WE CANNOT ALLOW ISRAEL'S NEW LEADERS TO ATTACK IRAN

Tomorrow is a fateful day for the Israeli/Palestinian relations. It is election day for parliament in Israel. It appears that Likud's war monger Bibi Netanyahu might win the most seats over Kadima's Tzipi Livni. And the ultra conservative and Arab expelling party of war monger par excellence Arigdor Lieberman is posed to pick up influential seats.

Both Netanyahu and Lieberman would think nothing of restarting Israel's attack on Palestinians in Gaza, wanting to eradicate and eliminate any vestige of Hamas. But because Hamas really represents the people in Gaza, this means elimination of the Palestinians themselves, including all men, women and children.

Furthermore, Lieberman and Netanyahu are constantly accusing Iran of aiding terrorists because Iran sends monies into Gaza for charitable purposes, and Iran also does the same thing for Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah's adherents are Shia Muslims, as is the majority of Iranians. It is natural that Iran would want to come to the financial aid of its co-religionists in Lebanon who have seen their infrastructure, roads, bridges, apartment buildings and private homes, destroyed by Israeli war planes several years ago. But the Israeli hardliners try to portray Iran as aiding terrorists, a charge that in these guys' minds, justifies starting a war by attacking Iranian cities and people.

We need Obama to make it clear that U.S. foreign policy opposes such disastrous and catastrophic ideas and plans. Obama should also lay down the law that the U.S. will totally oppose any Israeli scheme to start another world war by initiating an attack against Iran.

CONDOLEEZA RICE SIGNS ACCORD WITH ISRAEL ON HER LAST FULL DAY IN OFFICE

Someone tell me why Tzipi Livni, Israel's harsh Defense Minister, had to rush to Washington last night and sign an Agreement with Condoleeza Rice today, giving Israel American know-how to stop the flow of goods through tunnels from Egypt?

The tunnels constitute the Palestinians only source of food, medicine and fuel, ever since the Israelis closed off all border crossings some 18 months ago. But in the Israel attack that is currently going on, Israeli war planes have bombed and bombed again the tunnels.

Consider that this is one of the only wars where the attacker refuses to let refugees flee the fighting. Gazans are not allowed to leave even though they are subject to night and day air raids and tank shelling.

Just yesterday, Israeli tanks shelled the United Nations Relief Agency's food and medicine storage, destroying everything inside. The Israelis also shelled a large hospital.

So why must Livni sign an agreement with Rice on Rice's last full day in office? Almost as if the Israeli government fears that Barack Obama is going to take a new approach to talking with the Palestinians and according them due process and equal protection.

SILENCE OF ARAB LEADERS ON ISRAEL'S ILLEGAL ATTACK IN GAZA

I criticized Tony Blair yesterday for his silence on Israel's barbaric and cruel military action against the Palestinians in Gaza. Surely Israel will need to answer for its actions which in all likelihood constitute war crimes. And Blair, who happens to be the Middle East Envoy for the Quartet (Russia, the EU, the UN and the US) has enabled Israel's illegal actions by his silence and complicity. Blair thus shows himself to be as ineffectual on diplomacy in Middle East as he was in stopping George Bush in Iraq.

But if Blair is himself complicit in Israel's unlawful killings in Gaza, others too need to be confronted. Where is King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia? How come he has remained silent? Where are his condemnations of Israel for the terrible suffering it has inflicted on Palestinian civilians?

And how about Mubarak, that dictator in Egypt. A few days before Israel began its campaign, Tzipi Livni met with Mubarak in Egypt to discuss Israel's plans. Mubarak, like Tony Blair, has much to answer for.

ISRAELI OFFICIALS WARN AGAINST OBAMA CONDUCTING TALKS WITH IRAN

It is curious that in the last few days before president-elect Obama's news conference and his statements on Iran, two high-ranking officials from Israel thought it necessary to come out and warn Obama about establishing talks with Iran and its president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Jerusalem Post reports that Foreign Minister Tzipy Livni offered that Obama's acceptance of talks with Iran would show "weakness."

"US President-elect Barack Obama should not talk to Iran just yet, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said on Thursday, warning that such dialogue could project "weakness."
"We need to fight extremism," Livni said as she stood next to visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a joint press conference in the home of the American ambassador to Israel.. "We need to continue the pressure on Iran and I believe that the idea of continuing the pressure comes with more intense and effective sanctions on the Iranians."
Although she described Obama's election as "a source of inspiration to millions around the world," and congratulated him on his "historic victory," her comments marked a first sign of disagreement with the incoming American administration. Obama has stated a willingness to talk to Iran about its nuclear program without condition, telling The Jerusalem Post in July that he would engage "in tough, direct talks" with Teheran."

And Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said it would allow Iran to continue to develop nuclear weapons behind the pretense of engaging in diplomatic talks. Tovah Lazaroff reports for The Jerusalem Post:

"Israel is not ruling out any option when it comes to dealing with Iran's nuclear program, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Friday.

"Following a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Jerusalem, Barak said he told her that Israel is "not taking any option off the table, and we don't recommend that others take any option off the table," stressing, "We mean what we say."

"Barak insisted that Iran was continuing to "trick the world" in negotiations over the monitoring of its nuclear activities. "

The question is why we are getting all of these anti-Iranian statements from Israeli officials at this time.

I though that Barack Obama's statement on Iran at his news conference was bellicose enough with the push of the Israelis. Obama said he would never allow Iran to have nuclear weapons, and that furthermore, Iran should stop giving aid to "terrorists."

By "terrorists," I assume Obama meant Hezbollah in Lebanon. If so, Obama is no better than George W. Bush in a simplistic approach to Hezbollah and the Shiite Muslims spread throughout the Middle East. Israel calls Hezbollah a terrorist group, so does the United States. But it is not clear that Hezbollah is anything more than a political entity infused with Shiite Islam that fights against Israel for land and civil rights. In other words, Hezbollah is an insurgency against the Israelis.

And as far as Iran's approach to nuclear weapons, Iranian leaders claim they have no desire to make nuclear weapons, and certainly, the IAEA has found no evidence to the contrary. All statements by Israel and Bush about Iran's desire for nuclear weapons is based on supposition and conjecture.

The question then is, would Obama allow Israel to attack Iran on the basis of conjecture? Obama's statements don't seem to reassure me on this important question.