Ex-Mideast Envoy Zinni Charges Neocons Pushed Iraq War To Benefit
Israel Lowey: Bush's Policies Increasing Danger to Jews Around the
World

By Ori Nir And Ami Eden

Forward
28 May 2004


The simmering debate over the role of Jewish neoconservatives in
drawing America into war in Iraq erupted with new fury this week.
One of America's most respected ex-generals took to the airwaves
to charge on CBS News' "60 Minutes" that the war had been fought
for Israel's benefit, just days after a similar charge was leveled
on the floor of the U.S. Senate.

The retired general, Anthony Zinni, a past chief of the U.S.
Central Command and President Bush's former Middle East special
envoy, told "60 Minutes" on Sunday that the neoconservatives' role
in pushing the war for Israel's benefit was "the worst-kept secret
in Washington." Three days earlier, Senator Ernest "Fritz"
Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat, rose on the Senate floor to
defend a newspaper essay he had written earlier in the month
making the same charge. Both men complained that they had been
unfairly labeled antisemitic for speaking out.

Their comments come just weeks after the United Nations' special
envoy to Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, called Israel a "poison in the
region" and said that American support for Israeli policies was
making his job more difficult.

In the face of these mounting criticisms, a leading Jewish
Democrat on Capitol Hill, Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, told the
Forward that the president's policies were increasing the danger
to Jews across the world.

"We are very worried about the rise of antisemitism
internationally," said Lowey in an interview Monday with the
Forward. She argued that disdain for the president and his
policies has "stirred up" antisemitic feelings worldwide. "It's a
real concern for me as a Jewish member of Congress."......

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