I wonder if the president will be walking back Biden’s comment or is this the new policy? From “This Week with George Stephanopoulos”
BIDEN: Look, Israel can determine for itself — it’s a sovereign nation — what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Whether we agree or not?
BIDEN: Whether we agree or not. They’re entitled to do that. Any sovereign nation is entitled to do that. But there is no pressure from any nation that’s going to alter our behavior as to how to proceed.
What we believe is in the national interest of the United States, which we, coincidentally, believe is also in the interest of Israel and the whole world. And so there are separate issues.
If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But just to be clear here, if the Israelis decide Iran is an existential threat, they have to take out the nuclear program, militarily the United States will not stand in the way?
BIDEN: Look, we cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do when they make a determination, if they make a determination that they’re existentially threatened and their survival is threatened by another country.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You say we can’t dictate, but we can, if we choose to, deny over-flight rights here in Iraq. We can stand in the way of a military strike.
BIDEN: I’m not going to speculate, George, on those issues, other than to say Israel has a right to determine what’s in its interests, and we have a right and we will determine what’s in our interests.
OK, a high ranking U.S. government official just gave Israel the green light to take out Iran’s nukes. Do they take him up on it?
The big question is: Is this Biden’s policy or Obama’s?
And then there’s this, it looks like the Saudis may be giving them the green light as well:
The head of Mossad, Israel’s overseas intelligence service, has assured Benjamin Netanyahu, its prime minister, that Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli jets flying over the kingdom during any future raid on Iran’s nuclear sites.
[...]
“The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common interests of both Israel and Saudi Arabia,” a diplomatic source said last week.
(via)
Updated to correct the wacked out spelling of Biden’s name. I have no idea what’s going with my brain and the spelling of names. I can’t blame the chemo and I’m not taking any other drugs, so I guess it’s just old age.



posted July 5, 2009 at 3:09 pm
OK, a high ranking U.S. government official just gave Israel the green light to take out Iran’s nukes.
No, he did not. He said he wasn’t going to tell Bibi what to do on American television because Israel is not actually our 51st state. There are some things that even Joe Biden knows would be stupid to say publicly.
posted July 5, 2009 at 4:37 pm
“Any sovereign nation is entitled to do that.”
I presume then that the sovereign nations of North Korea and Iran are also permitted to “determine for itself — it’s a sovereign nation — what’s in their interest” whether or not we agree with them.
A refreshing outlook from an American administration, if it is truly applied to all nations and not only those who happen to agree with us.
posted July 5, 2009 at 9:15 pm
First off, can we at least get the name of the VP correct. Biden.
ex·is·ten·tial (?g’z?-st?n’sh?l, ?k’s?-)
adj.
1. Of, relating to, or dealing with existence.
Here is the actual quote of the Iranian President who was directly quoting the Ayatollah Kohmeini.
To quote his exact words in farsi: “Imam ghoft een rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods bayad az safheh-ye ruzgar mahv shavad.”
That passage will mean nothing to most people, but one word might ring a bell: rezhim-e. It is the word “Regime”, pronounced just like the English word with an extra “eh” sound at the end. Ahmadinejad did not refer to Israel the country or Israel the land mass, but the Israeli regime. This is a vastly significant distinction, as one cannot wipe a regime off the map. Ahmadinejad does not even refer to Israel by name, he instead uses the specific phrase “rezhim-e ishghalgar-e qods” (regime occupying Jerusalem).
So this raises the question.. what exactly did he want “wiped from the map”? The answer is: nothing. That’s because the word “map” was never used. The Persian word for map, “nagsheh”, is not contained anywhere in his original farsi quote, or, for that matter, anywhere in his entire speech. Nor was the western phrase “wipe out” ever said. Yet we are led to believe that Iran’s President threatened to “wipe Israel off the map”, despite never having uttered the words “map”, “wipe out” or even “Israel”.
The full quote translated directly to English:
“The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time”.
Can we at least get names, terms, and translations correct before we begin what may be a nuclear war? Hopefully, if we do so, there may be no need for one.
One more thing, since Israel is a sovereign nation I would like for my tax dollars to stop supporting them! In fact, that goes for ALL sovereign nations. If we are supporting them they are not truly sovereign! Thank you.
posted July 6, 2009 at 1:01 am
I think that we need to worry less about what the leadership in Saudi Arabia says and more about what kind of leadership will replace the Royal Family when the jihadists in that nation hit the streets and overthrow that government. If Saudi Arabia’s leaders did give permission for an overflight by the Israeli air force, and an attack on Iran takes place, I’d give the current Saudi government less than a year before their heads are rolling in the streets.
posted July 6, 2009 at 1:34 am
The problem is that if Israel decides to attack Iran we would no doubt be dragged into the ensuing war! That is the last thing we need–another costly, useless war. If the noble lords in Washington had any brains they would order Israel to cease and desist regarding any idea of attacking Iran or else lose the 3 billion we send it each year to keep it afloat.
posted July 6, 2009 at 6:40 am
Vice President Biden’s website should be “Liberal Guy Blabbing.”
Biden is in character with these comments about Israel. Liberals say that they hate war, and they justify abortion on demand by saying that it lowers the crime rate. Liberals commonly flash “Peace” signs.
Right up until Pearl Harbor Franklin Roosevelt was telling the American public that he was working to keep them out of war, although he favored aid to Britain. Few things are more common than a politician telling his constituents he wants to keep them out of war.
posted July 6, 2009 at 9:35 am
Few things are more common than a politician telling his constituents he wants to keep them out of war.
Yeah, happens all the time. *Sheesh.*
posted July 6, 2009 at 10:18 am
Yeah, I recall when Dubya said that he didn’t want to go to war with Iraq, even though he and Darth Cheney were clearly looking for an excuse almost from day one of his Administration.
Darn liberal.
posted July 6, 2009 at 10:19 am
Who is this Bideon guy anyway?
posted July 6, 2009 at 11:18 am
May I ask what the “reformed chicks” are reformed from? Are they reformed Jews? That would be my first assumption.
posted July 6, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Dean Myrick,
There’s a whole family of Protestant denominations that are called Reformed. Some, like the Dutch Reformed churches (Christian Reformed, Reformed Church in America) have it in their name, others, like the Presbyterians, do not. They are doctrinal descendants of Calvin and Knox.