Harold Ford Jr. has decided not to run for the Senate. But — in an Evan Bayh–like move — he’s going out with guns blazing. He aims for the liberal Democratic leadership:
Voting for health care legislation that imposes billions in new taxes on New Yorkers and restricts federal financing for abortions is not good for the people of this state. Voting against critical funds necessary to ensure the survival of the financial services industry — the economic backbone of this state — is not good for the people of New York.
I was considered out of touch with mainstream Democrats when I argued against spending more than $200 million a year to hold the Khalid Shaikh Mohammed trial in New York. I was also labeled out of touch for advocating a payroll tax cut for small businesses and for putting a jobs bill before a scaled-down health reform bill. Though much more needs to be done to create jobs, I am pleased that these ideas have now become part of the Democratic mainstream.
And then he unleashes this:
Yet the party has been too slow to change. The effects of its lack of flexibility have been clear in a series of worrisome political events: Ted Kennedy’s “safe” Senate seat was lost to a Republican; Evan Bayh of Indiana and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota announced they weren’t running for re-election; Senate seats held by Democrats in Wisconsin and Delaware now seem to be in jeopardy; New York’s state government faces even more controversy and challenge. …
Our elected officials have spent too much time this past year supporting a national partisan political agenda — and not enough time looking out for their own constituents.
New Yorkers aren’t asking for much. A jobs bill that cuts taxes for the middle class and invests in the future; a health care system that doesn’t bankrupt people when they get sick; and public schools that lay the groundwork for children to take advantage of all the future holds.
Once again we can expect the liberal punditocracy, which has rooted for the very items Ford deplores, to either ignore or attack Ford. Carpetbagger! Spoilsport! Perhaps. But his views are more in line with public sentiment than with the rest of his party and, at this point, with the White House’s agenda. If Ford is an outcast in the Democratic party and Bayh can’t take it either, that should tell the Obami that something is amiss. But I doubt that lesson will be learned. They’ve invested too much in their ultra-liberal extremism. Only defeat of their cherished signature item, and then of many of their fellow Democrats in November, I think, will register. But as Obama told us, perhaps a one-term president is all he wants to be. Ignoring Ford and Bayh, not to mention the voters, is a recipe for just that.
“Do you actually deny that the casus belli that dare not speak its name wasn’t, as I wrote in February 2003, a desire to make the world safe for Israel?”
Well, I deny that it was. I think that’s what Klein meant to ask. At this point, he doesn’t seem to need any help twisting his words.
Here are some propositions regarding the American pro-Likud warmongers:
1. Like many intellectuals, especially Jewish ones, they doubt their masculinity. The reinforced it vicariously by identifying with “plucky little Israel,” and latterly, “Shock and Awe!”
2. They’ve persuaded themselves that the interests of Israel and the US are 99 44/100 % identical. This is arrant nonsense, but then provides a rationale for advocating that the US do things that primarily benefit Israel, like bombing Iran.
3. The former Trotskyism of many has been bourgeoisified, the “permanent revolution” becoming the “worldwide struggle for democracy.” This was arrant nonsense when the horrid Wilson, pushed by the eastern élite, let us into WWI, and is worse nonsense now.
4. They boast of their influence as opinion leaders, but any critic who notices it gets tarred as an antisemite.
5. They are politically out of sync with most American Jews, who are voting cattle for the liberal Democrats, and oppose war more than their non-Jewish compatriots. Many American Jews, in fact, dislike Israelis (once known as DIBs and FISH at Brandeis), although undoubtedly they don’t want Israel destroyed.
Mr. Boot is right that US interventionism is not confined to protecting Israel, and is a historical pattern that is not attributable primarily to Jewish influence. But he is blind to the disaster that this interventionism has been, since 1898. He wants to continue the same interventionist and imperialist policies which are now unsustainable.
As for the American Likud fanatics, I suggest they emulate Caroline Glick, emigrate to that rabbi-ridden klepttoc racy, and join the israeli army.
Grumpy: If you are such a blatant Jew-Hater, why come here? After all, it’s practically a “rabbi-ridden klepttocracy (sic)”.
Max wrote: To blame the current war on “the Jews”-or even to make the more qualified claim that Jewish supporters of the war were compromising American security for Israel’s benefit-is not worthy of a serious publication. Which makes it all the more puzzling that Joe Klein is peddling precisely such rubbish from his perch at Time magazine, and that Andrew Sullivan is endorsing him from his perch at the Atlantic.
To which I must rejoin: What, praytell, gives you the idea that TIme and The Atlantic are serious publications anymore?
Yeah, there was massive interest among American Jews in invading Iraq and getting rid of Saddam before 9/11. And we diabolically got a majority of non-Jewish Americans and their political representatives to go along with it. Is there nothing way can’t do?…
I must say I nailed this on the head. Klein opposes force involving Iran, which in fairness may or may not be a good idea. However anyone allegedly who does support it and disagrees with Klein really has dual loyalty and is not acting in the US’s interest, which will hopeful injtimidate them into shutting up and leave the tough problems to self-annointed geniuses like Klein.
There is an interesting discussion over at MESH regarding the interconnectedness of America and Israel vis an attack on Iran. Piece also addresses the issue of how American interests are threatened by Iranian nuclear hegemony in the ME.
Link: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mesh/2008/06/assign_iran_to_israel/
Question addressed in the discussion: MESH has invited a number of responses to this question: Assuming the United States decides than Iran must be stopped, and that only military action can stop it, should the United States delegate Israel to conduct the necessary military operations? Or should the United States undertake the operations itself, and insist that Israel stay on the sidelines (as it did during the two Iraq wars)?
there are two reasons al-Qaida has not launched another attack: It wants the next attack to be bigger than the last, and, their fear that it would unite us.
The U.S. government wrongly believes Islamic extremists hate our freedoms. What they hate is the U.S. sticking its nose where it does not belong.
We should at least take a look at how the enemy sees the war.
The enemy’s goals are to drive America out of the Middle East; to bleed our economy through high oil prices and the cost of a war; and create disunity among Americans as the North Vietnamese did during the Vietnam War.
Imagine Looking through Osama bin Laden’s eyes,he’s pretty happy where he stands at this moment.
Guess the pretense that it was other people that would “raise” the issue of divided loyalties has been dropped by Mr. Klein.
Looks like somebody struck a real deep nerve. Apparently it’s going to be vibrating for a couple of days at least.
What people who think like Klein — and there are people in this forum who apparently believe that recycled anti-semitic tripe — fail to remember is this: Iran wants to destroy our way of life. They started by banishing all Western associations and symbols from the body politic. Then they branched out into destabilizing their neighbors, by sending their proxies Hizbullah. Brown Shirts who agree with Joe Klein may remember that Hizbullah murdered more than 200 of our Marines in Beirut in 1983, if that’s not enough casus belli for them. Hizbullah has also murdered civilians in Israel, in Lebanon, and in Argentina. Plus they like to blow up entire planes full of civilians when opportunity knocks.
Iran has been at war with us since 1979, except they don’t have the balls to do it with an army. They send cowardly, child-murdering proxies instead. When you Neanderthals who agree with Klein get a chance, try to blame that on the Jews as well. Tortured logic is your specialty.
Sorry. Don’t mean to insult Neanderthals. I read yesterday that they were smarter than is commonly believed.
Andrew Sullivan says that “we need to wean ourselves off and in part a foolish attempt to protect Israel.”
How about this, “we need to wean ourselves off from protecting the rights of homosexuals.”
How would he like that?
Does he think that the introduction of antisemitic discourse into the mainstream won’t affect homosexuals and other minorities?
Think again Mr. Sullivan!
Israel is a close American ally, along with NATO, Japan, Mexico, Colombia, Australia, India, etc. When one of our allies is threatened, we rightfully take their security concerns seriously. We certainly do not put their security concerns above that of America’s, but we do take their concerns into account when making foreign policy decisions.
What Bruce, NV said. Max, kudos for patiently and extensively rebutting this shameful idiocy of Klein/Sullivan. But really – TIME a “serious” publication? Sadly, it’s hard to think of any mass-circulation (well, large but rapidly shrinking, I guess, WRT the MSM) publication being considered “serious” when it comes to national security or other issues requiring adult consideration.
RCAR, respectfully, you might take the time to inform yourself about what’s known of AQ central’s views of their current condition (hint: nothing like what you imagine), and to review the devastation of AQ and their affiliates, on ever level and from every angle (personnel, financial, operational). Your comment bears no relation to readily accessible information.
Overall, this episode manages to shock – not easy in the last few years – in the adoption of repulsive and baseless slanders by so-called mainstream commentators. It’s hard to keep track, much less not become habituated, to the rapid descent of left-side commentary (and even high-profile public officials) into racism, anti-semitism, and coarse poisonous slander. Baseless allegations of lying against the president in time of war, racist caricatures of a black female SecState, libel of Marines in action by a sitting member of Congress, this pathetic Klein/Sullivan nonsense, Obama’s amateurish and clumsy race-baiting. One can only hope that in short order, somehow, it will again be unacceptable – resulting in media or political death – to engage in these shameful sorts of behavior. Not that I see a path to that outcome.
” is equally outrageous to claim that only Jews primarily concerned with Israeli security could possibly favor military action against Iran.”
who are these sunni arabs that want us to bomb iran? and when the hell did we start getting involved in disputes between sunni and shia while trying to set up a working government in freakin IRAQ!!!!
dellis- no one is threatening any of those countries and almost none of them have any troops fighting in iraq. more to the point, this isn’t the 80′s or 90′s. we are in the middle of two wars, a dollar crisis and a stock market teetering on the brink. there is virtually nothing Iran could do that would warrent a country in our position to go to war with them
Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith, Wurmser, Kristol, Krauthammer…found themselves a full-grown idiot in W and told him how wonderful it would be if the U.S. started a War against Iraq. They put him on the cover of “The Weekly Standard” (“Commentary has too many alta cockas to be so savvy) calling him “The Liberator” and the schmuck bought it hook, line, and sinker. These Jews (25 or so of them as notable anti-Semite Thomas Friedman said) pushed us into the War. Cry until your blue in the face and say it’s a “canard”, a “blood libel” – all the usual manure – but it only convinces more Americans that it’s true. When they saw all those Jews on TV having conniption fits about “The Passion Of The Christ” – the goyim made that movie one of the biggest hits of all time. Same with Jimmy Carter’s book, the Walt/Mearshimer Study and now Joe Klein saying what everyone in the know already knows – a bunch of no-goodnik Jews got us into this terrible War. Denial is not a river in Egypt.
sam levine- here here
Well, from some of the comments on this blog and from comments on other blogs, it is clear that good old anti-semitism ,as in hatred of the Jewish people , is alive and well in the United States and even- sadly- by Jews who really do not like being Jews (Joe Klein amogst them). I cannot improve upon the absolute logic of Max Boot and others who totally debunk Joe Klein’s assertion. It is totally laughable to say that the Iraq war was started solely for the benefit of Israel. Just look at the facts ! But then, facts have never bothered anti-semites (see Jimmy Carter and his ilk). What bothers anti-semites and self-hating jews is the fact that Israel and the Jews really exist. How much better to merge into being Americans and not bother about their Jewishness. No wonder they reject their Jewish roots under the guise of becoming real Americans. No other minority even thinks that way. Black Americans went so far as to name themselves African-Americans. Every other minority is proud of their ancestry and protect its heritage but the liberal, godless Jews are ashamed of being Jewish. No wonder they like having a scapegoat in Israel. In this way, they look good in their neighbour’s eyes.
The sad truth is this: Anyone who criticizes Israel, AIPAC, the neocons, or any of their ideas, is routinely labeled an “anti-Semite.” This is in spite of the fact that AIPAC and Commentary have rallied around a minister who preaches that Adolf Hitler was an agent sent by God to move the Jews (minus 6 million) to Israel. The charge of “anti-Semitism” has lost its force.
Michael, if you had been alive in the 1930s and had been a non-Jewish German-American, you’d have fit right in with the fifth column German-American Bund. Today, you’re a fellow traveler with AIPAC, the Israeli fifth column movement. A foreign agent is a foreign agent is a foreign agent.
Well, if there was any proof needed for my assertion that anti-semitism and hatred for Jews is alive and well in these United States, you only have to look at Mr. Hartland’s words. Rather than engaging in a constructive debate, he hurls insults and accuses every supporter of Israel of committing treason. If my history is correct, Germany in the thirties had the Nuremberg Laws, imprisoned communists and gays, killed thousands of retarded children,expelled half a million of their own citizes and took over two countries (Sudetenland and Austria) before anyone lifted a finger. I know that Mr. Hartland and his ilk. like Jimmy Carter will accuse Israel of all the sins of Israel and of doing worse things than Nazi Germany, but the fact is that one million Arabs are Israeli citizens, that Israel had to fend off the murderous intentions of their enemies since its creation and, even now, is willing to go to great lengths to achieve peace. A far cry from Nazi Germany, I think. But then,again, the anti-semites are not interested in facts, just in hating Jews. And, just for the record, Pastor Hagee supports Israel more than any other American. His point about Hitler was a theological one about God’s designs and , of course, the Christian and Jew haters have distorted his words to make him a convenient target.
Mr. Hartland, your own anti-semitism is peeking through.
Yup, there you go again. Anyone who doesn’t sign onto your Israel Uber Alles ideology is an “anti-Semite.” Blah, blah, blah.
Mr. Hartland,
It’s obvious that you actually HAVE nothing to offer than Jew-hating. Not a single argument, nor refutation. Oh, and when called on your anti-Semitism, you cry “see! proves my point”. Thanks for the intellectual rigor you bring to your position, and for making me realize the shallowness of the Mersheimer/Carter cabal.
Bruce, you make me yawn.
White man’s burden By Ari Shavit
The war in Iraq was conceived by 25 neoconservative intellectuals, most of them Jewish, who are pushing President Bush to change the course of history. Two of them, journalists William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer, say it’s possible. But another journalist, Thomas Friedman (not part of the group), is skeptical.
In the course of the past year, a new belief has emerged in the town: the belief in war against Iraq. That ardent faith was disseminated by a small group of 25 or 30 neoconservatives, almost all of them Jewish, almost all of them intellectuals (a partial list: Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, William Kristol, Eliot Abrams, Charles Krauthammer), people who are mutual friends and cultivate one another and are convinced that political ideas are a major driving force of history. They believe that the right political idea entails a fusion of morality and force, human rights and grit. The philosophical underpinnings of the Washington neoconservatives are the writings of Machiavelli, Hobbes and Edmund Burke. They also admire Winston Churchill and the policy pursued by Ronald Reagan. They tend to read reality in terms of the failure of the 1930s (Munich) versus the success of the 1980s (the fall of the Berlin Wall).
2. William Kristol
Has America bitten off more than it can chew? Bill Kristol says no. True, the press is very negative, but when you examine the facts in the field you see that there is no terrorism, no mass destruction, no attacks on Israel. The oil fields in the south have been saved, air control has been achieved, American forces are deployed 50 miles from Baghdad. So, even if mistakes were made here and there, they are not serious. America is big enough to handle that. Kristol hasn’t the slightest doubt that in the end, General Tommy Franks will achieve his goals. The 4th Cavalry Division will soon enter the fray, and another division is on its way from Texas. So it’s possible that instead of an elegant war with 60 killed in two weeks it will be a less elegant affair with a thousand killed in two months, but nevertheless Bill Kristol has no doubt at all that the Iraq Liberation War is a just war, an obligatory war.
Still, it’s not all that simple, Friedman retracts. It’s not some fantasy the neoconservatives invented. It’s not that 25 people hijacked America. You don’t take such a great nation into such a great adventure with Bill Kristol and the Weekly Standard and another five or six influential columnists. In the final analysis, what fomented the war is America’s over-reaction to September 11. The genuine sense of anxiety that spread in America after September 11. It is not only the neoconservatives who led us to the outskirts of Baghdad. What led us to the outskirts of Baghdad is a very American combination of anxiety and hubris
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=280279&contrassID=2&subContrassID=14&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
The invasion and occupation of Iraq has neocon fingerprints all over it. But it would be a mistake to call it merely a neocon contrivance. The philo-Semitic evangelicals, fueled by the “Rapture Heresy,” were critical. So was lingering, subsurface resentment of the Arab world that began with the 1973-1974 oil embargo.
Add to that a Pearl Harbor-style attack on the United States, a manifestly corrupt and stupid president, and a rotted-out political culture, and the result was a terribly misguided adventure that quickly turned into a tragedy. I can’t say that I blame Jews who worry about a resurgence of anti-Semitism in the coming years; the U.S. increasingly resembles a combination of the Weimar Republic and Latin America, ready to be blown apart by a strong wind.
If it happens, a weak society does what weak societies always do, and searches for scapegoats.
When Congressman James Moran (D-VA) told an audience that leaders of American Jewish groups were pushing America into a war with Iraq, he was denounced as an “anti-Semite” and pressured to resign. (click here)
When Syndicated columnist and former Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan accused Jewish neo-conservatives and the US-Israeli lobby of pushing America into a war against Israel’s enemies, he was also widely denounced as an “anti-Semite.” (click here)
But what are we to make of the many outspoken Jewish writers, Jewish intellectuals and Jewish activists who have been warning us about the exact same thing? Should we dismiss these jews as “anti-Semites” or “self-hating Jews”? Following are some very revealing quotes from just a few of these Jewish writers and journalists.
Joe Klein, Time Magazine, Time.com, February 5, 2003
“A stronger Israel is very much embedded in the rationale for war with Iraq. It is a part of the argument that dare not speak its name, a fantasy quietly cherished by the neo-conservative faction in the Bush Administration and by many leaders of the American Jewish community.
The fantasy involves a domino theory. The destruction of Saddam’s Iraq will not only remove an enemy of long-standing but will also change the basic power equation in the region. It will send a message to Syria and Iran about the perils of support for Islamic terrorists. It will send a message to the Palestinians too: Democratize and make peace on Israeli terms, or forget about a state of your own.” (click here)
Michael Kinsley, Slate Magazine, October 24, 2002
Tariq Aziz has a theory. Saddam Hussein’s deputy told the New York Times this week, “The reason for this warmongering policy toward Iraq is oil and Israel.” Although no one wishes to agree with Tariq Aziz, he has put succinctly what many people in Washington apparently believe.
The lack of public discussion about the role of Israel in the thinking of “President Bush” is easier to understand, but weird nevertheless. It is the proverbial elephant in the room: Everybody sees it, no one mentions it. The reason is obvious and admirable: Neither supporters nor opponents of a war against Iraq wish to evoke the classic anti-Semitic image of the king’s Jewish advisers whispering poison into his ear and betraying the country to foreign interests. (click here)
Ari Shavit, April 5, 2003 Haaretz News Service (Israel)
“The war in Iraq was conceived by 25 neoconservative intellectuals, most of them Jewish, who are pushing President Bush to change the course of history.
In the course of the past year, a new belief has emerged in the town (Washington): the belief in war against Iraq. That ardent faith was disseminated by a small group of 25 or 30 neoconservatives, almost all of them Jewish, almost all of them intellectuals (a partial list: Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, William Kristol, Eliot Abrams, Charles Krauthammer), people who are mutual friends and cultivate one another and are convinced that political ideas are a major driving force of history.” (click here)
James Rosen, April 6, 2003 The Sacramento Bee (California)
“In 1996, as Likud Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to take office, eight Jewish neoconservative leaders sent him a six-page memo outlining an aggressive vision of government. At the top of their list was overthrowing Saddam and replacing him with a monarch under the control of Jordan.
The neoconservatives sketched out a kind of domino theory in which the governments of Syria and other Arab countries might later fall or be replaced in the wake of Saddam’s ouster. They urged Netanyahu to spurn the Oslo peace accords and to stop making concessions to the Palestinians.
Lead writer of the memo was Perle. Other signatories were Feith, now undersecretary of defense, and Wurmser, a senior adviser to John Bolton, undersecretary of state.
Fred Donner, a professor of Near Eastern history at the University of Chicago, said he was struck by the similarities between the ideas in the memo and ideas now at the forefront of Bush’s foreign policy.” (click here)
Thomas Friedman, April 4 2003 New York Time Columnist
I could give you the names of 25 people (all of whom are at this moment within a five-block radius of this office) who, if you had exiled them to a desert island a year and a half ago, the Iraq war would not have happened.
It is not only the neo-conservatives who led us to the outskirts of Baghdad. What led us to the outskirts of Baghdad is a very American combination of anxiety and hubris.”(click here)
Dr. Henry Makow Phd., February 10, 2003 Writer, Inventor of Board game “Scruples”
If the U.S. gets bogged down with heavy casualties on both sides, Americans are going to blame big oil and Zionism for getting them into this mess.
Everybody knows that:
1. The only country that fears Iraq’s WMD’s is Israel;
2. American-Jewish neo-conservatives on the Defence Policy Board (Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz) planned this war in 1998 and made it Bush Administration policy;
3. The purpose of the war is to change the balance of power in the Middle East so Israel can settle the Palestinian issue on its own terms; and
4. Congress trembles in fear before the Israeli Lobby, “AIPAC.”
At this perilous juncture in US history, there is no effective opposition because Zionist Jews appear to control both parties. The Jewish “Anti Defamation League” considers it a barometer of anti Semitism to say, “Jews have too much power.” But is something anti- Semitic if it is true? Anti Semitism is racial prejudice. Zionist power is not a racial prejudice; it is a fact of life. When a special interest group hijacks American foreign policy, it is a patriotic duty to say so.
In recent decades, Zionists have succeeded in making support for Zionism synonymous with “Jewish.” They have made Israel appear to be a vulnerable country facing annihilation in a sea of bloodthirsty Arabs. In fact, Israel has 200-400 nuclear bombs and is one of the most powerful nations on earth. It has evaded many opportunities for a just peace because it’s secret agenda is to dominate the region. Israel keeps this quiet because most Jews, including Israelis, did not sign on for that. (click here)
Israel Shamir, Israeli Author
“The old adage has it that, when visiting a foreign country, to ascertain who really runs things, one need determine only who is spoken about in whispers, if at all.” Judged by this measure, the Jews rule supreme. Indeed, when I referred to ‘Jewish media lords’ during a UNESCO conference in the summer of 2001, the audience’s hearts missed a beat.
The yet-unfought War on Iraq changed this. The American Ultimatum date was set on 17 March, the Jewish feast of Purim. Purim, 1991 saw destruction of Iraqi armies and death of 200,000 Iraqis. Too many coincidences for a purely American war.”
“The powerful pro-Israel lobby in the United States, which advances Israeli interests by pushing for U.S. aid and protection to Israel, and, currently, by pressing for a war against Iraq, which again will serve Israeli interests. This lobby has not only helped control media debate and made congress into `Israeli occupied territory’, it has seen to it that numerous officials with ‘dual loyalties’ occupy strategic decision-making positions in the Bush administration…” (click here)
Jack Bernstein, Author, The Life of An American Jew in Racist Israel (following prediction was made in 1984!)
“The Zionists who rule Israel and the Zionists in America have been trying to trick the U.S. into a Mideast war on the side of Israel. They almost succeeded when U.S. Marines were sent to Lebanon in 1982. The blood of the 250 American Marines who died in Lebanon is dripping from the hands of the Israeli and American Zionists.
If more Americans are not made aware of the truth about Zionist Israel, you can be sure that, sooner or later, those atheists who claim to be God’s Chosen People will trick the U.S. into a Mideast war against the Arabs who in the past have always been America’s best friends. (CLICK HERE)
http://www.mail-archive.com/ctrl@listserv.aol.com/msg106770.html
What’s that saying about sowing the wind?
Brown Shirts who agree with Joe Klein may remember that Hizbullah murdered more than 200 of our Marines in Beirut in 1983, if that’s not enough casus belli for them.
It wasn’t casus belli enough for the Reagan administration, since we pulled out after that, so I don’t think it’s a casus belli 25 years after the fact, either.
The Case for Toppling Saddam
The longer America waits, the more dangerous he becomes.
By Benjamin Netanyahu
Sept. 11 alerted most Americans to the grave dangers that are now facing our world. Most Americans understand that had al Qaeda possessed an atomic device last September, the city of New York would not exist today. They realize that last week we could have grieved not for thousands of dead, but for millions. But for others around the world, the power of imagination is apparently not so acute. It appears that these people will have to once again see the unimaginable materialize in front of their eyes before they are willing to do what must be done. For how else can one explain opposition to President Bush’s plan to dismantle Saddam Hussein’s regime? I do not mean to suggest that there are not legitimate questions about a potential operation against Iraq. Indeed, there are. But the question of whether removing Saddam’s regime is itself legitimate is not one of them. Equally immaterial is the argument that America cannot oust Saddam without prior approval of the international community. This is a dictator who is rapidly expanding his arsenal of biological and chemical weapons, who has used these weapons of mass destruction against his subjects and his neighbors, and who is feverishly trying to acquire nuclear weapons. The dangers posed by a nuclear-armed Saddam were understood by my country two decades ago, well before Sept. 11. In 1981, Prime Minister Menachem Began dispatched the Israeli air force on a predawn raid that destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak. Though at the time Israel was condemned by all the world’s governments, history has rendered a far kinder judgment on that act of unquestionable foresight and courage. Two decades ago it was possible to thwart Saddam’s nuclear ambitions by bombing a single installation. Today nothing less than dismantling his regime will do. For Saddam’s nuclear program has changed. He no longer needs one large reactor to produce the deadly material necessary for atomic bombs. He can produce it in centrifuges the size of washing machines that can be hidden throughout the country–and Iraq is a very big country. Even free and unfettered inspections will not uncover these portable manufacturing sites of mass death.
We now know that had the democracies taken pre-emptive action to bring down Hitler’s regime in the 1930s, the worst horrors in history could have been avoided. And we now know, from defectors and other intelligence, that had Israel not launched its pre-emptive strike on Saddam’s atomic-bomb factory recent history would have taken a far more dangerous course. I write this as a citizen of the country that is most endangered by a pre-emptive strike. For in the last gasps of his dying regime, Saddam may well attempt to launch his remaining missiles, with their biological and chemical warheads, at the Jewish State. Though I am today a private citizen, I believe I speak for the overwhelming majority of Israelis in supporting a pre-emptive strike against Saddam’s regime. We support this American action even though we stand on the front lines, while others criticize it as they sit comfortably on the sidelines. But we know that their sense of comfort is an illusion. For if action is not taken now, we will all be threatened by a much greater peril. We support this action because it is possible today to defend against chemical and biological attack. There are gas masks, vaccinations and other means of civil defense that can protect our citizens and reduce the risks to them. Indeed, a central component of any strike on Iraq must be to ensure that the Israeli government, if it so chooses, has the means to vaccinate every citizen of Israel before action is initiated. Ensuring this is not merely the responsibility of the government of Israel, but also the responsibility of the government of the U.S. But no gas mask and no vaccine can protect against nuclear weapons. That is why regimes that have no compunction about using weapons of mass destruction, and that will not hesitate to give them to their terror proxies, must never be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. These regimes must be brought down before they possess the power to bring us all down.
If a pre-emptive action will be supported by a broad coalition of free countries and the U.N., all the better. But if such support is not forthcoming, then the U.S. must be prepared to act without it. This will require courage, and I see it abundantly present in President Bush’s bold leadership and in the millions of Americans who have rallied behind him. I recognize this courage because I see it on the faces of my countrymen every day. Millions of Israelis who have been subjected to an unprecedented campaign of terror have stood firmly behind our government in the war against Palestinian terror. We have not crumbled. We have not run. We have stood our ground and fought back. Today the terrorists have the will to destroy us but not the power. Today we have the power to destroy them. Now we must summon the will to do so. Mr. Netanyahu is a former prime minister of Israel.
“I believe I speak for the overwhelming majority of Israelis in supporting a pre-emptive strike against Saddam’s regime. We support this American action even though we stand on the front lines, while others criticize it as they sit comfortably on the sidelines. But we know that their sense of comfort is an illusion.”
The only thing that was an illusion was every paranoid fact that Mr. netanyahu tried to push across. None of it existed only in his mind.
Strange though how Israeli commandos are actually in Mosul training and arming the Kurds with whom they believe should have independence. Meanwhile back in their own country they are opressing another race. When will my fellow Americans realize the USA and Isral do NOT have common goals. Israel is out for Israel and this tiny country needs to keep within its own borders and learn to make friends with its neighbors. While maybe a handful of Jews actually came from Israel , the rest are not from the Middle East. One of the biggest complaints from my fellow Americans regarding immigrants is that they should learn how to be Americans. Imagine that, and we are not even 300 years old yet. These people in the Middle East have been their for Millenia and here it is these Eurpeans, Russians and Americans want to change things to suit them. You wanted to move there, now its time that you fit in with your neighbors and keep America out of your stupid religious aspirations.
Brown Shirts? Is that like being “anti-semitic?”
Or is calling someone names for exposing the truth about who was behind the push to get America into Iraq a distraction to keep people scared and away from the truth?
Israel To U.S.: Don’t Delay Iraq Attack
Sharon Government Urges Prompt Action Against Saddam
JERUSALEM, Aug. 16, 2002
(CBS) Israel is urging U.S. officials not to delay a military strike against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, an aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Friday.
Israeli intelligence officials have gathered evidence that Iraq is speeding up efforts to produce biological and chemical weapons, said Sharon aide Ranaan Gissin.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/08/18/world/main519037.shtml
To use the brutal words of Ranaan Gissin, an aide to then Israeli PM Ariel Sharon: “Any postponement of an attack on Iraq at this stage will serve no purpose.”
Maybe not Israel’s purpose, but what about the rest of the civilized world?
And this article:
Israel Says War on Iraq Would Benefit the Region By James Bennet
New York Times February 27, 2003
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations last week that after Iraq, the United States should generate “political, economic, diplomatic pressure” on Iran. “We have great interest in shaping the Middle East the day after” a war, he said.
“The shock waves emerging from post-Saddam Baghdad could have wide-ranging effects in Tehran, Damascus, and in Ramallah,” Efraim Halevy, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s national security adviser, said in a speech in Munich this month.
Until recently, Mr. Halevy was the chief of the Mossad, Israel’s spy agency. He said, “We have hopes of greater stability, greater enhanced confidence from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic shores of Morocco.”
Israelis have also suggested that that an Iraq war may salvage their economy and even prompt the opposition Labor Party to join Mr. Sharon’s coalition in a new government of national unity.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/consequences/2003/0227benefit.htm
How many more American kids are we going to condemn to coming back homes in coffins before we realize that we are fighting Israel’s wars and we will continue to fight Israel’s wars as long as AIPAC and Jewish neocons run rampant in the halls of our government.
If we’re stupid enough to invade Iran, at Israel’s behest, then we’ll get what’s coming to us: $10 dollar a gallon gas and an economy, already on life support that implodes.
We’l get to experience first-hand what Grandpa was talking about when he spoke of the horrors of the Great Depression.
And we’ll have Israel and her Zionist boosters to thank.
who the hell is greg bacon? the drivel he writes comes straight out of the “protocols of zion”. the jews control the world ,the jew control the government. the jews are guilty of killing americna soldiers, the jews are the bane of civiliization,
well, Mr Bacon, you and jimmy carter and all the other fellow-travelers can go on spouting your anti-semitic hatred in the press and the blogosphere but you will not succeed in your miserable goals. God, yup, God, looks out for His people and even the Christian world is now on our side, the good side.
What you see now is my middle finger.
why do antisemites always have to lie to prove their point? simple, because if the truth be known, their arguments would be shown as the lies they are.
Guy strom writes ‘meanwhile in their own country, they are oppressing another race”. Does Mr. Strm know ANYTHING about israel? There over a million Arabs in israel who live there undisturbed and vote for the Knesset . Yes, they actually have the vote ! Imagine! He writes: “Whiel actually a handful of jews came from the Middle East, the rest are not from the Middle East”. HUH? The vast majority of Israelis are born there and have been there for generations. And, of course, the biggest joke of all : “learn to make friends with its neighbours”. What a laugh! Just like Alice in Wonderland. make friends with the neighbours who have wanted to kill you since your birth, make peace with yoru neighbours who keep on sending murderers to kill as many of your citizens in buses, pizza parlors, night clubes..Yup, just be nice to them and they will surely, surely be magnanimous and make sure you they do not bomb but just shoot you. Just like FDR was nice to Hitler and Mussolini and Hirohito..
If only those antisemites would have some true arguments, they would not be such a joke…
The time has come for true and patriotic Americans to throw off the evil yoke of Zionism that the Ashkenazi Khazars have used to enslave us. We will only be free people again when that happens. Just ask Ariel.
hi
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good luck