Israel:US attack on Iraq is coming; Israel and US interests in lock step
Iraq-Israel, Politics, 2/12/2003

The Israeli army chief of staff Gen. Moshe Yaloun expected yesterday evening that the US will launch a military attack against Iraq "within the coming weeks," as expressed in an interview with the private Israeli TV.

He said "I will be surprised if such an attack will not take place within the next weeks," refusing to reply a question on the set date for this attack.

He added " I do not want to talks about dates. This is not important." He explained that the American attack to be launched by the USA will make fundamental changes in the Middle East.

Yaloun continued "the region as a whole is waiting for this attack. It will have the power to make a change in the geo-political structure of the region, describing the effect of the American attack as 'an earthquake.'"

The Washington Post reported recently that "Sharon was describing what his American supporters call the closest relationship in decades, perhaps ever, between a U.S. president and an Israeli government. "This is the best administration for Israel since Harry Truman [who first recognized an independent Israel]," said Thomas Neumann, executive director of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a think tank that promotes strategic cooperation with Israel as vital to U.S. security interests..For the first time, a U.S. administration and a Likud government in Israel are pursuing nearly identical policies."

The Washington Post said: "The Likudniks are really in charge now," said a senior government official, using a Yiddish term for supporters of Sharon's political party. Neumann agreed that Abrams's (hard-line critic of the traditional peace process, Elliott Abrams, director of Mideast affairs for the National Security Council) appointment was symbolically important, not least because Abrams's views were shared by his boss, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, by Vice President Cheney and by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "It's a strong lineup," he said.

The Washington Post quoted Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, President Bill Clinton's national security adviser, saying: "But this administration sees Iraq as the central challenge, and . . . has disengaged from any serious effort to confront the Arab-Israeli problem."

US Vice Admiral Thomas R. Wilson, Director, Defense Intelligence Agency on how the USA views Iraq, had said that Iraq threatens the very foundation of US policy in the Middle East. This clearly makes Iraq a very strategic target of US foreign policy.

Previous Stories:
  Israeli warplanes reinforce preparations against Iraq   (2/7/2003)
  Al-Watan: The American attack on Iraq and Israel   (12/26/2002)
  Israel: preparations for an Iraqi attack   (12/5/2002)
  Al-Seyasah: American- Israeli talks concerning Iraq   (11/16/2002)
  US: Iraq is a strategic threat to implementing US policy in the Middle East   (2/4/2002)

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