Before the euphoria of the attack on Iraq was over the war hawks in America began shifting their targets toward Syria (as expected). The Israeli gang in the American administration, better known as the neocons, will not tell the American public that Syria was one of the countries that voted for the Security Council Resolution authorizing the new inspection in Iraq thus allowing that vote to be carried out unanimously. No one will speak about Syria’s cooperation in the post-Sept. 11 trauma in arresting suspected terrorists. America’s (or should I say Israel’s) biggest problem with Syria is its support for resistance movements such as Hamas and Hezbollah groups, which are fighting the bloody, horrific and deadly occupation of the war criminal Sharon and his cronies. Interestingly, that the US accusations against Syria should come at this time.

Let’s take a look back. At a small village in Palestine exactly 55 years ago, several weeks before the state of Israel was declared, the Irgun and Stern militias stormed the village, home to nearly 600 inhabitants. They killed nearly 100 men, women and children with guns and swords. Several captives were later paraded in Jerusalem before being killed. The leader of the Irgun, Menachem Begin, who went on to become prime minister of Israel later, wrote that the Palestinians, hearing the massacre, were seized with limitless panic and started to flee for their lives. Deir Yassin triggered an exodus that soon emptied the new state of 80 percent of its Arab population.

What the administration fails to understand is that it cannot hide or ignore the huge elephant in the middle room, namely Israel. Retired US Gen. Anthony Zinni said “my worst nightmare would be an Al-Jazeera TV picture of American troops in combat fighting Iraqis, at the same time the Israeli defense forces is in the West Bank and Gaza killing Arabs. Furthermore, how can the Bush administration convince either Congress or the Arabs that the US cares about “the territorial integrity of Iraq” when those same members of the administration were signatories to a document in 1996 advising Benjamin Netanyahu of the desirability of dismantling Iraq and any other Arab country that stands in Israel’s way? What these same people were telling Netanyahu then and president now is: You are stronger than all your neighbors, act upon it. Forget the peace process; it does not serve you. Forget international law; lead, and everybody will follow; the rest can go to hell.”

Zbigniew Brzezinski correctly pointed out the hypocrisy of the logic. He said, “the European press has commented more widely than US press on the striking similarity between current US policy in the Middle East and the recommendations prepared in 1996 by this same group of admirers of Israel’s Likud Party for the then Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The decision of invading Iraq and going after Syria then Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt has been made for the president a long time ago.