Pre-emptive Blogging

Expect to see a lot of needless whooping about this. ABC”s George Stephanopoulos interviewed Iranian President Ahmadinejad last week, and asked the following question: “If the Palestinians sign an agreement with Israel, will Iran support it?”

Ahmedinajad’s response was conciliatory: “Whatever decision they take is fine with us. We are not going to determine anything. Whatever decision they take, we will support that. We think that this is the right of the Palestinian people.” Over at Peace Pulse, MJ Rosenburg is already cracking open the champagne: “Ahmadinejad throws the ball back in Israel’s court. Make peace with the Palestinians and I’ll accept it, and you, too, he says…The neocons always want Ahmadinejad to play their game and promise to rain destruction on Israel. This time Ahmadinejad refused to play.”

Before the whooping continues, it’s important to remind ourselves that Iran has had every opportunity to back this talk up with words, but continues to support Hamas, an organisation which remains steadfast in its opposition to…previous agreements signed with Israel. The cry of hypocrisy is rightfully heard when Israeli leaders pledge their commitment to a two-state solution while continuing to build settlements in the West Bank. I trust this cry will be heard in this case as well.

Too much time is spent pondering the words of politicians. Ahmadinejad & Co contain multitudes just like anyone else. We must insist on assessing politicians solely on their actions. Ahmadinejad and the Iranian leadership fail this test time after time. The fact that the current Israeli government is beset by its own hypocrisies should not blind us to this unfortunate reality.