Despite the ballyhoo of the recent Aipac national policy conference
in Washington, when Israel-US bonds were feted, relations between the
two countries are currently more strained than at any time since 1991.
That was when the elder George Bush, as US president, fiercely lobbied
Yitzchak Shamir to join in the Madrid peace conference.
America's spy chief was sent on a secret mission to Israel to warn its leaders not to launch a surprise attack on Iran without notifying the US Administration.
As Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, prepares to visit Washington, it emerged yesterday that Leon Panetta, the head of the CIA, went to Israel two weeks ago. He sought assurances from Mr Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, the Defence Minister, that their hawkish new Government would not attack Iran without alerting Washington.
The Iranian artist was executed on Friday for a murder allegedly committed when she was a juvenile and for which she retracted her brief confession, claiming she was covering up for her boyfriend.
The prison authorities hanged Miss Darabi, 23, even though the head of Iran's judiciary granted her a two-month stay of execution on April 19 amid international outrage over her case. They also did not give her lawyer the required 48 hours notice.
Horrific new details have emerged of her last desperate plea for help from Rasht prison as jail guards came to lead her away.
JERUSALEM - The Israeli military is preparing itself to launch a massive aerial assault on
Iran's nuclear facilities within days of being given the go-ahead by its new
government.
Among the steps taken to ready Israeli forces for what would be a risky raid
requiring pinpoint aerial strikes are the acquisition of three Airborne
Warning and Control (AWAC) aircraft and regional missions to simulate the
attack.
Two nationwide civil defence drills will help to prepare the public for the
retaliation that Israel could face.
JERUSALEM -- Israel has been steadily ratcheting up pressure on the
United States concerning the grave threat allegedly posed by Iran,
which seems poised to master the nuclear fuel cycle, and thus the
capacity to produce nuclear weapons. The new Israeli prime minister,
Likud Party hawk Benjamin Netanyahu, has warned President Barack Obama that if Washington does not quickly find a way to shut down Iran's nuclear program, Israel will.
As the U.S. economy sank ever lower, a huge brouhaha erupted this week over claims that Iran might have nuclear weapons.
The new CIA director, Leon Panetta, said "there is no question,
they (Iran) are seeking that capability." The Pentagon chief, Admiral
Mike Mullen, claimed Iran had "enough fissile material to build a
bomb."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper had claimed Iran posed an
"absolutely unacceptable threat." However, to Harper's credit, he just
admitted that Afghanistan is a no-win war.
WASHINGTON - A new report on how
the United States should "resist and deter" Iran's alleged ambitions to
acquire a nuclear-weapons capability by a think tank closely tied to
the so-called "Israel Lobby" has been endorsed by two key officials who
are expected to exercise major influence on Iran policy in the
administration of U.S. President Barack Obama.
Last year, the Middle East dodged the danger of an Israeli attack on
Iran's nuclear facilities and the inevitable spread of hostilities.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen was sent to tell the
Israelis that the United States would not support such an attack, and
after the fiasco in Georgia, the Russians too sent stern warnings to
Tel Aviv.
But now the specter of an Israeli strike has reappeared. Benjamin
Netanyahu, Israel's incoming prime minister, is far more committed to
an attack on Iran than his predecessors.
WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama has written to his Russian counterpart about the relationship between US plans to deploy a missile defense system in Europe and the Iranian "threat," a senior US official said on Tuesday.
But the overture was rebuffed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who said in Spain Tuesday that it was "not productive" to link talks over a US missile defense system in Europe with Iran's suspected nuclear program as proposed by Washington.
Bibi Netanyahu’s assumption of power in Israel sets the stage for a huge campaign by the Israeli government, and its well-oiled lobby groups in Washington, to push us into a war with Iran.
Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program, according to U.S. and European intelligence agencies. But reality rarely impedes on politics. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama, along with Netanyahu, all talk as if Iran is on the brink of dropping the big one on the Jewish state.
