Mark J. Plawecki
For only the second time since the 1994 strike, there is no postseason baseball in New York. Major October entertainment in the Big Apple must therefore take the form of Bibi’s Traveling Circus - aka Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu’s annual United Nations address. On the heels of new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s overture to thaw relations with the West — something that would appear to be in the interests of Middle East peace and stability — Bibi excoriated Rouhani as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” who was only using his olive branch as a ploy to obtain nuclear weapons.
Bibi and the Boys (Netenyahu’s Israeli government circus pals) have by now perfected this routine - and for good reason. They’ve been using it for decades. This delights MICMAC media, which gets to repeat Israeli allegations verbatim 1) without ever analyzing whether they contain a grain of truth, and 2) knowing that an America more concerned with its fantasy football leagues can’t possibly remember ancient predictions about Iran emanating from Israel and its allies. A helpful (and mere sampling) reverse timeline:
In 2009, then candidate for Prime Minister Netenyahu told a U.S. Congressional delegation, “our experts say Iran is probably one or two years away” from acquiring nuclear weapons.
In 2008, Mossad (Israel’s CIA) former chief Meir Amit stated Israel has “12 months in which to destroy Iran’s nuclear program or risk coming under nuclear attack itself.”
On July 11, 2007, Israeli Military Intelligence announced Iran would “cross the nuclear threshold within six months to a year and attain nuclear capability as early as mid-2009.”
In 2005, Israel Defense Minister Shoul Mofaz said Iran was “at a point of no return” regarding its nuclear weapons’ capability.
On November 17, 2003, then Mossad chief Meir Dagan stated Iran’s nukes program was “at a point of no return” within one year and would have “the potential to produce 10 bombs a year.”
On July10, 1996, newly elected Prime Minister Netenyahu addressed the U.S. Congress and said “the deadline for attaining” Iran’s goal of acquiring nukes “is getting extremely close.”
On November 1, 1995, Netenyahu told the Knesset that “within three to five years, we can assume Iran will become autonomous in its ability to develop and produce a nuclear bomb.”
In 1992, U.S. House Republicans released a report stating it was “a 98% certainty Iran had all the components required for two or three nuclear weapons.”
In April 1987 The Washington Post published an article “Atomic Ayatollahs: Just What the Mideast Needs - an Iranian Bomb,” claiming the threat was “imminent.”
On June 21, 1951, then twenty month old Bibi Netenyahu announced from his playpen, “Mama, Iran will have nukes by ‘55” (ok, this one’s admittedly apocryphal).
This “Wait ‘Til Next Year” rallying cry, possibly borrowed from Brooklyn Dodger fans (whose heroes remained without a World Championship until…1955), has long since grown old. Netenyahu fears an attack from Iranian nukes about as much as Justin Verlander fears facing a line-up of Bad News Bears. What is really going on here?
First, Israel wishes to maintain dominance in the region, free to do militarily whatever it wants.
Second, it wants international attention diverted from its continued (now 46 years and counting) illegal occupation of the Palestinian West Bank.
Third, its MICMAC allies like to completely obfuscate reality by remaining virtually silent on Israel’s own impressive and long standing nuclear weapons program.
Take, for example, that trio of leading U.S. newspapers The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, who might be more accurately termed The Three Stooges of serious slapstick journalism.
In rehashing Netenyahu’s UN speech, the Larry Post placed deep within its article the single sentence, “Israel possesses an undeclared nuclear weapons arsenal.” Nothing more was added.
The Moe Journal was cleverly cryptic. In paragraph eight of its “Netenyahu Assails Iran’s New Leader” story, this nugget was nonchalantly inserted: “Iran, which denies its nuclear program is aimed at weapons development, also demanded Israel place its presumed nuclear arsenal under international safeguards and sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.” And then instant segue to Iranian “threats.”
But the Curly Times was most brazen of all. No mention whatsoever was made of Israel’s nuclear weapons.
Robert Parry, in response, writes, “If a country with a large but undeclared nuclear arsenal threatens war against a country without a single nuclear bomb, you might think that a serious news organization would note the existing nuclear arsenal at least in passing.”
You might also think that the nuclear-armed country’s threats be pointed out as violations of the UN Charter (Article II, Paragraph 4). Or that when The Guardian in September revealed that the NSA routinely shares raw data of US citizens with Israel, our national “Newspaper of Record” might follow-up or at least reprint these explosive facts.
But in the cases of Israel’s threats and nukes, and the US government trampling on its own citizens’ rights — for the New York Times and cohorts — it’s “Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.”
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Mark J. Plawecki is a district judge in Dearborn Heights. Confessions of a Condor offers a dissenting viewpoint from the current American status quo.
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