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| Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon (left) |
Activist Post
Despite the fact that the Israeli military chief clearly stated just last month that Iran has not even decided to build a nuclear weapon and U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has clearly said that Iran is not developing a nuclear weapon on more than one occasion, and even the U.S. intelligence community agrees that there is no evidence to show that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon, some Israeli leaders refuse to accept the truth.
One such individual who continues to refuse to recognize reality is Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon.
Ya’alon made this very clear at a conference held by the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in nonsensically claiming that while nations are attempting to hold meaningful talks with Iran, the Iranian government is actually “laughing all the way to a bomb.”
Keep in mind, Ya’alon is the same person who openly promoted supporting terrorism targeting Iran at the Herzliya Conference earlier this year. To be fair, Ya’alon is far from alone in this position as former mayor of New York City Rudolph Giuliani has also expressed support for terrorism as a way to stop the imaginary Iranian nuclear weapons program.
Ya’alon claimed – again without any evidence whatsoever unless you give a terrorist group who provides unsubstantiated and unreliable reports credence – that Iran “continues to strive for a nuclear weapon since it is not convinced the West is seriously contemplating a military strike against its facilities,” as reported by Haaretz.
It is also worth mentioning that this same terrorist group was, according to U.S. officials quoted anonymously, trained to conduct their terrorist activity in Iran by the Israeli Mossad, while other reports indicate that they were also trained on U.S. soil.
For some strange reason, the author of the Haaretz story, Amos Harel, nonsensically brings in a completely rational statement from the Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast.
Mehmanparast stated that Western nations continuing to bombard Iran with crushing sanctions while attempting to engage in meaningful nuclear talks is far from conducive to reaching an agreement.
“This approach of pressure concurrent with negotiations will never work. These countries should not enter negotiations with such illusions and misinterpretations,” said Mehmanparast.
Interestingly, the West’s position – one which is shared by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – seems to be that everyone except Iran is allowed to enter the negotiations with a slew of conditions, potentially including the closure of all Iranian nuclear facilities.
Ya’alon’s position is only rational when you consider the fact that Israel is apparently genuinely concerned that successful negotiations with Iran could prevent an Israeli unilateral military strike on Iran.
From that point of view, it only makes sense for Ya’alon to continue to spout baseless propaganda at every turn in order to minimize the chances of that window for a military strike closing.
Quite unfortunately, it appears that the United States is ready to back Israel if they were to engage in such an attack and the insane legislation which could give endless military aid to Israel further reinforces that contention.
Ya’alon believes that the Iranian government is continuing to push for a nuclear weapons capability despite the crippling sanctions on them and the mountains of evidence which contradict his claims. “During talks with world powers, the Iranians have managed to enrich 750 kilograms of uranium enriched to 3.5 percent, and 36 kilograms of uranium to 20 percent,” Ya’alon said, without pointing out that this is nowhere near what they would need to produce a nuclear weapon.
“Iran, regardless of pressure, is in the meantime laughing all the way to a bomb,” he added.
Ya’alon further claimed that there is no indication that Iran feels “threatened, despite economic hardships. It has yet to bring the regime to the dilemma of a bomb or survival. They’re not there.”
Unfortunately for Ya’alon, there are still many people around the globe who are able to look at the evidence and accept reality instead of shaking their heads and giving credence only to claims that support their preconceived notions, despite the complete lack of reliability of such claims.
“The problem is that leaders in Tehran aren’t convinced that the West is determined to go all the way, whether through sanctions or military action, since that would influence oil prices,” Ya’alon said.
This statement reminded me of last year when Israeli leaders were calling upon Western nations to present Iran with a credible military threat, despite the fact that there is no more evidence for an Iranian nuclear weapons program than there is for Nazi bases on the moon.
“[The] working assumption in Iran is that nothing will happen in 2012, since it’s an elections years [sic] in the United States, since they know the West,” Ya’alon stated.
“As far as they’re concerned, there’s no ‘green light’ for an Israeli strike, so they’re not coming to these talks with a sense of urgency,” he added, while ignoring the fact that his colleagues have already said that they will not seek American approval for a strike according to an anonymous U.S. intelligence official cited by the Associated Press.
“Our position is clear. As far as we’re concerned, they need to forgo all enrichment, remove all enriched material and close [the nuclear facility] in Qom,” Ya’alon said.
Unfortunately for Ya’alon, Israel has absolutely no place meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation, especially since Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which Israel is not.
In other words, Ya’alon and other Israeli leaders can make all of the demands they like but they have absolutely no authority whatsoever and Iran indeed has the right to continue their peaceful nuclear program.
Ya’alon’s position, which is the same as other upper-level Israeli leaders, is laughably hypocritical given that Israel is not even a signatory to the NPT and yet they continue to hold unchecked nuclear weapons and a covert nuclear program with zero international oversight.
Ya’alon made other erroneous claims like that the entire Middle East could “not be stabilize[d] without dealing with the Iranian regime,” while it is Israel who is training and supporting terrorists, not Iran.
The entire panel discussion on Iran at INSS was pure propaganda with no basis in reality all aimed at pushing for a military strike.
Speakers included INSS director Amos Yadlin, a former head of Military Intelligence; former Mossad chief Meir Dagan; and former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi. According to Haaretz, “All three broadly agreed on the need to prepare a military option against Iran (though Dagan sounded a bit skeptical even of that), but stressed the need to exhaust every possible alternative before deciding to use this option.”
Presenting the conclusions of a team of so-called experts at INSS (who would be more accurately characterized as masterful propagandists), Yadlin claimed that any attack on Iran would be the beginning of “a prolonged effort,” likely indicating that they would seek a potentially endless war like the others the West has been pushed into under false pretenses.
Yadlin said that Israel must confirm that the international community is “ready to mobilize to continue barring Iran” from getting their hands on nuclear weapons, even after a military strike.
Just operating from a purely logical standpoint, it seems to be rational to conclude that since Iran isn’t pursuing nuclear weapons now, if they became the victims of a military strike, they very well might pursue them after in an attempt to deter or fight back against another baseless attack.
Of course, that would mean that Iranian leaders would be willing to sacrifice themselves and their entire population in order to retaliate against another strike, which I personally do not see as a logical assumption.
Yadlin also attempted to give support to an Israeli military strike on Iran by stating that “certain extreme forecasts of the havoc an Iranian counterstrike would wreak on Israel’s home front were exaggerated.”
All in all, despite some quiet voices of slight opposition like that from Dagan who said, “If we attack today, not only will we not delay the Iranian bomb, but we’ll solve all the regime’s domestic problems,” referring to his projection that an Israeli attack would unite all Iranians behind their government, the INSS conference was more lies, propaganda, fear mongering and baseless claims.
Personally I find this type of activity nothing short of reprehensible and potentially dangerous as it very well could lead to the loss of life, something which I do not think is ever acceptable.
All I can do is hope that the world is not insane enough to believe claims made by clearly delusional individuals who repeatedly refuse to acknowledge reality in favor of their own manufactured worldview.
This article first appeared at End the Lie.
Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis database End The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. He is available for podcast and radio interviews. Madison also now has his own radio show on Orion Talk Radio from 8 pm -- 10 pm Pacific, which you can find HERE. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at admin@EndtheLie.com
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