. His ambivalence, he says, extends to whether Israel should attack Iran unilaterally, though he is convinced by his ‘interviewing’ that it likely will. It reminds me of all the caveats and ambivalences in Ken Pollack’s book ‘Gathering Storm,’ which was used by warmongers nevertheless to help get up the Iraq War.
Goldberg knows that Obama is not actually going to war against Iran. Despite what he says, Bibi Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, is for all his bluster far too personally indecisive to take such a major step (and certainly not without an American green light; Bibi thinks Clinton had him undermined and moved out of office for obstructing the Oslo accords, and does not want to risk the same fate for causing trouble for Obama in Iraq and Afghanistan). How Goldberg could miss this truism in Israeli politics is beyond me.
[/quote]
Juan Cole is right I suspect. I don’t always agree with him, but he is probably the most keen observer of the middle east today. Bibi is about his own legacy. Moreso than any of our last 3 presidents for sure. He’s also well aware of the impending demographic end game that threatens to destroy Israel. It is not a risk he can take. So he will continue to carefully balance his current domestic support with his legacy. War with Iran will not ensure the legacy he desires. Only peace will.
