Media Cheat Sheet 02/23/2012
February 23, 2012 17:09 by Pesach Benson
Everything you need to know about today’s media coverage of Israel and the Mideast.
Today’s top stories: Wife of Iranian nuclear scientist reveals goals of cooperation in nuclear program, Palestinian moderate loses faith in two-state solution, and a look at what it would take to press Iran to halt its drive to nuclear capability.
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Israel and the Palestinians
• Incitement against Israel continues on Palestinian television.
• Der Spiegel has an interview with Palestinian intellectual Sari Nusseibeh, who no longer believes a two-state solution is viable.
• Hamas endorses Palestinian unity government with Mahmoud Abbas at the head.
Iranian Atomic Urgency
• Washington Post columnist David Ignatius asks what it will take to make Iran back down from its quest for nuclear weapons.
Recent history shows that the Iranian regime will change behavior only if confronted with overwhelming force and the prospect of an unwinnable war. Short of that, the Iranians seem ready to cruise along on the brink, expecting that the other side will steer away.
• Unfortunately, Iranian supreme leader says nothing will stop the nuclear program.
• Joel Greenburg says Israelis appear to be resigned to the inevitability of an attack on Iran.
• Jeffrey Goldberg reports that the wife of one of the assassinated Iranian scientists says her husband was bent on the annihilation of the Jews.
• Political scientist Dalia Dassa Kaye argues against an Israeli attack on Iran on the grounds that Iran would be that more dangerous in the aftermath if it every manages to get nuclear weapons in the future.
The consensus among Western analysts is that a military attack against Iran would at best delay Iran’s nuclear development, not stop it. This is because Iran’s nuclear facilities are believed to be widely dispersed and deeply buried, and because the nuclear expertise that Iran has developed so far cannot be eradicated through military strikes. On top of that, military attacks could push Iran to weaponize its program.
Thus, what the region’s future may hold is not an Iran that has or hasn’t acquired nuclear weapons, but rather a nuclear-armed Iran that has or hasn’t been attacked by Israel.
Arab Spring Winter
• Reporters believe the Syrian government is targeting foreign journalists covering Syria.
• Even the Golan Druze are speaking out against Bashar Assad these days.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Anti-Semitism in Venezuelan election is making news. See HR’s coverage of the issue for more details.
• Jeffrey Goldberg says you can learn a lot about Israel by looking at its enemies.
The hatred of Jews and the Jewish national home by men whom history has adjudged as comprehensively evil should suggest a couple of lessons. Good people should take the hatred directed at Israel by evil people as a sign that, just maybe, Israel’s basic cause is just. And Israel and its supporters should understand that the enmity reflects well on their cause, and they should do whatever they can to guarantee that their behavior could never be seen as analogous to that of their enemies.
For more, see yesterday’s Media Cheat Sheet.
Zeal for Zion
8:42 pm
Feb 23, 2012
Thank you, Jeffery Goldberg!!!
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kafantaris
8:00 pm
Feb 24, 2012
Iran faces a delicate issue. On the one hand it wants to show the world all it’s got and put it at ease, while on the other hand it fears that such show ‘n tell will give its enemies a roadmap to bomb it.
Saddam Hussein faced a similar dilemma ten years ago. Though he wanted the world to know he had nothing to hide, he also wanted to bluff his archenemy Iran into believing Iraq still had WMD.
Bluffing did not go well for Saddam, and it might not go well for Ahmadinejad.
But since the price tag for ridding Saddam proved high, maybe we ought to reflect what we are asking of Iran now. On the eve of a threatened attack, we are asking it to take us to the depths of its arsenal and show us all it’s got.
Such great expectations are a sign we have been talking to our friends too long and are in need of a broader perspective. Exactly when was the last time we asked Pakistan, India, China or Russia to show us their arsenal?
“But those countries are not advocating the destruction of Israel.”
True, but Israel is not a thorn on their side either.
Surely, however, we can see beyond the hyperboles and figure out their underlying purpose. Or have we forgotten that not all Iranians are thrilled with Ahmadinejad?
He sure hasn’t forgotten.
Nor has he forgotten that that his countrymen hate Israel even more. So he tells them that Israel will be wiped from the face of the earth. Expectantly, this nonsense unites them against a common enemy. It is even a diversion from the misery and isolation brought on by his theocratic regime.
Quite clever work by Ahmadinejad — and not a rial spent or a bullet fired.
So why are we letting the crazy talk about destroying Israel get us all worked-up — to the point of turning the world topsy-turvy again.
Can we not see the desperate attempts of an unpopular regime simply trying to hold on?
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