War with Iran?

I'm getting very concerned with the direction of talk in America.  There's more and more about the threat that Iran poses to the US, and Israel, and to everyone else.  Be afraid.  Be more afraid!  Iran is a threat!  We must do something!

There were some attacks on Israelis recently, and Israel is vowing retaliation for the one in Bangkok.  While I deplore terror attacks (of ANY kind) I was happy to see that ABC News did report that these attacks were in response to the assassination of Iranian scientists in Iran.

The US has sent more ships into the Arabian Gulf, including an aircraft carrier.  They were watched by Iranian forces.

Iran is putting nuclear fuel rods that it manufactured into their reactor in Tehran today.

Oliver Stone's son has accepted Islam while working on a documentary in Iran.

Let's hope that calmer heads prevail and the US does not attack Iran, preemptively or otherwise.  But the rhetoric is really heating up.

What's going on with Iran?

I was watching ABC News a few nights ago and at first I thought I had misheard the report.  Martha Raddatz was talking about Hizbollah operating in Latin America (video link).  I started searching around and here's what I've found so far:


The Christian Science Monitor has a good article about how the threat of Hizbollah in Latin America is probably over-hyped.  Some men funneling money to Hizbollah does not mean Hizbollah has terror cells operating there.

US intelligence seems to be split over whether or not Iran may be willing to attack on US soil.  Some cite the plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US last year.  I'm a bit concerned by this quote from the Director of National Intelligence:

The plot "shows that some Iranian officials — probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime."

First of all, there's a big difference between plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador in America and plotting to kill Americans in America.  Secondly, by directly saying Ali Khamenei's name, the DNI is laying the way for an attack against Iran.  Too many people are starting to understand that Ahmadinejad is NOT in charge of Iran.  The DNI used the political method of saying "probably" instead of outright accusing Khamenei.  But most Americans won't hear that word anyway.  All they'll hear is that Iran is using terrors cells to attack America.  And if Al-Qa'eda is hurting, then I guess we need somebody to be scared of.  I'm getting deja vu (again)!

Israel is putting all its offices worldwide on alert and warning Jewish organizations to be careful.

More on the possible Iran threat from DangerRoom.

Finally, here's an amusing look at the US-Iran situation, through the looking glass.

So why are we so terrified of Iran getting nukes?  Pakistan has nukes.  Even North Korea has nukes!  The main reason I think we don't want Iran to get nuclear weapons is because of Israel.  At some point the United States is going to have to take a step back and reassess what's going on.  If the US truly wants peace in the Middle East, then it needs to realize that supporting the Israelis above everyone else is not going to achieve that end. 

To clarify my position:  Israel has been around too long for it to go away.  The Middle East is going to have to accept the existence of Israel.  But Israel is going to have to accept the existence of displaced Palestinians.  And the US will too.

Iran News

Turkey is trying to figure out what to do, if it can't get oil from Iran because of the embargo.  There are also fewer Iranian tourists visiting Turkey, as the Iranian rial has fallen in value.  The central bank in Iran is trying to fix that with a single fixed exchange rate.

An Iranian university professor was arrested in the United States.  He's accused of sending lab equipment to Iran.

Three Iranian opposition leaders have been under house arrest for almost a year now.

The Institute for Science and International Security released a report saying that Iran will not make nuclear weapons this year.

Israel is very concerned about a nuclear Iran.  A former IDF chief said that Israel should try to stop Iran, and military action may be needed.  But according to Time magazine, a senior IDF official has already said that Israel can't stop Iran's nuclear program, only delay it some.

Religious Radicalism Strikes Again

I have previously written about problems between ultra-Orthodox Jews and moderate Jews in Israel.  Here's a further look at what's going on.  Everything from pepper-spray attacks to throwing stones at women.

So, if I extrapolate this according to the Muslim Judging Scale, that means that all Jews are violent extremists who want to impose Torah law on the West and we must fight them and kick them out of our country.  Right?

New Gaza Flotilla! Update II

Israel has intercepted the two ships of the flotilla.  Some of the activists have already been deported.  According to the article

On Thursday, the Obama administration warned U.S.citizens on the boats that they may face legal action for violating Israeli and American law. The activists include Americans and citizens of eight other countries.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. was renewing its warning to Americans "not to involve themselves in this activity."

The U.S., like Israel and the European Union, considers Hamas a terrorist organization. 

 Wow.  So if you're trying to right a wrong, but it's illegal, you can go to jail.  Reminds me of all the attacks that happened in the South during the Civil Rights Movement.  As for Hamas being a terrorist organization.  Yes, it's a terrorist organization.  It's also a political organization and an aid/charity organization.

I don't understand how the United States can condone all of its dealings with Yasser Arafat, the former leader of the Palestinian National Authority, leader of the PLO (terrorist organization), founder of Fatah (political organization that carried out terror attacks), but then get upset when Hamas wins a democratic election and threaten Americans with legal action for helping Palestinians.  What hypocrisy!

And why haven't I heard anything about this Gaza Flotilla on American news?

Women's News November 3, 2011

Women in Tunisia are demonstrating for women's rights.  They are concerned because an Islamist party won the election.

Apparently there are few women pictured in advertisements in Jerusalem.  A group is trying to change that by hanging up posters of volunteer women.  The group thinks that advertisers are self-censoring ads because they're worried the ultra-Orthodox Jews will complain and cause problems.

You may remember the Iranian women's soccer team had to forfeit their Olympic bid because FIFA would not let them wear headscarves.  It looks like FIFA has finally changed its mind and will now allow women to wear headscarves.

New Gaza Flotilla! Update I

Another flotilla is now underway, heading towards Gaza.  The organizers kept it secret until they reached international waters, because they were worried about being stopped before they left Turkey.  Israel is tracking the ships and plans to stop them from reaching Gaza.


Democracy Now! (a US radio/TV program) has a correspondent on board one of the ships.  See photos here.

Israel vs. Iran?

Apparently Israeli PM Netanyahu and Defence Minister Barak are trying to persuade their government to make a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear program.  See Yahoo! article.  Iran says that would cause a lot of damage to Israel and the US.  Meanwhile, a UK report says that Israel is trying to upgrade its nuclear capability.  And The Guardian (UK) reports that the UK is getting ready to help the US in a possible military attack against Iran.

Several Haaretz bloggers are speaking out against an attack:

• Israel's radical leaders forcing an attack on Iran
• IAF chief must save Israel from futile attack on Iran

I'm a bit concerned about this situation.  This wouldn't be the first time Israel has bombed another country's nuclear reactor.  Israel wants to be the only country in the Middle East with nuclear capability and I don't know how far they will go to ensure that.  I understand that they don't trust Iran, but the general idea behind having nuclear weapons is not to actually use them, but to use them as a deterrent.  Like the Cold War between the US and the USSR. 

Yes, there are some crazy individuals out there.  People often don't realize that Ahmadinejad is NOT the Iranian government.  But I don't think even the real Iranian government would actually nuke Israel because Israel would respond in kind.  It's called Mutually Assured Destruction, and it's why the US and USSR generally fought each other through proxy wars. 

Maybe if more countries in the Middle East had nuclear weapons, Israel would actually sit down at the negotiation table and be willing to negotiate instead of demand.  And maybe then there would be peace.

Iranian Plot Against Saudi Arabia

Weird news yesterday about a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador, and maybe even bomb the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C.  Iran is supposedly behind the plot.  Considering the tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, it doesn't really surprise me.  But to actually do this on US soil seems a bit bold, maybe even an act of war to some politicians.

Juan Cole has more on the situation - that the Iranians behind it may be running a drug cartel.  And the evidence he cites is convincing: if it was government sanctioned, then it was pretty sloppy work.

Of course, that brings up the topic of why is the US government claiming it's Iran if it's really a rogue agent?  Because of US friendship with the Saudis?  The Saudi's are very upset and want some kind of action taken.  So is this just another rung on the ladder of "We really need to do something about Iran?"  Will it be easier for the Israelis to possibly bomb Iranian nuclear plants after this?

Palestinian Statehood

This week Palestinians will ask the United Nations to recognize Palestine as a state.  And everybody is freaking out.  Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is asking Palestinian Authority President Abbas for talks, instead of the UN bid.  But Abbas is determined to go through with the bid.  Some Israeli settlers are already protesting against any Palestinian state.  Israeli President Peres is talking to the leaders of various countries, asking them to oppose the bid, and Netanyahu is on his way to New York.

I'm not sure where I stand on this issue.  On the one hand, declaring a new state could seriously undermine any peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis.  Some Israelis are worried about an "ethnic cleansing" removing Jews from a new Palestine (I guess they've forgotten about the "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians).

On the other hand, the peace process hasn't really worked so far anyway.  And maybe if there was a Palestinian state, it would be harder for Israel to continue illegally blockading parts of it.  I wonder if that is part of the problem.  Right now, Israel can claim to fight evil Palestinian terrorists who live nearby.  But if Palestine becomes a state, then Israel would be fighting another nation.  In some ways it would legitimize Palestinian attacks on Israel and delegitimize Israel "responses."  It will be interesting to see what happens this week.

Women's News August 25, 2011

More problems with women being forced to work in the Middle East.  See previous posts.  This time the woman was from Madagascar.  She spent 15 years as basically a slave in Lebanon, before a welfare agency tracked her down.  And for anybody out there who thinks this is a Middle Eastern problem, or a problem for "dark-skinned" people, it even happens in the United States of America (see report).

A Muslim woman is suing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch.  She claims she was fired because she wouldn't take off her hijab at work.  Another Muslim woman filed a lawsuit against them in 2009, for a similar reason.

In July, several women reporters had to remove their bras for a security check, so they could meet with the Israeli prime minister.  The Foreign Press Association (FPA) denounced the incident.  The same thing happened to a pregnant Al-Jazeera reporter in January.  The FPA is concerned about sending correspondents to events where this could happen to them.  Unfortunately, that may be precisely why it is happening.  It's degrading and humiliating but if you give in to it, then they've won.  Maybe at the next press event, the reporters should ALL be women.

New Gaza Flotilla!

A flotilla has been preparing in Greece for a trip to Gaza.  Israel, of course, is trying to stop it.  The latest news is that some of the ships have been sabotaged.

Check out this quote:

Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said yesterday the flotilla was reinforcing the fiction that there was hunger in the Strip, while in fact this was not the case. "The flotilla we're supposed to meet is creating a story that doesn't exist to maintain an actual story," Gantz said. "Anyone reading the papers will see that, at the end of the day, the situation reflected in Gaza is that of water parks and the beach, and the distance between that and a humanitarian problem is so great there isn't any connection."

Apparently the UK disagrees with that, although they don't recommend a flotilla.

Quick News Roundup February 12, 2011

ArabNews (Saudi Arabia) reports that the subcontractors to the US Embassy are abusing their employees.  They cite a report by the US Office of Inspector General, and provide a link to it.  Abuse of South Asian employees is fairly common in the Gulf.  I don't mean that as an excuse, just as a piece of information.

A senior rabbi in Israel is under arrest for supporting a book (Torat Hamelech) that says when it is okay to kill Gentiles.  He refused to be questioned by police, because it is a religious issue.  This whole thing originally came to a head in January of last year (see this article).  I'm not sure what to think of it.  It sounds as though some people want it to be thought of as a scholarly work, while others see it as inciting violence.  The article I linked to makes some good points about the authors of the study (also rabbis) and that they may be inciting violence.  I will say one thing though:  if a Catholic priest wrote a book saying that the Bible says sometimes it's okay to kill Jews, there would be a huge uproar and calls of anti-Semitism.  But almost no one would say it's a religious issue and the police should stay out of it.

There's more about that senior rabbi in this article, which compares the Muslim Brotherhood to the ultra-Orthodox religious right in Israel.  They believe that Judaism trumps democracy, and want to take Israel even further down that road.

This was written before Mubarak left, but it's a quick look at how events in Egypt are affecting the Gulf.  And this more recent article covers the current situation.  Even Palestine is affected and should have elections in September.

Flotilla Investigation Update V

Well, the Israeli panel investigating the flotilla has reached their decision:  the Israeli government and military did nothing wrong.  And the blockade of Gaza is legal.  Somehow that's exactly what I was expecting.

Russia Recognizes Palestine

President Medvedev said that Russia would continue to support a Palestinian state, the same as the Soviet Union did in 1988.  Israeli is downplaying the matter.  Medvedev met with the king of Jordan after trying to visit Israel.  Also, apparently Lebanon put a resolution condemning Israeli settlements before the UN Security Council.  And since the US is trying to support Hariri, they may have a hard time vetoing it.  Will Spain be the next country to recognize Palestine?

Lebanon on the Brink?: Update I

The President of Lebanon will start talking with the different factions on Monday, to try and find a new prime minister.  Hizbollah, of course, wants the new guy to be one of their allies.  They're claiming that their faction (called March 8) has a majority in parliament.  And since Israel is on the southern border of Lebanon, the Israelis are on alert (or not) in case things turn violent, although Hizbollah leader Nasrallah says it won't.  Everyone is concerned about what's going to happen next.  Even the Lebanese stock market fell.  Let's hope that Nasrallah is sincere, and that this fight stays strictly political.

Another Israeli Boycott

This time it's Israeli academics.  A group of professors has banded together and decided to boycott a college that's in a settlement in the West Bank.  The professors signed a petition saying they won't participate in any activities there.

This is the kind of thing that will help create peace.  As more and more Israeli groups boycott illegal settlements, and more and more academics start writing about Israel in the 20th century.  Too often, Israeli historians who write about what's been done to the Palestinians are called "self-hating Jews."  Because pointing out that your own people have done something wrong means there must be something wrong with you.

The whole thing reminds me of America in the 1950s and 1960s.  If you were a child then, you learned about how people came to America and made a nation out of nothing.  Manifest Destiny was king.  Nowadays, you learn that other people actually lived in America before the white man got here.  And these other people were killed and herded onto reservations.  It seems like Israel is just starting to go through that process.  That enough people are finally saying, Stop It!  I want to know the truth.  Only after BOTH sides have accepted reality will peace be an option.

Corruption in Gaza Lines

Al-Jazeera has an interesting story about Gaza.  Apparently some American companies had to pay bribes to the Israelis to get their products past the border crossing.  All this was before Hamas took over and Israel started the blockade.  This information came to light from the latest WikiLeaks cable release.

Land Convoy Reaches Gaza

A convoy called Asia 1 has reached Gaza.  The convoy started in India, and reached Gaza through Egypt.  There's another part of the convoy that should be arriving by ship.  We'll have to wait and see if the ship gets through the blockade.  The convoy was supposed to reach Gaza on the anniversary of Cast Lead, the Israeli offensive against Gaza, but was a few days late.

Palestinian Activist Banned From Home

A Palestinian from Jerusalem has been banned from that city.  He led protests against new Jewish housing there, so the Israelis used an old law to ban him from the city.  He originally filed an appeal, but withdrew it, because he didn't think the Israeli Supreme Court would rule in his favor, instead of the Israeli military.