August 21, 2012

In-depth‎

The Israeli debate on attacking Iran is over

By drawing attention to its vital relationship with the US, Shimon Peres has played the trump card in arguments against a unilateral Israeli strike on Iran, writes Shai Feldman in Foreign Policy.

The presidential election creates an imperative for U.S. President Barack Obama to avoid any unexpected fallouts—economic or otherwise—of a military strike against Iran. Peres understands that ignoring Obama’s concerns and instead banking on a victory by Republican candidate Mitt Romney in November, as Netanyahu seems to have done, is very risky if not irresponsible.

Who Made the Case for Iran Attack? Obama

Jonathan Tobin of Commentary Magazine argues that while Obama has vowed to stop Iran’s nuclear program at any price, it is not clear that he actually means it.

The real debate is not about whether we should stop Iran but whether President Obama meant it when he pledged to do so. Ever since President Obama began running for the White House, he has used the sternest rhetoric about the nature of the Iranian threat and how unacceptable it would be for them to go nuclear. Until now, he has tried diplomacy and failed. What Israel wants is some idea of how long he will wait before acknowledging that failure.

A Response to Senator Lautenberg’s Attack on the Republican Position on Israel

Writing in Algemeiner, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach presents a rebuttal to charges that the Republicans should ashamed of faulting Obama on Israel – by examining the president’s record on the US relationship with its Mideast ally.

[O]n Israel our President has demonstrated a hostility that is troubling. Arriving in the White House and declaring his intent to put ‘daylight’ between the United States and Israel, President Obama immediately demanded a total freeze on settlements which, as Charles Krauthammer has noted, no American president had ever requested and which sent the message to the Palestinians that Obama would pressure Israel to make peace while making no reciprocal demands on them. This one-sided policy was bound to fail miserably, which it did. But more importantly, it contributed to the deligitimization of Israel as a rogue state that illegally usurps other people’s lands.

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