by Robert Novak
Coinciding with the Bush administration's tough talk about Syria, a
senior Israeli official Monday exposed a smoking gun. Defense
Minister Shaul Mofaz told the Tel Aviv newspaper Maariv: "We have a
long list of issues we are thinking of demanding of the Syrians, and
it would be best done through the Americans."
Mofaz's Hebrew-language interview was not widely distributed in
Washington, but a few members of Congress who learned of it were
stunned by its audacity. With Prime Minister Ariel Sharon long
having urged changing Iraq's regime by force of U.S. arms, his
government now hopes to ride the emerging American imperium to
regional reconstruction along Israeli lines.
That is the goal of prominent Pentagon civilian officials who see
virtual identity between U.S. and Israeli interests.
. . . Rumsfeld's selection of retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner as Iraq's
interim military governor. Now a defense contractor, he helped
develop the Arrow missile-defense system for Israel. After the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks, Garner visited Israel as guest of the
hard-line Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs and signed
that organization's letter praising Sharon's treatment of
Palestinians. . . .
FULL TEXT
Patrick J. Buchanan, "Whose War,"
American Conservative, March 24, 2003
["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."--Ari Shavit, "White
Man's Burden," Ha'aretz, April 5, 2003]
"Ambassador
to U.S. calls for 'regime change' in Iran, Syria," Reuters, April 28, 2003
