Israel's Tehran connection

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press Saturday April 12, 2008 22:28 by pat c

Israel, while supposedly observing an ironclad boycott of all things Iranian, is happily buying Iranian oil

All is not as it appears at surface level. Iran condemns Israel as Zionist butchers but at the same time sells oil to Israel. Oil which fuels the tanks and jets that slaughter the Palestinians and Lebanese. Full story of the Iranian Regimes treacherey at the link.

If you've ever wondered about the definition of hypocrisy you'll find the answer right here. Last month the Swiss signed a multi-billion euro contract for Iran to supply Switzerland with natural gas over the next 25 years. The US State Department condemned the deal and said it would be investigating whether it breached the Iran Sanctions Act. Israel complained too, describing the Swiss minister's visit to Tehran as an "act unfriendly to Israel".On March 30, the Swiss newspaper Sonntag retaliated with the revelation that Israel, supposedly observing an ironclad boycott of all things Iranian, has been buying Iranian oil for years.

This begs the question: if Iran is, as Bibi Netanyahu argues, an existential threat to Israel, why does the government allow such trade? Would Israel have the US attack Iran's nuclear programme and provoke a potential region-wide conflict while it cannot seem to wean itself from high quality Iranian crude? You'd think if Israelis are cowering in fear from an Iranian bomb and the arch antisemite Ahmadinejad, they wouldn't want to trade with such an enemy.

When is a boycott not a boycott? When it's in your naked economic interest to circumvent it, apparently. But one should ask: if Israel doesn't honour its self-declared boycott of Iran, why should the rest of the world honour its boycott of Hamas and Gaza? If Israel doesn't honour its own boycott, then why should members of Congress vote with AIPAC when it proposes a measure that even Israel honours only in the breach?