It is now widely accepted \u2014 and lamented \u2014 that US President Barack Obama failed dismally in his attempt to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Defeated by Israel’s hardline Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and by Israel’s friends in the US \u2014 lobbyists, Congressmen and women, neo-conservatives, Christian Zionists, and assorted Arab-haters both inside and outside the administration \u2014 the president threw in the towel.<\/span><\/p>\n What is less well understood is that Obama was also defeated in another major area of foreign policy \u2014 relations with Iran. When he came to office he vowed to \u2018engage<\/span><\/strong><\/a>‘<\/span><\/strong> with the Islamic Republic, but this admirable objective was soon supplanted by a policy of threats, sanctions and intimidation aimed at isolating Iran, subverting its economy and overthrowing its regime.<\/span><\/p>\n Israel and its friends led the campaign against Iran, demonising it as a threat to all mankind, and forcing the US to follow suit. Israel has repeatedly, and very publicly, threatened to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities, and has done its best to drag the US into war against it, in much the same way as pro-Israeli neo-conservatives \u2014 such as Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith at the Pentagon \u2014 manipulated intelligence to push America into war against Iraq in 2003, with catastrophic consequences for the US.<\/span><\/p>\n Why did Wolfowitz and his friends do it? Because they feared that, having survived the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, Saddam Hussain’s Iraq might just possibly pose a threat to Israel. It had to be destroyed. Tony Blair, Britain’s prime minister at the time, himself something of a Christian Zionist, was foolish enough to tag along. The war totally discredited him.<\/span><\/p>\n