Pat Buchanan Trusts Iran More than Israel
by Joel B. Pollak 17 Nov 2013
Pat Buchanan has come
in for quite a bit of criticism over the years for remarks about Israel and
American Jews. He's still a sharp observer of the political scene, though,
which is why MSNBC hired him several years ago and why he is currently at Fox
News. Once in a while, however, a bit of the old prejudice seems to creep
through, as it apparently did on Saturday's edition of The McLaughlin Group on PBS, in a discussion of Iran.
Buchanan said that "the
Israelis and the neocons and McCain and all the Saudis and all the rest of
them" share a common policy, namely: "They don't want a deal; they
don't want a détente. They want the United States
to maintain sanctions on them to break the regime and possibly go to war and
finish off Iran."
By contrast, he believes that "[t]he Iranians want a deal...and I don't
think they want a nuclear weapon."
In other words, Iran's claim that
it does not want a nuclear weapon is somehow more trustworthy than Israel's
claim that it would prefer to avoid war--even though Iran is in violation of
binding UN Security Council resolutions and treaty obligations, even though
Iran has previously lied to the international community about its nuclear
enrichment, even though Iran is a devoted enemy of the United States.
You don't have to think war with Iran is a good
idea, or even to like a close U.S.-Israel relationship in general in order to
realize that Buchanan is simply talking nonsense. The case against war with Iran does not
require treating the murderous Iranian regime like angels and the
democratically-elected Israeli government as devils. Nor does it require
treating Obama's preferred Iran
deal as the only one possible.
The question, then, is why
Buchanan trusts Iran more
than Israel.
I don't think the answer can be very good.
The McLaughlin Group
Patrick J.
Buchanan is a panelist for The
McLaughlin Group.
Note: Mortimer B.
Zuckerman is a frequent panelist for The
McLaughlin Group, a life trustee at the Urban Institute (think tank), and was a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Urban Institute (think tank), the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the Climate Reality Project.
George
Soros is the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society, a board member for the International Crisis Group, and a director at the Brain Trauma Foundation.
Leslie
H. Gelb was a board member for the International
Crisis Group, and is an advisory board member for United Against Nuclear Iran.
Hassan
Nemazee was a director at the Brain
Trauma Foundation, is the chairman for the Iran Foundation, a director at the Iranian American PAC, and a friend of Albert A. Gore Jr.
Albert
A. Gore Jr. is a friend of Hassan
Nemazee, and the chairman for the Climate
Reality Project.
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