Netanyahu Did Not Say This in Public...

Some things one simply does not say in public, but someday we may read in the Israeli official archives about a discussion concerning the U.S. and Iran that went something like the following...

One can almost hear the classified national security discussion in Netanyahu’s cabinet:

Israel cannot lose when it publicly pressures Washington to attack Iran.

If Washington refuses, Israel can demand in compensation endless weapons to dominate the region, freedom to destroy the Palestinians once and for all as a functioning society, and the assurance that Washington will only interact with right wing Israelis who believe in empire – never with those left wing troublemaking Jews who want “democracy” or “justice for Palestinians.”

On the other hand, if we manage to push Washington into attacking Iran, the U.S. disaster in Iraq will look like child’s play, destroying U.S. ties with everyone in the Mideast except Israel. Israel will have total control over U.S. policy in the region, because the U.S. will be too exposed, too weakened, and too confused to argue with nuclear Israel. The Americans will kiss our boots and beg us for help.

Ahmadinejad is the best thing that ever happened to Zionism – even better than bin Laden. Do nothing to undermine Ahmadinejad: just keep pushing his buttons. Whenever the Americans talk back to us, all we need do is threaten Ahmadinejad and he will make some ridiculous remark that will make headlines in the New York Times. Every Ahmadinejad remark is worth a billion dollars to Israel and a million votes for the Zionist right wing.

The key is keeping the Americans talking only to us. As long as Israelis dreaming about leftwing nonsense like civil liberties, racial equality, democracy, and peace are kept away from American diplomats, we will remain in power.

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Truth in Advertizing: I have no access to the classified conversations in Netanyahu's cabinet. Any resemblance to real events of the above fictional dialogue is purely coincidental.