re: "Israel about to denuke Iran?"

Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive ("the paratrooper of love") asked a question about which the clock is ticking.

Money quote(s):

"I find Netanyahu's unveiled threat to be quite refreshing given the usual nature of diplomacy as formalized lying in formal wear or the ever popular nibbling of petit fours and sipping of mint tea by the hotel pool. This was the equivalent of a shotgun blast from the front porch telling would-be thugs this ain't the house you want to be messing with. The fact that Israel has a history of following up warning shots with decapitating strikes makes this all the more believable." (Bold typeface added for emphasis. - CAA.)

UJ likes to describe diplomacy thusly; at certain rarified levels it has an uncomfortable ring of truth to it. For my part, the only time CAA has worn formal attire in the line-of-duty as a diplomat was to attend a USO-sponsored event while accompanying my ambassador.

"The public statements by Netanyahu are obviously aimed at both the Iranians and the "international community" as a last chance to avoid the logical and likely action to come. Iran has picked this fight and I think soon it may learn something others in the area have, Israel doesn't play."

The preliminaries, presumably aimed at forestalling the need for truly escalatory measures, may already be underway. Or all those lab explosions and inconveniently deceased Iranian nuclear scientists may just be coincidence.

(And I have a bridge to sell.)

11/3

re: "White House: Jewish “refugees” right of return should be “on the table” "

Josh Rogin at The Cable ("Reporting Inside The Foreign Policy Machine") noted the raising of a non-issue.

Money quote(s):

"The right of Jews to return to the Arab and predominantly Muslim countries they fled from or were kicked out of over several decades could be "on the table" as part of the Middle East peace negotiations, according to a senior White House official."

This could, theoretically, be useful in terms of neutralizing the demand for a right-of-return for Palestinian Arabs.

"In response to a question asking why there is a great deal of focus on the Palestinian refugee issue but almost no focus on the Jews who departed Arab lands, Rhodes declared that the Israelis and Palestinians should negotiate on the Jewish right of return to Arab and Muslim countries and that the United States could play in role in mediating that issue."

Unlike the Arabs who, after being variously expelled or fleeing what is now the state of Israel, became refugees in various neighboring countries, Jews who were forced to leave majority Muslim countries were accepted and integrated in their countries of refuge (primarily Israel). The hows and whys of that fill volumes.

"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the argument that Palestinian refugees have the right of return to Israel in his Tuesday speech before a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress.

"[T]he Palestinian refugee problem will be resolved outside the borders of Israel," he said. "You know, everybody knows this. It's time to say it. It's important."

But neither Obama nor Netanyahu mentioned the Jewish right of return in any of their speeches or remarks over the past few days.

Noah Pollak, the executive director of the Emergency Committee for Israel, said that the Jewish right of return is actually not an issue that's part of the peace negotiations, largely due to the fact that a) there are no Jewish refugees, and b) they don't have any desire to claim lands in Arab states.

"I would like to congratulate the administration for even-handedness, but in fact there are no Jewish refugees today. That's because the Jews who were expelled from Arab countries have been citizens of Israel for decades, where they live in freedom and prosperity," he said."