Ray’s Sept. 2 speech (and the Q&A following) on Israel & Iran: Facts ≠ Fear starts showing on LINK TV Friday, Sept. 21, at 3:00 Eastern. Ray gave the talk at a benefit for a Justice-oriented non-profit he admires very much – the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) in Berkeley, CA. LINK TV has provided the schedule for its running (six more times in the coming days).
http://www.linktv.org/programs/ray-mcgovern-israel-and-iran
Coming off a week of vacation and even some quiet thinking in the northern California sun, and looking forward to a Labor Day weekend with our grandchildren in the Bay area, Ray was rested and relaxed – perhaps too much so. The MECA T-shirt you see him wearing says: “I’m living on 24 liters of water a day in solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli occupation.” (He is continuing to try to do that, having failed miserably at his first attempt during one of those vacation days.)
Ray comes through typically strong on the possibility Netanyahu might mousetrap Obama into joining in hostilities against Iran. Gen. Martin Dempsey’s public statement (“I don’t want to be complicit, if they [the Israelis] choose to do it [bomb Iran]”), and the Obama administration’s reaction to the various indignities inflicted by Netanyahu over recent weeks do suggest that we can breathe a bit easier. But the next six weeks will be critical.
Ray continues to believe that the key factor remains Netanyahu’s concept of how far he can push the American President, who has shown himself eminently pushable, and how much weight he thinks his American neocon ideologues/strategic savants can bring to bear on the White House.
There is much riding for Netanyahu and other right-wingers as they look toward the U.S. election. They want to give Iran a very bloody nose – actually “obliterate” it, if possible – while there is still time – i. e., before Obama might win a second term. If he does, there is always the possibility that he would grow and show some backbone regarding the Middle East – that he might, just might, act with some integrity and justice.
That, of course, is Netanyahu’s worst fear. And that is why it would be best to avoid letting ourselves breathe much easier about an October or early-November surprise, until the day after the election. Here is Alan Hart’s latest; he is one of the best: What Might Netanyahu Do If Romney’s Defeat Becomes Inevitable
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32489.htm