[A-List] Fwd: Isolating Iran is Part of the “Great Energy Game” | Dissident Voice

[Suzanne de Kuyper]

America started Iraqi and Aganistan, Pakistan wars as it will start
the Iranian war in order to isolate, as this states and also to so
detroy their sovereignities they become passive contributors to
Empire.  Of course the atrocities visited on them will ensure enough
will be angered enough to be justify legally annihalation.    The West
will supply the heads of Empire.

It's the plan, does not mean it will work, but unless we who can do
debate, argue and surmise what is happening, could happen, it will.
 Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, Japan and the U.K. are our biggest and
best hopes.  Then all those who disagree!    Suzanne


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sid Shniad <shniad at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 9:09 PM
Subject: Isolating Iran is Part of the “Great Energy Game” | Dissident Voice
To:


http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/08/isolating-iran-is-part-of-the-great-energy-game/#more-20368

Dissident Voice

         August 5th, 2010

Isolating Iran is Part of the “Great Energy Game”

Interview with Antony Loewenstein

by Kourosh Ziabari

The Middle East is witness to continuous developments these days, such
as Iran’s active diplomacy to attract the indispensable 118-member
bloc of non-aligned countries to support its nuclear program, the
growing isolation of Israel in European countries and within academic
circles in the U.S., Arabs’ fears of losing the power game in the
Persian Gulf region, and the expansion of illegal settlements of
Israel in the West Bank and its unremitting disobedience to United
Nations Security Council resolutions.

Such developments have turned the Middle East into the center of
international attention. Iran, as the Persian Gulf region’s only
non-Arab nation, Israel, as the world’s sole Jewish state, and a host
of fragile Arab countries, who are being immersed in the waves of the
West’s economic turmoil, find their destiny intertwined, with each
party trying to surmount the other. All this makes for an interesting,
yet worrying, rivalry in the Middle East.

In order to investigate the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict and
explore the prospect of Iran’s nuclear standoff, Foreign Policy
Journal has interviewed Antony Loewenstein, an Australian journalist
and political activist who is a co-founder of Independent Australian
Jewish Voices. Loewenstein’s articles on Iran, Israel, and Middle East
current affairs have appeared in the Guardian, Washington Post, Sydney
Morning Herald, and The Australian. He has also written two books, My
Israel Question and The Blogging Revolution.

Kourosh Ziabari: The Israeli aggression against the people of
Palestine is going on incessantly. The White House hasn’t taken any
serious step to signal its willingness to prevent Israel from
expanding the illegal settlements in the West Bank. What will happen
eventually? Will Israel go on with its expansionistic approach in the
occupied lands?

Antony Loewenstein: Israeli expansion on Palestinian land has
continued for decades and there is little indication that this will
stop anytime soon. Successive U.S. Presidents have meekly complained
about the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza but continued to fund
the Zionist state. Washington claims to believe in a two-state
solution between Israel and the Palestinians but the occupation has
made this viably impossible. The alternatives are unpleasant for the
Zionist mind to consider, not least a bi-national state or one-state
equation, where soon Jews will be outnumbered by Arabs. But Israeli
Jews should not fear this. Like the whites in South Africa under
apartheid, they have to make a choice, either more years of oppressing
another people and facing global isolation or a nation with equal
status for all its citizens.

KZ: President Obama has recently threatened Iran with a possible
nuclear strike. Can we trace the footsteps of the Zionist lobby in the
provocative remarks by the U.S. president? Will the U.S. finally stage
a nuclear war in the Middle East to protect its unalienable ally
against an “Iranian threat”?

AL: The chance of Washington launching a nuclear strike against Iran
is very slim, though the current concern is President Obama allowing
Israel to use tactical nuclear weapons or simply a military adventure
against the Islamic Republic in a misguided attempt to stop its
supposed nuclear program. There is no doubt that many members of the
U.S. Congress and the Zionist lobby are encouraging a military strike
against Iran. But the real agenda is largely hidden. This isn’t about
nuclear weapons or even meddling in Iraq or Afghanistan but regional
rivalry to the Jewish state, something not to be tolerated. Iran,
after the disastrous Iraq war, has risen in stature and power in the
Middle East. The country is a brutal dictatorship that represses its
own people, and last year’s sham election for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad only
confirmed this trend, but its oil wealth allows resistance against
American and Israeli interests.

KZ: As an honorary citizen of Detroit, the late Iraqi dictator Saddam
Hussein was once one of the most cordial friends of White House during
the tenure of Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. He was given enormous
military and political support by the U.S. during the 8-year war with
Iran. Finally, the United States captured and executed him once his
mission was over. Is the same tragedy going to happen for Israel and
its leaders?

AL: One of the great challenges for our age is applying international
law equally across the globe, to both Western leaders and others. Thus
far, the Hague’s International Court of Justice and other associated
bodies have largely focused on atrocities in places like Rwanda,
Liberia and beyond. These are important cases that should be pursued,
but there is a growing movement, especially in the UK and Europe, to
hold Israeli political and military leaders to account. Witness the
valiant attempt to arrest former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni
in London recently for her role in the criminal war against Gaza in
late 2008 and early 2009. She canceled her trip before the court order
could be executed but more attempts will be forthcoming.

KZ: Keeping in mind the Jewish background of jurist Richard Goldstone
and his affiliation with the Israeli universities and groups, which
exempts him from allegations of being an anti-Semite, why did the
United States denounce his elaborate report in which both sides of the
Gaza conflict were held accountable and called upon to make impartial
investigations into their possible violations of human rights and war
crimes?

AL: Richard Goldstone’s UN Gaza report was an important document that
meticulously outlined the crimes of both Hamas and Israel in Operation
Cast Lead. America and some of her allies, including Australia,
rejected its findings because they feared its recommendations could be
used against their own military adventures in, say, Iraq or
Afghanistan. Western allies have for years killed scores of civilians
in the “war on terror” and never been held accountable. The Goldstone
report, when directed towards Israel and Hamas, rightly argued that
international law demands that civilians are protected during war.
Israel used disproportionate force against the Palestinian population
in an attempt to collectively punish them for both resisting and
backing Hamas.

KZ: Referring to the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin by a fellow Israeli member of the Likud party, the
American journalist Jeff Gates has metaphorically suggested that the
American President Barack Obama may be assassinated by Israel one day.
Is it actually possible that Israel will finally betray its long-time
benefactor, akin to what happened to Iran’s former U.S.-backed Shah?

AL: Although there is profound anger within Israel towards Barack
Obama because of his very mild comments against Zionist expansion in
the West Bank, I don’t think Israel will be assassinating the American
President anytime soon or leaving its warming embrace. Without
Washington’s support, diplomatically, militarily, and politically,
Israel wouldn’t last a few weeks.

KZ: Hitherto, Israel has refused to adhere to the U.N. Security
Council resolutions that hold it accountable to its international
obligations, including Resolution 487 in which Israel was urgently
called upon to “place its nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards”.
How is it possible to hold Israel accountable for what it’s doing in
the Middle East while the unconditional support of the U.S. doesn’t
seem to be diminishing?

AL: Aside from using international law for what it is intended, the
growing BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement is
encouraging. Witness the recent great debates at leading American
universities, including Berkeley, on boycotting multinationals that
back the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Palestine is becoming one of
the key issues in the activist community and beyond and is bringing
disparate groups together to fight for a better future for all the
citizens of Israel and Palestine. Furthermore, there is a growing
debate within the American military establishment that Washington’s
blind support for Israel is harming American interests in the Middle
East. The Zionist lobby furiously rejects this charge but spend any
time in the Arab or Persian world and Israel’s criminality is a
rallying cry for anti-Western sentiment. It’s hardly surprising.

KZ: The White House is seemingly designing the whole framework of its
foreign policy based on the interests of Israel. Its active lobbying
in the Persian Gulf region to persuade Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and
Kuwait to sell their oil to China at lower prices so as to discourage
Beijing from purchasing oil from Iran and thus, dragging China into
the implementation of new sanctions against Tehran and weakening Iran
and preparing it to be attacked by Israel is one of these examples.
What’s your take on that?

AL: The great energy game in the Middle East is certainly focused
these days on supposedly isolating Iran, though it seems highly
unlikely that Russia or China would support crippling sanctions
against Tehran in the U.N. Washington and Israel are working together
to secure their own energy interests by appealing to the Arab states’
supposed fear of Iran, which is real, though not because of human
rights but a loss of regional supremacy. One should never forget that
the U.S.-backed Arab states are dictatorships largely doing the
bidding of another country. They aren’t independent. Sadly, a military
strike against Iran would be quietly cheered across the Arab world.
Not by the people, but by the political elites. It’s vital that
journalists and policy makers do not make the same mistakes as before
the 2003 Iraq war, when bogus claims and lies were told about Saddam
Hussein and his supposed WMD. Saddam was a brutal autocrat, but he led
a weak nation. Iran is an entirely different story. During my time
there and conversations with many Iranians since, the moment a
military strike occurs or sanctions that harm the average people are
implemented, support for the regime will increase. People in Iraq
always say that the West never realize that the post-1991 sanctions,
which suffocated the country, were never forgotten when Washington
came to bring “democracy” in 2003.

Kourosh Ziabari is an Iranian freelance journalist and media
correspondent. His articles have appeared on a number of media outlets
and newspapers including Tehran Times, Salem News, Palestine Think
Tank, Press TV, Foreign Policy Journal, Islam Online and Middle East
Online. He is a member of Tlaxcala Translators Network for Linguistic
Diversity. Read other articles by Kourosh.