Opinion Editorials, November 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
Israel continues to stir the pot of Middle Eastern troubles
The Daily Star
11/28/03
The recent fast pace of events related to the nuclear sector in Iran
should cause all interested parties to pause and explore more closely the
concerns and perspectives of the principal actors. The process of
diplomacy and the practice of serious, rational dialogue have both helped
to tone down the frenzied rhetoric that had dominated the scene some
months ago. Only Israel remains as the party that not only routinely sends
out scare warnings about the alleged threat that Iran represents, but also
escalates the intensity of those warnings week by week, achieving ever
higher levels of incredulity.
The Europeans and the Iranians first reached agreement on broad principles
of action that would include the Iranian nuclear sector in international
inspections and safeguards designed to prevent proliferation of nuclear
weapons. Then the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA) adopted a resolution calling on Iran to urgently complete
all necessary corrective measures and fully implement its commitment to
full disclosure,to ensure that nuclear activities and materials are not
being diverted to nonpeaceful purposes. Iran said the next day that it had
nothing to fear from snap inspections of its nuclear facilities, despite
the IAEA warning that any suspicious and unexpected findings would not be
tolerated. In recognition of Iran’s promise of greater co-operation, the
IAEA stopped short of reporting Iran to the UN Security Council for
possible sanctions; Iran for its part says that it has no intention of
building nuclear weapons, and is developing nuclear technology for an
atomic energy program to meet booming electricity demand.
The Iranian government has stated that “our relations with European
countries and the IAEA have entered a new era,” which is the sort of
response that all should aim for in such situations. The Iranian
government also claims that it agreed to the IAEA inspections and other
requirements in order to “gain trust and increase the level of
cooperation.”
Even the United States, which has maintained a rather shrill anti-Iranian
line in recent years, seems to have accepted the need to go along with the
global consensus on dealing with this through reasonable diplomacy rather
than irrational harangues.
Israel remains the conspicuous exception to this trend. It continues to
issue increasingly frenzied statements about Iran’s threat to Israel and
others in this region, while it maintains an almost equally virulent line
of attack against Syria. We seem to have a pattern in which Israel is
using scare tactics to heighten global concerns about the policies of
Syria and Iran, at a time when the rest of the world is urging a more
thoughtful, quiet approach to resolving any legitimate issues that are
raised in the field of proliferation and others. Does Israel know
something the rest of the world does not? Or it is simply using its usual
technique of stirring the Middle Eastern pot to avoid a greater focus on
its own policies and the threats that it pose to its neighbors?
 |
| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
 |
| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
 |
| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03). |
 |