U.S. Jews turning against war — because of its impact on Israel

[bemildred]

Not exactly I/P, but it will wind up here anyway.

When it comes to the Iraq war, U.S. Jews have followed much the same trajectory as their fellow Americans: solid support leading into the war, grave doubts about it now. What sets many Jews apart is how they factored Israel into both equations. In 2003, they felt gratitude that Saddam Hussein, one of Israel’s most implacable foes, had been removed, yet there are concerns now that a misconceived or mismanaged adventure has empowered another implacable foe of Israel, the Iranian theocracy.

“The only nation that seems to have benefited by our invasion of Iraq is Iran, which is a far greater threat to Israel than Iraq was,” said U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, (D-Nev.), a Jew and an outspoken pre-war proponent of invasion who feels President Bush deceived her.

Since the end of the war, Iran has established broad influence among Shi’ites in Iraq, and has come much closer to developing a nuclear weapons capacity that Iranian leaders hint might be used against Israel — a result, critics say, of neglect by a Bush administration obsessed with Iraq.

The perception in Washington is of a broad-based alliance between the pro-Israel community and the architects of the Iraq war, a perception that may have been reinforced by the support that some national Jewish groups evinced for the war.

Virtual Jerusalem

[el_gato]

1. They never should have been fooled in the first place