Buck Naked Politics: Iran vs. Israel: Criticism from Al-Qaeda and Some Preemptive Bellicosity from Clinton

Posted by Damozel | Al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is upset with Iran for propagating the rumor that Israel was behind 9-11. Al-Qaeda wants full credit for it.

In an audio tape posted on the internet, Zawahiri insisted al-Qaeda had carried out the attacks on the US.

He accused Iran, and its Hezbollah allies, of trying to discredit Osama Bin Laden's network.

Correspondents say the comments underline al-Qaeda's increasing public hostility towards Iran. "The purpose of this lie is clear - [to suggest] that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no-one else did in history, he said. "Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it." (BBC News)

This is the second attack by Sunni al-Qaeda on Iran (primarily Shia).

BBC security correspondent Rob Watson says such messages appear designed to play on Sunni fears throughout the region of growing Iranian influence, and to present al-Qaeda as the best bulwark against Tehran. (BBC News)

Meanwhile in that primary that's going on, Hillary has made it clear that if Iran attacks Israel, the US will attack Iran. Political Punch thinks this is inconsistent with her previous emphasis on diplomacy. I don't. I assume that any attack on a US ally would provoke a swift no-questions-asked military response. I mean, what sort of diplomacy would serve if they had already attacked Israel? The objective in that case would be to prevent further damage, or so I assume.

That's a far cry from a preemptive attack, which is how the press are trying to frame this. Mind you, I don't approve of what she said but I suspect it reflects reality.

Michael Silverstein, who has been fighting for mideast peace for years, reframes her statement in an opinion piece at The Guardian. I assumed that her statement was directed toward the hypothetical of an unprovoked attack on an ally (as opposed to "an extension of the US.")

I generally find myself more in agreement with Silverstein than not, but you can make up your own mind. I don't approve of preemptive threats any more than I approve of preemptive war, so I am sorry that Hillary said it. Again, though, it may simply reflect reality.

On Warren Olney's To the Point radio show today, Barack Obama's Middle East adviser and former congressman Mel Levine noted that during the Eisenhower administration John Foster Dulles promised the same "massive retaliation" should the Soviet Union attack the US or its allies. This was widely understood as a threat of nuclear attack. Is this really the type of president Americans want? One who so demonises Iran that she's prepared to go to war at the first sign of conflict in the Middle East? Do we want to create a Middle East cold war like the one we had with the Soviets for four decades?

Equally troubling is the fact that Israel, in Clinton's conception, is merely an extension of the US - a member of the greater commonwealth, if you will. Of course, I find the notion of an Iranian attack on Israel disturbing as well. But the idea that we would react to an attack on Israel as if it were an attack on ourselves ties me up in knots.

We are not the same as Israel. We have our interests. Israel has its own. What if Israel attacks Iran first in an attempt to knock out its nuclear programme and Iran counterattacks? After all, Israeli government ministers have threatened a pre-emptive attack on Iran. In the event of such an assault, is Clinton then bound to retaliate massively against Iran though Israel was the aggressor? You can see where this is going, and it isn't any place good. (The Guardian)

Memeorandum on the Hillary statement here

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