Here are some comments by men who are or were until recently responsible for keepintg Israel safe from external threats, and in particular from he threat of an attack by Iran:
Netanyahu Must Stop Silencing Intel Chiefs Who Find Iran Deal AcceptableThere are those in the Intelligence Corps whose views on the nuclear agreement are at odds with Netanyahu's position; their opinions are being kept from the public.read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.670504
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One is Efraim Halevy, who was appointed director of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, by Mr. Netanyahu in 1998 and served until 2002, but more recently has accused him of propagating fear instead of hope.
Writing this week in Ynetnews.com, an Israeli website, Mr. Halevy argues that the accord contains “components that are crucial for Israel’s security” that resulted from Iran making “concessions in a series of critical matters,” among them accepting “serious restrictions” on its nuclear program and an “invasive and unique” monitoring regime.He warns that if the agreement collapses, “Iran will be free to do as it pleases” while the United States will “lose its influence over the situation in the 18 months left until the end of Obama’s term” and “its leadership will be castrated and humiliated.”
Mr. Halevy also criticizes Israel for trying to “change the rules of the game” by first insisting that the agreement focus on curbing Iran’s nuclear program and later adding new demands that Iran recognize Israel and stop supporting terrorism. This shows Mr. Netanyahu “has no interest in any agreement,” Mr. Halevy added.The New York Times, July 23, 2015
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Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli Air Force general and former head of the Israeli Defense Forces intelligence directorate, has judged the deal to be “highly problematic.” Even so, he concludes in a research paper for the Institute for National Security Studies that the deal should not be compared with the Munich Agreement with Nazi Germany as some critics are doing and offers assurance that Israel is “capable of contending successfully” with the agreement’s ramifications.The New York Times, July 23, 2015
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Another outspoken voice is Ami Ayalon, a former director of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service who leads a non-partisan political movement called Blue White Future aimed at advancing a two-state solution with the Palestinians. Although less enthusiastic about the nuclear deal than Mr. Halevy, he is still supportive.
Mr. Ayalon told The Forward in an interview that he still believes the accord “is the best possible alternative from Israel’s point of view, given the other available alternatives.” He said his main fear is the deal will boost Iran’s ability to foment instability in the region – a valid worry that the United States and the other major powers are going to have to work vigilantly to counter.
Later, in an email exchange with me, Mr. Ayalon wrote that he feels Israeli leaders are listening to his arguments in favor of the deal and some even agree with him — behind closed doors. “But publicly they change their message — they believe that in order to be elected they have to play a different role.”
“In Israel it became easy to play with our fear, look back to our history,” he wrote. “Many of us are living in 1939 even before the Iranian deal was on the table.”
Mr. Ayalon added: “In the Middle East, it is very easy to be pessimistic and to see only risks around. Only a few of us are looking for opportunities even in the middle of the storm.”
The New York Times, July 23, 2015
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Dozens of former senior members of Israel's defense establishment have published an open letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday urging him to accept the nuclear accord with Iran as an "done deal."
The letter also called on Netanyahu and his government to renew the trust with the U.S. in order to prepare for the deal's challenges, and to "initiate a political move which will provide credibility to Israel's support of a two-state solution."
This, according to the letter, would enable the formation of a moderate Sunni-Western axis which will act against extremists in the region.
The letter was signed by former Shin Bet chiefs Amy Ayalon and Carmi Gillon, former MK Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amram Mitzna, Brig. Gen. (ret.) Shaul Arieli, former MK Roman Bronfman, former police chief Assaf Heffetz, among others.
"Such policies will enable both the integration of Israel's capabilities with those regional and international players who share the view of nuclear Iran as a serious threat, and the recruiting of moderate Arab states for the advancement of a political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians," read the letter.
The letter was published as an advertisement in the print edition of Haaretz on Monday, and was funded by the Blue White Future organization, which "seeks to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the basis of a 'two states for two peoples' solution by facilitating the relocation of settlers so that all Israel’s citizens reside within secure permanent borders that guarantee a Jewish majority," according to its website.
Haaretz
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.669390
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It is the same people who demanded War with Iraq who are now demanding War with Iran, for that is what rejection of the Iran nuclear dal means.
See
War with Iran:A Demand for Peace
in this blog.
All of the War talk ingnores the millions of indiviual human beings that war will burn to death, tear limb from limb, drive insane, blind, deafen, cripple in a hundred ways --
The millions of inivual persns who will grieve over the death or injury to a loved one, who will lose his family, security, warmth in winter. shade in summer, the hope for a future;
. . . and the millions who will, unto the seventh generation, lust for more war, dreaming of vengance.
It's a fool's game. Barack Obama offers a chanc for a future that is bettr thn was offred in the past.
If we trouble to look, we can read in detail what our war in Iraq cost millions of peolple.
Iran is a larger more complex country, with a rligious theology which does not shirk death as more xpansionist theologies (Chritian, Sunni Muslim) do. Sadam Hussein, in his American-backed war with Iran, learned the hard way that Iran is not a country to go to war with.
I know that the likes of Linddsay, Gramam, Paul Wlfwitz, and Bnjamime Netanyahu cannot be civilized; that ttheir lust for death or victory or eternal life, or whatever it is that rives them always to want Wa are impervvius to rason.
Plase le us not repeat the 20th Century. The 20th Century was not a pretty place.
Join in for a cchance for peace wiath vigilence.
Do not join with the Iranian hardliners who want to defeat the nuclear deal.
Join wih he billions of us in a hundred countries who yearn for peace an a masure of a better life.
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