No Help From A "Partner"

One of the findings of the report from the Iraq Study Group, as noted in this CNN story from the AP (which, again, appears curiously without a byline), is “that a concerted effort to resolve Israel's conflict with its neighbors will help stabilize the situation in Iraq.”

This was the response of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert…

Saying there is no connection between the two issues, Olmert rebuffed the group's recommendation that Israel open negotiations with Syria, but said Israelis want "with all our might" to restart peace talks with the Palestinians.

As far as restarting peace talks, Olmert has been as good as his word, at least as far as CNN is concerned here.

And I will acknowledge that, concerning Iraq, Olmert should not have to negotiate with Syria or Iran for help to clean up our mess. Our glorious red state president should be doing this; of course, since he's a total empty vessel bereft of anything approaching foresight, intelligence, leadership, that poses a problem (and how sad that Dubya actually thinks he has leverage in this to make Iran and Syria do our bidding, as noted here).

However, for Olmert to allege that there is no connection between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iraq war is patently ridiculous.

On the one hand, he says…

"The attempt to create a linkage between the Iraqi issue and the Mideast issue -- we have a different view," Olmert said during the prime minister's annual meeting with Israeli journalists. "To the best of my knowledge, President Bush, throughout the recent years, also had a different view on this."

But on the other hand (suddenly, I feel like Tevye), he says…

"We always felt, like other nations in our region, that the removal of Saddam Hussein was a major, major contribution to stability in our part of the world."

“Stability in our part of the world”? I didn’t know “stability” was defined as the threat of imminent hostilities breaking out at any moment in between periodic and brutal spasms of violence.

So Olmert doesn’t want to imply any “cause and effect” concerning Iraq and Israel’s “hot and cold” (If you will) war with the Palestinians and their terrorist proxies, but he has no trouble with declaring a benefit for his country from a war that has taken such a toll on American lives as well as those of innocent Iraqis and other coalition forces, to say nothing of our country’s prestige?

And on top of that, Olmert has never been shy about declaring his man love for Dubya, as noted in this interview from April of this year (I could see Olmert feeling this way before the war, but by the time of this interview, it had become obvious what we were dealing with in Iraq, but Olmert still praised President Stupid Head anyway - I love the arbitrary way in which Olmert decides when and where we should fight Israel's battles, by the way, not that they aren't formidable by themselves)…

TIME: How often do you speak to President Bush?

Olmert: I've spoken to him maybe three times since I became Prime Minister. There is a very strong emotional bond between the two of us, every time we speak we both feel it deeply. I know how he feels and he [knows] how I feel. I think it grew out of his first trip to Israel, when I hosted him in Jerusalem. He knows that I like him. I very much depend on the understanding and cooperation of President Bush. The reason I think [disengagement] can be done is because of the trust and understanding we have for each other. In my opinion President Bush will emerge in history as the person who had more courage to change the Middle East than any person before him. I know the war in Iraq is controversial in the States, but for us in the Middle East it has made a great and significant impact. The decision of the President made an enormous impact on the lives of Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians — every country who was the potential target of the aggression of Iraq and Saddam Hussein. The sense of mission that Bush feels about war on terror is of enormous significance. When I think from the perspective of an Israeli and who is the partner, the natural partner who I speak with about fighting terror, it's President Bush.

Olmert and the Israelis, along with much of the Jewish community in this country, fell for the Iraq con by Bushco, actually cheerleading for war in 2002 and 2003. And as far as I’m concerned, they have a lot to answer for (I'm excluding Ariel Sharon from this because I expect him to shed his mortal coil at any moment).

But don’t feel like I’m singling them out. Believe me, they have a lot of company.