We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, February 26, 2012

What Happens After Israel Attacks Iran

Click here to access article by Ehud Eiran from Foreign Affairs.
(Ehud Eiran is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of International Relations at the University of Haifa in Israel and a faculty affiliate of the Middle East Negotiation Initiative at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.)
For those of you not familiar with this publication, it is a prime outlet for issues being discussed by political operatives of the US ruling class. Of course, being for public consumption, it is carefully modulated to be a presentable and legitimate type of discourse. 

The author is concerned that the impetus for Israeli forces to attack the nuclear facilities in Iran is driven too much by military leaders in Israel who lack a broader perspective on the wider consequences. He suggests that such leaders are perfecting willing to make the decision independent of US influence.  Given the upcoming election in the US and the civil war in Syria, Israeli political operatives may feel that the time to strike now is very favorable. What this Israeli author doesn't mention is the powerful influence of Zionist lobbies in Washington.