Israeli Leadership
Change Is A Giant Step Toward War With Iran
The
replacement of Tzipi Livni
as leader of the opposition Kadema bloc by Shaul Mofaz is a giant step on
the road to war with Iran. Mofaz, who was born in Iran and lived there until he was eight
years old, is a right-winger who attended the Marine Corps Staff and Command
College in Quantico, Virginia and, after a stint as Commander of the Israel
Defense Forces on the West Bank, rose to become Chief of Staff.
Under normal
circumstances, a leadership change of a party trailing badly in the polls would
not be significant; but this is not the case in Israel, now. Benjamin Netanyahu stole the election from Tzipi Livni, with the help of
Shimon Peres. Like George W. Bush,
leaders who steal elections have only one tactic in their quiver, force. After all, leaders in democracies who refuse
to accept the verdict of their own voters have no respect for anyone or
anything but themselves. Livni is, by Israeli
standards, a moderate who is genuinely interested in coming to an accommodation
with the Palestinians. There is only one
key on Netanyahu’s piano, war.
If Netanyahu has learned anything in this, his second lap
at the helm of Israel, it is that Israel can not go to war with Iran without
the backing of the United States. Israel
can not defeat Iran, but it is strong enough to create a provocation to try and
goad Iran into an attack on American troops, ships or interests and force the
United States into a fight with Iran.
This is Israel’s current strategy.
Israel is too small to go to war at all without a
national unity government. The bad blood
and ideological differences between Livni and
Netanyahu precluded such a national unity government. Now, with Mofaz as
the leader of Kadema, such a national unity
government is both possible and, in ideological terms, already a reality. Israel is probably now engaged is provoking
an “October surprise” in the American presidential election to ensure the
United States fights Iran and Obama loses the election.
With
friends like the Israelis, the United States has no need of enemies.