“Whether we agree or not. They’re (Israel) entitled to do that. Any sovereign nation is entitled to do that. But there is no pressure from any nation that’s going to alter our behavior as to how to proceed. What we believe is in the national interest of the United States, which we, coincidentally, believe is also in the interest of Israel and the whole world. And so there are separate issues. If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice.” – Vice President Joe Biden
Translation is obviously required, but I frankly don’t know why.
Except that our Middle East policy has been tied to the hip of Israel’s for so long people can’t accept when someone is saying bluntly that we do not control what Israel does. The Obama administration will continue on our own course, believing our policy is in everyone’s best interest.
However, if you want to see how treacherous the mine field around stating the obvious about Israel in regards to Iran is all you had to do is read the responses after Vice President Biden was on “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos. First the sequence of statements by Obama’s veep:
The United States, Mr. Biden said in an interview broadcast on ABC’s “This Week,” “cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do.”
“Israel can determine for itself — it’s a sovereign nation — what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else,” he said, in an interview taped in Baghdad at the end of a visit there.
…If Mr. Biden’s comments on Israel and Iran were perhaps off the cuff, he did not back away from them when given a chance to do so.
George Stephanopoulos, the program’s host, asked: “But just to be clear here, if the Israelis decide Iran is an existential threat, they have to take out the nuclear program, militarily the United States will not stand in the way?”
And Mr. Biden replied: “Look, we cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination — if they make a determination — that they’re existentially threatened and their survival is threatened by another country.”
First, there are no “mixed signals” on Iran.
The U.S. cannot dictate to sovereign nation their actions to protect their own country, whether we’re talking Iran or some other country. This is news?
Yes it is for people who haven’t shaken off the Bush-Cheney neocon lock step theory of Israel is joined at our hip foreign policy strategy.
Newsflash: Israel is not under our thumb and shouldn’t be.
Israel decides for herself what is in the country’s best interest and we don’t determine what that is. Again, the Bush era of driving U.S. Middle East policy through Israel is over.
If any message should be sent to Arab nations this one is it.
It’s preposterous to take away from what Biden says that we’re somehow giving Israel a green light to hit Iran’s nuclear facilities.
In fact, what Biden is actually doing is what the U.S. should have done a long time ago. Separate our foreign policy towards Iran from Israel, sending a message that whatever Israel does is on Israel. That we have nothing to do with their foreign policy decisions, even if we’ve also sent every signal that any strike on Iran would be destabilizing, as Adm. Mullen reiterated on Fox yesterday.
It’s not often I think it wise to disagree with Marc Lynch, but this is one of these times. He goes on to cite the “poorly sourced” Times of London piece about some Saudi nod as evidence of making things more dangerous, as well as unhelpful, let’s just say, after Yosemite Bolton’s recent op-ed.
As for interpretation, well, that’s the problem here. Almost everyone is running around with their rhetorical reaction on screech. It illustrates the nervous Nelly syndrome of most people on the Middle East, even when the Administration’s vice president states the obvious.
Haaretz picks up on Biden’s statement.
Israel is her own guide.
The U.S. has no business inside Israel policy. Besides, we’ve made our feelings very clear. Adm. Mullen:
Asked about Biden’s comments, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Sunday the U.S. position on Iran and a military strike involves a “political decision.”
“I have been, for some time, concerned about any strike on Iran. I worry about it being very destabilizing, not just in and of itself but unintended consequences of a strike like that,” Mullen said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“At the same time, I’m one that thinks Iran should not have nuclear weapons. I think that is very destabilizing,” he said.
It’s long past time to separate U.S. policy from whatever Israel thinks they need to do on Iran.
Meanwhile, engagement is our policy, if Iran accepts the invitation. That’s a pretty clear message to Israel as well.
So what’s the problem? There is none.
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