Debka, a right-ish Israeli military news source not very well respected, claims that Gates listed Israel as a nuclear power in his testimony before congress. That seems like maybe a big deal. Everyone supposes that Israel has nukes, but as far as I know no major US administration officials have ever confirmed this. Am I wrong? Certainly Israel has a policy of not admitting (or denying) this. Was it just a slip of the tongue, or is this a first step to maybe getting at the heart of the matter in the MidEast? (I can dream, can't I?)
other than our ability to act as somewhat honest brokers what direct impact does this have? if we force israel to abide by certain inspection routines we can extract the same promises from a nuclear iran?
nice to see you at least momentarily hopeful though.
and i thoroughly enjoyed gates at the hearings admitting things in iraq were fubar . he was like a little kid finally fessing up to something everyone already knew he did but was too ashamed to admit it. and bush looked like he had been dragged in to the principals office yesterday with a parent on either side of him having to listen to his misdeeds and promising to work harder in the future.
Reuters has it, as well.
"It's quite unprecedented," a retired Israeli diplomat told Reuters on Thursday when asked about Gates's testimony. "I can only assume he has yet to get to grips with the understandings that exist between us and the Americans."
They agreed to lie. But no one needs to know about that.
No, I don't mean it would be a magic solution to everything. But just that being realistic about Israel, and about the concern of Arab states in the region about Israel, would be a necessary condition to a solution. It's not enough in itself, but without this it certainly won't work.
And I guess, specifically, yes I think we probably could work out inspections inside Iran if we were willing to actually trade something they wanted - and curbs on Israeli regional power is probably something they want.
For the record, I'm not actually hopeful about Gates. He seems pretty much same as the old boss (except he wants to raise troop levels!) But I am slightly hopeful that we are maybe going to at least put some Israeli issues on the table for discussion as part of our new plan to create a Sunni axis to counter the Shiite Iran/Iraq axis.
well, i also liked how emphatically gates shot down the notion of armed conflict with iran at the hearings. and it was not in a rumsfeldian manner in which it is obvious how disingenuous he was being. hopefully the adults now in charge of the adults can make some adult decisions although to do so without embarasssing the administration seems almost as impossible a task as liberating iraq.
oh, and for the record, i never suggested that you were suggesting it was a magic solution. i just needed some details.
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- jim 12-07-2006 8:46 pm
other than our ability to act as somewhat honest brokers what direct impact does this have? if we force israel to abide by certain inspection routines we can extract the same promises from a nuclear iran?
nice to see you at least momentarily hopeful though.
and i thoroughly enjoyed gates at the hearings admitting things in iraq were fubar . he was like a little kid finally fessing up to something everyone already knew he did but was too ashamed to admit it. and bush looked like he had been dragged in to the principals office yesterday with a parent on either side of him having to listen to his misdeeds and promising to work harder in the future.
- dave 12-07-2006 9:23 pm
Reuters has it, as well.
"It's quite unprecedented," a retired Israeli diplomat told Reuters on Thursday when asked about Gates's testimony. "I can only assume he has yet to get to grips with the understandings that exist between us and the Americans."
They agreed to lie. But no one needs to know about that.
- tom moody 12-07-2006 9:28 pm
No, I don't mean it would be a magic solution to everything. But just that being realistic about Israel, and about the concern of Arab states in the region about Israel, would be a necessary condition to a solution. It's not enough in itself, but without this it certainly won't work.
And I guess, specifically, yes I think we probably could work out inspections inside Iran if we were willing to actually trade something they wanted - and curbs on Israeli regional power is probably something they want.
For the record, I'm not actually hopeful about Gates. He seems pretty much same as the old boss (except he wants to raise troop levels!) But I am slightly hopeful that we are maybe going to at least put some Israeli issues on the table for discussion as part of our new plan to create a Sunni axis to counter the Shiite Iran/Iraq axis.
- jim 12-07-2006 9:35 pm
well, i also liked how emphatically gates shot down the notion of armed conflict with iran at the hearings. and it was not in a rumsfeldian manner in which it is obvious how disingenuous he was being. hopefully the adults now in charge of the adults can make some adult decisions although to do so without embarasssing the administration seems almost as impossible a task as liberating iraq. oh, and for the record, i never suggested that you were suggesting it was a magic solution. i just needed some details.
- dave 12-07-2006 9:49 pm