Roger Cohen Keeps Getting Tougher

In his column today, among other things, he suggest the scenario of a normalization with Iran that

...notes past Iranian statements that it will endorse a two-state solution acceptable to the Palestinians.

Of course, past Iranian statements regarding Israel such as

Israel should be "wiped out from the map," insisting that a new series of attacks will destroy the Jewish state, and lashing out at Muslim countries and leaders that acknowledge Israel.

and

Ahmadinejad last week called Israel a "dirty microbe" and "savage animal", as Iran stepped up its rhetoric against the Jewish state..."World powers have created a black and dirty microbe named the Zionist regime and have unleashed it like a savage animal on the nations of the region," the Iranian president said.

Cohen ignores. Why one set is valid and the other not?

Anyway, Cohen continues and gets to Israel which he accuses as being able to derail any such deal:

...It can be derailed any time by an attack from Israel, which has made clear it won’t accept virtual nuclear power status for Iran, despite its own nonvirtual nuclear warheads.

Weapons, if they exist, that do not threaten anyone, except states like Iran which have made it clear they want to eliminate Israel.

And them Cohen quotes none other than Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who thinks that

“a combination of ignorance and arrogance” under the Bush administration squandered countless diplomatic opportunities with Iran and so allowed it to forge ahead with its nuclear program.

and what does ElBaradei say?

“Israel would be utterly crazy to attack Iran...I worry about it. If you bomb, you will turn the region into a ball of fire and put Iran on a crash course for nuclear weapons with the support of the whole Muslim world.”

which leads Cohen to draw this conclusion:

To avoid that nightmare Obama will have to get tougher with Israel than any U.S. president in recent years. It’s time.

Tough, echoing Nicholas Kristof, his fellow NYTimes columnist.

Who says there's no plaigerism at the NYT?


P.S. Just saw this letter there at the NYT:

Roger Cohen raises the legitimate question of when, if ever, Iran will be able to produce nuclear weapons. He also reasonably suggests that the United States should engage in negotiations with Iran on this issue, despite the fact that the Europeans have made no progress in such negotiations for several years.

But one might question why Mr. Cohen could not make these points without severely criticizing Israel and making the inflammatory suggestion that its leaders are attempting to manipulate American policy.

Michael Gewirtz, New York