Can Iran or Bibi Be Stopped?
Gilbert N. Kahn is a professor of Political Science at Kean University.
It is not clear that there is any genuinely enlightened political alternative to Bibi Netanyahu to be the next Israeli Prime Minister, but clearly the current Government failed to take political and diplomatic advantage of international developments because of the arrogance, pettiness, and pure hubris of Netanyahu. The horrific, barbaric events in the region this week just like the events in the Ukraine and previously in Paris are all discolored in the eyes of the U.S. and many in the West as they watched Bibi play a political game with the Republicans in Congress and then announce the tendering of additional West Bank housing in the settlement of Kiryat Arba.
The international community understands the barbarism of many in the Muslim world despite the fact that many Western leaders including some in the U.S. do not wish to call the terror and murderous behavior of the ISIS, Al Qaeda, and the Muslim Brotherhood as acts of radical Islam. Israel clearly stands out, despite many of its faults, in sharp contrast to these heinous acts which are being condemned on their face and then being justified within the context of attacking Muslims who have made alliances with Westerners against their own Muslim brothers.
Israel did not need to anything while all the ridiculous vitriol poured out of the Islamic world. In addition, there is not the slightest possibility that Netanyahu will say anything meaningful in a public speech in Washington. If the Israelis want to convey additional technological information or intelligence gleanings they certainly are not about to present it to the U.S. Congress. Ironically, despite Bibi’s total misconduct, the conduct of ISIS and other radical groups over the last month have presented the West with perhaps their best argument yet concerning the dangers of Iran as seen by the actions of the terrorists and barbarians. If this type of conduct is tolerated and explicable in the Muslim world then the entire world ought to realize that the actual use of a nuclear weapon by a Muslim country might indeed be tolerable and explicable!
Hopefully, wise forces will recognize this danger despite the damage caused to the U.S.-Israel relationship by the Netanyahu-Dermer/Boehner political ego trip; which itself remains intolerable and inexplicable.
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