Gilad Atzmon looks at how Israel propagandist and Times columnist David Aaronovitch is whipping up British public opinion against Iran in a manner that is reminiscent of his role in advocating war on Iraq.
Hasbara author1David Aaronovitch is pretty much unstoppable. The man who together with the Jewish Chronicle writer Nick Cohen encouraged the war in Iraq, is now warning us about the evolving Iranian bomb. “Wake up”, he urges us in The Times, “this threat is too big to ignore.” As if the more than one million Iraqis killed in a war he advocated were not enough, the enthusiastic Hasbara author has a new conflict to propel.
Israeli propagandist David Aaronovich: favoured war on Iraq and now inciting against Iran
Aaronovitch, who back in 2003 was mobilized by an imaginary threat that was crudely forged by Blair and company, seems to be shaken again. This time it is the Iranian nuclear threat. “Most experts seem to agree, training the steed is mostly a matter of time,” he says. But there is something Aaronovitch is failing to mention. The state that lists him as its “Hasbara author”, the state that was recently found complicit in colossal crimes against humanity, also possesses hundreds of nuclear bombs that have kept the entire region on constant red alert for more than four decades. The Jewish state has not signed the non-proliferation treaty and does not let any International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors into its nuclear facilities.
Aaronovitch is worried because “there are suggestions from different sources that Iran is indeed researching a weapons capability.” I would ask Aaronovitch, or any other Hasbara operator, to come with an answer to this rather pertinent question: why shouldn’t it?
Iran is threatened by Israel, America and the West on a daily basis. Unlike Israel, a nation that is spiritually guided by suicidal biblical and historical narratives such as Samson and Masada2, Iran's military nuclear project can only be realized as a defensive one. Iran needs its bombs to deter Israel, America and Britain. Iran is not going to launch a nuclear attack against Israel and risk the lives of millions of Muslims in the region. It has no reason to do so and it won’t. For Iran and every other state in the region, except Israel, nuclear weapons can only be understood as a means of defence and deterrence.
Israel possesses hundreds of nuclear bombs that have kept the Middle East on constant red alert for more than four decades
I would even take it further and suggest that if Iraq had the arsenal of weapons of mass destruction that Blair and Bush claimed it possessed, British and American commanders would have thought twice before sending their soldiers into the Iraqi desert.
Aaronovitch may have learned something, though. As yet, he is reluctant to encourage our generals to open a new front. He has a “peaceful” solution to offer. He wants to unite the nations to take care of his interests. “There is still one possibility that could rule out both military action and the spectre of the Guard Bomb,” says the Hasbara man. “That one possibility is united in international action to impose targeted sanctions on the Revolutionary Guard and their political backers, and on the nuclear programme. It would mean agreement by the Russians, the Chinese, the Germans, the French, the Americans and us to occupy a single position.”
I once read about a well known Muslim leader who blamed the Jews for “ruling the world by proxy”. He was denounced as an anti-Semite and as a conspiracist. As if to prove the Muslim leader right, Aaronovitch clearly expects the leading powers once again to restrain the “enemy of Israel”. “Otherwise”, says Aaronovitch, “we could find ourselves facing some great terrible future Chilcot inquiry3 in which we seek to answer how it was that we failed to stop the last, worst Middle East war.” It is almost amusing to read Aaronovitch attempting to reinvent himself as an anti-war or peace campaigner. But actually, I think that the Chilcot inquiry’s authority should be extended so it can investigate how an Israeli Hasbara author is allowed to promote foreign interests in our midst.
Whether Iran is aiming towards a nuclear military capability is obviously beyond me. However, after reading Aaronovitch, it should. Iran must produce a bomb as soon as possible. Deterring the Jewish state and its allies is the only key towards peace in the Middle East. Sadly, it is the only language that is understood.
Notes
1. Hasbara-propaganda (Hebrew). David Aaronovitch is listed on an official Israeli Propaganda site namely the Israeli Hasbara Committee. The site is there to “disseminate the truth about Israel and the Jewish people”.
2. Masada is the name for a site of ancient palaces and fortifications in the South District of Israel on top of an isolated rock plateau, on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert overlooking the Dead Sea. After the First Jewish-Roman War a siege of the fortress by troops of the Roman Empire led to the mass suicide of the Sicarii rebels, who preferred death to surrender. Israel made Masada into a symbol of Jewish national revival.
Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli-born musician, writer and anti-racism campaigner. His latest jazz album, "In loving memory of America", was released on 1 March 2009 and can be purchased here.
This arrticle originally appeared on Gilad Atzmon’s website, which also contains article licensing information. It is published here with his permission.
