The Oct. 19 issue of Forward, an influential Jewish weekly, reported that Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) defiantly declared that "Israel is not going to be sacrificed for the war on terrorism" and that Brett Heimov, an aide to Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) had charged that while "there hasn't been a real selling out of Israel", "they [Bush and Powell] are waiting for that excuse and it hasn't quite come yet." Forward also reported that an unnamed House staff member alleged that the Bush administration is giving Israel "the cold shoulder" by supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state and by attempting to build bridges to the Arab and Muslim worlds.
The refusal by Bush and Powell to blame Iraq for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has left Israel's supporters in Congress and in the "Wolfowitz cabal" scrambling to generate support by both the public and in government policy-making circles for an all-out attack on Iraq-and then the remaining Muslim states that Israel perceives to be enemies to its survival. While the Times report admitted that "Both Powell and Vice President Dick Cheney have said there is no evidence linking Iraq to the attacks" of Sept. 11, Wolfowitz and his allies, such as Richard Perle, a member of the Defense Policy Board, are promoting "the need to turn to Iraq as soon as the initial phase of the war against Afghanistan and bin Laden and his organization is over." Amazingly, a two-day series of meetings of the Defense Policy Board, which included Wolfowitz and Perle, did not even brief Powell despite the saber-rattling tone underlying the board's efforts. The Times reported that Powell was "surprised" and "quite distressed" to learn that the president's deputy national security advisor, Stephen Hadley, inserted what was described as "a far-reaching sentence" into a letter sent to the United Nations Security Council threatening possible action against Iraq and other nations that Wolfowitz, Perle and their allies are alleging to be sponsors of terrorism.
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