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The Jewish Voice and Opinion
Wikileaks
December 2010 Tell Our Advertisers “I Saw It in The Jewish Voice & Opinion”
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Must Be Stopped According to another cable, the king of Bahrain, who provides the base for the American Fifth Fleet, told US leaders that the Iranian nuclear program “must be stopped.” “The danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it,” the king said, according to another cable. The head of defense in the United Arab Emirates, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi, told US Gen John Abizaid that America needed to take action against Iran “this year or next.” In July 2009, Mr. Zayed, echoing the sentiments of many Israelis and their
supporters, said, “Ahmadinejad is Hitler” and warned against the dangers of appeasing Iran. No Linkage For his part, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has called the Iranians “big fat liars,” and his assistant defense minister, Maj-Gen Muhammad al-Assar, was quoted in a 2010 cable as saying that “Egypt views Iran as a threat to the region.” The Emir of Qatar, Prince Hamad, who, judging by the leaked documents, seems to enjoy playing the US and Teheran against each other, closed a meeting with the Americans by telling them that
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“based on 30 years of experience with the Iranians, they will give you 100 words; trust only one of the 100.” “Not one of these Arab leaders ever suggested that the US should act against Iran only after achieving some breakthrough on the Palestinian-Israeli front or linked the two issues,” said Israeli columnist Jonathan Rosenblum. Die-Hard Ideology But despite the fact that the WikiLeaks disclosures put paid to the fiction that Israel is behind the fuss over Iran’s nuclear weapons, the ideology has not died. After the WikiLeaks documents were posted, Juan Cole, the anti-Israel conspiracy theorist favored by the Obama administration, published an article in The Guardian announcing that Israel is to blame for the Saudis’ fear of Iran. According to Mr. Cole, if the Arab public were not so upset over Israeli aggression in Gaza, the Saudi leadership would not have been so worked up over Iran. “It is this sort of non sequitur that allows the Obama administration to continue pretending that the world is not a hard place and that there are no problems that cannot be solved by pressuring Israel,” said Caroline Glick, managing editor of the Jerusalem Post. Why Is Obama Doing It? In light of the leaked documents, many observers have questioned why Mr. Obama has made such broad overtures to Iran and its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Last year, Mr. Obama taped a New Year’s message to the Iranian people and even sent a “friendship” letter to their “supreme leader,” the Ayatollah Khamenei. Republican commentator, Gary Bauer of the American Values organization, pointed out that virtually since assuming office, Mr. Obama “has used the existential threat of a nuclear-armed Iran as a cudgel to force an ever-increasing number of concessions from our ally, Israel.” “In recent months, the administration has repeatedly said it couldn’t act against Iran until an Israeli-Palestinian deal had been reached that would unite the Arab world. But if Arab leaders are themselves demanding tough action against Iran, why is Obama putting so much pressure on Israel?” said Mr. Bauer.