GREAT MOMENTS IN ISRAELI SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS

JERUSALEM, Feb. 24 — Israelis once believed that the Oslo agreement with the Palestinians would usher in a new Middle East of comfortable Israeli-Arab co-existence.

With Oslo in tatters, they are now putting similar hopes in an American war on Iraq.

Other nations may cavil, but Israel is so certain of the rightness of a war on Iraq that it is already thinking past that conflict to urge a continued, assertive American role in the Middle East.

Shaul Mofaz, Israel's defense minister, 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. (full story)

Oy vey.

In the article, Israel says that based on their intelligence, Iraq probably couldn't lob any missiles at Israel in the event of an American attack. Well that's all well and good, boys. You guys sure seem to know more about those Iraqi weapons than the Bushies do!

Then again, if I were Israel, I'd be more concerned with how a war with Iraq goes over with the mideast on the whole, and how Al Qaeda recruiting will increase if the war goes on.

But we read on, and we discover what's on Sharon/etc's mind:

Mr. Sharon has been alarmed by the recent efforts of the so-called Quartet — the United States, the United Nations, the European Union, and Russia — to intervene in the conflict here. Mr. Sharon would much prefer to deal only with the United States, regarding the other players as less supportive of Israel's interests.

The top Israeli official said that the Quartet may prove a "casualty" of an Iraqi war.

"The idea of using the Quartet as the great instrument of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — there are people in Washington who are going to say, `What do we need these people for?' " he said.

Aha! A little Napoleonic contortion I see ("divide and, well, carve").

I didn't tell you to make that place your homeland. I didn't tell you to torture people either. Basically Israel wants America to do to Iraq and Iran what Israel does to refugee camps. Of course, our bulldozers have smart bombs.

I'll reopen the Israel topic soon. Let me just say to them: shut up. Thanks!