Lawrence Wilkerson was former chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, up from being a member of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff. In an interview with IPS Wilkerson said that the Israeli reaction to news that the Bushites wanted to attack Iraq was an immediate rejection of such an idea. "The Israelis were telling us Iraq is not the enemy - Iran is the enemy." Wilkerson said that the Israeli reaction to invading Iraq in early 2002, was, "If you are going to destabilize the balance of power, do it against the main enemy."
Wilkerson said that Israeli warnings against invading of Iraq were "pervasive." A far ranging, unanimous feeling, and outspoken suggestions were that Invasion of Iraq was not a very good idea, to say the least. This sentiment came from Israeli intelligence reports, Israeli politicians, and friends living in Israel.
Wilkerson said that the Israeli's tried to impress upon the Bushites that it was not advocating an immediate invasion of Iran either, but was saying that the United States, should focus on Iran and "...should not be distracted by Iraq and Saddam Hussein."
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Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, upon first hearing of the idea of attacking Iraq, immediately requested a meeting with the President on the subject. Sharon's plan was to attempt to talk Bush out of such a plan. Moreover, for weeks before the Sharon/Bush meeting a variety of Israeli leaders hammered away at the Bushites that Iran should be the target of choice if there must be war, because they were the greater threat to Israel and the entire region. In fact, the day before the Sharon/Bush meeting, the Washington Post published the Israeli message. "Today, everybody is busy with Iraq. Iraq is a problem...But you should understand, if you ask me, today Iran is more dangerous than Iraq," the Washington Post reported that the primary quote came from Israeli Defense Minister Fouad Ben-Eliezer, who was in Washington along with Sharon for that meeting.
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