When I went to youtube to listen to a Bill Evans recording (A Time for Love), it was preceded by an ad, as many youtube videos are. This one was incongruous. It was “Don’t Loosen Sanctions on Iran“, an ad whose existence was noted in a blog on The Weekly Standard a few days ago. (The next time I linked, a different ad came up for a local college. It appears that Google’s spying on me is at work here.)
I find this kind of organized and dedicated anti-Iran response to the recent US-Iran talks to be quite interesting. Maybe I’ve been asleep during similar campaigns for other Congressional bills and foreign policy moves, but this one does seem unusual. It is determined, virulent and very biased. There is money behind it, and the ad did not mention any sponsor. That’s secret for now.
Evidently there are those who really fear any loosening whatsoever in the privileged place of Israel in the halls of the U.S. government. They should be heartened by the fact that Obama is letting Israel’s national security advisor (and a team) come here to confer with Washington officials in order to influence what happens next.
Israel has already been taken down a political peg, even if it remains the major US client in the region, with Saudi Arabia and Egypt not far behind. The mere fact that the ice has been broken with Iran raises Iran’s political status in the region. Status obtained in such a way is far less important than events over a much longer horizon that might include Iran’s regaining its economic strength when the nuclear issue is cleared away.
Ultimately, Israel and Iran cannot remain antagonists, and neither can Saudi Arabia and Iran. Don’t ask me how a settlement can ever come about because I don’t know, but deals are possible. Each side has things it wants enough such that it will give up some other things. The US being in the middle as the protector of Israel complicates matters. So do the domestic politics and policies in Israel, Iran and the U.S.
2:42 pm on November 26, 2013
