Rahm “the ballerina” Emanuel said that the efforts to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons hinged on peace talks with the Palestinians – Jerusalem Post, May 4. The problem is that neither Palestine nor Iran wants peace with Israel. And his juvenile stance therefore gives Iran, and to a lesser extent Palestine, a veto over any efforts to stop Iran from getting nukes. Solving the “Palestine problem”–which has existed for decades–would be nice. Preventing Iran from obtaining nukes is crucial. Hundreds of lives, maybe thousands, hang in the balance in the indefinite future because of the “Palestinian problem.” But millions of lives hang in the balance of the Iranian nuke problem.
As Alan Dershowitz points out, Israel offered the Palestinians peace and a separate state back in 2000-20001:
“Israel in 2000-2001 offered the Palestinians a state in the entire Gaza Strip and more than 95% of the West Bank, with its capital in Jerusalem and a $35 billion compensation package for the refugees. Yassir Arafat rejected the offer and instead began the second intifada in which nearly 5,000 people were killed….”
Dershowitz goes on, in an excellant article which I heartily recommend, to point out that Obama has it exactly backwards: the Palestinian problem can better be solved after the threat of annilation of Israel by Iran is eliminated. Obama has in effect pushed Israel into a corner. It says that America will not prevent Iran from getting nukes until an unsolvable problem is solved. In other words, it will allow Iran to obtain nukes. And that is something that the Israel people can not accept. Iran has repeatedly threatened to wipe Israel off the map. So now, pushed into a corner, Obama’s position is making it more likely that Israel will solve the problem militarily, on its own. Rahm Emanuel’s idiotic words, spoken with the blessing of Obama, will have the same effect on Israel that Ambassador April Glaspie’s words had on Saddam Hussein’s decision to invade Kuwait. They will cause war.