Whose War? Israel?

Mr. Prager then goes into a litany of libels against Jews dating to the Middle Ages: the belief of "tens of millions of European Christians ... that Jews kidnap and slaughter non-Jewish children before Passover to use their blood for baking matzo," the belief that Jewish folks "caused the Plague," that they were responsible for the collapse of the French Panama Canal company, that they knew in advance about the September 11 attacks.

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/dp20030318.shtml

After this recital, I am introduced: "And now Pat Buchanan and other Americans believe (or at least say) that America is going to war against Iraq 'because of the Jews.' "

Question: Where did Mr. Prager get this quote? Nowhere in my 5,000-word March 24 cover article in the American Conservative ("Whose War?") does any such statement appear. Not only have I never written that "America is going to war against Iraq because of the Jews," I have written the opposite. In my March 13 column, urging mercy for Rep. Jim Moran, Virginia Democrat, I wrote this of his comment about the strong support of the "Jewish community" for the war:

"Now, about this comment, it is, first, wrong. We are going to war because Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell are convinced we must disarm Baghdad and regime change is the only way to effect it. Second, according to polls, the Jewish community is only about as hawkish as the rest of the nation, with 59 percent supporting war."

Why did Mr. Prager fabricate this quote? Because he could not find in my 5,000 words one sentence to justify linking me with those who told "grandiose lies" about the Jewish people. Bereft of evidence, he decided to plant it. For those interested in what I did say and do believe, here is the gist of my article:

There is a neocon War Party, some of whom were plotting with Israel for war on Iraq as far back as 1996. These individuals urged Israel to ditch the Oslo peace accords when support for Oslo was U.S. policy. Other neocons who run the Weekly Standard, the New Republic and Commentary have been shrieking for a "World War IV" against eight or nine Arab and Islamic nations, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

In decrying their warmongering, my piece cites sources on the left and right and names exactly who these two dozen neoconservatives are.

Mr. Prager closes by saying that I have "an amoral view of America's role in the world." Well, at least, it is an American view, the view of every president up to Woodrow Wilson: Stay out of foreign wars, be on guard against "passionate attachments" to any country other than our own. As our first and greatest president wrote in his farewell address:

"[A] passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils...Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause ..."

The "tools and dupes" President Washington warned against are the Dennis Pragers who propagandize for endless wars, for other men's sons to fight and for interests other than those of the United States of America.


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