Jul 09
Equivalency: Obama administration on Israel, or Iran and Syria?
Equivalency: Obama administration on Israel, or Iran and Syria?
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1. On May 27 U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said:
“With respect to settlements, the President was very clear….He wants to see a stop to settlements – not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions….That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly…And we intend to press that point.”
2. So I wondered what this approach would sound like if applied to the Iranian regime:
“With respect to nuclear weapons and sponsorship of terrorism, the President was very clear….He wants to see a stop to nuclear weapons – not some nuclear weapons, not just the warheads, not just the missiles….That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly…And we intend to press that point.”
3. Or how about to the Syrian regime?
“With respect to Syrian sponsorship of terrorism, the President was very clear….He wants to see a stop to Syrian sponsorship of terrorism – not just training terrorists, not just financing terrorists, not just ordering them to attack, not just giving them safe passage across the border, not just against Lebanon, not just against Syria, not just agianst Israel….That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly….And we intend to press that point.”
But of course such a policy would require some real toughness against enemies on real big issues, not just gigantic posturing against an ally on a really small issue.
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are Lebanon: Liberation, Conflict, and Crisis (Palgrave Macmillan), Conflict and Insurgency in the Contemporary Middle East (Routledge), The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition) (Viking-Penguin), the paperback edition of The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan), A Chronological History of Terrorism (Sharpe), and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley).
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