Netanyahu's Circus, An Insult to Common Sense

Rasa - Consider this ridiculous opening paragraph first: In yet another theatre of the absurd, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, April 30, deployed props and PowerPoint slides in an attempt to distort facts and convince his audience of one – US President Donald Trump - that Iran is failing to comply with the nuclear accord.

News ID: 437513

Date: 05 May 2018 - 22:09

RNA - "Iran lied, big time, after signing the nuclear deal in 2015," Netanyahu claimed from a stage in Tel Aviv, dramatically unveiling shelves of disks and binders that he was so desperate to prove contain conclusive proof that Iran is still pursuing nukes.

That the "incriminating blueprints, incriminating photos, incriminating videos, and more" Netanyahu supposedly revealed for the first time on Monday as "evidence" largely consisted of old information that has been repackaged for political purposes but does nothing to undermine the nuclear accord, is beyond dispute. That also in respond to Netanyahu's performance on Monday, Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said “Netanyahu’s speech has not put into question Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal” is also not the main focus of this write-up.

The question, however, is this: How come a country that had no bomb, still went ahead and signed a nuclear deal in 2015 with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, and according to the IAEA’s numerous reports has been in full compliance with the international accord ever since, is still being threatened with economic sanctions and warfare even more than a country like North Korea that has the actual bomb, is not a member of NPT, and hasn’t signed any accord with the United States?

The answer is obvious. In Washington, all roads lead to Tehran:

- As the Palestinian protests of Great March to Return along the Gaza border approaches its climax, a chorus of influential voices in the US media has cast the conflict as a proxy war in which the real enemy is not Hamas but Iran. The result has been a growing tendency in the US to view Gaza as simply one battleground in a larger war between Iran and the US, and to dismiss the stated concerns of the Palestinians as a mere smokescreen for Iranian influence.

- This way of framing the new protests is both overly simplistic and agenda-driven. By overstating the importance of Iran’s aid to Hamas, Netanyahu and his opinion-makers aim to increase hostilities with Iran, to bolster an increasingly shaky Israeli rationale for war, and to justify massacre of unarmed protesters who are demanding return to their usurped and occupied lands.

- For years, it has been a commonplace among neoconservatives that Iran is the real source of opposition to the US and Israel throughout the Middle East, from Palestine to Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq. After the failed regime-change war on Syria, prominent neoconservatives as well as the Israeli lobby in Washington are doing whatever they can to force the United States to focus less on Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Yemen, and more on their “real commanders” in Tehran.

- Similarly, the neoconservatives have taken the current war with Yemen as a sign that “the Saudis cannot finish off the Houthis” unless Washington takes a harder line with Iran. The argument is that it’s because of Iran that US-backed, Saudi-led war on Yemen failed. They also argue that it’s all because of Iran that the Saudis are left to contend with the Ansarullah resistance fighters while their main ally remains untouched.

It’s against this backdrop that pathological liar Netanyahu claims Iran has been cheating from day one of signing the historical nuclear deal with the P5+1 group of countries. It’s also against this backdrop that the warmongering hordes in Washington, Tel Aviv and Riyadh say they have been unable to regime change Iraq, Syria and Yemen to their liking. Far from it.

According to Fars News Agancy, the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia and their terror proxy forces of Daesh (ISIL or ISIS) and Al-Qaeda lost the twin wars against Syria and Yemen because of the national resistance fronts and mobilization units of those countries. Simply put, Iran sent its military advisors to Syria and Iraq upon an official request from the governments there and as per International Law. The same is true in Yemen. Iran is not involved militarily in that war-torn country either – much less giving them cruise missiles. Else, as maintained by the leaders of Ansarullah, the Yemeni resistance fighter would have been by now in Riyadh!

As for the ongoing Palestinian protests in Gaza, it suffices to state that the enclave has been under Israeli siege for many years now. People have now taken matters into their own hands and they are not taking orders from Hamas at all. They want to restore their right of return and no force in the world can stop that. It is silly to argue that Tehran can “stop and start the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at will.” In Gaza, the real enemy is the Apartheid regime of Israel.

In the prevailing environment, the international civil society should be very skeptical whenever they see PowerPoint slides and figures shown by Netanyahu in the media. Simply put, telling lies about Iran’s non-compliance or framing the Palestinian conflict as an US-Iran proxy war is a tendentious move by the prime murderer in Tel Aviv that is meant to advance several covert political goals, including setting the scene for a pre-ordained conclusion of war – indeed a great distraction from domestic troubles in Israel and Saudi Arabia. Yet, the most important objective is giving US President Donald Trump some excuse to justify his abrogation of the nuclear deal.

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