September 15, 2009
http://pajamasmedia.com/
Last Monday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, perhaps the most closely guarded human being on the face of the Earth, went missing for almost an entire day.
His government did not confirm his whereabouts until nearly a week later [1]. Bibi had been in Moscow, slipping off under a cloak of absolute secrecy for an emergency powwow with the Russian government.
Vladimir PutinWhat was so urgent that the matter could only be handled in person by Israel’s ultimate leader? There is only one topic these days that is earth-shaking enough to justify such a visit. That matter is Iran, a nation engaged in a furious effort to obtain nuclear weapons it can use to achieve the extermination of the Jewish race and the obliteration of the state of Israel, to say nothing of gaining primacy in the Middle East and a chokehold on international oil supplies.
A week before Netanyahu disappeared, the international news wires began burning with speculation [2] about the cargo of a ship called the Arctic Sea, which was crewed by Russians and suddenly disappeared en route to Algeria, supposedly carrying a load of timber from Finland.
Two days before Netanyahu disappeared, the Times of London [3] solved that maritime mystery. There were no logs in the hold of the Arctic Sea. Instead, there were log-shaped S-300 Russian anti-missile missiles [4], and their destination was not Africa but Iran. Desperate to interrupt the Russian effort, Israeli security forces who had the ship under surveillance leaked the plot. Russian forces swooped in to cover up the outrage before the world could find the smoking gun, making a lame attempt to put the whole thing off as a hijacking.
Iran wants these weapons for just one reason: to shoot down Israeli cruise missiles fired at Iranian nuclear installations in an effort to interrupt [5] the Islamic dictatorship’s feverish preparation of a nuclear bomb.
Just weeks ago, rumors began circulating that Vladimir Putin’s KGB had begun sharing intelligence [6] directly with the Hezbollah terrorist organization. At the time, the obscurity of the sources reporting this information combined with the seeming insanity of such a policy made the reports appear questionable to many. But now, with a secret delivery of high-technology weapons to Iran, such reports become chilling to contemplate.
Russia achieves a great deal by sowing terror in the Middle East. First and foremost, such terror ripples through international oil markets and drives up the price of Russian crude — the only thing keeping the Putin regime afloat these days after the Russian stock market collapsed in the wake of the global economic crisis. In August, Russia’s budget deficit increased a horrifying 40 percent, [7] and a jolting 15 percent currency devaluation is predicted before the end of the year.
On top of that, Russia gets to poke a finger in the eye of its hated enemy, the United States, giving aid and comfort to America’s most dangerous foes. Indeed, let’s not forget that Russia is menacing the U.S. itself [8] with nuclear attack on a regular basis. This policy is not limited to the Middle East, of course. For instance, Putin just hosted a visit from Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, selling him a large tranche of missiles [9] as well. (In return, Chavez recognized Russia’s conquest of Ossetia and Abkhazia.) And Russia gets to claim leverage over the region, blackmailing its way into the bargaining rooms of the world’s democracies.
So it hardly came as any surprise when Russia announced on Thursday [10] that it would veto any efforts by those democracies to impose sanctions on Iran for flouting world supervision of its nuclear program. The day before, the U.S. ambassador to the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, Glyn Davies, had warned that Iran had developed a “possible breakout capacity” by reaching critical mass on nuclear material and scientific development so that assembling a bomb is possible in a tactical timeframe.
No wonder the Iranians are in quite a hurry to get their hands on Russian missiles to ward off an Israeli military strike — with the Obama administration dithering, Israel can have no confidence that American diplomacy will defuse the crisis, and that means Iran can have no confidence its infant nuclear arsenal will survive without Russian protection.
Announcing Russia’s refusal to help rein in Iran, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated: “Iran is a partner that has never harmed Russia in any way.” One must wonder whether Lavrov would accept American military aid to the Chechen terrorists who stormed the Dubrovka theater and the school in Beslan on the grounds that Chechens had never done anything to Americans. It seems doubtful that he would do so, but hypocrisy of this kind has never been any sort of brake on Russian (or Soviet) foreign policy in the past.
Russia’s hatred of America is so intense, and its economic mismanagement and failure so profound, that it has become quite desperate. It is a neighbor of Iran and no friend of Islam (as any Chechen can testify). Just as American weapons given to the mujaheddin of Afghanistan yesterday are used against Americans today, so too Russian weapons flowing into Iran may come back with interest some day. But this is Russia’s only card to play in the geopolitical game of cold war that the Kremlin’s clan of KGB rulers simply cannot walk away from, regardless of the cost to the people of Russia or the world.
And, to be sure, there is a joker in the deck that both Iran and Russia can hope to rely on. That joker is named Barack Obama. Obama’s shamefully weak [11] performance in Moscow and his even more feeble attempt to confront the fundamentalist rulers of Iran have confirmed for America’s enemies that we are ruled by someone who will not take decisive action to interrupt their schemes, much less to protect American values.
So, in the end, Obama may be more dangerous to America than the leaders of Russian and Iran combined.
Article printed from Pajamas Media: http://pajamasmedia.com
URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/wary-of-an-israeli-attack-putin-arms-iran/
URLs in this post:
[1] nearly a week later: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,549528,00.html
[2] burning with speculation: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1919342,00.html
[3] Times of London: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6823300.ece
[4] S-300 Russian anti-missile missiles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-300_%28missile%29
[5] effort to interrupt: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5284173.ece
[6] begun sharing intelligence: http://larussophobe.wordpress.com/2009/08/22/editorial-russia-and-hezbollah/
[7] horrifying 40 percent,: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601013&sid=aPQ1SvSEYBBA
[8] menacing the U.S. itself: http://pajamasmedia.com../../../../../blog/russia-resets-u-s-relations-back-to-cold-war-era/
[9] large tranche of missiles: http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-09-12-voa13.cfm
[10] announced on Thursday: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/world/europe/11nuke.html?_r=1&ref=world
[11] shamefully weak: http://pajamasmedia.com../../../../../blog/obamas-moscow-retreat/
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