A delegation of senior Israeli officials are headed to Paris this weekend, with plans to meet with top French officials, whom they hope to convince to abandon the ongoing Iran nuclear negotiations.
Traditionally, this lobby against diplomacy at the most vital times of negotiations would involve a pilgrimage to DC, though growing acrimony between the Obama Administration and the Netanyahu government appears to have convinced the later that the French are their best bet to sabotage the nuclear deal.
French officials have at times been the least reasonable in the Iran negotiations, and Israeli officials seem to be betting on another such round of last-minute unreasonableness to kill what seems to be a rapidly approaching deal.
Yet in recent weeks French officials haven’t indicated any particular opposition to the deal, and are just seen to be trying to get the “best deal” possible. That may not sit well with Israel, as Netanyahu has repeatedly made clear that no deal is acceptable to him.
Laurent Fabius was a/the wrench before. And may well be again…?
Maybe courage is contagious and the French will also grow some gonads and tell the israelis to go shtup themselves.
The moment when Iran agrees to buy some French nuclear power plants and agrees to have the fuel rods reprocessed either in France or in Iran by a French company the French will jubilantly endorse any agreement.
Exactly – the same as all countries. After all as George Orwell said: “War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.”
Chutzpah has its limits – a little opens doors, a lot gets your butt thrown out onto the front lawn. Also, Israel is a lousy poker player – going all in on every hand is not a good strategy. As soon as someone says, "I call", you are done.
"French officials have at times been the least reasonable in the Iran negotiations"
No doubt they are trying to sell new weapons to the Israelis. The big chill between Uncle Sam and Bibi must look like a golden opportunity for French war machine manufacturers..
The French along with Great Britain and the USA, who helped build Israels nuclear program and helped test their bombs should publicly admit they did so and also push Israel into admitting they have their own nuke bombs and to push for Israel to comply and allow inspections.It is long overdue for Israel to be held to the same standards as those who are pursuing their own nuclear program .Israel is a member of the IAEA but has never had to submit itself for inspections because they never signed the NPT like many have in good faith.I'm tired of seeing Israel playing the double standard and acting as if they alone are above the law and are the chosen ones who should not play by the same rules as everyone else.The day is coming when Israel will be forced out into the open for all the world to see .All it will take is a earthquake and damage to their nuclear facilities.They will at first try and cover it up and clean it up as best they can but in the end it will be too much for them to deal with and international teams will have to be brought in to combat the situation of a possible meltdown.Also should they foolishly decide to take out Iran's reactors,it will take a nuke to take out the nuke facilities since most the plants are hardened and can withstand standard bomb attacks.So then we will have not only the flash point for WW3 which many foolish end of days war mongers want but also there will be the fallout that will at first kill many Iranians ,many of which are Jewish,and then that fallout will drift to other victims along the way.Then there will be the counter attack..The Dimona reactor is at the top of Iran's target list.This is a insane strategy to think they can drop a nuke on a nation which has complied with international law and think it wont have much larger ramifications for world peace.Israel will become a parking lot overnight and its people wiped out.Is this really what they want ? I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were standing orders from the POTUS for Israeli planes to be shot down if they approached Iranian airspace on an attack mission.That being said the Israelis are already in close cooperation with S.Arabia and have unofficially been granted airspace use to cross over and attack Iran.Israel has already claimed it has done so covertly and been in Iran's airspace undetected.Whether this is yet another lie perpetrated by the Israeli defense forces to sell fear is another story altogether.The point is the constant posturing will eventually lead to a shooting war.The French and other nations involved must resist Israels pressure and see this mission through .I used to support Israel and grew up seeing suicide bombers wreaking havoc in Israel.Now I understand more and understand why people are so desperate that they will sacrifice themselves in order to put a spotlight on their plight.Something must be done.Israel needs to go back on its words and campaign promises and push for a two state solution like they said they would and stop building settlements on contested land.Hamas needs to cool its jets and stop making themselves look bad firing those almost useless rockets which is only getting their own people killed in the process.The only way for the Palestinian people to get their day in court and get some recognition for all the world to see is to fight the legal way and get Israeli people to push their elected officials to come to a peaceful permanent solution.I pray that this will happen so the people in the region can know peace .