While the world’s attention was diverted by the Iraqi crisis, Ariel Sharon forged ahead with his war of eradication. The head of the Israeli Army Moshe Yalon confirmed this in an interview with Maarev newspaper a few days ago, admitting that Israel means to get rid of President Arafat and as many of the Palestinians as possible.

Israel shrewdly announced that it would not enter into the war against Iraq, which allowed it to boost its military and financial tab with the US. Washington didn’t want Israel to interfere in the war so as not to further incite the already angry Arab street.

Ousting Saddam’s regime eliminated the real threat represented by Iraq’s military force. Further, more than any Arab country, a new US-made Iraq could be a friend to Israel and present the opportunity for an axis, with Iraq, Jordan and Israel becoming a natural geographic unit. This would in turn cause the Arab union to fall apart and could pave the way for a Greater Israel from the Euphrates to the Nile.

America’s victory and the removal of an independent, sovereign Arab nation’s system of government, simply because it clashes with American policy is a direct and permanent threat to the rest of the Arab countries, allowing Washington to force Arab governments to recognize the state of Israel and to normalize relations with it no matter how strong the popular Arab opposition.

Israeli Defense Minister Mofaz said without prevarication: Victory over Iraq takes the country out of the circle of enmity directed at Israel, which pressures Syria to expel Palestinian organizations from Damascus and end its support for Hezbollah, which will in turn weaken the Palestinian resistance in the occupied territories.

According to the president of the Union of Israeli Chambers of Commerce, Iraqi oil at reduced prices and diminished security threats would invigorate the Israeli economy and open the Iraqi market to Israeli goods and close it for Egypt.

However, to achieve these goals, Israel needed to work from inside the White House to direct America toward war under any circumstances, and regardless of internal and global opposition.

Correspondents for the American Channel One revealed that Israel played a huge and effective role through its followers in the White House in pushing the American administration to invade Iraq.

It became apparent that the war project was put into place by three extremist Jewish Americans, and they are Richard Perle, the defense ministry advisor who lately resigned for a conflict of interests, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith. The three jointly drafted the aims of the war and pushed President Bush to choose war over any alternative.

Perle and Feith are the protégés of the Israeli Likud party, and Wolfowitz stands by Likud. After Sept. 11, each of the three met with Afraem Halavi, who was then head of Israeli intelligence (Mossad) and later became head of the Israeli National Security Council. Participating in this meeting was the head of the Israeli intelligence division Amos Malka and later Ahron Zaevi as well as a number of Mossad and military intelligence agents. They met to formulate the goals of the war and established Israel’s role and what it could offer in terms of support to the American forces.

The Israeli role in this dirty war is what makes the Iraqi citizens say today: “Down with Saddam, Down with America.”