Langfan believes that Assad must be defeated even it it means getting in bed with the Islamists. “Assad’s demise would be an essential element to the permanent destruction of Iran’s nuclear adventure to control all of the Persian Gulf’s oil reserves it doesn’t presently control”. He goes so far as to say “I believe Assad-equals-Iranian nukes, no Assad-equals-no Iranian nukes.”. He equally doesn’t want Israel to be be Syria’s protagonist. He wants Israel to stay out of it. If Obama intended to take down Assad as he desires, would he likewise want Israel to stay out of it or want them to join in?
Our Syrian border has been quiet under Assad and his father for 40 years. Their alternative is an Islamist government perhaps run by the MB and or Turkey both good friends of the Obama US. I tend to believe that we will have more US support if we face a Syria run by Assad and Iran then if we face the alternative. The west won’t allow us to deal adequately with Hamas or the Palestinians and they can’t be expected to have a different policy should the Islamists take over with S. Arabia and Qatar in the background. Ted Belman
Mark Langfan, INN
As a Jewish security-essayist who for 18 months has vigorously argued for US lethal support for the Syrian Rebels, I say AIPAC is courting disaster in actively lobbying for the Congressional resolution for a US Syria attack. What’s worse, I believe AIPAC is writing Israel’s death warrant.
At the outset, I want to make clear that I have consistently publicly opined that the US must support the Syrian rebels. I have argued then, and now, that Assad must be toppled because it is in the supreme national security interest of the United States.
I believe the Assad Regime, as a geographically pivotal Iranian proxy, must be defeated at all costs. Assad’s demise would be an essential element to the permanent destruction of Iran’s nuclear adventure to control all of the Persian Gulf’s oil reserves it doesn’t presently control.
I have repeatedly argued that US support of the Syrian Rebels is no less necessary, distasteful, and gruesome today, than was the US supplying Stalin in our fight against Hitler in World War 2. I believe Assad-equals-Iranian nukes, no Assad-equals-no Iranian nukes.
Nevertheless, as much I have supported the Syrian rebels, I believe AIPAC’s lobbying Congress to push passage is a catastrophe for Jews, Israel, and America for the following reasons:
1)American Jews are blindly supporting President Obama on a complex foreign policy issue Obama has self-created from his own appeasement policies, and no one knows exactly what Obama’s plan really is. If Obama’s “strategy” in his upcoming Syrian attack is as incoherent as his strategy for the last 5 years, it will end in a disaster for America and Israel. An AIPAC and the American Jews will be rightly held directly responsible because AIPAC actively supported it.
2)As a prime example of Obama’s Syrian “policy” incoherence: Why hasn’t Obama sent a single rifle to the rebels although he was expressly congressionally authorized to do so three months ago, but now seeks a special additional authorization to fire a few cruise missiles against buildings that are likely empty or are housing human shields? Instead of first lobbying to empower the rebels to protect themselves, AIPAC is lobbying for the US to kill Muslims without the UN and Arab League mandate.
3) Obama’s invoking Israel as a reason to stop the Shiite chemo-genocidal massacre of Sunnis in Syria is as inaccurate as having invoked Israel as the reason to militarily reverse Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. Obama’s incendiary linkage of the safety of Israel to the legitimacy of his attack on Syria achieved nothing except to give Assad legitimate reason to counter-attack Israel. Instead of delimiting Hezbollah’s likely counter-attack on Israel, Obama maximized the likelihood and severity of Iran’s counter-response.
4) AIPAC’s active involvement in lobbying for the Obama attack will be correctly seen by the Iran-Syrian axis as a casus belli of Israel against Syria. Hence, AIPAC’s lobbying has only guaranteed there will be a horrific, possibly even unconventional, blow-back against Israel. AIPAC isn’t prudently lobbying for the safety of Israelis, they’re lobbying for the safety of Obama’s foreign policy.
5) AIPAC is wading into an issue where there a is strong majority of Americans who – reasonably – vehemently believe we shouldn’t get overtly involved in Syria. AIPAC has now given the Jew-hating Buchanans of the world an actual legitimate basis on which to attack American Jews and their “lobby.” Instead of publicly making the case to the American public, AIPAC’s direct lobbying of Congress on an issue likely to result in dead american soldiers is a gross abuse of AIPAC’s moral capital.
6) AIPAC’s political shilling for the Democrat Obama is transparent to the Republicans. AIPAC’s gambit will be seen as a purely political ploy. Where was AIPAC for the last 2 years when Assad was genocidally murdering 119,000 Sunnis because they were Sunni? Why now, all of a sudden, when Obama wants an inexplicable “unnecessary” authorization for an action he claims he’s already authorized? Has AIPAC lost its reason?
To the Republicans the answer will be simple: AIPAC is in Obama’s political camp, not a steady bi-partisan lobby for American Jews wanting a secure Israel, a vital American security interest.
7) AIPAC is advocating for an American strike where (given Syrian Yakhont missiles) US forward-deployed forces are thin, at best, and wholly insufficient at worst. The US forces seem prepared to attack from far away(Tomahawks have a range well over 1000 miles), but not to absorb a close-in Syrian counter-attack. Syria possesses Russian deadly Yakhont missiles that have a range of 300 kilometers from the Syrian shoreline. This will limit a close-in US deployment without a preliminary massive debilitating US first-strike which clearly isn’t in the cards.
This again means a much greater likelihood of a Syrian counter-strike (most likely against Israel) where Israel will have to fight alone.
To compound the escalation problem, US Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh recently stated that, because of the sequester, in Syria, “We are not going to be as ready as we would like.” Gen. Welsh added that two capabilities likely needed would be F-16CJ Wild Weasels, which are specially configured for suppression of enemy air defenses, and F-22s. Squadrons of both those capabilities were also grounded earlier this year, “That’s not a good place to be for us,” he said.
Last month, Air Combat Command chief General G. Michael Hostage III was also quoted saying “If Syria blows up or Iran blows up or North Korea blows up, I don’t have a bunch of excess forces I can immediately shift to that con?ict. I’m going to have to pull them from other places.”
So, is AIPAC lobbying for a war where Obama starts it, can’t defend anybody from a Syrian counter-attack, and Israel is left to finish it at Israel’s cost in blood?
In conclusion, after 5 years of Obama’s pro-appeasement, pro-Iranian, anti-Saudi, anti-Israel foreign policy, Obama’s “legitimacy” with our allies is at a longtime low. In fact, Congress’ rejection of Obama’s Syrian policy might raise the “legitimacy” of the Congress because it would then have rejected Obama’s current overall appeasement foreign policy.
For 5 years AIPAC has passively watched Obama refuse to draw any red-lines on Iran’s nuclear program, which is the real existential danger to the US and Israel. But, when it comes it an Obama ad-libbed red-line on the chemical weapons that killed a fraction of the 120,000 dead Syrians, AIPAC goes into lobbying mode for an undefined, limited, slap-on-the-wrist attack. If, G-d-forbid, US body-bags come back from Obama’s misadventure, the Jews of America should expect virulent anti-Semitism as a direct result of the ill-advised lobbying.
American Jews got wrongly accused of pushing America into the Iraqi war, despite the fact that the then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon openly warned Bush against it. AIPAC has positioned Jews as the scapegoat once more. Catastrophically, American Jews will be excoriated for actively pushing America into a war.
Laura Said:
We ain’t going to Syria and you can thank the Tea Party. I don’t know where you live,Canada I suspect,here in good ol’Texas the Tea Party ain’t crazy,just folks.
@ honeybee:
There are certain segments of the Tea Party, the paulbots, who are crazy. And I don’t think its unwarranted to worry about the impact on Jews in America should something disastrous occur as a result of our bombing Syria. The American public overwhelmingly opposes our involvement in Syria. Should it become widely known that those AIPAC asshats were lobbying Congress to bomb Syria, things can get ugly. Who’s to say the conservative movement won’t revert back to its hostility towards Jews and Israel? And of course the left already is.
Thinking about it further, I have concluded that we should not go ahead with the bombing, especially knowing what those idiots at AIPAC are doing. I’m sure Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul, Walt and Mearsheimer are quite pleased that AIPAC is making their case for them.
The risks outweigh the benefits of going into Syria.
@ honeybee:
I’m not so ecstatic since I’m a Giants fan.
yamit82 Said:
Dear heart,your talking through you hat! The Tea Party isn’t crazy and nobody coming for the Jews. You’all are working yourselves into froth. I live in a rural area, no one is after the Jews in fact religious and race relations are good.
yamit82 Said:
Erdogans dream but a circus clown show is proving to be more likely
yamit82 Said:
I beleive that Turkey is a 2nd tier player brought in becuase of the Nato assets needed for war in that region and the overall strategic advantage of having them on Nato’s side.
yamit82 Said:
to some extent I agree with that connection which I believe stems from MB connections in his admin and the overall notion that Turkey is a model for modern islam. However, I believe that the higher influence are the GCC who have been in theis game for decades through countless administrations in EU and US and have enormous influence through their money, political connections and their ability to fully control their populations through their particular islamic clerical infrastructure. There are well grounded stories regarding their direct inluence of Obama inc their financing of his harvard education by saudi prince bin talil.
yamit82 Said:
I believe that the GCC went along with the inclusion of Turkey until Turkey’s meddling in their arab SOI got out of hand(gaza, egypt). However, the GCC goals wrt Syria,oil etc are still somewhat in sync but I would not be surprised to see backtracking and reneging of understandings if participants dont get what they came to the table to get. I think Israelis watching to see how it plays out and whether their plan is successful enough to warrant more involvement up front. The GCC are used to controlling their jihadis through their own clerical wahabbi network and that network is compliant. I suspect that the MB, although having saudi influence, is not as compliant and more apt to act independently of GCC desires; especially the egyptian MB. I believe this might be what happened to Morsi in his relations to hamas and iran. I would expect ultimately a new MB leadership in Egypt which is more compliant to the GCC agenda. I am cautious to accept outward appearances of hostility because this is a common ME playbook.
yamit82 Said:
Illustration, not art!!!!!!!!!!!
@ bernard ross:
Seems to me that a new Caliphate is in the works with Turkey as leader of a new ottoman empire in the works. Obama might be using the fears of the GCC to get their support but his best fiend and Adviser is the nut from Turkey Tayyip Erdogan. The Arabs hate the Turks and Turks hate the Arabs.. Good Luck on this plan,,,What could go wrong?
@ bernard ross:
I agree Gerstenfeld is Dutch and has been in a state of shock ever since a leading Dutch politician told him the Jews have no future in Holland.
A famous Jewish physicist survivor of Auschwitz and a religious Jew said that Jews like Gerstenfeld never understood why they were in the camps and gassed but the religious Jews Knew. Knowing and understanding gave them strength to endure and some to survive against the odds, He said it was a terrible burden to face such conditions not understanding Why? Many cracked and committed suicide.
Sanctions against Iran? 🙂
http://www.japantoday.com/category/politics/view/u-s-extends-iran-sanctions-waivers-to-japan
U.S. extends Iran sanctions waivers to 10 countries of the European Union, It was the fourth time Washington extended the six-month waiver to the 11 countries including Japan.
The State Department will decide in December whether to extend waivers to China, India, South Korea and six other countries that consume Iranian oil.
yamit82 Sai
I do not agree with his thesis of humanitarian racism. It shifts the center of focus to european relations with the pals and muslims and away from the simple notion that the europeans are simply returning to their normal behavior as evidenced by 2000 years. The focus should be on the europeans themselves because the condition of their appeasement is the same as under the nazis. But it is more, they are chronically anti semitic and this is proven by their increasing need to bolt from the closet in which they have been hiding. The fact that they present themselves as enlightened and secular has not actually mitigated their anti semitism. In fact their overt anti semitism increases with time since the last holocaust pogrom as in past cycles. This suggests something other than what the author avers. What is important is that no matter how enlightened or progressive they are they find the rationalizations to return to their old habit. It is simillar to the behavior of a serial kiler who rationalizes and justifies his behavior except it is a collective rather than an individual. Perhaps the social sciences are not advanced enough to accept such collective behaviors over generations as genetic or as behaviors so ingrained by collective socialization over generations. It is only because modern science cannot rationally explain this phenomenon yet that other obscure theories, such as humanitarian racism, are seized upon. The evidence is clear for chronic european anti semitism, regardless of progress or civilizing influences, it is the scientific explanation which eludes us. It is something we do not yet know but that ignorance does not change the behavioral evidence.
Ron Paul Showing His True Colors-Addressing Anti-Semitic Holocaust Denying Group On 9/11
Watch out for Rand Paul and Christi between them they control a large segment of the American right, add the Tea Party crazies and American ans to Obama does not look like much of an improvement.
Liberal Jews will be even more marginalized and blamed for the 8 years of Obama. Either way these nut jobs or Clinton… Israel has ended their relationship with America.
CHRISTIANS IN ‘LIBERATED’ SYRIAN VILLAGE FORCED TO CONVERT TO ISLAM BY ‘MODERATE’ REBELS …….
Renouncing it earns a death sentence.
Belated payback for what christians did to Moors in Spain?
This is what is called by descendents of such converts as “Sword Muslims”
yamit82 Said:
there are many possiblilities. It is possible that the scenario is that Israel delay unilateral action in return for a green light, nato/gcc support/ bunker buster bombs if the obama plan does not work. It might also be that US/GCC defang Irans proxies in return for Israel attacking Iran. I believe that Obama spent 2 years collaborating with GCC re syria for a reason and that he is in support of fragmenting Syria and weakening hezbullah and syria. The US keeps referring to a political deal on Syria and my bet is that it will be similar to Iraq with sunni continuity to the med. The main question is are the US/GCC primarily in Syria for pipelines or as a prelude to Iran. I think the main thing is Iran. There are various scenarios plus variations if a plan fails(eg obama not getting ok to go in)
yamit82 Said:
if Israel has to go it alone it will be better with a weaker syria and hezbullah. Congress has already given support to Israel in a conflict with Iran.
NEW ENGLISH REVIEW INTERVIEWS DR.MANFRED GERSTENFELD: ANTI-ISRAELISM IS ANTISEMITISM…….
Popular Egyptian Newspaper Publishes Picture of Obama As The Devil…
http://weaselzippers.us/2013/09/05/popular-egyptian-newspaper-publishes-picture-of-obama-as-the-devil/
IMAGE
yamit82 Said:
There is nor was no RED LINE Obama was b-sing for camaras at election time.
Sleep doth knit up the raveled sleeve of care GET SOME REST!!!!!!! You want to come to Israel nooge. Buenos suenos
@ bernard ross:
@ Laura:
(Reuters)
But the Saudi monarchy, though lacking Israel’s readiness to attack Iran, can share the Jewish state’s concern that neither may now look with confidence to Washington to curb what Riyadh sees as a drive by its Persian rival to dominate the Arab world.
Last year, Obama assured Israelis that he would “always have Israel’s back”. Now Netanyahu is reassuring them they can manage without uncertain U.S. protection against Iran, which has called for Israel’s destruction but denies developing nuclear weapons.
“Israel’s citizens know well that we are prepared for any possible scenario,” the hawkish prime minister said. “And Israel’s citizens should also know that our enemies have very good reasons not to test our power and not to test our might.”
That may not reassure a U.S. administration which has tried to steer Netanyahu away from unilateral action against Iran that could stir yet more chaos in the already explosive Middle East.
Israel’s state-run Army Radio was more explicit: “If Obama is hesitating on the matter of Syria,” it said, “Then clearly on the question of attacking Iran, a move that is expected to be far more complicated, Obama will hesitate much more – and thus the chances Israel will have to act alone have increased.”
Israelis contrast the “red line” Netanyahu has set for how close Iran may come to nuclear weapons capability before Israel strikes with Obama’s “red line” on Assad’s use of chemical weapons – seemingly passed without U.S. military action so far.
“HEAD OF THE SNAKE”
Did Israel just Declare War on the United States of America? “Take Out Syria or We Attack Iran” – Netanyahu
Agreed, but I bet they were pressured into it by Obama. Very foolish.
jrob Said:
We estatic here the both the Cowboys and the Broncos won.
I agree, and Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul, walt and mearsheimer et al will feel themselves vindicated and relish the American people turning against Israel and Jews.
Looks like FGW’s analysis of AIPAC is correct. Aipac just serves as cheerleader for US policy, regardless of how horrible it is for Israel. And idiots think that AIPAC does what Israel wants, and that AIPAC decides US policy. Bad for Jews all around. Football season just kicked off in the US, so fortunately pretty much nobody notices any of it.