[News] Drumbeats of war: Israel’s dangerous brinkmanship

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Drumbeats of war: Israel’s dangerous brinkmanship



Horace Campbell

2012-03-01, Issue <http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/572>572
<http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/80368>http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/80368

As the capitalist depression deepens, there are 
militarists in the United States who are now 
openly championing war so that the US government 
would embark on another massive investment for 
missile defense, rather than discussing reduced 
military spending. The drumbeat of war is so loud 
that it is becoming deafening. Accompanying this 
drumbeat is the unstated idea that there are too 
many non-white people in the world and that a 
limited nuclear war can be managed and won. 
Underlying the call for war is also the racist 
fear of a world where whites are in the minority 
and in such a war the racists can eradicate 
millions of non-whites and non-western people 
from the planet. The immediate plans for war are 
now concentrated in the Persian Gulf, with the 
escalating propaganda war about the nuclear 
capabilities of Iran. However, at the present 
moment Iran does not possess Intercontinental 
Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) so the discussion is 
really about war with contingency planning for 
the escalation beyond Iran. This is because the 
strategic analysts know full well that war with 
Iran will escalate beyond the borders of Iran. 
Already Pakistan has warned that it will come to 
the defense of Iran if it is attacked.

Decent humans everywhere must pay attention, 
actively mobilise and raise their voices against 
the present mobilisation for warfare. There is a 
debate on Ballistic Missile Defense among 
specialists. This struggle is part of a larger 
context where every day there are reports of the 
preparations by Israel to strike Iran. Inside the 
United States, those sections of the 
financial-military complex that are gearing up 
for new wars are stepping up the military 
information operations (psychological warfare to 
implant fear) against citizens of the United 
States. In short, the plans for war can be seen 
as a major propaganda war against the citizens of 
the United States. There is desperation by 
sections of the financial oligarchy who are 
afraid of the November elections and that Barack 
Obama may win a second term. In this planning for 
war the interests of the militarists merge with 
the present political leadership in Israel.

Report after report continues to come out that 
the Israelis will attack to prevent Iran from 
developing nuclear capabilities. This is the same 
Israeli state that possesses between 200 and 300 
nuclear weapons. Israel is already involved in 
electronic warfare, cyber war and other forms of 
low intensity war against Iran.

In our contribution this week we will underscore 
the point that this is a very dangerous 
situation. This is brinkmanship and is designed 
to intervene in the politics of the United States 
to push the society towards a global war in order 
to secure the regional military monopoly of 
Israel. This military monopoly perpetuates the 
status of Israeli military occupation and illegal 
settlements in the homeland of the Palestinian 
people. Next week the Prime Minister of Israel 
will visit the United States and through the 
lobbying organisation, the American Israel Public 
Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Prime Minister 
will seek an advantage by manipulating the 
dangerous situation which can take humanity into 
nuclear war. The brinkmanship is so dangerous 
that even Cold Warriors such as Zbigniew 
Brzezinski (former National Security Advisor 
under President Jimmy Carter) have suggested that 
President Obama should make it clear to Israel 
that if they attempt to attack Iran's nuclear 
weapons sites the US Air Force will stop them. It 
is not usual to read statements such as these in 
the US media, 
<http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2009/09/zbig-brzezinski-obama-administration-should-tell-israel-us-will-attack-israeli-jets-if-they-try-to-a/>“Obama 
Administration Should Tell Israel U.S. Will 
Attack Israeli Jets if They Try to Attack Iran”.

Brzezinski had appealed to Obama three years ago, 
long before the propaganda war reached this 
precipitous stage. Brzezinski, who considers 
himself a strategic thinker, said today that if 
Israel attacked Iran, the state of Israel would 
not survive in its current form. In short, it is 
possible that we are entering a period of catastrophic warfare.

ISRAEL WILL NOT WARN THE UNITED STATES

This week the western news agencies were full of 
reports that ‘Israeli officials won't warn the US 
if they decide to launch a pre-emptive strike 
against Iranian nuclear facilities.’ These 
reports detailed the emissaries from the Obama 
administration to Israel and the posture of the 
Israeli leadership. According to the 
<http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57386328/ap-israel-wouldnt-warn-us-about-iran-strike/>Associated 
Press,

‘Israeli officials said that if they eventually 
decide a strike is necessary, they would keep the 
Americans in the dark to decrease the likelihood 
that the US would be held responsible for failing 
to stop Israel's potential attack. The US has 
been working with the Israelis for months to 
persuade them that an attack would be only a 
temporary setback to Iran's nuclear program. 
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and 
defense minister Ehud Barak delivered the message 
to a series of top-level US visitors to the 
country, including the chairman of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff, the White House national 
security adviser and the director of national 
intelligence, and top US lawmakers, all trying to 
close the trust gap between Israel and the U.S. 
over how to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions. 
Netanyahu delivered the same message to all the 
Americans who have traveled to Israel for talks, the US official said.’

Next week the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin 
Netanyahu will address the annual convention of 
the American Israel Public Affairs Committee 
(AIPAC), one of the most powerful political 
forces of the militarists in the United States. 
AIPAC describes itself as the most important 
organisation affecting the US relationship with 
Israel. Politicians in the United States remain 
in fear of this organisation and their influence 
has been documented in the book, ‘The Israeli 
Lobby’. Barack Obama has been very careful in his 
dealings with AIPAC and he will also be addressing this organ.

Netanyahu who has consistently shown complete 
disrespect for President Obama will be making his 
case for military support and will then draw in 
those sections of the media that are integrated 
into the propaganda efforts for the planned 
military attack. Last year when Netanyahu visited 
the United States he lectured President Obama on 
what he ‘expected’ President Obama to do. 
Netanyahu went on to address the joint houses of 
Congress and was given standing ovations 29 times 
in his bellicose message before the citizens of 
the United States. Many of the representatives 
who were applauding wanted to be sure that the 
cameras did not catch them not applauding.

Even the most pro-Israeli news outlets in the 
United States such as 
<http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/05/dear-mr-netanyahu-please-dont-speak-to-my-president-that-way/239199/>Atlantic 
had to comment on the disrespect, with Jeffrey 
Goldberg commenting: ‘Dear Mr. Netanyahu, Please 
Don't Speak to My President That Way.’

As a politician who is more concerned with 
re-election that with world peace, Obama has 
attempted to handle Netanyahu with delicate skill 
despite the disrespect and open racism. Netanyahu 
was raised and educated in the United States .His 
training was always linked to the far right in 
Israeli politics, even while he lived in the 
United States. From the diplomatic relations 
between the US and Israel over the question of 
Iran, one would leave with the impression that it 
is the Israelis who are the financial supporters 
of the United States and not the other way 
around. Obama has bent over backwards to support 
the state of Israel and in December 2011, in an 
<http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/obama-to-u-s-jews-my-administration-has-done-more-than-any-other-to-support-israel-1.401892?localLinksEnabled=false>address 
to the conference of the Union for Reform 
Judaism, President Obama said that ‘My 
administration has done more than any other to support Israel.’

The entire political establishment in the United 
States has been complicit in the illegal 
occupation and expansionist position of Israel 
since 1956. There have been over nine wars since 
the war over the Suez in 1956 and the US has been 
suborned to support Israel in these wars. 
Israel’s rationale for attacking Iran is to 
protect its security, against a state that uses 
the rhetoric of ‘wiping Israel/Jews’ off the 
earth. The reality, however, is that Iran has 
thousands of Jewish citizens. Israel’s military 
and nuclear weapons capabilities are ‘beyond’ 
Iran’s. The true reason for attacking Iran is 
that Iran poses a challenge to Israel’s current 
military dominance in the region, not its security in the region.

When the Israelis launched their war against 
Hezbollah in July 2006, the limitations of the 
‘superiority’ of the Israeli military was 
exposed. At the end of 2008 and the beginning of 
2009, the Israelis launched an unprecedented war 
against the people of Gaza. What was distinctive 
about the atrocities was the outrage in every 
part of the world. This outrage was especially 
significant in Egypt where the military led by 
Hosni Mubarak had been silenced with payments so 
that the people of Egypt did not come to the assistance of the Palestinians.

The Egyptian revolution has shifted the political 
balance and even though the military is in 
control, this military cannot survive a new war 
in the Middle East. This is probably the most 
decisive strategic shift in the Middle East and North Africa.

FOR HOW LONG CAN OBAMA BE PUSHED AROUND BY THE NEO-CONSERVATIVES?

The Obama administration has been complicit in 
the support for the expansionist policies of 
Israel. In this current economic and financial 
crisis a war with Iran will not only be about 
Iran, it will have global implications. Humanity 
is now faced with a clear danger of global war. 
In an effort to establish early warning 
mechanisms with China, the Obama administration 
has been working to establish direct lines of 
communication between the People’s Liberation 
Army of China and the Pentagon. When the Vice 
President of China Xi Jinping visited the United 
States in February he visited the Pentagon. Xi 
Jinping was seeking to dampen the anti-China rhetoric in the USA.

Over the past four years many in the peace 
movement have grown tired of the discussions in 
the media about a possible attack on Iran. 
However, what is different now is the convergence 
of the military planning of Israel with the 
desperate forces of the financial barons. There 
are also some economists who believe in military Keynesianism.

Obama in an effort to stall entered into the 
propaganda war against Iran instead of calling on 
Israel to cease its expansionist policies and the 
building of new Jewish settlements. In efforts to 
appease the Israelis, Obama initiated the 
imposition of harsh sanctions on Iran. However, 
the militaristic wing in Israel is not waiting 
for these sanctions to take hold. Barack Obama 
and the top echelons of the US military are 
against this war. Army General Martin Dempsey, 
the Chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 
told CNN that such an Israeli strike would be 
‘destabilizing’ and ‘not prudent.’

The current serving military are reeling from the 
massive opposition to the US occupation of 
Afghanistan. It is in the midst of this military 
debacle where those in the financial military 
information complex are pushing for a new war 
against Iran. These sections of US capitalism 
want to ensure that there is no reduction in US 
military spending and are linked to media houses 
that are invested in the outdated military 
industrial complex, including the failed 
strategic defense initiative. Today Glen 
Greenwald posted 
<http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/02/29-3>a 
detailed commentary on ‘Gen. McCaffrey Privately 
Briefs NBC Execs on War with Iran.’

 From the contents of this commentary along with 
the power point presentation of General 
McCaffrey, the reader is exposed to the thinking 
of those ex-generals who are predicting a war 
with Iran in the next 90 days. These discussions 
of immediate war have also drawn in a wider 
debate about the ability of the United States to 
defend itself against missiles.

REVIVING THE STAR WARS DEBATES IN THE MIDST OF THE CAPITALIST CRISIS

Last week the US television network C-SPAN showed 
a discussion that was held on 1 February at the 
University of California Berkeley on Ballistic 
Missile Defense. The most striking position was 
that of Professor Theodore A .Postol who was 
warning that the United States does not have the 
capability to defend itself against a missile 
attack. This debate caught my attention because 
Professor Postol, a scientist from M.I.T who has 
previously worked for the Naval Operations at the 
Department of Defense, was holding his own in his 
argument on the flawed and dangerous missile 
plans of the Pentagon. Behind this discussion was 
the contingency war planning for war against the 
people of Iran. Any serious scholar of previous 
wars knows that the planned Israeli attack on 
Iran will escalate beyond Iran, so these military 
experts on ballistic missiles were contending on 
the options without stating that they were 
discussing the possible consequences of an Israeli attack on Iran.

Participants in this discussion argued 
passionately about US ballistic missile defenses 
and the future of US foreign policy. Among the 
topics they addressed were the current nature of 
the nuclear threat, future deterrence strategies 
and non-proliferation efforts. When one stripped 
away the heat of the arguments it became clear 
that the experts were basically discussing the 
possible outcome of a nuclear war. Earlier Postol 
had written in response to a Pentagon report on 
the state of US preparedness for defense against 
Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. In that 
argument relating to the Ballistic Missile 
Defense Review Report, he had warned that,

‘With regard to current missile defense 
technologies, there are no new material facts to 
support any of the claims in the report that 
suggest that the United States is now in a 
position to defend itself from limited ICBM 
attacks or that any of the fundamental unsolved 
problems associated with high-altitude ballistic 
missile defenses have been solved.’

Despite this warning, there are those sections of 
the military-industrial complex who believe that 
the United States can win a ‘limited’ nuclear war 
and that the mythical Strategic Defense 
Initiative (SDI) can be real. Essentially Postol 
was spelling out the truth that the billions 
spent in the defense industry on the Reagan SDI 
had been a waste of money. Only this week we have 
been reminded by the Wikileaks of the privately 
run intelligence firm Stratfor and its 
connections specialised parts of the US 
Government, other countries and military 
organizations, as well as private companies like 
Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon. 
Stratfor perfectly mirrors the shadow government 
with military and financial connections and we 
are given clear information of how operators use 
intelligence information to make money in the financial markets.

The war plans are advanced with the Wall Street 
speculators in on the planning so that the 
futures markets are pushing up the price of 
petroleum. Every day in the US media there are 
commentators who are wondering why the price of 
oil is going up, but these commentators are there 
to ensure that there is no Congressional 
investigation into the banks and oil companies 
who are in the ‘futures market.’ These 
speculators have information on the advanced war plans.

The advanced preparation for the media spin on 
the need for the United States to ‘guarantee the 
security of Israel’ is now evident in the 
mainstream press. This corporate media condemn 
Iran’s alleged involvement in terrorist attacks 
against Israel around the world, yet are silent 
on the low intensity warfare by Israel against 
Iran, including assassinations. There is 
documented information that there are sections of 
the Israeli security and intelligence agencies 
that are involved with the Jundallah, an 
anti-regime terrorist organisation operating in Iran.

This military information operation against the 
citizens of the United States is, in my view, one 
component of the elections in the United States. 
The conservative Republicans have great 
difficulty in putting up a candidate who is 
credible for the forthcoming presidential 
elections. As the crisis in Europe deepens, there 
is the necessity to transfer more political power 
to the one per cent by bailing out financial 
initiations that are insolvent. Instead of 
supporting the prosecution of the speculators 
such as those of MF Global and Bank of America, 
the media is diverting the energies of the US 
citizens towards war. War in itself will provide 
the cover for more austerity and bailing out the 
banks. Such a bailout cannot be tabled at the 
present moment when the political initiative is 
in the hands of the mass of the population who 
are calling for an end to the bail out to the 
banks. It is the majority of citizens of the 
United States who will bear the costs of war in 
terms of higher prices for food and fuel and 
jobs. The Occupy Movement has inserted itself in 
the political process and is preventing the spin doctors to take the lead.
In desperation the forces who support the one per 
cent are seeking ways to divert the 99 per cent 
from the depression, and war is as good a 
diversion as any. It is here where the strategic 
planning of the Israeli conservatives converges 
with the most conservative capitalists in the 
United States. These two social forces share the 
belief that Obama can be pushed around and 
candidates such as Rick Sanatorum is willing and 
ready to mobilize the Christian soldiers who want 
to go to war to defend ’the holy land.’ Former 
President Jimmy Carter grasped the essential 
racism of this faction of the US political 
establishment when he said, ‘an overwhelming 
portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity 
toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man.’

WAR CANNOT BE CONTAINED

I started out this commentary with reference to 
the disputes at the highest levels of the US 
government over the forthcoming war against Iran 
and the requirement to supply Israel with the 
military, political and logistical support for a 
strike against Iran. In this preparation for war 
additional resources are being channeled to the 
United States Central Command, that section of 
the US military that is currently trapped in the 
midst of a the people of Afghanistan. It is this 
Central Command which is now being beefed up for 
full scale war and the Pentagon has requested the 
re-allocation of some $100 million in military 
spending to speed up war preparations. While 
Israel would keep the US in the dark about an 
attack, US has also made ‘plans’ and devoted 
‘resources and assets’ to react to an attack and 
counter attack contingencies The Wall Street 
Journal, in an article last Saturday, February 
25, that ‘US Bulks up Iran defenses” was explicit 
that ‘the extent to which war planners are taking 
tangible steps to prepare for a possible conflict 
with Iran, even as top White House and defense 
leaders try to tamp down talk of war and emphasize other options.’

The Wall Street Journal is owned by Rupert 
Murdoch, who is himself facing possible 
prosecution under the Foreign Corrupt Practices 
Act (FCPA) – legislation designed to stamp out 
international corruption. Rupert Murdoch and his 
extensive media enterprises have been integrated 
with psychological warfare fronts such as Bell 
Pottinger. It is the psychops planners that are 
in the forefront of the war planning. While 
serving members of the military and National 
Security establishment are against the supply of 
heavy bunker buster bombs to Israel, the 
mainstream press is championing the strike on Iran.

David Sanger of the New York Times, in 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/sunday-review/syria-iran-and-the-obama-doctrine.html?ref=davidesanger>an 
article on ‘Syria, Iran and the Obama doctrine’ 
promoted war explicitly when he wrote: ‘Arm the 
Syrian rebels! And, while we’re at it, give the 
Israelis the tools they need ­ bunker-busters, 
refueling aircraft ­ so that if they decide to 
strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, they’ll get it right the first time.’

In this way Sanger made it clear that the call to 
arm rebels in Syria is part of the wider war 
plans of Israel against Iran. It is in the midst 
of this massive cry for war where Zbigniew 
Brzezinski warned the hawks in the United States 
that if war comes, the state of Israel in its present form will cease to exist.

BRINKSMANSHIP IS VERY DANGEROUS

Benjamin Netanyahu is working against those 
forces in Israel who want peace. The president of 
Israel, Shimon Peres, is against a military 
strike against Iran. Members of the intelligence 
community in Israel are against this attack. 
Netanyahu, however, has been pumped up by his 
alliances with the most conservative factions in 
the United States. He is seeking a political 
advantage by creating the impression that he is 
willing and able to push a highly dangerous 
situation to the limit rather than concede. Many 
analysts have correctly grasped the reality that 
the question of the possibility of nuclear war is 
unwarranted because it is the Israelis who are in 
possession of nuclear weapons.

I have included the debates on Ballistic Missile 
Defense because it is known that once this war 
breaks out there will be a full scale war beyond 
the present electronic warfare, cyber wars, 
sanctions and low intensity assassinations. It 
will not be a one day affair. It will not be 
confined to the Persian Gulf and the Straits of 
Hormuz. Zbigniew Brzezinski, who has recently 
completed a book on ‘Strategic Vision: America 
and the Crisis of Global Power’ is seeking to 
stem the wave of militaristic talk. Brzezinski is 
calling on the United States to maintain open 
lines of communication with China. Meanwhile, 
Rick Sanatorum said plainly, he is ready for a 
war with China. Newt Gingrich, Rick Sanatorium 
and Mitt Romney all share the militaristic front 
of the financiers. It is not by accident that 
Sheldon Adelson, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands 
Corp., and the fifth wealthiest man in America as 
recently ranked by Forbes magazine is one who is 
willing to spend whatever it takes to put a 
Republican in the White House. Adelson joins the 
Koch brothers who are promoting the most 
conservative agenda against humans in the USA.

The peace movement cannot leave it up to Obama or 
up to Brzezinski to oppose the war against Iran. 
The Egyptian revolution has shifted the political 
calculus and while Brzezinski is looking to the 
east, the sober Israelis must be examining if the 
so called peace treaty with Egypt can hold when they start this war.

We are in a revolutionary moment and it will be 
more difficult to pay off a more “democratic 
Egypt,” to maintain a bogus peace treaty with 
Israel. This democratic opening in Egypt offers 
the peace movement new challenges and it is up to 
the forces of peace internationally to bring back 
the peace initiatives of Brazil and Turkey to 
demilitarize the issues of the potential nuclear 
capabilities of Iran. At the same time the peace 
movement must intensify its efforts to 
denuclearize the world because there are 
politicians and generals who believe that they 
can reduce the non-white population in the world by limited nuclear war.

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* Horace Campbell is Professor of African 
American Studies and Political Science at Syracuse University.
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