No Gaps Between U.S. & Israel on Iran

Haaretz reported:

According to the U.S. official, the Israeli government was the first to be updated by them on what happened in Baghdad after the talks were over. "We updated the Israelis in detail before we updated our own government," the official said. 

"This shows how much trust and security we have in our ties with Israel." 

This was an anonymous senior U.S. official.

"Even if we do not have the patience, we need to give diplomacy a chance before military action…it is still not too late, and I think that Israel also doesn't think it's too late," the official added.

  

On Friday, the head of the U.S. negotiation team, undersecretary of state for political affairs Wendy Sherman, arrived in Israel along with officials from the White House National Security Council working on the Iran nuclear issue – Gary Seymour and Puneet Talwar. 

The American team had a three-hour meeting with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, with National Security advisor Yaakov Amidror, and a number of other senior Israeli officials who deal with the Iran issue, in order to update them on the talks in Baghdad.

 The official said the noose around Iran would continue to tighten:

The U.S. team also stressed in their meetings in Israel that there is no intention to annul the sanctions that have already been imposed on Iran, with an emphasis on the EU oil embargo that will go into effect on June 1.

"There will be more sanctions against Iran if it does not give an answer to the concerns of the international community," the U.S. official said. 

In its talks with Israel, the U.S. delegation underlined that it is still not clear whether or not the Iranians are interested in reaching a deal. "This is the beginning, and we did not expect that there would be an agreement in Baghdad, we will see if we will close the gaps in talks in Moscow," the U.S. official said.

We will see economic chains tightening around Iran.  I wonder if this is the Iraq playbook, only elongated.




In the midst of this deja vu, will Coleman Barks write a letter to President Obama?

Petraeus Cites Government-Corporate Monstrosity

America's Government-Corporate Monstrosity (GCM), Eisenhower's Military-Industrial Complex on trillions in federal steroids, will spy on citizens through internet connected devices.  CIA Chief David Petraeus offered:

“Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters — all connected to the next-generation internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing,” Petraeus said, “the latter now going to cloud computing, in many areas greater and greater supercomputing, and, ultimately, heading to quantum computing.”

One might expect citizens to tar and feather Petraeus, running him out of the room.  Not this crowd. Petraeus spoke:

at a summit for In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm. “‘Transformational’ is an overused word, but I do believe it properly applies to these technologies,” Petraeus enthused, “particularly to their effect on clandestine tradecraft.”

If anyone believes the courts will protect citizens, think again.  It's about national security, not individual liberty  Google and Facebook are Petraeus' spy tools.

Blomert's: Back on Palestinian Peace

Nearly three years into "economic peace" between the Palestinians and Israelis, how do things look?  Bleak, to say the least.  Meanwhile, Quartet Representative Tony Blair stokes the fires of the Economic Development Peace Train. 

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, as slippery and sleazy as Blair himself, spoke on missed opportunities for peace under his regime.  Olmert and Blair counted on toppling Hamas in Gaza and executing a peace agreement. 

Olmert blames the failure on rich Americans tampering with Palestinian peace, according to Haaretz:

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tells CNN that right-wing extremists from the United States toppled his government with “millions and millions of dollars” in order to thwart his attempt to reach a lasting peace agreement with the Palestinians. 

Olmert failed to consider the impact of his Gaza razing and corruption allegations on his election loss, which ushered in uber-hawk Bibi Netanyahu. Olmert blamed "Superior Powers" in the U.S., yet refused to identify any group or individual. 

Five years in, Tony Blair's peace plan optimism wears thin, especially as Tony enriched himself mightily.  Like U.S. President George W. Bush, Olmert is on a legacy repair mission. 

Olmert and Blair benefited from "millions and millions of dollars" from superior powers.  Any attempts to shore up their greedy reputations is to garner more of the same.  Meanwhile, peace is but a word.  Grease is their practice.