Netanyahu is not the problem
In his Pearls and Irritations item of 4 November – ‘Netanyahu has been leading the United States into disaster … ‘ – Jeffrey Sachs, has put the boot on entirely the wrong foot. He is not alone, simply joining the like chorus of otherwise knowledgeable commentators who should know better.
Seen against a more informed backdrop of American behavior in the Middle East where it has, since the installation of its Shah in Iran in the 1950’s, stirred an egregiously infamous cauldron of death, destruction and dispossession from Afghanistan to the Mediterranean, the current behavior of Netanyahu should be regarded as a mask for America’s determination to reassert its dominance in the region .. if more through fear (its usual course) than respect.
So don’t be fooled – Netanyahu is not the problem. Not, at least, all of it.
There should be no doubting, in other words, that the crisis is being driven by the Americans – with Netanyahu as their stooge. It is classic American playbook, with the goal being, in the first instance, to put Iran and its proxies firmly, brutishly and bloodily, back in their place.
Netanyahu himself may well believe that he is driving this business. And Biden too may believe that Netanyahu is dragging him into it – tied up as much as this likely is by the principle of plausible deniability so craftily engineered as it has long been by the movers and shakers of American policy. Movers and shakers who are just as good at getting a wide spectrum of ranking American and other friendly notables around the world to put a positive spin on whatever point of view suits them.
And what suits them at present is to complete the destruction of Hamas in Gaza, to seriously diminish Hezbollah in Lebanon, to renew action against those who keep sticking their heads up in Syria and Yemen, and to keep prodding for the kind of response from Iran which would justify a major attack on it. An attack of a scale which would most likely require direct American engagement.
The leadership of Iran, now suitably provoked, has indicated in the past few days that it is, in effect, ready to oblige the Americans.
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