Part III -- An Israeli Connection?
We know that ex-Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and ex-President Trump were in agreement on Iran policy. In this regard, all the yelling and screaming about Iran's nuclear program carried on by both men hid their real goal. Particularly for Netanyahu, the hyperbole was aimed at creating a "credible reason" to force regime change in Iran, even if it meant a U.S. invasion. Essentially, the model here was Iraq. Netanyahu was ready to pursue this end till the last dying American soldier. Obviously, the JCPOA was a major obstacle in that path. So was Barack Obama, who thought he was helping Israel and the world in general by negotiating the treaty.
Now Netanyahu and Trump are gone from office. However, why should we believe that the new Israeli government has changed the ultimate goal? And why should we believe that Joe Biden -- who is, as he never fails to remind us, an "ironclad" Zionist -- will really follow in Obama's footsteps?
In June, Israel sent some of its highest-ranking leaders to see Biden. These included Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Defense Minister Benny Gantz. Both meetings were basically about Iran. "Iran will never get a nuclear weapon on my watch," Biden told Rivlin. This was billed as a "stark warning" to Iran -- a country which has, for religious as well as other reasons, disavowed the desire for such a weapon. How many Americans know this? Does President Biden know this?
Many scholars and other experts in Middle East policy believe that "Mr. Biden's calculations are rooted in a different era of American-Israeli relations -- when Israel's security concerns commanded far more attention than Palestinian grievances." This is true. But there is a more personal connection. Biden personally identifies with Israel like no other U.S. president since Lyndon Johnson. He collects yarmulkes and is reported to have knelt down in an impromptu "show of respect" after learning that Rivka Ravitz, President Rivlin's Orthodox chief of staff, was the mother of 12 children. The Israeli Orthodox Jews often have such large families out of fear of a "demographic holocaust...that is, the consequences of the Palestinians' much higher birth rate than that of most Israeli Jews. Finally, Biden has completely accepted the highly debatable notion that world Jewry, many of whom are not Zionists, cannot be safe apart from the existence of Israel.
Those same experts also believe that, when it comes to Israel, President Biden's approach has much to do with domestic politics. Thus, getting back to the JCPOA is less important than catering to the desires of the Israel Lobby. This only makes sense for a politician born and bred to the power of that lobby.
Part IV -- Conclusion
The U.S. and Israeli leaders are suffering from a group-think environment and tunnel vision, all shaped in good part by political pressure generated by dominant special interests. At least in this instance, one cannot say the same for the Iranians who, though led by a rigid religious elite, broke through their tunnel vision and joined the JCPOA treaty. The present stalemate is the work of American ideologues tied hand and foot to a major U.S. lobby.
Outside the tunnel one can see the obvious answer to the present stalemate. Having been polite and empathetic toward Rivlin and Gantz, Joe Biden should ask over to the Oval Office an outsider, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. At the end of June Guterres said, "I appeal to the United States to lift or waive its sanctions outlined in the plan." He also appealed to Iran to return to full implementation of the deal. Right from the beginning of Biden's election, the Iranians have been willing to follow Guterres's lead. It is Biden who has temporized while being encouraged by his confidants from Jerusalem.
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