I knew I wasn't crazy

Not to pat myself on the back, but no one else ever gives me loving so I have to, my post of a few days ago is echoed in this column today in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, in a wonderful piece, "Ending the Neoconservative Nightmare," written by Daniel Levy, a member of the Israeli negotiating team at the Oslo peace talks.

My post, which was about the so-called Friends of Israel among the Christian right in the U.S., noted: "The dirty little secret is that these Evangelical Christians don't really give a rat's ass about Jews. They are FOI only because they believe in the radical doctrine of “End Times.”

"They believe the world will end (and quite soon) after some sort of conflagration between Israel and the Arabs and who the hell knows what else, and that the Rapture will happen and all the non-believers (which, in their minds, includes every Jew, of course) will be “left behind” in the hellfires that will engulf the Earth, and all the good Christians will ascend to Heaven - and blah blah blah."

Levy, perhaps a bit more maturely:

"Beyond that, Israel and its friends in the United States should seriously reconsider their alliances not only with the neocons, but also with the Christian Right. The largest "pro-Israel" lobby day during this crisis was mobilized by Pastor John Hagee and his Christians United For Israel, a believer in Armageddon with all its implications for a rather particular end to the Jewish story. This is just asking to become the mother of all dumb, self-defeating and morally abhorrent alliances."

His column maintains that Israel has allowed itself to get caught up in the neocon world view that dominates the Bush adminisration, with the right-wingers calling the shots and actually hoping for some sort of World War III to break out. Unfortunately, Israel, which has always had friendly U.S. presidents clearly supporting it, but also restraining it when necessary as the U.S. tried to play honest broker in the Middle East, is engulfed now in doing the dirty work of these neo-cons.

"Finding themselves somewhat bogged down in the Iraqi quagmire, the neoconservatives are reveling in the latest crisis, displaying their customary hubris in re-seizing the initiative. The U.S. press and blogosphere is awash with neocon-inspired calls for indefinite shooting, no talking and extension of hostilities to Syria and Iran, with Newt Gingrich calling this a third world war to "defend civilization."

"Disentangling Israeli interests from the rubble of neocon "creative destruction" in the Middle East has become an urgent challenge for Israeli policy-makers. An America that seeks to reshape the region through an unsophisticated mixture of bombs and ballots, devoid of local contextual understanding, alliance-building or redressing of grievances, ultimately undermines both itself and Israel. The sight this week of Secretary of State Rice homeward bound, unable to touch down in any Arab capital, should have a sobering effect in Washington and Jerusalem."

Levy also asks, "After this crisis will Israel belatedly wake up to the implications of the tectonic shift that has taken place in U.S.-Middle East policy?"

Sounds like some folks in Israel want Bush and his crew out of office as much as some of do here too.