{"id":21854,"date":"2012-10-01T12:00:03","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=21854"},"modified":"2012-09-30T16:18:16","modified_gmt":"2012-09-30T15:18:16","slug":"bibis-crazy-un-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/10\/bibis-crazy-un-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Bibi\u2019s Crazy UN Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

Medievalist Poses As Champion of \u201cModernity\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no wonder the Israeli Foreign Ministry initially held back from releasing a transcript<\/a> of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s speech to the UN General Assembly: Bibi\u2019s wackiness doesn\u2019t bear close scrutiny. Perhaps \u201cwacky\u201d isn\u2019t quite the right word for his 40-minute peroration<\/a>, during which he pulled out a bomb \u201cdiagram<\/a>\u201d and a red marker to illustrate where he would draw a \u201cred line\u201d defining the outer limits of Iran\u2019s nuclear program. Cartoonish is more like it. The cartoonish quality of the bomb drawing underscored the content and tone of the speech, which was the jeremiad of a radical ideologue rather than anything one would expect from a statesman:<\/p>\n

\u201cToday a great battle is being waged between the modern and the medieval. Israel stands proudly with the forces of modernity. We protect the right of all our citizens, men and women, Jews and Arabs, Muslims and Christians, all are equal before the law.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Israel, which privileges<\/a> its priestly caste, has a state religion<\/a>, and bases its national mythology on a \u201cpromise\u201d from G-d, is as medieval as any of its neighbors. Aside from being a lie, however, this statement is interesting because it evokes the very same supremacist spirit that animates the controversial pro-Israel public relations campaign launched by the Jewish state\u2019s extremist American supporters. Posters in the public transport system, from New York to San Francisco, proclaim<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel. Defeat jihad.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

No wonder the Israeli consulates in New York and San Francisco won\u2019t disavow those vile subway posters: Pamela Geller is the new public face<\/a> of Israel.<\/p>\n

Yes, Israel protects the rights of all citizens \u2013 unless they\u2019re Palestinians who happen to own property coveted by the \u201csettlers,\u201d in which case it doesn\u2019t<\/a>. And the key word here is citizens: of course, the Palestinians in the occupied territories are not citizens, but helots<\/a>, with no rights, and no protection<\/a> from fanatical Jewish fundamentalists who have launched hundreds of attacks on their homes, and sought to displace them at every opportunity, with the active complicity<\/a> of the Israeli government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This idea that Israel represents \u201cmodernity\u201d is rich, considering that every day Israeli society is sinking lower<\/a> into the morass of religious and cultural fundamentalism, a regression that has not gone unnoticed in the West. Bibi opened his speech with biblical references, describing Jersusalem as the \u201ceternal capital\u201d of Israel and declaring that \u201cthe Jewish state will live forever<\/a>.\u201d Yet as we secularists know, nothing lives \u201cforever,\u201d and the idea of a city being the \u201ceternal\u201d capital of anything is a metaphor, at best, at worst a dangerous delusion. If this is the \u201cmodern\u201d then one wonders how much it differs from the \u201cmedieval.\u201d But let\u2019s not linger too long over the obvious. Bibi rants on:<\/p>\n

\u201cMilitant Islam has many branches, from the rulers of Iran with their revolutionary guards to al-Qaeda\u2026 but they\u2019re all rooted in the same soil. It\u2019s not whether this fanaticism will be defeated, but how many lives will be lost before it\u2019s defeated. Nothing could emperil my country more than arming Iran with nuclear weapons. To imagine what the world would be like with a nuclear Iran, imagine what the world would be like with a nuclear al-Qaeda. There\u2019s no difference.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Israeli Prime Minister may have been addressing the UN General Assembly, but he was really talking to the Americans, whose fear and loathing of the perpetrators<\/a> of the 9\/11 attacks can always be counted on<\/a> to raise them to new levels of hysteria. Outside that context, however, equating the Iranians with Al Qaeda makes about as much sense as likening the late unlamented Saddam Hussein to Osama bin Laden \u2013 and, hey wait, didn\u2019t we hear that equation made endlessly<\/a> in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq? Yet this was not a time for subtlety from the Israeli Prime Minister \u2013 the cartoon \u201cbomb\u201d ended all hope of that \u2013 but for the crudest sort of propaganda, which is, of course, war propaganda.<\/p>\n

Imagine if Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who addressed<\/a> the UN that day minutes before Netanyahu took the stage, had said: \u201cMilitant Judaism has many branches, from the Washington offices of AIPAC to the center of Jewish power in Tel Aviv \u2013 but they\u2019re all rooted in the same soil\u201d of intolerance? Picture him conjuring images of violent Jewish \u201cfanaticism\u201d \u2013 not a hard task, given what is happening in Israel today. If he had done so, Abbas would have been denounced in every Western capital as the 21st century incarnation of Hitler.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu went on to cite the nonexistent \u201crecord of Iranian aggression without nuclear weapons\u201d \u2013 an odd claim, since Iran hasn\u2019t attacked a single one of its neighbors since the Battle of Thermopylae<\/a>. The country did fight one war in modern times, when it was attacked by Iraq, which was being backed<\/a> by the United States<\/a>. However, it\u2019s necessary to remember that war propaganda has no need of facts: only emotionally-charged evocations of rage \u2013 and fear:<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven this record of Iranian aggression without nuclear weapons, just imagine an Iran with nuclear weapons. Who among you would feel safe in the Middle East? Who\u2019d be safe in Europe? Who\u2019d be safe in America? Who\u2019d be safe anywhere?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

That this alleged champion of \u201cmodernity\u201d should base his case on fearmongering should come as no surprise: hasn\u2019t fear been the leitmotif of all the \u201cmodern\u201d ideologies of aggressive nationalism<\/a>? Fear of the Other, of the barbarian at the gates \u2013 the \u201csavage\u201d who, at the first opportunity, will tear your throat out with his bare teeth \u2013 is what keeps ideologues like Netanyahu and his American co-thinkers<\/a> in business.<\/p>\n

Those Eye-ranians, says Bibi, aren\u2019t like the rest of us, which is why deterrence won\u2019t work. \u201cIran\u2019s apocalyptic leaders\u201d are awaiting the return of the Mahdi, a holy man, whose reappearance is supposed to occur after a devastating war:<\/p>\n

\u201cMilitant jihadists are not secular Marxists. Militant jihadists behave very differently. There were no Soviet suicide bombers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Correct me if I\u2019m wrong, but aren\u2019t the Israelis also awaiting the return of Someone Special<\/a>, a Messiah who will lead them out of the wilderness and establish the Kingdom of Jerusalem as His earthly domain? Militant jihadists may not be secular Marxists \u2013 but then again, militant Zionists aren\u2019t, either. I would no more trust nuclear bombs in Bibi\u2019s hands than I would in Ahmahdinejad\u2019s \u2013 the difference being that the former is actually in possession<\/a> of such weapons.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to the absurdity of this lecture by the leader of the only nuclear-armed country in the region: here is a nation which refuses to even admit it acquired nukes long ago, and which disdains<\/a> the Nonproliferation Treaty, making the case for war against a neighbor that has indeed signed the NPT and is abiding<\/a> by its requirements.<\/p>\n

That treaty gives Tehran the right<\/a> to develop nuclear power. Furthermore, there is zero evidence Iran is embarked on a nuclear weapons program: our own intelligence community tells us<\/a> they gave that up in 2003 and show no signs of resuming it. Their own religious and political leaders have denounced<\/a> the possession of nuclear weapons as sinful: the Israelis, on the other hand, haven\u2019t bothered reassuring us they would never use the nuke they won\u2019t admit they have.<\/p>\n

In a rational world, Israel would be in the dock, answering for its unwillingness to come out of the nuclear closet and admit what the whole world knows by now. Indeed, Bibi could give us some insight into exactly how Israel stole<\/del> acquired<\/a> the materials to build its formidable nuclear arsenal \u2013 since, according to recently declassified documents, he was directly involved.<\/p>\n

In the world in which we are living, however, in which the innocent are put on trial and the guilty sit in judgement, the situation is quite different. In that world, the leader of a tiny nation entirely dependent on US largesse takes to the UN podium to issue his marching orders to Washington. Here is my \u201cred line<\/a>,\u201d says Bibi \u2013 daring not only the Iranians but also the Americans to cross it.<\/p>\n

Think of Netanyahu\u2019s UN oration as just another Romney campaign speech, in which the GOP presidential candidate says Tehran must not be allowed to get \u201cone turn of the screwdriver away<\/a>\u201d from joining the nuclear club. According to Netanyahu, Iran is nearly at that point today, and will have a nuclear weapon in less than a year if the US fails to act.<\/p>\n

This is technical nonsense<\/a>, but then again the truth has nothing to do with war propaganda: to the average American, the mere possession of weapons-grade uranium means all the Iranians have to do is plug it in and hurl it, slingshot style, in the general direction of Israel. This is an impression Israeli propagandists would dearly love to inculcate in the American public, and they have the great advantage of relying on general ignorance of the technical details. Good luck explaining to Mr. Average American why it would take a good four years<\/a> after they\u2019ve weaponized their nuclear material for the Iranians to create a useable nuke.<\/p>\n

The ticking-bomb theme, which has been used to justify everything from torture to the invasion of Iraq, permeates Israeli propaganda in the US and was a cental theme of Bibi\u2019s speech. His message was clear: \u201cthe hour is getting late.\u201d We must act without giving too much thought to the possible consequences. Don\u2019t delay, don\u2019t think, act now<\/em> \u2013 before the fraud is exposed, and we discover that \u2013 as in the case of the Iraqis<\/a> \u2013 those \u201cweapons of mass destruction\u201d were just a figment of our easily manipulated collective imagination.<\/p>\n

_______________________<\/p>\n

Justin Raimondo is the editorial director of Antiwar.com, and a senior fellow at the Randolph Bourne Institute. He is a contributing editor at The American Conservative<\/em>, and writes a monthly column for Chronicles<\/em>. He is the author of Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement<\/em> [Center for Libertarian Studies, 1993; Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2000], and An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard<\/em> [Prometheus Books, 2000].<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 antiwar.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Medievalist Poses As Champion of \u201cModernity\u201d- It\u2019s no wonder the Israeli Foreign Ministry initially held back from releasing a transcript of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s speech to the UN General Assembly: Bibi\u2019s wackiness doesn\u2019t bear close scrutiny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-focus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}