Israel's Regional Game and Iran

Nuclear Israel seems to be either panic because of fear of losing the lands it has occupied from Palestine and will have to stop settlements activities there or it tries to panic the USA with false-alarm about its declining global importance by letting Israel down for two reasons: one, to stop the peace efforts and let Israel have the Palestinian lands intact and two, to secure further economic and military support form the USA and consolidate it hold to USA and supremacy in the region. Israeli threat perceptions about an imminent Iranian nuclear attack are just a gimmick.

Israeli worry, like the USA's, is the with the Arab and other Islamic nations are being brought to their kneels with US- manufactured Sept 11 terror and its terrible fallout, it is Iran, after Saddam's Iraq, which is defiant and challenges super power USA and its weapons ally, Israel. However, USA does not consider Iran a serious enough threat, but Israel, hoping for a quick US-led terror attack on Iran, trumpets loudly about "Iranian danger".

Challenge

As the only nuclear power in Mideast, Israel is keen to sustain its military superiority in the region and it thinks Iran could pull down its apple cart when it is fully ready with nuclear arms that will make the Arab nations safe and secured from Israel. It is Israel, more than the USA, which is deadly against Iran emerging as another nuclear power in the region and, therefore, it is trying its tricks to coerce USA to send the Pentagon forces into Iran, which will be disastrous for the USA. Israel also could involve itself in the ensuing war but only to get ruined eventually.

Recently, Israel-Iran standoff has taken a new turn with an Israeli leader threatening Iran of an attack. On June 07, Israeli Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz set off an international uproar by saying in a published interview that Israel will have "no choice" but to attack Iran if it doesn't halt its nuclear program. Qickly, Iranian Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar was quoted on 10 June as warning Israel of a devastating response if it launched a military strike over the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program. "Our armed forces are at the height of their readiness and if anyone should want to undertake such a foolish job the response would be very painful."

Though Shaul Mofaz has warned Iran through Israeli media that an attack on Iran looked "unavoidable" given the apparent failure of U.N. sanctions to deny Tehran technology with bomb-making potential, other Cabinet ministers accused Mofaz of speaking irresponsibly and suggested he was trying to sound tough for reasons connected with internal politics. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert distanced himself from his Cabinet minister's suggestion that Israel will be forced to attack Iran . Olmert called for tighter international sanctions, including boycotting Iranian businessmen and financial transactions and blocking the country's imports of refined petroleum. He also warned that a more "effective" solution was drawing closer, but would not elaborate.

Domestic root

Israel is trying to undue advantage of a statement by Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against Israel and "holocaust". Iran, whose President Ahmadinejad sparked international outrage in 2005 by calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map", has threatened to retaliate for any attack with missile salvoes against Israel and U.S. targets in the Gulf.

Iran has defied Western pressure to suspend its sensitive atomic work, has demanded action from the U.N. Security Council over Mofaz's comments. Najjar said Israeli officials "every now and then say things which amount to foolish claims".

Today premier Olmert is under continuous fire form the parliament. Mofaz sees himself as a candidate to replace Olmert, who is embroiled in a corruption scandal that might force him to step down, and is engaged in a rivalry for the job with Israel 's popular foreign minister, Tzipi Livni. But, Mofaz's comments helped drive up oil prices by nearly 9 percent to a record $139 a barrel the same day. Some Israeli political commentators have accused Mofaz of making the comments to advance his personal political ambitions.

Iran is cleavelry using the statement of Iranin president about Israel. Iran 's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, angered by continous Israeli genocides, invasions and illegal settlements constructions in Palestine, said Israel should be wiped off the map. "The sanctions aren't effective. There will be no choice but to attack Iran to halt the Iranian nuclear program," Mofaz said. 

Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, bombed an Iraqi reactor in 1981 with US backing and hence now the roguish slander by Israel now. Israel is cleverly trying to connect the Iranian nuclear issue with positive emergence of Mideast peace process in saying an imminent threat emanating from Iran.

Iran's state television quoted Khamenei as telling al-Maliki, who visited Iran recently, that Iraqis have to "think of a solution to free" themselves from the U.S. military. Khamenei told the Iraqi leader who rules his country on behalf of the occupying forces that "a foreign element" will gradually come to dominate all aspects of life in Iraq and become an obstacle to progress and prosperity.

 US-Israel hidden agenda

Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and designed to produce energy, but Israel believes the country's fundamentalist regime seeks nuclear weapons. Tehran has every rght, like all other nuclear as well as non-nuclear nations, to have nuclear emergy for peaceful purposes.

The USA accuses Iran of secretly seeking to build nuclear bombs. Tehran says its nuclear program is solely for power generation to meet the demands of its oil-rich economy. Washington, however, says it wants a diplomatic solution to the standoff but has not ruled out military action if that were to fail.

Clearly USA is aiming at threatening Iran by using Iraq, now under US occupation and terror activities, as a launching pad and it has entered into agreement with Iraqi on a new strategic security arrangement. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is in Tehran for three days of meetings from June 09, including one with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The meetings have focused on a proposed security agreement between Iraq and the U.S. Al-Maliki has been trying to persuade Iranian leaders to back off their fierce opposition to the proposed security agreement. He has promised that Iraq will not be used as a launching pad for any attack on Iran, but Khamenei made clear his opposition to the pact. 

Iran's nuclear sites are too numerous, distant and fortified for Israel to take on alone. An Israeli air raid on Syria last September razed what the United States said was a nascent nuclear reactor built with North Korean help. Syria denied having any such facility. But USA and Israel are keen to invade Iran and take control of its energy and other natural and human resources and bring the region under Israeli monopoly.

A Word

Irresponsible statements, for whatever reasons, by leaders of the world, especially in regions undergoing turmoil and crises could have serious economic consequences, not just political and security ramifications. Israel is known for its aggorace, aggressiveness and double-speak, just like its master the USA does, and it never kept its word on Palestinian issue nor implemented the provisions in the agreements reached between them. Tel Aviv is damn sure that it could continue to invade Palestine, killing many innocmet peole each time with US weapons and it would coerce the Palestinins to run away into other Arab nations leaving entire Palestine to be captured by Israel awith help from US-led West and ably supported by the nasty anti-Islmaic media.

Isreli tactic unleash not only terror in Palestine, but it has also now created the environment to push further the prices of essential commodities and oil. Oil prices made their biggest single-day jump ever, and traders cited Mofaz's comment - which hinted at the possibility of instability and a disruption of global oil supplies - as one of the reasons for the spike. And Israel does all this on the strength of US support for whatever its does and does not.