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© Pool New / Reuters / Reuters, file
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (R) attend a handover ceremony in Jerusalem in April, 2009.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has joined a chorus of voices warning against rushing into war with Iran, telling a conference in New York City there was still time to stop Tehran's suspected nuclear program using sanctions and diplomacy.
"There is enough time to try different avenues of pressure to change the balance of power with Iran without the need for a direct military confrontation with Iran," Olmert told a crowd of 1,000 mostly American Jews at the a conference organized by the Jerusalem Post.
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Israel, like the West, believes that Tehran is developing weapons technology, but there is intense debate over whether international economic sanctions accompanying the current round of negotiations might prevent Iran from developing a bomb, or whether at some point a military strike should be launched.
Olmert -- dogged during his time in office by a string of corruption scandals, which played a part in his resignation -- went further than criticizing Israel's stance on Iran. He said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not prepared make a real compromise with the Palestinians, was disrespectful to the U.S. and disrespectful of the world community precisely at a time when the country needed international support, the newspaper reported.
Iran is flaunting its military strength and warning the U.S. against intervening in its affairs – actions that underscore Western fears that Tehran isn't serious about giving up its uranium enrichment. Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace discusses.
"A nation has the right to determine what it should do to defend itself," The News York Times quoted Olmert as saying. "But when at the same time we ask the United States and other countries to provide us with the means to do it, no one is entirely independent to act, irrespective of the positions and attitudes and policies of other countries."
Olmert's comments -- which elicited boos and shouts of "naive" and "Neville Chamberlain" -- come days after the former chief of the Israeli security agency indicated the government was lying about how effective a military strike would be.
The former head of Israel's Shin Bet security agency last week accused the country's political leaders of exaggerating the effectiveness of a possible military attack on Iran, in a striking indication of Israel's turmoil over how to deal with the Iranian nuclear program.
Israel ex-spy warns against 'messianic' Iran war
Yuval Diskin said Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak-- who have been saber-rattling for months -- have their judgment clouded by "messianic feelings" and should not be trusted to lead policy on Iran. Diskin, who headed Shin Bet until last year, said a strike might actually accelerate the Iranian program.
"I don't have faith in the current leadership of Israel to lead us to an event of this magnitude, of war with Iran," Diskin said at a public meeting Friday, video of which was posted on the Internet the next day and quickly became the lead news item in Israel.
The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg talks about the multiple messages President Barack is sending to Iran, Israel and the American electorate over the past few days.
"I do not believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on Messianic feelings," he continued. "I have seen them up close. They are not messiahs, these two, and they are not the people that I personally trust to lead Israel into such an event."
Shin Bet addresses security in Israel and the Palestinian Territories only and is not involved in international affairs.
Duncan Golestani, NBC News, F. Brinley Bruton, msnbc.com, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world
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As we have said in another post regarding the propsed strikes, the decision has alreadfy been made. Nothing will call it back,and our interpreation of the growing chorus is that this is kabuki theater at it's niest.
Where were all these fine people six or8 months ago? wha yhave they sat silently by When Joe biden was insulted over the settlement issue-That on the very dayand hor of his arrival new settlements are annouced? Where were these spo-called "frends o famerica?"
Instead they let Netanyahu run amock without rebuke. Netanyahu controls the military and the process.
Isreali's don't debate decisons inpublic: they didn't whenthey bomber Sryia or Iraq. Whyshould they sart now? And that is another reason we say the decisonhas beenmade,finalized and is already being implementd. Theydidn't before-whystart now? Netanyahu is no gushing liberal..
for those that say Iran should open it's doors for inspection, how many are calling for ISRAEL too do the same? didn't they get the BOMB through DECEIT!, by claiming it was for enengy purposes only!
Israel's campaign for an American war with Iran may yet succeed. Israel has similarly instigated all our other Mideast wars and benefited from all. None were in American interests, yet we did the dying and nearly wrecked our economy. How did this happen? Enormous amounts of ingeniously distributed Jewish money have corrupted our entire electoral system. Among the perpetrators are AIPAC, the Jewish Conference of Presidents, and other monied traitorous Israel Firsters. Netanyahu's Israel now controls much of American government and may choose to spill more American blood. An American war with Iran guarantees both further economic ruin and effective terrorism right here at home. Israel would thrive, accelerating its land theft, apartheid subjugation and murder with little criticism or even notice.
Actually, John, support is stronger for Israel among Evangelical Christians than it is among Jews...but your kind of vile, vicious Jew baiting might change that.
Israel did not benefit from our wars in the middle east. The largest benefit went to China, which incidentally happens to be our largest creditor. Hmm.
I'm glad to see that someone in the Israeli gov't has some inkling of common sense and isn't into warmongering and saber rattling. Netanyhu is a danger to the peace of the region and to the world for that matter. The U.S. should not let AIPAC and its armchair generals get us even remotely involved in another Israeli "Let's kill Muslims" campaign.If the warmongers of Israel want war with Iran then let them fight their own wars without anymore help, militarily or economically from us.To let one little insignificant patch of land cause so much trouble in the world is criminal and grossly misguided.
The Obama sycophants at MSNBC/NBC must have worked very hard on that slogan, It is almost identical to the one they use to promote their station/shows(Lean Forward), via thinly disguised campaign ads that tout the Obama line and feature Obama lap dogs like Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews and Lawrence O'Donnell.
Pravda would be proud
What does this tea Bag sycophantic screed have to do with Iran and Israel?
Campaign first, national security somewhere down the list. All about getting Obama reelected, no matter what!
Allright, there is one more person in isreal who makes sense....
The former heads of the Israeli security and intelligence services as well as the current head of the Israeli military services have concurred that Iran is not an immediate threat. Former Prime Minister Olmert is in agreement.
There is also a growing concensus among these leaders that reconciliation must be avccomplished with the Palestinians. Former US President Clinton has indicated Netanyahu killed the peace process.
The Netanyahu, Lieberman, ultra-Orthodox coalition has been destructive for middle Israel. It has pandered to zealot settlers damaging Israel's international stature; threatening the rights of middle Israel; and further eroding Palestine while exploiting the Palestinians more than ever.
Netanyahu has self-admitted that he has used deception to manipulate the USA, violate the Oslo agreements and incite the Arabs. French President Sarcozy, many other European leaders and President Obama have concurred that Netanyahu cannot be trusted.
Israeli leadership is corrupt and an insult to all Jews, but yet the Zionists blindly and religiously support Netanyahu.
Who really cares if Iran gets the bomb... N. Korea has it, Pakistan has it, Russia has it, Communist China has it... and of COURSE ISRAEL has it... Iran knows full well to use such a weapon the world would respond and remove the country from the face of the planet, just like these other countries know the same. Israel is NOT the 51st state.. but for some reason dictate US policy and milk the US for $BILLIONS a year. If they want to attack IRAN fine.. but the US should NOT PAY for it nor participate in this regional conflict. The US is NOT the worlds police force and we do not have a money tree to prop up ISRAEL anytime they want to come picking.
We have needed a complete regime change in Israel for a long, long, long time.
Netanyahu is a cowboy and a liar- just like W.
He is the guy that wants to bring his hand puppet (U.S.) into yet another mid-east war.
The Middle East is like the rest of the third world countries are growing. In 1998 almost sixty percent of the world's population lived in low income countries. Low income is the lowest of the World Bank's four categories: low, lower middle, upper middle, and high income. By 2010 that was down to about 12 percent as China, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Vietnam all made it to lower middle income status. That is a four fifths reduction in twelve years. Iran and most of the middle east will have nuclear weapons in 10 years or less.
If Netanyahu wants a war with Iran,let him go,but take your own soldiers,unless John McCain and his buddies in congress like to volunteer.
Israel have Nuclear weapons amd I just dont understand why they are wynning and complaining... it s simple.. if Iran tries to mess with you.. you know what to do! Hello! stop crying.. Obama said : US will support you if any... so stop crying like a baby... or maybe you just want some attention on Monday
I agree, let Israel fight their own wars. And Israel should let US run its own politics. I'm wondering when finally will AIPAC be registered as a foreign lobbying body.
When will AIPAC be labeled a supporter of terrorism, and be banned in the USA ???
The same time CAIR, ADC, MPAC, ISNA, ICNA, AAI, and MESA are banned. Deal?
What is AIPAC?
I understand that Iran and Jimmy Carter have joined in the dissent as well.
Did you guys read the freaking article? Israeli leaders are uniting AGAINST Netanyahu, so you can't keep blaming Israel for every questionable thing he does.
yeah but thsese arguments are like family feud; It makes great conversation, it shows individualism, it shows freedom of opinion etc etc. But at the end of the day, they hug each other..
Wehave many diverse jews here in US. There are few liberal, union type guys and there are those greedy bloodsuckers. They appear to challange each other in many issues. But when it comes to isreal, they hug each other very tight... No democracy, no liberalism, everthing is out the door.
In summary, cass, that does not mean jackshoot.
Greedy bloodsuckers, Ab? How about vicious Jew baiters, who use a phrase like that? It proves that their opinions are not worth anything.
Cass,
There are many investors in US, some my age some little older, close to retirement, was freaked big time by Wall street scumbaggs.
Mortgage meltdown and all that jazz means nothing compared to cheating and looting these big bankers, hedge fund managers etc did. Most of whom, you may not know, were jews.
I am not talking about madeofff or madeoffs yet to be caught, I am talking about the thiefs and crooks, who barely works legal and always one step away from officially called criminals.
sorry for the bloodsucker analogy, but it is what it is...
I trust prime-minister Netanyahu. He is a former commando (wounded in battle), MIT graduate, great speaker and a very effective PM. Under his leadership the Israeli economy has been doing really well, while sadly the US and Europe are faltering. He speaks honestly about the dangers of Iranian nuke for Israel and the rest of us.
It is very nice to talk about peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue, but besides wishful thinking it is all hot air. I grew up in the USSR, and I learned there that dictators understand and respect only one thing: force. They laugh at negotiations and use them to fool gullible western useful idiots.
No matter what side of the fence you are on in this issue, do not lose focus.
Iran is the problem and our enemy and if they do not behave, we must join our ally and defeat them!
We can't trust Israel, and Israel can't trust Israel ??? WTF?
we all know the haredi dont serve in the idf
nuttingyahoo is a snake.
Iran’s President has gone to other countries of South America and Cuba and others and had joked about nuclear weapons. I know these countries have drug cartels with mini submarines that do and can sneak into and land on American beaches. It is possible that nuclear weapons can be snuck into the U.S. and an attack could be carried out. He threatened us and we did nothing and he threatens Israel too. I don’t know but making sure Iran does not have nukes is a big part of the agenda.
Hey, JamesPupp
Be careful, always sleep with one eye open because they can sneak those nuclear weapons in your backyard and use your barbeque to detonate them.
I guess but I don't hear of other ways from ideas I get from MSNBC. I heard of ship cargo of Irans too, so maybe your right and there are other ways to seek nukes into America. gabeo304, I don't own a barbeque so it will be there loss.
Hey James - Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons, so I guess you can go to sleep at night and not worry about "what if" scenarios. Iran has not attacked another country in more than 180 years, which kind of shows they are satisfied with the land they upon which they live. Iran has water, oil and other resources. They have no need to attack Israel, a country that has next to no resources.
On the other hand, Israel has been scheming to increase it's land and water resources since it's inception.
“Moshe Dayan, the celebrated
commander who, as Defense Minister in 1967, gave the order to conquer the
Golan...[said] many of the firefights with the Syrians were deliberately
provoked by Israel, and the kibbutz residents who pressed the Government to
take the Golan Heights did so less for security than for the farmland...[Dayan
stated] ‘They didn’t even try to hide their greed for the land...We would send
a tractor to plow some area where it wasn’t possible to do anything, in the demilitarized
area, and knew in advance that the Syrians would start to shoot. If they didn’t
shoot, we would tell the tractor to advance further, until in the end the
Syrians would get annoyed and shoot.
And then we would use artillery and
later the air force also, and that’s how it was...The Syrians, on the fourth
day of the war, were not a threat to us.’” The New York Times, May 11, 1997
“The acceptance of partition does
not commit us to renounce Transjordan; one does not demand from anybody to give
up his vision. We shall accept a state in the boundaries fixed today. But the
boundaries of Zionist aspirations are the concern of the Jewish people and no
external factor will be able to limit them.” David Ben-Gurion, in 1936,
quoted in Noam Chomsky, “The Fateful Triangle.”
Off the top of my head, I'd think of the fail rate of sneaking things into the U.S. by mini subs and the fail rate of sneaking things into the U.S. with going though country border patrol or other means like tunnels. Which ever is more successful in all, seems to be the way to do it.
Danna says ""at least Benny has balls". Benney doesn't have balls, he is trying to get the US to attack Iran and it isn't going to happen. America is in debt up to our ears, thanks to 2 wars for Israel, one in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq. Both wars were for energy piplelines to benefit Israel. The TAPI pipline and the Iraq to Israel oil pipeline. Here is a link on each.
www.rense.com/general15/game.htm
http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/19725/iraq-to-haifa-oil-pipeline-could-spur-economic-rebirth/
Once the Pentagon's choice to lead the "new" Iraq, Chalabi
promised to reopen an old British-built pipeline from Kirkuk in northern Iraq
to the Israeli port of Haifa. The plan impressed Richard Perle, Douglas Feith
and other conservatives influencing Bush administration policy toward Iraq in
the lead-up to last year's war.
The idea also drew enthusiastic response from Israel.
"The pipeline would be a dream," Yosef Paritzky, Israel's minister
of infrastructures, said as reported by Salon.com. "We'd have an
additional source of supply, and could even export some of the crude through
Haifa. But we'd need a treaty with Iraq . . . to build the pipeline."
Once Chalabi assumed a position of influence in the new Iraqi government,
Israel would get its treaty, the neoconservatives were assured. The pipeline
was by no means the only reason for going to war, but it was one reason.
Ralph, America is in debt because of our own entitlement programs. All the money we give to Israel OR Egypt in a year would pay for Social Security and Medicare for about one day.
Cassandra - Apparently you forget the war in Iraq, which was planned and sold by the Zionists, led by Paul Wolfowitz and other Zionists, will cost America over 3 trillion dollars. Add that cost to the welfare we send annually to the parasites in Israel. Each year we send Israel enough money to equate to more than $500 for each man woman and child in Israel. In return, Israel attempted to sink the USS Liberty, with all men on board, going as far as shooting the liferafts. They were complicit in 9/11 and have been caught spying on the US more than all other countries.
The money we send to Egypt is bribe money to keep them from acting against the interests of Israel and amounts to but a few dollars for each person in Egypt.
Zionist warmongers like Ken Adelman and the Zionist Washington Post pushed the war in
an editorial titled, “Cakewalk in Iraq.” Jewish supremacists Richard Perle and
Paul Wolfowitz told you that Iraq would “Welcome us as liberators.” Iraq became
the longest war in American history. Here is a report from USA Today: “Pentagon
officials estimated for the first time Wednesday that up to 360,000 Iraq and
Afghanistan veterans may have suffered traumatic brain injuries.” Now that’s
not counting tens of thousands who have suffered maiming, amputations, or death
in this war based on lies. Paul Wolfowitz said the war would cost around 50 billion dollars and last a month. Nice sales pitch.
Just a cost of our friendship with Israel and the influence of Zionists in our government, Cassandra.
Apparently the monies spent in Iraq are not enough for Zionists. Now they want the US to start a war with Iran over a nuclear weapons program that Iran doesn't even have. Americans are plain sick of supporting Israeli parasites.
The comments on these forums are slowly, but surely turning against Israel, as Americans become more informed, thanks to the internet. The jig is up.
Ralph,
Your words a bit harsh, but very true...
This has been and still is a problem for US. Just look at: Defeense Sec Rumsfeld, his sidekick wolfowitz running defense dept... Starting a war where we lost trillions, lost brave guys from heartland (Nobody from freaking NY brooklyn or manhattan), just so that we have a presense over there to protect freaking isreali brats.
I mean, just consider, as if nobody freaking qualified in the whole US, we end up two jews running powerful US army!!!
To top it off, we had to put yet another jew , chertof, as homeland security.. Nobody else in US qualified for that job?
In closing, this wolf guy went on to become world bank chief.... Nobody else left in the whole freaking world, but this guy??
The other finances, IMF was covered by yet another jew Dominick, who turned out to be a pervert....
The problem here is that the United States should NOT be involved with Israel. All of the problems in the Middle East come from Israel hiding behind the skirts of the United States. If the United States cuts Israel loose there could be no greater service to world peace. Israel would be singing a different song, and mighty quick.
The United States has to take care of itself first and foremost.
So, the Iran -Iraq war was over Israel? The expulsion of Palestinians from Jordan was over Israel? The persecution of Christians in Egypt is because of Israel?
Your scholarship is weaker than your ignorance but certainly no stronger than your breath.
What I have written I have written, deal with it, don't try to spin it--and comments such as your last sentence just go to show the type of individual you are.