Shimon Peres tries to preserve the "imbalance of power"

In a meeting between Israeli President Shimon Peres and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev at the latter's Black Sea summer house yesterday, Peres urged his counterpart to cancel an arms deal between Russia and Iran that would upset the "delicate balance" of power in the Middle East.

"Peres brought up an agreement which had been signed between Russia and Iran on the sale of several S-300 anti-aircraft systems. Peres asked that the Russian government not carry out the deal, saying that it would violate the 'delicate balance' of power in the entire region," Haaretz reported on Wednesday.

The deal between Russia and Iran involves the sale of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. While Iran might legitimately claim to need those missiles to ward off an impending Israeli Airforce onslaught, Israel avoids its own threatening stance toward Iran and says Iran wants to funnel the missiles to Hezbollah for deployment on Israel's northern border with Lebanon.

Iran's relationship with Hezbollah is well documented, but Peres is wrong to insist that Iran's motive for acquiring the missiles is to supply its proxies on Israel's borders. With all of the rhetoric coming out of Israel about an imminent strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, Iran cannot be painted as a lunatic schemer for seeking to build up its missile shield. Peres made sure to cite President Ahmadinejad's call to "eliminate the State of Israel" in his conversation with Medvedev -- the Israeli mantra in these sorts of conversations -- but if anything is imbalanced in the Iran-Israel conflict it's the extent of verbal provocation between the two countries. Israeli anti-Iran invective is published daily all over the world; sometimes it seems like the core of Israeli foreign policy, allowing them to avoid discussions about West Bank settlement expansion, East Jerusalem evictions, and the three-year Gaza blockade.

Speaking of balances, what "delicate balance in the Middle East" is Peres talking about? There is no balance of power between Israel and its neighbors. No Middle East state can challenge Israeli supremacy over the skies. No Middle East state can challenge Israel's alliances with the United States and Europe. Israel will remain the region's largest nuclear threat even if Iran does acquire a bomb. Even if Hezbollah were to acquire some of those anti-aircraft missiles, no real disruption of the current imbalance of power would occur. No rough beast would come slouching toward Tel Aviv.

With regard to the specter of Hezbollah, perhaps they are also concerned about defending their skies. We all remember 2006. They're still cleaning up the cluster munitions from the IAFs bombing runs, and they'll be cleaning them up for decades to come.

"I was Superman."

I came across Superman on my way back to the hostel at about 2 in the morning, in the Beyoglu district of Istanbul. Superman was crouched behind his shoeshine kit, next to a table full of drinkers at one of the dozens of chic cafés off Istiklal St. I was wearing flip flops, but that didn't stop him from looking up at me with pleading eyes, gesturing for me to let him do his work. The contrast between the downtrodden, anachronistic man—whose name was Zia—and the bustling nightlife around him caused me to stop in my tracks. I sat down next to Zia. I wanted to take his picture, but I wanted to make him comfortable about it first. Plus, it was dark, and I would need him to sit very still for me, so I figured I had better gain his trust.

Zia's face lit up when I sat down. He pulled a tattered Fuji Film envelope out of the breast pocket of his sportcoat and starting flipping through it. Turns out Zia was an actor. He showed me photos of himself costumed as a mobster, a rebel, a knight, and, his favorite, as Superman, chest out, chin up, fists on his hips.

Zia said he was 45 yrs. old and that he'd been homeless for three years. I couldn't get much more out of him, other than that he clearly misses his acting days. That much was clear by the way the tears welled up in his eyes when he looked at himself in the photos, then up at me, then back at the photos, then at me again with a look that asked a question: "How did this happen?"