Those who hoped President Obama might bring a new approach to foreign policy have been repeatedly disappointed. On Sunday, Obama had a chance to partially redeem himself. He failed.Speaking at the conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), he declared, “I have said that when it comes to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, I will take no options off the table, and I mean what I say. That includes all elements of American power.”All elements. That includes nuclear weapons.It is hardly an exaggeration to say this week’s AIPAC conference in Washington, D.C., has but one agenda item: goading Obama into confronting Iran even more than he already has. The coalition comprising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israel lobby, and Congress’s dominant pro-Israel caucus will pull out all the stops in this effort. The Republican presidential candidates (excepting Ron Paul) will add fuel to the fire while hoping that Obama leaves some room for them to out-warmonger him.When I say all the stops will be pulled out, I mean it. Netanyahu said, “Seventy years after the Holocaust, many in the world are silent in the face of Iran’s pledges to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. This is a day in which the leaders of the world must commit not to allow another genocide.”But American and Israeli intelligence agree that Iran has not decided to make a nuclear weapon. Twice U.S. intelligence has concluded that Iran scrapped its nascent program in 2003. It is a signer of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), meaning inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency are on the scene. They have repeatedly certified that Iran has diverted no uranium, which it has enriched for energy and medical purposes, to weapons construction.On the other hand, Israel possesses several hundred nuclear warheads, some submarine-based, and is not a signatory of the NPT. It submits to no inspections. It rejects calls for a nuclear-free Middle East. Of course, the U.S. government has thousands of nukes, and surrounds Iran with ground and naval forces.Thus the idea that Iran — even if it managed to build a warhead — represents an “existential threat” to Israel or the United States is laughable. Israeli officials admit as much.The most hawkish American foreign-policy thinkers don’t believe Israel is at risk. Danielle Pletka, vice president of foreign and defense policy studies at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute, says, “The biggest problem for the United States is not Iran getting a nuclear weapon and testing it, it’s Iran getting a nuclear weapon and not using it. Because the second that they have one and they don’t do anything bad, all of the naysayers are going to come back and say, ‘See, we told you Iran is a responsible power.’ ”The demonization of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is particularly absurd. Hoover Institution foreign-affairs expert Bruce Bueno de Mesquita says Ahmadinejad is the 18th-most-powerful politician in Iran. As president he has nothing to say about Iran’s military. His faction was dealt a big political setback in last week’s parliamentary elections — at the hands of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who condemns nuclear weapons per se. Moreover, Ahmadinejad never threatened to “wipe Israel off the face of the earth.”Netanyahu thus is shamefully using the Holocaust card as a license to launch an aggressive war against the Iranian people. But there’s no way he can succeed in his plan without involving the United States. Hence, the mounting pressure on Obama.This is why Obama needed to stand up to Netanyahu, AIPAC, the congressional war chorus and his Republican critics, and refuse to be a party to their war agenda. An attack on Iran, regardless of whether Israel goes it alone or works in “lockstep” (Obama’s word) with the United States, would be a disaster, not just for the Iranian people, but also for Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan and for the Israelis themselves.In light of Obama’s obeisance before AIPAC, he has now dashed all hope that he’d do what needs to be done: resist Israel and its lobby, and rescind the war threat, along with the immoral sanctions and CIA-sponsored terrorism.Sheldon Richman is senior fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation (www.fff.org).
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Artist Victor Cella with his recent painting “White Dog” in his studio and shop, Little Store Antiques in Great Barrington.
L. Tomaino
Cella greets visitors while talking with a fellow painter who comments about his work and Cella himself: “Eclectic, amazing! Victor is decidedly loved in the community and exhibits to everyone his completely open heart.” She added, “He inspires the rest of us who paint.”
Cella began devoting himself to painting about four and a half years ago. He remembers taking art classes in high school. He had finished all his credits early and was allowed, in his senior year, to take art for four hours a day. He credits his art teacher, Mr. Owen, with giving him a good foundation in art.
“Now that I paint, I rely on my teacher’s words: ‘To unify a painting, pick a color and wash it over the painting,’ or, ‘You need to mix the colors!’”
He won a scholarship to New York University to study art, but his parents said no.Instead, he attended North Adams State College, where he also took an art class at Williams College, repeating a pattern from high school in which he finished his required credits early and used the extra time to study art.
He earned a teaching degree in special education and ended up working in schools in Massachusetts and Connecticut for 37 years. He retired in 2019.
Then, four and a half years ago, he got the urge to paint, and the paintings flowed out of him.
He has sold 757 paintings, with 95 of those sold since May 7. “I am having bizarrely good luck with my paintings.” He estimates he has painted 2,000 paintings in four and a half years.
He modestly attributes his success to “I sell low and I have a built-in client base of 51 years,” he said, referring to recurring customers in his antique shop. “A billion people give me feedback.” He has two patrons who each have several of his paintings. “Unbelievably,” says Cella, “one person owns 32 and the other owns 27.”
His studio is in the back of the shop. He paints now on 16-by-20-inch canvases, some of which he recycles, finding them at Goodwill.
Cella’s paintings are tucked in almost every available space thoughout Little Store Antiques. L. Tomaino
To keep his painting fresh and himself interested because, as Cella explained, “I can’t stay with one idea for long,” he has gone through several phases: crazy dogs, grids, flowers with black backgrounds, a geometric phase and “weird people.” The “crazy dogs,” as he calls them, are popular now. One person bought eight, left to go to her car and came back for a ninth, spotted in the shop’s window — the one that brought her into the shop in the first place.
He may even illustrate a children’s book with the “crazy dogs.” A local author liked them so much she asked Cella if he’d illustrate a story about three dogs if she wrote one.
Cella was also approached recently by a person who said, “Do you know you were my favorite teacher?” She came into The Little Store, attracted by the paintings in the shop’s window. It turned out the former student owns Crystal Essence on Railroad Street in Great Barrington and has asked to sell Cella’s paintings there.
Cella, who will soon be selling the building where The Little Store is located and move it nearer to his Southfield home, was glad to be offered a new venue for his paintings.
An artist he knows, Scott Prior, a painter from Nantucket, bought one of Cella’s paintings and gave him this advice: “Never go to art school. You are an artist. Let it pour out of you.”
Cella said, “You have to follow your own path.” He mused, “If I taught art, I’d teach it in a different way. I could teach it as an awareness — how to free yourself up.”
To see more of Cella’s work, visit The Little Store (88 Main St.) or Crystal Essence (39 Railroad St.) in Great Barrington.
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