
do not fall in line with Netanyahu’s ideology are also ignored and
excluded.
Finally, the media as a whole are beating the drums of
war as if they have not learned from their past experiences, when they
were railroaded into cheerleading American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Today, again and in a similar fashion and ferocity, they are
demonizing Iran, which is a prelude to a war. They are repeating and
rehashing old allegations against Iran from two and three decades ago,
which are no more relevant to today’s US-Iranian relationship than are
the past dastardly deeds committed by the US with regard to the Iranian
people (e.g. the 1953 CIA coup).
So, what are the reasons for all
this ferocious oppositions from PM Netanyahu, King Salman of Saudi
Arabia, and Republicans all about? Israel and Saudi Arabia are doing
what they are lecturing Iran not to do. They are playing power
politics. They are happy and content with the status quo. They are
afraid of a strong and assertive Iran in that neighborhood. They do not
want a change in the balance of power. Therefore, rather than trying
to accommodate the situation, they are trying to sabotage a positive
change for Iran and the US with potentially positive externality for the
region and the rest of the world. They believe there is no positive-sum
game and still living in old mercantilist zero-sum game time warp.
Republicans
on the other hand, are playing politics with the American national
interests, which is unfortunate. The GOP lawmakers are abdicating in
an unprecedented way their own responsibility to represent the American
public in favor of following the lead of a foreign power. It is
unprecedented in the history of the US. This will come back to haunt
them in the future. I hope they are not successful in damaging American
standing and prestige in the world beyond repair. Time will tell.
Hamid Zangeneh is Professor of Economics at Widener University and an Iran Specialist.
We
have a few days left to the final day (Nov. 24 target date) of this
round of negotiations between Iran and 5+1 countries. There are some
contradictory messages from both sides, some of which are unsettling. It
seems that both sides are trying to get the last ounces of advantage
from the other side, which is unfortunate. Both sides have been treating
these negotiations as if they were zero-sum games, they are not. 