Though the Israeli public’s reaction to the fall of Saddam Hussein was decisively positive, Israel was not an overt player in the U.S.-led campaign against him.
However, certain media in the Arab world is implying that Israel triggered the war to serve its own interests.
The Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star published an opinion piece last week speculating that Israel’s intelligence lied to the U.S. about Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) to serve its own interests.
The article was written by Middle East journalist Ed Blanche in the context of an inquiry of the Knesset’s (Israel’s parliament) Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee into the intelligence activity surrounding the war. The investigation was launched, Blanche writes, “last summer after it became clear that contrary to the dire warnings of Israel’s intelligence community Saddam did not have WMD and did not use them against the Jewish state.”
WMD have yet to be found in Iraq.
It’s fair to say that the Arab world generally condemns the war on Iraq as an American aggression. Furthermore, many Arab plights are linked to Israel, justifiably or not.
An editorial in the form of a fictional letter to President Bush on behalf of Arab leaders on the London-based news website Dar Al-Hayyat on Monday reads, “We were really sad to see young Americans die in Iraq, for no other reason than to serve Israel.”
At the same time, Israel has always considered Iraq a major threat. In 1981, Israel bombed the Osirak nuclear plant in Iraq, a move which garnered harsh criticism from the international community.
In 1991, Iraq launched scud missiles into the Tel Aviv area during the Gulf War, directly causing two deaths, as well as widespread injury and damage to property, according to Israeli sources.
Besides the fact that WMD were played up by the U.S. in particular as one of the main motives of the second Gulf war, it is also common knowledge that Iraq’s oil wealth was a key factor.
In addition, Iraq was a known supporter of terrorism, rewarding the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, among others, with thousands of dollars. Thus, Iraq was undeniably a target in the U.S.’s war against terrorism.
Blanche continues, “there can be little doubt that Israel has benefited greatly from Sept. 11, 2001.” True, the U.S. and Israel are allied in their fear of terrorism, and Israel was at the very least morally supportive of the war.
But, even if Israel did not provide the U.S. with information about WMD, would this have prevented the war in Iraq?