31, October 2015 Israel
The inclusion of Iran in talks with the US and Russia at
peace negotiations on Syria is welcome and overdue. Many older Iranians still
remember the overthrow of their democratic government by the CIA and Britain in
1953 with understandable anger. We have never apologized and offered
reparations.
Every effort should now be made to end the conflict in
Syria – without any preconditions. A peace agreement would save lives and
discourage innocent civilians from seeking save havens in Europe.
We should lean on Israel to dial back the harsh anti-Iran
rhetoric to allow reformists led by President Hassan Rouhani to increase their
sphere of influence. Israel has used its opposition to Iran as a smokescreen to
deflect mounting criticism of his oppressive occupation and margination of
Palestinian aspirations. Recent attacks by Palestinians on Israeli citizens can
never be justified but the mounting anger is certainly understandable. Prime
Minister, Netanyahu is completely at odds with the US stated goals, saying “we
will forever live by the sword and we need to control all of the territory for
the foreseeable future.” This makes a complete mockery of Israel’s assertion
that it is a functioning – one man – one vote democracy . To add insult to
injury, Netanyahu made the outrageous suggestion that the grand mufti of
Jerusalem gave Hitler the idea of annihilating European Jewry (when about a
million European Jews were already dead in the Baltic states and elsewhere).
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