And yet the Human Rights Watch organization dares to accuse Israel of committing “war crimes” with what it calls “indiscriminate targeting of civilians.”
This, after Israel dropped flyers into targeted combat zones hours and sometimes even days ahead of a planned operation, warning residents to leave for their own safety. Phone calls were made to homes in Arabic, SMS text messages were sent to cell phones as well. Personal calls were made to local hospitals and clinics, warning staff to evacuate patients and personnel.
All of the above, documented in audio recordings, video clips, photo stills.
Has the U.S. or its allies taken any of these precautions ahead of their air strikes in any of the targeted areas in Syria or Iraq?
Gee, I really doubt it. That would alert the enemy to their plans, wouldn’t it?
Around halfway through his Cairo speech — that first one which explained his well-laid plans for the “New Middle East” in 2009 — Obama got around to addressing the one issue that could literally dwarf all others: Israel and America’s “shared interest in the rights and responsibilities of nations on nuclear weapons.”
Iran’s race to develop nuclear technology.
This is an issue on which Israel has weighed in for decades. It is a concern and a fear that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has reiterated without cease at each gathering of the United Nations General Assembly, without fail, every September.
In Cairo, Obama explained his plan of “action” on how to deal with the Iranian nuclear development program that international intelligence agencies knew already – five years ago – was well on the way to creating an atomic weapon of mass destruction.
“We are willing to move forward without preconditions on the basis of mutual respect,” Obama proclaimed at the Cairo University podium.
“No single nation should pick and choose which nation holds nuclear weapons. And that’s why I strongly reaffirmed America’s commitment to seek a world in which no nations hold nuclear weapons.
“Any nation – including Iran – should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty… And I’m hopeful that all countries in the region can share in this goal.” (ed. – italics added for emphasis)
Yes. He did say it. I know it has taken a while to get there, but we have finally arrived at the pivotal point.
Obama did say that Iran was entitled to nuclear power, albeit “peaceful.” He said it back in 2009, in Cairo, and he emphasized that America would back that right. Even then. He has not changed his stance one iota since that time, despite an enormous amount of fancy footwork and a pretty good smokescreen carefully built with the help of former President Bill Clinton just before presidential elections rolled around prior to his second term.
(The other discussion items in his Cairo speech, incidentally, were the issues of democracy, religious freedom (read: interfaith issues that have nothing to do with Jews), women’s rights (read: education for women and the right to wear a hijab or burka), and economic development and opportunity.
Each point in his speech was tied to the Middle East and Islam. For all practical purposes, Israel and concern for its self-preservation does not exist in the region — other than in connection to the Palestinians.
And Obama’s entire administration has functioned precisely along these very same lines ever since. It has been that way for more than five years.
“The feeling now is that Bibi’s bluffing,” Goldberg quoted a second official as saying. “The belief that Netanyahu’s threat to strike is now an empty one has given U.S. officials room to breathe in their ongoing negotiations with Iran.”
