By Phyllis Bennis
Institute for Policy Studies
September 22, 2006
Threats of a U.S. attack on Iran continue, although the nature of a possible attack may be different than what was earlier anticipated.
The Bush administration seems to be shifting away from its effort to coerce the UN Security Council to endorse harsh sanctions or even military force against Iran, but the threat of unilateral action remains.
New diplomatic possibilities are opening and the U.S. is increasingly isolated.
Seven weeks before U.S. elections and following Bush's series of rally-the-troops speeches, violence is rising across the Middle East; public opinion is strongly against the war but the Democrats still refuse to embrace that position, and many are afraid of the charge of "cut and run."
Post-Lebanon war, Israel-Palestine is back on the global agenda; new dangers are rising from renewed U.S. pressure on the Palestinians to accept continued U.S. control of the diplomacy, even as new international initiatives appear as possibilities.
Renewed U.S. interest in solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may have less to do with ending Israel's occupation than with consolidating Arab governments' acquiescence to new escalations against Iran.
>>> Continued@ Institute for Policy Studies
