What Does Israel Want?

It isn't just Lebanon…

By Justin Raimondo

"If the two Israeli soldiers could be rescued, then so could Olmert's government – but it is more than just internal Israeli politics that is driving the IDF. As I pointed out last week, we were warned by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who admitted "The war isn't over yet." Indeed, if the Israelis have their way, it has barely begun: they are now shifting their focus to a full-fledged effort to embroil Damascus in the conflict, and I wouldn't rule out air strikes on Syrian territory before all this is over.

Lebanon is just a pawn in the game: Israel's real objective is toppling Bashar al-Assad and militarily confronting the Iranian mullahs – using U.S. troops, of course. The resulting incredibly destructive regional war will see not a few of their old enemies tossed in history's dustbin.

Israel's partisans in the U.S. have, in some instances, been quite open about this objective: Michael Ledeen's infamous taste for "creative destruction" is vivid evidence of the neocons' nihilism. But this is nihilism with a purpose: out of all that death and destruction will come a new world, the vaunted "transformation" of the region that was supposed to lead to democratic societies in nations that had never known any such thing. But, as it turns out, democracy has nothing to do with it: it's all about destabilizing the region to pursue an Israeli agenda. That agenda is the breakup and atomization of the Arab-Muslim world, so that it is little more than a collection of splinters. Lebanon is only the first phase of this campaign, and the Israelis are pushing ahead no matter what Washington thinks.

For years, we've been telling our readers that American foreign policy has been hijacked, and here we have the confirmation. The invasion of Iraq, the campaign of threats and provocations directed at Iran, and the destruction of Lebanon have all served the interests of a single country, and that country is not the United States of America. In the most successful covert action in history, Israel's amen corner in the U.S. has essentially seized effective control of the American giant, and is now riding the dumb elephant for all he's worth through the rubble of the Middle East."