Change of direction in the middle east?
by Rense Johnson, Chairman
Citizens for Term Limits … for a fresh Congress!
July 6, 2009
The debate rages concerning the uprising in Iran over an obviously stolen election, possibly headed toward a civil war. The war would be between followers of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the stealer, aided and abetted by cleric Ayatollah Khamenei on one hand, and those of Mir Hussein Moussavi, from whom the election was stolen, on the other.
What we know for certain is that under Ahmadinejad Iran claimed to be working day and night to produce nuclear material, (which he transparently alleged to be for peaceful energy uses – even though Iran sits on one of the the world’s largest oil reserves).
It is Ahmadinejad who has vowed to erase Israel from the face of the earth, all the while calling the U.S “the Great Satan.”
All of which makes us wonder what is going through the mind of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—he who came to Washington only to be lectured to by President Obama about making nice to the Palestinians. What is Netanyahu’s next move? Israel used to be able to count on the U.S. as its ally, but no more.
Can Netanyahu afford to sit still and let events overtake him? Up until now it had been my feeling that he had been calculating what would be the latest he could wait to bomb the Iranian centrifuges used to produce fissionable uranium with the least loss of support from the free world.
Netanyahu’s ultimate goal and primary motivation must be Israel’s survival.
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But might there be an interim strategy available to him? Perhaps.
We are learning that there may be a national strike brewing in Iran. If so and if successful, it could bring the nation’s economy to a halt – a huge advantage for Moussavi and his followers. This is not hard to believe, when one realizes that mismanagement of Iran’s economy by hate-obsessed Ahmadinejad has led to an annual 25% inflation rate.
Now—suppose Netanyahu could hasten things a bit. Suppose he were to send millions of leaflets over Iran – not bombs but leaflets, written in Iranian Farsi, and distributed by unarmed drones, telling the Mir Hussein Moussavi followers that he and Israel support them and would prefer to live in peace with them if they each could agree on fundamentals.
So in his leaflets Netanyahu could assure the Moussavi followers that he had previously been ready to bomb Iran so long as Ahmadinejad was running things. And that his quarrel was not with the Iranian people, with whom Israel would prefer to live in peace, but which would be impossible with Ahmadinejad. And suppose Netanyahu were to offer peace to a Moussavi-led Iran, promising Moussavi friendly relations with Israel if Moussavi in return were to promise that if he should prevail Moussavi would immediately destroy all of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges as well as all other nuclear assets in a manner verifiable by the Israelis.
My belief is that except for Evil Ahmadinejad, Iran has no nuclear ambitions. If I am right, giving up the nuclear program would be no problem. Normal people everywhere prefer to live in peace. Iranians are no different.
This should give Moussavi the domestic boost he would need to overturn the illegal Ahmadinejad and his side-kick Ayatollah Khamenei, and show friendly intentions to Israel.
A characteristic of genuine leadership is the ability to lead to beneficial outcomes. I believe both Benjamin Netanyahu and Mir Hussein Moussavi possess this ability.
Suddenly, circumstances would then have come together that would allow those two leaders to bring about beneficial outcomes that could have enduring results which could change the direction of history in the Mideast.
Bingo! All of a sudden a lasting, beneficial way out appears from a very bad situation.
It would then be win-win for all the good folks, lose-lose for the bad guys.
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