Nuclear Deal or Not?

Déjà vu all over again: some misguided Israelites and their agents in the US co-opted by Benjamin Netanyahu continue interfering with US sovereignty through their leveraging in the election processes, silencing opponents and leading the US to wars. The international community, with the exception of Israel and Saudi Arabia, has praised the nuclear deal between Iran and the US/P5+1 as a big step in the right direction. President Obama reiterated his position on the deal when interviewed by Fareed Zakaria of CNN. When ratified and implemented, it will inextricably de-escalate tension and bring about much needed stability to one of the most volatile regions in the world. It should benefit all, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, but it will also hopefully lead to socio-democratic and political reforms inside Iran. The fact that the nuclear deal has carefully been reviewed and endorsed by many governments, the UN, numerous think tanks and policy makers, a hundred former ambassadors, and renowned scholars including 29 key nuclear scientists and Nobel laureates in the US and beyond, is refuted rhetorically by highly vocal and well financed groups, such as AIPAC, the Israeli directed lobbying organ, and their US allies.

Whereas American national public opinion is guardedly supportive of the deal, most skeptics and cynics have not even bothered reviewing the deal to propose alternatives short of yet another unilateral preemptive costly war with no end. The era of such war mongers goading the US into repeated protracted wars, as in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, is coming to an end. Moving forward worldwide, a multi-national diplomatic discourse, followed by smart sanctions targeted toward culprits and NOT an entire nation, must be exhausted internationally before the US or any other nation immaturely resorts to an all-out military provocation.

The deal guarantees Iran will not develop a nuclear weapon. The next phase is to declare the entire region a nuclear weapons free zone. That inextricably requires reigning in Israel to decommission its 400 nuclear warheads that are loaded onto intercontinental ballistic missiles. If Israel still aspires to be finally accepted as an equal, and not superior, family member in the region and beyond, it must dismantle its nuclear weapons and amicably resolve the Palestinian dilemma. No one can argue against the merit for Israel to safeguard its sovereignty. However, that must no longer be an excuse for Israel’s subversive accumulation of nuclear warheads, espionage and meddling in the internal affairs of any other nation. Israel must also avoid the systematic mistreatment and blatant violation of basic rights of millions of Palestinians under its occupation. Notwithstanding, the international community must declare one secular country under a UN protectorate with 20 million Jewish, Palestinian and other citizens.

Israel, since its inception 70 years ago, has anchored its existence on awakening the conscience of humanity following the Eurocentric holocaust, killing six million Jews. Israel has immensely benefited from the unequivocal military, diplomatic, scientific, and technological and trade contributions of the US. Again, one cannot question the close alliance between the US and Israel. That said however, the sovereignty and security of the US must no longer be compromised by fringe elements in Israel who hijack the US government through lobbyists such as AIPAC and by financing congress/senate elections or un-seating those who remain steadfast on placing the US domestic and foreign policy foremost and before Israel’s ulterior motives. Interference and meddling in the internal affairs of any sovereign government, let alone in the US, by a so-called ally, is against all international diplomatic norms. If not halted, this in the long run will make Israel most vulnerable as the majority of Americans are silently resentful. They fully understand the catastrophes Israel has caused in the region are against the national interests of the US. Take for instance a recent Op-ed titled “Jews stood up to the U.S. Government forty years ago and should again on Iran” by Natan Shransky in the Washington Post. As an ex-soviet scientist refusenik born in the Ukraine who later immigrated to Israel, he prescribes how the US foreign policy must be carried out and implicitly instigates the American Jews to follow the party line emanating from Israel. The fact that he no longer feels that the same justice he struggled for all his life in the Soviet Union should apply to Palestinians or others in his new neighbourhood is moot and thus irrelevant. No wonder the Jewish American senior senator Chuck Schumer follows the order and declared his opposition to the nuclear deal.

During economic hardship, Americans are gravely concerned about the exorbitant military and financial support of their government for Israel. They further abhor the taking of the American government and its system hostage by Israel and their fifth columnists in America. The recent politically expedient and appalling release of the Israeli master spy Jonathan Pollard after less than three decades (he had to serve life with no parole) is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Israelis controlling powerhouses in the US. Such overt or covert activities by Israel or its fifth columnists in the US will jeopardise the very essence of sovereignty and security of not only the US but also Israel itself. Israel has received a huge amount of support from the US, complemented by additional billions of tax exempt dollars sent in by nearly ten million Jewish Americans. Accordingly, it has far surpassed its young statehood and must now act as an adult state and thus be waned off such disproportionate support which is direly needed inside the US.

It goes without saying that a civil society must safeguard the practice of faith and religion by its individual citizens. However, as soon as a religion, be it the Islamic doctrine in Iran and Saudi Arabia, the Judaism in the state of Israel, or the fundamentalist Christianity in the US, uses religion as a business-political powerhouse, such politicised religiosity must be subjected to the same level of secular scrutiny as any other political doctrine. Accordingly, Israel cannot expect other countries to consider its Jewish driven politics sacrosanct and thus immune from any scrutinised critique. The notion of anyone questioning or criticising Israeli policies being labeled as anti-Semitic is ludicrous. One can argue Israel itself is the biggest anti-Semite, having committed some of the most heinous crimes against its own Palestinian semite step-brothers. Mass genocide of the innocents by anyone and under any circumstances must be immediately deplored by the international community, stopped at its roots and its perpetrators brought to justice. The above notwithstanding, Jewish people have been saved on three occasions by the Persians and will continue to be welcomed in Iran with open arms and warm hearts forever.

And finally, according to numerous national surveys, the Americans’ approval of their government remains at an all-time low. Hence, before the US is once again faced with a bloody revolution, the nation must radially use civil discourse and reform to fundamentally realign its foreign policy. US foreign diplomacy must be reshaped with American national security, and consider the sovereignty of its citizens and not just the interests of the corporate world or that of other counties. The sustainability of a growing middle class with a dignified quality of life and equal access to the essential hallmarks of a healthy society are the bare minimum. The era of special interest groups and other country’s lobbyists is detrimental to the long term integrity of the US.

The Author, “¯born in Iran into a diverse family comprised of Shiite and Sunni Muslims as well as Baha’i, Jewish, Armenian/Assyrian Christians and Zoroastrian lineage, is a naturalised American Professor who has resided in the US for nearly forty years. As a steward of nature, she has come to believe in, and advocate for secular universal humanism, equal [blind] justice and peace for all on earth.

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This post was written by Rachel Kohan