Israel Urges US to Attack Iraq: "Sooner, Rather than Later"
Sharon's advisor: Urges US to accelerate aggression on Iraq, says
postponement bad for Israel
Occupied Jerusalem: 18 January, 2003 (IAP News)
A former Israeli ambassador to Washington who is now advisor to
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has urged the Israeli government
to step up pressure on the Bush Administration to accelerate the war
on Iraq.
Zalman Shuval said in an article in the Hebrew newspaper Yedeot
Ahranot, published Thursday 16 January, that Israel should make
behind-the-scene efforts to get the American administration to attack
Iraq "sooner rather than later."
Shuval argued that postponing or delaying the war, let alone
cancelling it, would have "very negative consequences" on Israel.
He suggested that in case the United States doesn't launch the war on
Iraq in the near future, opposition to the war will gather momentum
and the US will come under pressure to pressurize Israel.
Shuval argued that while Israel shouldn't brazenly appear as pushing
the Bush Administration to attack Iraq, the Jewish state should never
ignore or be oblivious to the risks of a postponed war on Iraq.
Israel calculates that a devastating American war on Iraq would break
the collective spirit of the Arab world, including the Palestinian
people, and enable Israel and the United States to imposed a
capitulation on the Palestinians or, worse, effect an ethnic cleansing
against hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
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