What Will an American Attack on Iraq Mean to Israel?

By Emanuel A. Winston

[Excerpts from an article in The Jewish Press]

Israel sits on a fault line. A fault line is where tectonic plates of the earth rub each other the wrong way, causing massive upheavals—like earthquakes. Israel actually sits on the African rift which splits at the Jordan River and through the Dead Sea down the Arava Valley to the Red Sea. But, I am now talking about another fault line. This fault line is deep and dangerous for this small Jewish nation.

On one side of the fault line is gathered such self-declared hostile enemies as Arafat, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Assad of Syria, the Ayatollahs of Iran and much of the Islamic world. On the other side of the fault line sits our friends or at least our “sometime” friends.

This presents a problem for Israel when friendship vs. profit = betrayal. In order to keep their hands in the Arabs’ profitable pockets, the West must give up something and, unfortunately, the only thing they have to trade that the Arabs have not yet been gifted with or sold is the Nation of Israel.

So what does this have to do with the U.S. attacking Iraq? Quite simply, even though Iraq represents a major threat to the Arab and European countries themselves, nevertheless, they will stand together with Iraq against Israel. This follows the conventional wisdom of the region which is “My enemy’s enemy is my friend.” The track record is clear on this matter which allows us to see the next step and assess its probability.

Perhaps you will remember that during the Gulf War, the first President Bush pulled together a kind of show coalition of Arab countries. Syria came for the promised money and equipment they would and did receive for merely showing up. So did Egypt, but neither brought arms with which to fight Iraq, nor did they intend to fight. However, they provided a fig leaf of respectability for Bush.

The U.S.A. refused to give Israel the IFF codes (Identification of Friend or Foe) to allow cooperation with the U.S. Air Force for Israeli aircraft to use their excellent fighting skills and hit the mobile missile launchers of the Iraqi scuds. Even though 39 scuds hit Israel, she could not fight back. In fact, the last scud of Desert Storm hit a barracks of soldiers from Pennsylvania, killing at least 29. If the Israelis had been permitted to hit the scud launchers, maybe those Americans would be alive today.

Israel was also expecting Saddam to use gas and chemical warheads. Thanks to Jonathan Pollard’s whistle-blowing about Saddam’s poison gas capability, Israel had developed gas masks and baby tents for all civilians.

Let us assume that Saddam decides to launch his hidden gas missiles at Israel. What will America do? What will America do when Israel retaliates? What if a coalition of Arab nations decides to attack Israel because their “good” friend, the Butcher of Baghdad, has his nose bloodied in retaliation or justifiable pre-emption? Will American Arabists in the White House and State Department ever allow Israel to battle with our Arab friends of the rich, deep pockets?

That the Jews won six wars against unbelievable odds enraged the Arabs—but religiously observant Jews understood the miracle! Nevertheless, the growing military imbalance which now greatly favors the Arab Armed Forces and the world’s preference for Arab oil profits drastically threatens Israel in any future war. Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction are a far greater threat to Israel than to the rest of the Free World.

Perhaps the urge for self-preservation will move the Americans to be true allies of the only country in the world who can defend the Free World against the hysterical forces of radical Islamic Fundamentalism who want world dominion—for Islam.      -