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ShalomFreedman 09/14/2012 08:01 AM Report
This was a responsible interview with a diplomat who knows what he is talking about.
PS The United States has never fought a war for Israel. Israel has fought its own wars.Let us hope it does not have to fight another one, although it very soon might.
EyesOnYou 09/13/2012 11:39 PM Report
Mr. Ambassador we don't want wars and we think your PM has too much chutzpah to even think he can ask American men and women to fight yet another war for Israel. We do not intend to eliminate all your real or imaginary enemies to make the area suitable for your expansionary policies. Zionist leaders should've given more thought before they decided to build a country on other people's land and go in with guns blazing.
Ellen_Dibble 09/13/2012 01:58 PM Report
Remember about the proliferation in India and Pakistan, and the blaming of A.Q. Khan for proliferation, which later turned out to be a cover for broader and deeper misuse of nuclear materials? At the time, we were closer to the Cold War, and the balance of power arguments had different valence. Now, to hear from Rabinovitch that the Russians lost Libya to us, and therefore they need to restore balance by being more present in Iran -- Please say I heard it wrong. Then he continues that the Russians see this (the Middle East?) as a "zero-sum" game, without win-win solutions. Aaargh!
I think one can re-create the Cold War with all its non-democratic aspects (dictatorships propped up here and there, less freedom all over the world, people stigmatizing each other in ways that seem unreal, informing on friends and family for betrayals that only make sense when a terribly precarious balance obtains internationally).
Perhaps Russia is determined to recreate the Cold War, just build it on a capitalist system that is therefore more flexible. I haven't heard a lot of interviews with Russians about this. Churkin came in and made an excellent case that regime change in Syria should be without demolishing the entire administrative infrastructure, that the Alawites should be part of the negotiation. And that is exactly what Rabinovitch was suggesting. Do I misremember? I had to listen this morning, not last night, on account of the Ring Cycle taking place on PBS until midnight. So it's pretty fresh in my mind. And it's great that Israel and Russia are on the same page about Syria. But then we have this head of a pin argument about when some "line" is crossed in Iran. You know what? Pretty soon we will have speeches in the General Assembly about yellow cake, again, and, again, it will turn out to be a distortion. I think people can kill each other by letting loose typhus or something like that, and I'm not sure there are enough red lines in the world to keep all possibilities of mass destruction at bay. One way to undercut the current dysfunction would be for Israel to resolve their Palestinian issue, which also apparently Rabinovitch agrees is necessary, and says the window of opportunity is shrinking. But if Arabs in general saw Israel as more amenable, then maybe Persia would take a different stand vis-a-vis Israel. Or is their Defense position chiefly directed at Afghanistan? Hmm. I don't know where Russia would see itself in all this. But there are a lot of windows shrinking -- very fast. The election is early November, and then apparently the time comes.
REMant 09/13/2012 12:42 PM Report
And it will remain unsuccessful as long as no one in the present regime or among the Alawites trusts any Western or Sunni government.