When I saw in the news that Vice President Biden had gone out of his way to assure the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) that the Obama administration was completely serious about military action against Iran if Iran moves forward with its alleged nuclear ambitions, I became sick.
AIPAC is the most prominent anti-Palestinian lobby in the U.S.A. and is known for the considerable weight that it carries in Washington. Candidates for office and elected officials on a regular basis make a pilgrimage to AIPAC to get their blessings and to demonstrate how opposed to Palestinian rights they are. Biden, it appears, has done it once again.
What makes Biden’s speech so sickening is that it comes at a moment intense negotiations are underway with Iran regarding Iran’s nuclear plans. Biden emphasized that the U.S.A. was not interested in containing a nuclear Iran but in preventing Iran from going nuclear.
By the way, the only country that has nuclear weapons in the Middle East is Israel. They have at least 100 such weapons, though they will not admit to possessing them. Second, Israel is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty while Iran is. Third, Israel has repeatedly violated United Nations resolutions in connection with its illegal occupation of Palestinian territory. Iran is occupying no one’s territory.
The mainstream U.S. media, along with groups such as AIPAC, are insisting that Iran plans on developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies this. The reality is that no one, other than the Iranians, know the objectives of Iran. What Iran does say, however, is that they want to use nuclear power for peaceful means. Now, leaving aside what you think about nuclear power, the reality is that Iran has that right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The negotiations underway to assure various countries that Iran harbors no intent to develop nuclear weapons remain complicated. Brazil and Turkey were able to get Iran to work through a compromise a couple of years ago. The Obama administration ignored this effort and continued to squeeze Iran.
While the Obama administration should be applauded for not acceding to the wishes of the Israeli government and their front groups, including AIPAC, in attacking Iran, Vice President Biden’s saber-rattling is not helpful. Something more helpful would be a U.S. suggestion for a “nuclear weapons free” Middle East. That would mean that there should be no nuclear weapons at all held by any side.
When we see what has happened in Libya where, with the collapse of the Qaddafi regime, significant amounts of non-nuclear weaponry got into the hands of some very bad people, it reminds us of what can happen with nuclear weapons in an unstable region. There is no reason to believe that Israel is impervious to nuclear weapons falling into the hands of fanatics who might use them for any number of reasons against any number of targets. No one should possess such weapons; no one should be given a pass.
Both President Obama and Vice President Biden need to pull back from their embarrassing overtures to anti-Palestinian groups such as AIPAC. In addition to inflaming tensions with Iran, tensions that could quite accidentally spark a war, such administration bowing to AIPAC does nothing to assure Palestinians that the U.S.A. wants to do anything other than serving as a supply depot for Israeli ambitions, regardless of the costs.
Time for a change.
Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum and the author of “They’re Bankrupting Us” – And Twenty Other Myths about Unions. Follow him at www.billfletcherjr.com.
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