Netanyahu’s pick for the White House
Ali Rizk
"I couldn't agree with you more Mitt" , commented "Israeli" prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made his pro-Likud (and not just pro-"Israeli") , anti-Iranian statements during a meeting between the two in al-Quds (Jerusalem).
Netanyahu's verbal and facial expressions during the photo-op with Romney were all too obvious. It is no secret: Romney is Netanyahu's pick (although for now it seems this pick will not make it to the White House according to the opinion polls).
While there is no significant difference in the policy of US president in the Middle East and the pro-"Israeli" approach (as Obama's first term has shown particularly with the latest financial package he approved to assist the Israeli military), there is one factor which distinguishes the Republican party: the anti Islamic right wing ideology.
Hizbullah secretary general Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah has stated that "Israel" was leading an anti-Islamic campaign targeting Islam as a religion. This came on the backdrop of the burning of the holy Quran in Afghanistan and the burning of mosque's in Europe. In the unlikely event that Romney does make his way to the white house, Netanyahu will have found his perfect partner to promote his anti Islamic agenda and achieve the goal of portraying Islam as evil.
The Republican nominee is someone who is virtually zero in foreign policy ,making him all the more prone to his advisors. And the advisors he has chosen indicate already how strongly a Romney administration would support Netanyahu's Islamophobia agenda. Here are just some of the names:
The anti -Islamic (and to some extent even anti-Arab) advice of these people were already on display during Romney's visit to "Israel". In a speech Romney spoke of the "stark differences in the economies of "Israel" and the Palestinian territories (referring to how "Israel" has a much stronger economy than that of the Palestinians) and then attributed this to "cultural differences among other things".
So there is basically a repetition of the Bush scenario, where we have someone who knows nothing about the outside world being given advice by people driven by a right wing, pro "Israeli", and this time around pro Likud agenda.
But during the days of the Bush administration the focus of Islamophobia, at least at the beginning was al-Qaeda (recall here that the Bush administration even spoke of links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda as one of the justifications to go to war in Iraq). These days Benjamin Netanyahu is focusing on another kind of Islamophobia which is otherwise referred to as Iranophobia. The Netanyahu government is trying endlessly to portray Iran, together with Hizbullah as the source of what it would like to call "Islamic evil". Its latest attempt came following the attack in Bulgaria which left at least five "Israelis" dead. "Israeli" officials quickly pointed to Hizbullah even as the Bulgarain authorities were still conducting their investigation (and indeed as of yet they have not mentioned Hizbullah's involvement in these attacks).
"Israeli" foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman then travelled to Brussels to get Hizbullah placed on the EU's terrorist list, only to be rebuffed by the Europeans. Romney already seems to be playing along with Netanyahu. In a recent interview with Haaretz that Romney mentioned Iran and Hizbullah several times, describing them as global threats while making little or no mention of al-Qaeda. Back in the Bush days there was no Netanyahu and although there was enmity towards Iran it can't be compared to the situation today. So in the case that we do have a republican white house come the end of the year, then a new player will be added to the right wing extreme anti-Iranian ideological team (this team who in addition to "Israel" is also comprised of some Arab states as can be clearly seen by the appointment of Bandar Bin Sultan as head of Saudi intelligence.)
Sayyed Hasan nasrallah spoke recently about a soft war being waged against us. A war which targets our culture and our values. If there is a change in the white house at the end of this year this war will only become more fierce.
Source: moqawama.org
"I couldn't agree with you more Mitt" , commented "Israeli" prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made his pro-Likud (and not just pro-"Israeli") , anti-Iranian statements during a meeting between the two in al-Quds (Jerusalem).
Netanyahu's verbal and facial expressions during the photo-op with Romney were all too obvious. It is no secret: Romney is Netanyahu's pick (although for now it seems this pick will not make it to the White House according to the opinion polls).
While there is no significant difference in the policy of US president in the Middle East and the pro-"Israeli" approach (as Obama's first term has shown particularly with the latest financial package he approved to assist the Israeli military), there is one factor which distinguishes the Republican party: the anti Islamic right wing ideology.Hizbullah secretary general Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah has stated that "Israel" was leading an anti-Islamic campaign targeting Islam as a religion. This came on the backdrop of the burning of the holy Quran in Afghanistan and the burning of mosque's in Europe. In the unlikely event that Romney does make his way to the white house, Netanyahu will have found his perfect partner to promote his anti Islamic agenda and achieve the goal of portraying Islam as evil.
The Republican nominee is someone who is virtually zero in foreign policy ,making him all the more prone to his advisors. And the advisors he has chosen indicate already how strongly a Romney administration would support Netanyahu's Islamophobia agenda. Here are just some of the names:
- John Lehman, a close friend of former deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the main architect for the war on Iraq.
- John Bolton , known for his anti-Islamic Hawkish views and in particular for his anti-Iranian stances. Bolton also opened his secret private channels with the "Israeli's" during the July 2006 war when he was US ambassador to the United Nations.
- Elliot Cohen who is affiliated with the neo conservative American enterprise institute that includes many scholars who played a significant role in the decision to go to war in Iraq.
- The Lebanese-American Walid Pharres who is well known for his anti-Islamic views which are reminiscent of the Lebanese civil war.
The anti -Islamic (and to some extent even anti-Arab) advice of these people were already on display during Romney's visit to "Israel". In a speech Romney spoke of the "stark differences in the economies of "Israel" and the Palestinian territories (referring to how "Israel" has a much stronger economy than that of the Palestinians) and then attributed this to "cultural differences among other things".
So there is basically a repetition of the Bush scenario, where we have someone who knows nothing about the outside world being given advice by people driven by a right wing, pro "Israeli", and this time around pro Likud agenda.
But during the days of the Bush administration the focus of Islamophobia, at least at the beginning was al-Qaeda (recall here that the Bush administration even spoke of links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda as one of the justifications to go to war in Iraq). These days Benjamin Netanyahu is focusing on another kind of Islamophobia which is otherwise referred to as Iranophobia. The Netanyahu government is trying endlessly to portray Iran, together with Hizbullah as the source of what it would like to call "Islamic evil". Its latest attempt came following the attack in Bulgaria which left at least five "Israelis" dead. "Israeli" officials quickly pointed to Hizbullah even as the Bulgarain authorities were still conducting their investigation (and indeed as of yet they have not mentioned Hizbullah's involvement in these attacks).
"Israeli" foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman then travelled to Brussels to get Hizbullah placed on the EU's terrorist list, only to be rebuffed by the Europeans. Romney already seems to be playing along with Netanyahu. In a recent interview with Haaretz that Romney mentioned Iran and Hizbullah several times, describing them as global threats while making little or no mention of al-Qaeda. Back in the Bush days there was no Netanyahu and although there was enmity towards Iran it can't be compared to the situation today. So in the case that we do have a republican white house come the end of the year, then a new player will be added to the right wing extreme anti-Iranian ideological team (this team who in addition to "Israel" is also comprised of some Arab states as can be clearly seen by the appointment of Bandar Bin Sultan as head of Saudi intelligence.)
Sayyed Hasan nasrallah spoke recently about a soft war being waged against us. A war which targets our culture and our values. If there is a change in the white house at the end of this year this war will only become more fierce.
Source: moqawama.org
