Nuremberg & Shifting Rationales for War against Iran

the problem is not the nuclear projects.

 This is important.  And that Iran’s

nuclear projects are not the problem

is not just Sneh’s opinion; David Wurmser agrees; indeed, Wurmser said it first.  Shortly before the peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, Wurmser appeared on a panel discussion sponsored by The Israel Project, an Annapolis, MD-based  organization that works with Benjamin Netanyahu to disseminate the Netanyahu viewpoint in the US. Wurmser said,

The problem is the regime; the regime which is –which is based on Islamist fascism. That is the problem now. The regime must be eliminated; it’s the regime that should be eliminated.

   another commenter on DKos noted recently that

       Former Deputy Defense Minister Sneh gave a

       reason a while ago: if Iran has nukes, many Israeli Jews will emigrate, and fewer Jews will immigrate into Israel, and this will accelerate the demographic defeat Israeli Jews face at the hands of fecund Palestinian Moslems.

       Doesn’t sound like much of a reason for a regional war to me.

           The DKos comment is supported here:

               Israel’s deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh recently fleshed out the argument:

                  In the most dramatic comments to date by a senior government member on the threat posed by the Iranian nuclear program, the former IDF brigadier-general described an untenable scenario of Israel “living under a dark cloud of fear from a leader committed to its destruction.”

                  He said he was afraid that, under such a threat, “most Israelis would prefer not to live here; most Jews would prefer not to come here with their families; and Israelis who can live abroad will. People are not enthusiastic about being scorched.”

                  Thus the danger, Sneh elaborated, was that Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would “be able to kill the Zionist dream without pushing a button. That’s why we must prevent this regime from obtaining nuclear capability at all costs.”

               Israel is threatened by Iran even having the theoretical capability of making a weapon, even if Iran never actually makes the weapon. The United States, following Israel’s lead, has declared that Iran having technology that would give Iran a theoretical weapons capability to be unacceptable.

   Deja vu all over again:  changing rationales for waging war on Iran, just like the changing reasons for waging war on Iraq:  Sneh SAYS that “the nuclear project is NOT the problem” in Iran; Wolfowitz said that WMD was the best way to motivate Americans to go to war in Iraq; the real problem, the problem that must be obscured and obfuscated and propagandized, the problem for which the Iranian economy must be bankrupted, the problem for which 70 million Iranians must be threatened with starvation, the problem for which Americans must risk their blood, treasure, and moral values, that problem is: Israel’s internal demographic anxiety. Is this sufficient reason to commit crimes against peace that are prohibited by Nuremberg Principle VI?

back to Sneh’s original statement:

   Who should do it–the Iranian people; the Iranian people doesn’t like this regime. Just for you know an example–in the recent Election 70-percent of the Iranians didn’t show up in the–in the voting booth–70-percent. So what is possible or feasible is not reform; the regime would not allow reform

In fact, the Iranian people are achieving reforms at their own pace and through their own efforts. American and Israeli intrusions into Iran’s political process are beyond the realm of any authority, and are counterproductive.

   but it can be forced out; it can be toppled by the people. It’s feasible but there are two–three conditions in order to accelerate it.

What form of logic holds that the expression of the will of the people in forming their own government –ie. democracy– can  be achieved only by coercing the expression of the will of the people, particularly when that coercion is paid for with the blood and treasure of the selfsame people?

   One–real effective sanctions; sanctions that would be–make it impossible for the regime to govern, to run their economy, to feed 70 million hungry people–this is one thing.

This is morally repugnant in addition to being in violation of Nuremberg Principle VI.  Sneh is advocating starving a civilian population for shifting reasons, as mentioned above, that boil down to Israel’s internal demographic anxieties.

   The second–to stop the pilgrimage; to stop the cruelty appeasing the regime; the Iranian people interpret–all the incentives, all the–the carrots that are offered to the Mullahs as a sign that the Western democracies do not want this regime to be toppled because they corrupt them all the time. This must be stopped.

The main, and most morally repugnant, point of Sneh’s June 3 statement is encapsulated in his declaration, “make it impossible for the regime to feed 70million people.” The remainder of his statement is also objectionable: “stop the pilgrimage” ?? Isn’t freedom of religion a democratic value? Is Sneh suggesting that the religious observances of Muslims should be halted because “”

If “most Jews would prefer not to come here [to Israel] with their families; and Israelis who can live abroad will” is the reason for the new campaign of The Strangulation of Persia that has been going on since at least 1993, is it an adequate reason to stand in violation of the Nuremberg Principles, how does it serve the interests of the American people, is it responsive to the Will of the American people, and what forms of leverage are being used on the Congress and the American people to support these policies, and who is controlling those forms of leverage?