Posted on 05/20/2004 10:33:16 AM PDT by .cnI redruM
A U.S. senator's charge that Israel is behind the Bush administrations's decision to invade Iraq has rattled American Jewish leaders.
Sen. Ernest Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat, wrote a column that appeared in several newspapers. The column asserted that the U.S. war against Iraq represented a decision by President George Bush to protect Israel and ensure American Jewish support for his reelection.
The column reflects a growing sentiment in the corridors of power in Washington according to congressional sources.
The view attributes the U.S. war in Iraq to the so-called neo-conservatives in the administration, particularly Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and former Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, Middle East Newsline reported. Both men are Jewish. "Bush felt tax cuts would hold his crowd together and spreading democracy in the Mideast to secure Israel would take the Jewish vote from the Democrats," Hollings said in a column first published on May 6 in the Charleston Post and Courier. "You don't come to town and announce your Israel policy is to invade Iraq."
Congressional sources said Hollings was expressing a view that has become increasingly prevalent in Congress and parts of the administration.
"There is a strong fear among American Jewish leadership that the whispering campaign that 'the Jews started it,' will become public," a senior congressional staffer said. "We could be seeing others get on Hollings' bandwagon."
The column was reprinted on Hollings's website.
The administration has been debating a U.S. exit strategy from Iraq that appears to pit elements of the Defense Department against the State Department. The debate includes the affect of a short-term U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq on Washington's allies in the Middle East, particularly in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Such a U.S. withdrawal, Pentagon officials warned, could threaten these Gulf Arab states.
"They [Arab leaders] are more worried that we will lose our patience with the difficult tasks of stabilizing those places and will walk away and come home and bring up the drawbridges and defend Fortress America," U.S. Central Command chief Gen. John Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday." "I reassured our friends that we are tough, that we cannot be defeated militarily, and that we will stay the course."
For his part, Hollings said Israel has never claimed that Iraq maintained a weapons of mass destruction arsenal. The senator, who later refused to retract his statements, said Wolfowitz's advocacy of a plan to promote democracy among Arab states comprised an Israeli initiative.
"With Iraq no threat, why invade a sovereign country?" Hollings asked. "The answer: President Bush's policy to secure Israel. Led by Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Charles Krauthammer, for years there has been a domino school of thought that the way to guarantee Israel's security is to spread democracy in the area."
Hollings said Bush realized that he would be unable to bring about an Arab-Israeli peace to help his reelection efforts. Instead, Bush started laying the groundwork to invade Iraq days after his inauguration in 2001.
The senator said Wolfowitz persuaded Bush that the war against Iraq would take a week. Hollings said Vice President Richard Cheney was convinced U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators.
"In the Mideast, terrorism is a separate problem to be defeated by diplomacy and negotiation, not militarily," Hollings said. "Here, might does not make right – right makes might. Acting militarily, we have created more terrorism than we have eliminated."
Wasn't it the greatest president of the 20th century Ronald Reagan who said we don't negotiate with terrorists.
What in heaven's name are the Democrats doing? We have 48 Congressional Democrats attacking the Catholic Church and Hollings attacking Jews. Talk about Jihad. Let's see how much of their constituency they can alienate by November.
YES! And should still not negotiate.
What a crock. Hillary referred to the Jews in NY as "those F'in Jews." And she got elected. Most Jews seem to usually vote for Dems.
Hollings can say anything I suppose because he's done for any more elections! He's an anti-semite, along with Hillary CLinton and should be exposed as such for all America to see!
1) they tend to be liberal RATs;
2) they are considered to be in bad odor (look how Hollings didn't feel comfortable "coming out" until he was going to retire); and
3) because of point #2, they often have problems with re-election.
I think this is a very predictable article from the predictably anti-GOP, anti-neoconservative, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic IHC.
Give ole Fritz a break. He's a senile old fart just following the lib talking points. He knows his fellow dems are weak and his time is very near.
Any links to the actual article?
Quite an undertaking, all to appeal to, what, 2% of the population. They really do think Bush is stupid, don't they?
Anyway, it's my understanding that the Republicans have always been more pro-Israel than the Dems.
Maybe they should have had Lautenberg checked for senile dementia before they ran him.
Pat Buchanan and Taki Theodoracopulos must be experiencing ecstasy.
Israel is a leading export of technology to the United States, its a good culture, its the home of our religion as well as theirs. Why would we NOT work to their advantage -- because its inevitably to our advantage.
He is just playing into what I have been hearing a lot of lately on the streets. The propaganda seems to be working.
What sources???
Got names?
Agreed.
Does this mean that the "No Blood For Oil" signs will be replaced by "No Blood For Jews" signs?
They are losing it. It is amusing, sit back and watch, maybe they will fall apart.
Totally aside from the thrust of the article, but if the Gulf Arab States are so worried about us staying in Iraq, why have they not put a SINGLE SOLDIER there for peacekeeping duties among their fellow Sunni Arabs?
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