(The new Iranian
President Hassan) Rouhani is the very opposite of his predecessor. If the
Mossad had been asked to sketch the worst possible Iranian leader Israel could
imagine, they would have come up with someone like him. An Iranian who recognizes and condemns the
Holocaust! An Iranian man who offers sweetness
and light! An Iranian who wishes peace
and friendship on all nations – even hinting that Israel could be included, if
only we give up the occupied Palestinian territories! Could you imagine anything worse?
I am not joking. This
is deadly serious! Even before Rouhani
could open his mouth after his election, he was condemned outright by Binyamin
Netanyahu. A wolf in sheep’s clothing! A real anti-Semite! A cheat out to deceive the whole world! A devious politician whose devilish aim is to
drive a wedge between Israel and the naive Americans! This is the real Iranian bomb, far more
threatening than the nuclear one that will be built behind the smokescreen of
Rouhani’s sweet talk! A nuclear bomb can
be deterred by another nuclear bomb. But how do you deter a Rouhani?
Yuval Steinitz, our
failed former Minister of Finance and at present responsible for our “strategic
thinking” (yes, really!), exclaimed in despair that the world wants to be
deceived by Iran. Binyamin Netanyahu called it a “honey trap. Commentators who
are hand-fed by official circles” (i.e., the Prime Minister’s Office) proclaim
that Rouhani is an existential threat. All this before he had uttered a word.
When Rouhani at long
last made his Grand Speech at the UN General Assembly, all the dire forebodings
were confirmed. Where Ahmadinejad had
set off a stampede of delegates from the hall, Rouhani packed them in.
Diplomats from all over the world were curious about the man. They could have
read the speech a few minutes later, but they wanted to see and hear for
themselves. Even the United States sent officials to be present. No one left. No one, that is, except the Israelis. The
Israeli diplomats were instructed by Netanyahu to leave the hall
demonstratively when the Iranian started to speak.
That was a stupid
gesture, as rational and as effective as a little boy’s tantrum when his
favorite toy is taken away. Stupid,
because it painted Israel as a spoiler, at a time when the entire world is
seized by an attack of optimism after the recent events in Damascus and Tehran. Stupid, because it proclaims the fact that
Israel is at present totally isolated. Netanyahu
and his crew behave exactly as the Arab diplomats used to do a generation ago.
Meaning, they are stuck in the past. They don’t live in the present.
Living in the present
needs something politicians are loath to do: thinking again. Things are changing. Slowly, very slowly, but
perceptibly. It is far too early to say
much about the Decline of the American Empire, but one does not need a
seismograph to perceive some movement in that direction.
How does Israel fit
into this changing scene? First of all,
we must start thinking, much as we would prefer to avoid it. New circumstances
demand new thoughts. In his own US
speech, Obama made a clear connection between the Iranian bomb and the Israeli
occupation. This linkage cannot be unlinked. Let’s grasp it.
The US is today a bit
less important than it was yesterday. Russia is a bit more important than it
was. As its futile attack on Capitol Hill during the Syrian crisis shows, AIPAC
is also less powerful. Let’s think again
about Iran. It’s too early to conclude how far Tehran is moving, if at all. But
we need to try. Walking out of rooms is not a policy. Entering rooms is. [This is the concluding segment of a long
article]
Uri Avnery, a founding member of the
independent peace movement Gush Shalom, is a peace activist, journalist, and writer. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/27-8
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