New Yorker Fact

Washington’s interests in Israel’s war

by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
Issue of 2006-08-21
Posted 2006-08-14

The former senior intelligence official similarly depicted Rumsfeld as being “delighted that Israel is our stalking horse.”

“It’s a moment of clarification,” President George W. Bush said at the G-8 summit, in St. Petersburg, on July 16th. “It’s now become clear why we don’t have peace in the Middle East.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that a ceasefire should be put off until “the conditions are conducive.”

Israeli and the U.S. governments, Israel had devised a plan for attacking Hezbollah—and shared it with Bush Administration officials—well before the July 12th kidnappings. “It’s not that the Israelis had a trap that Hezbollah walked into,” he said, “but there was a strong feeling in the White House that sooner or later the Israelis were going to do it.”

“The Israelis told us it would be a cheap war with many benefits,” a U.S.government consultant with close ties to Israel said. “Why oppose it? We’ll be able to hunt down and bomb missiles, tunnels, and bunkers from the air. It would be a demo for Iran.”

That would make me feel used, and the Bush Haliban wags the world, and a should read ....

How to talk to your Jewish friends about Israel

By: Ira Chernus

Commondreams 10 August 2006

"I can talk to my Jewish friends about anything - except Israel. When that subject comes up, they just shut down."