Monday, July 27, 2015

Edry

Congratulations to Ronny Edry. He is the Israeli who used social media to reach out to ordinary Iranians to say that Israel loves Iran and received a similar response from ordinary Iranians. Of course Israel must maintain a strong military power, but people liked Edry will eventually win Herzl's dream of a secure Israel at peace with its neighbors, not Netanyahu's bluster.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

The Nuclear Deal with Iran

So the US and the major nations have made a deal with Iran to curtail Iran's ability to make a nuclear bomb in return for decreasing the economic sanctions on Iran. The opponents of the treaty, say Iran can't be trusted to keep their part of the bargain. On the other hand it does include safeguards. It's not that it's a wonderful deal, but it's the least bad of the options. The Republicans who oppose the treaty are not necessarily doing a bad thing. I think they might actually have helped the Obama administration reach the best deal they could accomplish by letting the Iranian hard liners know that the president could not make a bad deal even if he wanted to (which he didn't). The reality is that the problems are complex. We are at odds with Iran as well as their clients like Bashir Assad and Hezbollah. But we are also their sort of allies against ISIS. Iran is the enemy of our allies, both Israel and its Arab neighbors. A nuclear Iran would stimulate some of the Arab countries to respond by trying to develop their own nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, Pandora's box opened 70 years ago with the unveiling of the first atomic bombs. The salvation of the world won't come from only military power or from only treaties either. Getting the people of the world (not just governments) to get along, to solve problems of poverty, food and other necessities, and getting religions to tolerate each other are all parts of the solution. Technology that deters offensive weapons instead of creating more offensive weapons will help. In other words mostly common sense.