A fox is in the henhouse, playing with the chicken.
Read this article in today's Jerusalem Post.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday he was willing to forget the past and build a new relationship with the United States, adding that he was preparing a new package of proposals aimed at breaking the impasse with the West over his country's nuclear program.
The remarks to thousands in the southeastern city of Kerman took a conciliatory tone not usually heard in his speeches.
"The Iranian nation is a generous nation. It may forget the past and start a new era, but any country speaking on the basis of selfishness will get the same response the Iranian nation gave to Mr. Bush," Ahmadinejad said.
He spoke a day after the Obama administration said its immediate goal is to get Iran back to the negotiating table. Though the US government declined to publicly discuss possible new strategies for dealing with Teheran on the nuclear issue, one senior official said they could involve allowing Iran to continue enriching uranium at its current level for some time.
My Comments
Is it a coincidence that not two weeks have passed since newly elected Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, declared that if the US doesn't do something about the Iranian Nuclear Program, Israel would? I don't think so. Iranian President, Mahmoud Amadinijad, is no idiot. He is wiley and deceptive in offering the appearance of an olive branch to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
In fact, I believe he is smarter than the two of them combined.
Ahmadinijad knows something. First, he understands Obama's drive to be seen in America and around the world as a man of peace. (Peace at any cost, of course, is nothing less than perilouss.) Obama is young, arrogant, and gullable. He is ripe for the picking, and Ahmadinjad is picking. Iran also knows that Obama will do nothing beyond words in attempting to halt nuclear progress. That leaves the threat imposed by Israel. Ahmadinijad is well aware of Netanyahu's history of doing exactly what he says. In other words, Israel is not threatening Iran, they are issuing a warning that something will be done.
Ahmadinijad is a step ahead of everyone. He is playing his card. By offering an olive branch to the US, he is gambling that Obama will, in turn, pressure Israel to stand down and let negotiations and restored relations have a chance. May I say it? Hogwash! The sad fact is this, Obama will fall for the gambit.
Last, for Ahmadinijad to offer to negotiate its nuclear capabilities simply means they now, most likely, have nuclear capabilities. Israeli intel has been saying that Iran would have the capacity to deploy one or more nuclear weapons by June of this year. Logic demands us to acknowledge that those estimates were probably wrong. Iran has either formed a weapon, or can deploy at least a "dirty nuke."
In my book, Distant Thunder, set to be released in August of 2009, Haifa is the target of a tactical nuclear attack committed by Iran and Syria. The odds are growing daily that just such an event will happen. The world will stand by and allow it. Israel will be on its own.
Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem before it is too late.
