Over at Salon, there is a great article about the current political climate in Israel and the perception of the state's security in the wake of its generally recognized defeat in last summer's war with Hezbollah and the US' inept and unjustifiable intervention in Iraq. Sorry if this has already been diaried--let me know and I'll withdraw the diary.
If not, though, follow the link to some choice bits and a recommended domestic political strategy. Could be eye-opening.
The article is here. It's behind an ad-wall, but you can deal.
The whole thing is well worth reading, as it documents the private sense of pessimism being expressed by longtime high-ups in the Israeli government. But here's the punchline:
Every year, an influential assessment of the security situation in the Middle East is published by Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center, one of Israel's premier think tanks. This year's assessment, published in January, was not only bleak, but also openly critical of U.S. policy. "The threats to Middle East security and stability worsened in 2006," the assessment announced, because "the American failure in Iraq has hurt the standing of the U.S. in the Middle East." It went on to state essentially that American actions in the Middle East over the past few years have harmed Israeli security. It also argued that the United States should withdraw from Iraq in the near term, rather than add more troops, as Bush's surge plan is now doing. As one of its authors, Mark A. Heller, explained after the report was published, "There is no Israeli interest being served by a continued American presence in Iraq."
These sobering conclusions might provide a jolt to those in the United States -- whether American Jews or conservative evangelicals -- who have supported the Bush administration's policies in part because they were supposedly intended to help Israel.
Now, given that, in my mind, wheels begin to turn.
If I were in a position, say, to buy a list of every Jewish political donor in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, I think I'd want to send a mailing prominently featuring the above quote to that list. I think I'd want to put it in an envelope that bore a slogan along the lines of, "Why is Joe Lieberman undermining Israeli security?" I think I'd want to follow that with some targeted television spots, if I could afford them.
At the very least, this is ripe and dangling fruit for letters to the editor.
Lieberman has almost six more years. He's not going anywhere. But it's clear that he has thrown over pretty much everything for what he seems to believe will support Israeli security--mostly by fomenting chaos throughout the Middle East and maintaining a strong American presence there.
It's time that his base heard he's actually making things worse for what he ostensibly cares about.