Ask any rabbi or community relations professional; in Jewish communities across the nation, there is support for the Bush administration\’s Iraq policy laced with healthy doses of skepticism and outright opposition — the whole range of reactions of a worried nation.
During Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz\’s mid-December visit to Washington, U.S. officials went out of their way to try to convince the Israeli delegation that the United States would do all it could to defend Israel, and that there would be no need for Israel to get involved in the war.
What\’s it like to be a citizen of a country that preempts its enemies — now that this is the official national security doctrine of the United States? Americans might look to the Israeli experience.
Israeli officials reportedly believe that if the United States moves against Iraq, it will be to assassinate Saddam Hussein and members of his family.
A recent Internet posting on hundreds of discussion forums accused American Jews of leading the drumbeat for a new war against Iraq.
I don\’t want to give away any secrets here, but guess what? America may be planning a surprise attack on Iraq — in fact, even as you read this, the "secret" war plans might have gone into effect.
\”A-RA-FAT! TER-ROR-IST!\”\n\nThe message was loud and clear: Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, with terrorist backing by Iran and Iraq, was considered no less a monster than Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Ladin. That was the message backed by thousands of Southland residents who lined Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood with signs, balloons and Israeli and American flags last Sunday to show their support for the state of Israel and their disgust with the escalation of Arab-backed terrorism that has taken scores of innocent civilian lives since the second Intifada began in the fall of 2000.\n
Iraq and the United States will face off again within two years, while a likely confrontation between Israel and Syria is also on the horizon.
A decade after he rained Scud missiles on Tel Aviv during the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein again poses a threat to Israel, analysts say.
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