Premature cheering on the Israeli right

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday March 24, 2003 14:04 by the watchman

Seemingly, at least, everything is very simple and nice. First, Israel displayed perfect loyalty to the U.S., which presumably will pay it back in economic and political coin. Second, Israel haters, led by France, have lined up with America's rivals, and Washington, presumably, will pay them back. The cold wind blowing from Iraq toward the four-sided forum will yank the road map out of the Quartet's hands and momentously return it to Washington. Third, President Bush has sent the UN into rehab, which is something that the disciples of Israel's "UN is irrelevant" camp always like to gloat over. Jerusalem should not derive satisfaction from the American decision to ignore the UN. Under the cover of the automatic American veto, Israel has held onto territory it does not own for the last 36 years. Either way, if the battle cheer of the Israeli right isn't exaggerated, it is certainly premature.

www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?
itemNo=276023&contrassID=2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y