Israel: Writing Checks with Your Mouth Your Butt Can’t Cash, Part Three

Earlier in this article I hinted about how Israel claims it was goaded into the war. I guess that depends whom you ask. Seymour Hersh has written an article for the New Yorker , directly conflicting with the idea Israel was once again the victim dragged kicking and screaming into the latest slap fight.

“David Siegel, the spokesman at the Israeli Embassy in Washington , said that the Israeli Air Force had not been seeking a reason to attack Hezbollah. ‘We did not plan the campaign. That decision was forced on us.’”

“…Several Israeli officials visited Washington , separately, ‘to get a green light for the bombing operation and to find out how much the United States would bear.’ The consultant added, ‘ Israel began with Cheney. It wanted to be sure that it had his support and the support of his office and the Middle East desk of the National Security Council.’ After that, ‘persuading Bush was never a problem, and Condi Rice was on board,’ the consultant said.”

Seymour Hersh’s investigative work clearly shows Israel wasn’t a patsy in the game – they were initiating a planned move toward military aggression and they were testing the American political waters. There are speculations this attack had even earlier roots in Prime Minister Olmert’s May meeting with the White House . Either way the timing of events is suspicious at best. Vice President Cheney was at a conference in Colorado hosted by the American Enterprise Institute , a neo-conservative think tank group with very strong Israeli ties, around the same time all the behind the scenes handshakes and winks were taking place. Taking into account Seymour Hersh’s statement, it was Vice President Cheney who was their first point of contact, so for either to plead ignorance or being suckered into a position is a flat out lie. The company you keep says a lot about a person, and in Cheney’s case, two other attendees stand out in the crowd: former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Natan Sharansky, former deputy Prime Minister and current member of the Knesset under the Likud Party. I’m sure they were there for the food.

There’s more curious press in regards to “Goadgate” that doesn’t stand up under any amount of investigation. “While balking at an expanded war into Syria, Olmert did agree on the need to show military muscle in Lebanon as a prelude to facing down Iran over its nuclear program, which Olmert has called an ‘existential’ threat to Israel.” Now we’re getting somewhere, and everyone knows where this road is leading: the White House has made no secret there’s no love loss between President Bush and Syria ’s President Bashar al-Assad. Bush made veiled statements in 2005 that he wanted to go after Syria and Lebanon , and in 2006 he got half his wish. Of course he still wants Syria , but now he wants Iran , too, which reminds me of something my mother used to say: “your eyes are bigger than your stomach”. Once again, it seems Israel was ready to spread a little testosterone around to protect itself from a threat that didn’t exist until they manufactured it.