Another reason was in answering questions that Joe Biden has posed: If the Israeli-Arab conflict ended immediately, would that have any effect on the war in Iraq? Surely not. If the war in Iraq ended immediately, would that have any effect on the Israeli-Arab conflict?
I would agree that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an irritant which stimulates Islamic extremists to hate us, so it does have an impact on the so-called global war on terror, but not on Iraq. I’m sorry that I have not yet persuaded you that Israel’s supposed security needs was a selling point for the war, rather than a primary reason. But even if we place all the blame for the war on the neocons (and thereby take Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld off the hook), the neocons had nothing to do with how Meretz USA felt about the war. You, in your writing for The American Conservative, are much closer to the paleo-cons than we are to the neocons. I’d never expect to be allowed to write for Commentary or the Weekly Standard.
Since Meretz USA consists mostly of left-liberals, I had to be one of the few board members at the time who hoped for the overthrow of Saddam (albeit entirely for humanitarian reasons). But as I told you in an email some months ago, once the UN Security Council had voted against military action, I felt that unilateral US-led action against Iraq was a bad idea. A ruthless, illegitimate regime like Saddam’s Iraq had to be confronted by a UN-endorsed international coalition or not at all.
A couple responses, Ralph. That question you failed to answer was the Only One I asked you. Your statement that Israel’s security needs was a “selling point for the war, rather than a primary reason” is horse manure. So what? If it’s a selling point, to anyone, then it’s a real factor in a discussion that ended up torching a society and killing hundreds of thousands of people and displacing many more. A selling point. Zionists should be ashamed about a, being used or b, allowing themselves to be used or c, most likely, using the American people in this manner. Where’s the mea culpa? Your dismissal of the Israeli occupation, actually the “conflict,” as an “irritant” also seems to me insufficient. An irritant. It’s more than a conflict, it’s an unequal situation that’s a red flag of injustice across the Arab world. Until the U.S. deals with this, it is Absolutely Powerless to Lecture Arabs, let alone invade their ancient capitals and tell them how to conduct their affairs. Saddam was ruthless and illegitimate. The ruthlessness of the Israelis toward the Palestinians under occupation is isolating the Jewish state internationally.
