A US embassy in Tehran – but not in Jerusalem

With President Obama opening US embassies in two long-term sworn enemy states (Havana, the capital of Cuba, and Tehran, the capital of Iran) before he opens an embassy in Jerusalem, the capital of close, unfailing, long-term ally Israel, world perceptions — and intentions — have been turned on their head.

Finally an American president has succeeded in bringing together the Israelis and most of the Arab states.

A truly historic achievement.

OK, so it didn’t quite work out the way the US president envisaged. And not for the reason he intended. And Israel and the Arabs didn’t join forces because of US pressure.

Well, not directly.

You see, as the US savagely forced through the worse than bad deal with Iran, despite serious European and Arab misgivings, and in direct contravention of Israel’s best interests, and in direct encouragement of a consequential pan-Arab rush to nuclear parity, Obama has actually achieved the hitherto unachievable.

He’s achieved two historic firsts:

1. He has truly, once and for all, relegated “the Palestinian issue” to the back burner — because the Arab states have finally accepted that this bizarre non-issue is taking up too much of their time, effort and resources. Because they now have a genuine issue to confront:
2. The Sunni Arab world is (admittedly quietly and only in darkened rooms with the shades pulled firmly down) in firm and close dialogue with Israel on the best way to counter the biggest existential threat facing both the Arab states and the Jewish state: Iran.

An Iran whose ascendancy was underwritten by Obama. An Iran that Obama went out of his way to rescue from the brink of extinction (I refer to the country’s brutal regime of ayatollahs, not its people). An Iran that even the Obama administration openly states is a documented sponsor of state terrorism via proxies such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Houthi militia and others, operating in Syria, the Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Gaza, Judea & Samaria, the Yemen, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

Give it time and we will doubtless be reading articles in the mainstream press referring to the “US regime” rather than the “US administration”.

Why?

It’s all a matter of perspective — and intention. With the hindsight of time we already have the benefit of perspective on US policy in the Middle East, its deliberate move away from long-time allies and its shift towards some of the worst, most brutal enemies of democracy, human rights and basic liberties in modern history.

With the passage of time, intention too is becoming increasingly clear – even though the emerging picture is too horrific for most people to put into words. As yet…

As that intention clarifies, however, strategic analysts and political observers will perhaps adopt the term “US regime” as they move away from “US administration” in order to accurately reflect the achievements of the White House under President Obama.

Americans should want to ask one simple question of their president:

Why?

It’s when they don’t get an answer that they should start being very afraid. Because that is when the intention becomes abundantly clear.

Even to the willfully deaf and blind.