Israel and the War in Iraq

Israel is not a member of the powerful coalition, (which includes such giants as Micronesia, Estonia and the Solomon islands) that has gone "to liberate" Iraq under American leadership. Bush and Sharon in fact have no interest in reminding people of the role of Israeli in this war. There are two good reasons for this.

Israel is not a member of the powerful coalition, (which includes such giants as Micronesia, Estonia and the Solomon islands) that has gone "to liberate" Iraq under American leadership. Bush and Sharon in fact have no interest in reminding people of the role of Israeli in this war. There are two good reasons for this.

Firstly, every independent observer that listens to Mr. Bush's angry speeches against the brutal tyrant Saddam, that has weapons of mass destruction and violates UN resolution would be justified in asking the following question: "Now, Mr. Bush, why is it that the evil Saddam will be punished in eyes of the world for his sins, but at the same time the war criminal Sharon is going to get another $3 billion of credit from the United States?" It's not a secret that Israel has systematically broken every UN resolution on the Israel-Palestine dispute, it has a powerful arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and it has also systematically violated almost every paragraph in the Declaration of Human Rights.

Even Bush's loyal poodle Mr. Blair has had to point out to his master how delicate this issue is. After a period of thinking about this, Bush promised that a Palestinian state will indeed be established and that negotiations would start again after the end of the present war. We have heard this many times in the past.

But this time Bush has added that a new round of negotiations on the Palestinian question will not include the European countries or Russia. We can see her a new American world policy (i.e. we rule the show) developing. Those who misbehaved during the war on Iraq will of course be "punished". The other "bad guy", the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, will also be excluded. He will be replaced by the new Palestinian Prime Minister, Abu-Mazen - who is a new potential American puppet. This way Israel and America will be able to come up with a peaceful solution!

The second reason why Israel is formally not a member of the coalition is because the Israeli regime has a direct interest in the American aggression against Iraq. It's not just because the Iraqi regime has provided support for the Palestinians. Israel has a clear interest in the US confrontation with the Arab world and in the growing US presence in the Meddle East.

It is very likely that the Israeli military and the Israeli special services have played an active role in planning and developing the aggression against Iraq. The "Mossad", the Israeli special service, has had contacts with some Kurdish groups in the north of Iraq for some time now. In the 1980s Israeli military instructors taught them how to fight a guerrilla war against the Iraqis. It is also possible that in some Iraqi areas Israeli intelligence agents are operating. They can supply the US with useful intelligence information. In this context it is curious to see how the Americans are blaming Russia, Iran and Syria for getting involved in a similar manner. It is clearly Israeli policy to direct the US forces against their next potential targets and to sabotage any Russian-Arab deals on weapons.

As the war has progressed US-Israeli contacts have become more intense. In the Israeli and foreign press there are more and more reports about Israelis that are advising the American military. For example the US forces have been getting advice from Israeli experts about tactics in street fighting. Israel has a lot of experience in this. In 1982 thousands of civilians were killed during the Israeli invasion of Beirut. The Israeli army has continued to use the same tactics during the Palestinian intifada. During their actions in the Palestinian territories the Israeli military use such methods as the so-called "neighbour's code". They have used human shields taken from the local population when the soldiers move from house to house. They have demolish houses with their inhabitants, as was the case in Jenin and they have bombed populated areas.

Another issue that the US military were interested in was how to treat the civilian population and methods of interrogation. There is no question about. The Israeli experts can contribute a lot of interesting material to the US on how to behave in occupied lands!

In this we can see how pointless it is on the part of European and American peace activists to go to Iraq to be "human shields". Israel has shown no mercy for this kind of people. On March 16, the 23 year-old American peace activist Rachel Kolli was crushed to death in Gaza by an Israeli Army bulldozer. Other foreign peace activists were seriously injured by Israeli tanks yesterday, April 5, in Hebron. It will be interesting to see if the Americans will also learn this lesson from the Israelis.

The Israeli media have no interest in discussing any new problems that may emerge for Israel as a result of this war. They only present positive pictures from the battlefield and from the political arena. But one thing is clear: the heroic Iraqi resistance against the most powerful army in the world is having a positive impact on Palestinian moral. Radical ideas are beginning to emerge in the Arab world. If the war will be continue longer than the Americans were planning for, it will also have a negative effect on the Israeli economy.

Anti-war protests are also increasing inside Israel itself. Last Friday, April 2, there was an anti-war rally in Tel-Aviv. Mainly Arab students and left activists demonstrated outside the American embassy, shouting slogans against the war and against the occupation. On Saturday, April 5, there was also an anti-war demonstration in Haifa. We can expect new anti-war protests throughout April and especially on May Day.

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