Zionists Lay the Groundwork for a Military Strike Against Iran 
by Kim Petersen
www.dissidentvoice.org
December 19, 2006



 

“Jewish leaders” have latched onto the wiry figure of beleaguered Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the latest straw man for the crimes of zionism. Meeting in New York, "Jewish leaders" declared their intention to bring Ahmadinejad to trial for inciting genocide. [1]

The case against Ahmadinejad is based upon the regurgitated canard that he had called for "wiping Israel off the map." [2] Second, is the absurd complaint that Ahmadinejad is a holocaust-denier, as if denying or questioning history should be a crime. [3] The forced acceptance of an "official" history of the World War II Holocaust is paradigmatically similar to the compelling of Winston Smith (in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four) to believe that "2+2=5." Third, is Iran's alleged pursuit of nuclear and ballistic missile capacity. So far, Iran's pursuit of nuclear technology has been within the parameters of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. [4] Israel, however, arrogantly grants itself the right to actions and attempts to deny the same right to others. Logically, if Iran is guilty of inciting genocide for pursuing nuclear and ballistic missile technology, then Israel must be guilty of the same, or worse, since it has already attained both nuclear and ballistic missile technology.

Besides, even if Iran were inciting genocide, and as wicked as this would be, it pales in comparison to the malevolence of the actual perpetration of genocide, of which the Israeli regime is guilty among other crimes. [5]

But these are not stupid "Jewish leaders," so a question arises: what do these leaders really intend to accomplish with their fraud? JTA News makes this clear: the "Jewish leaders" seek "to lay the groundwork for a military strike if diplomacy [sic] and legal action don't derail Iran's quest for nuclear weapons."

JTA News is not easily dismissed. The New York City-headquartered JTA dates back around the end of World War I, billing itself as the Global News Service of the Jewish People. Its website claims the Jewish community relies upon JTA as "the single most credible source of news and analysis available about events and issues of Jewish interest anywhere in the world."

JTA News quotes attorney Alan Dershowitz, "We will try the law. We will try politics. We will try everything." He adds, "But if they fail, we will use self-defense." Dershowitz has already pre-judged the issue. To hell with the law and to hell with politics! If legal and political avenues do not accede to zionist aims, then Zionists will resort to whatever means necessary to achieve their aims. And this comes from the mouth of a Harvard law professor!

Aiding Dershowitz in his above-the-law vendetta is former Canadian minister of justice Irwin Cotler. They are preparing justification for "military preemption" if other efforts fail.

"We waited once, we will not wait again," said Dershowitz, who like other speakers evoked the global silence as the Nazis prepared the Holocaust. "Do not expect passive acceptance of genocide. We will fight back."

Dershowitz must battle former soldiers in the Israeli occupation army who do heed the admonition against keeping silent in the face of atrocities. A group of ex-Israeli occupation soldiers have formed Break the Silence, which does just that around the world. Said Break the Silence member Yehuda Shaul: "We provide the tools for people to understand the deeply woven moral corruption and numbness of what we do [in Occupied Palestine]. It's like a slide; once you start going down, you keep going down." [6]

It takes a lot of chutzpah for Dershowitz (not surprising since he is said to be beyond chutzpah) to invoke a right to fight back against a fraudulently alleged incitement to genocide. Unless one initiates a fight against you, you cannot correctly be said to be fighting back. As for the "passive acceptance of genocide," that is exactly what too many Israeli Jews and too many other regimes and their citizens are guilty of vis-à-vis the Palestinians today.

Taking down Ahmadinejad legally is one recourse Dershowitz and his fellow cronies may futilely attempt since leaders of nation states have diplomatic immunity (applicable before all except hyper-powers, which the hapless duo of Manuel Noriega and Saddam Hussein discovered). Some speakers pointed to the "successful" cases to prosecute former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet and former Serbian-Yugoslavian leader Slobodan Milosevic as war criminals under international law. Successful? Both were eventually arraigned, but the trials were never concluded. This is hardly "successful."

It must also be noted that neither Pinochet nor Milosevic was a leader at the time of his arraignment.

Nonetheless, Jewish leaders have graciously "give[n] the international community a chance to prove itself" by trying the legal route.

Speaking for the Jewish leaders, Dershowitz issued a warning:

If the international community fails, if this challenge is not met, we reserve the right of self-defense. We pledge here today to do everything it takes, and anything it takes, to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. We will not fail. We cannot fail. [italics added]

If the international community caves into the illegitimate demands of Jewish (or other) leaders, then it will have failed. The silent international community, however, is already failing the victimized Palestinian people and the result is another bloody stain on humanity.

Kim Petersen, Co-Editor of Dissident Voice, lives in the Republic of Korea. He can be reached at: kim@dissidentvoice.org. 

ENDNOTES

[1] Ben Harris, "Jewish leaders threaten to indict Ahmadinejad for inciting genocide," JTA News, 14 December 2006.

[2] Juan Cole, "Hitchens the Hacker; And, Hitchens the Orientalist And, We don't Want Your Stinking War!" Informed Comment, 3 May 2006. According to Cole, Ahmadinejad's words were: "The Imam said that this regime occupying Jerusalem (een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods) must [vanish from] from the page of time (bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad)." Ahmadinejad was not making a threat, he was quoting a saying of Khomeini and urging that pro-Palestinian activists in Iran not give up hope.

[3] A case for the right to question history. Kim Petersen, "Progressivism, Skepticism, and Historical Revisionism: The Inalienable Right to Question History," Dissident Voice, 19 December 2005.

[4] Jeremy R. Hammond, "Iran and the Violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty," Dissident Voice, 4 December 2006.

[5] Francis A. Boyle, "Palestine Should Sue Israel for Genocide before the International Court of Justice," Media Monitors, 2 December 2000.

[6] Haroon Siddiqui, "Ex-soldiers break 'silence' on Israeli excesses," Toronto Star, 17 December 2006. The TS headline euphemistically refers to "Israeli excesses," but Yehuda Shaul details crimes such as throwing Palestinians out of homes, closing their schools, and shooting grenades at them.

Other Recent Articles by Kim Petersen

* An Uncompromising Leftist Position
* Elephants Not in the Room
* Platitudes Are No Defense Against Zionist Terrorism
* Principles Over Realism: The Zero-State Solution
* Let’s Not Support Lesser Evilism: Much Ado About Nothing Election Results
* The Reciprocity Principle: Questions That Need to be Asked
* Genocide in Iraq
* Going Nuclear: Northern Korea’s Ace
* An Unacceptable Nuclear Gamble
* Canada: The Honest Broker?
* Progressive Duty is to Speak Out Against Oppressors Not Excoriate Their Resisting Victims
* Subtle Loyalties to Zionism
* Inside the Madhouse
* A Higher Standard
* Whither Elementary Morality?
* Optimistic Progressivism
* The Analytical Skewer
* Inequality Matters
* There is No “Israel Lobby”
* South American Paradigms: Revolutionary Change Through Mass Social Movements
* "Insurgents": Hermeneutics Are Not a Substitute for Clarity!
* The Inalienable Right to Self Defense: Balancing the Power

* This Is Not Progressivism
* Europe's Free Speech Paradox
* Remembering with Shame and Horror
* Before Columbus: Revisionism and Enlightenment
* Desperately Seeking Victory in a War Already Lost
* Progressivism, Skepticism, and Historical Revisionism
* Resisting Capitalist-Imperialist Assimilation: Interview with Stewart Steinhauer
* The Morbid Symbolism of the Yasukuni Shrine
* Elementary Morality and Torture
* Darkness Over Empire
* Anti-Israel?
* Syria in the Imperialist Crosshairs 

* The Struggle to Restore the Dignity of Labor
* Gizen: Perverted Principle in Japan
* The Need to Speak Out: Canada’s Governor Generalship
* Antithetical Heroism
* Progressives and the Imperialist Line

HOME