Israel is in no danger and there is no threat to the country as a result of yesterday's US-led attack on Afghanistan, government officials said last night, calling on Israelis to remain calm and continue with their everyday lives. ... [Minister without Portfolio Tzipi Livni, responsible for the government's information efforts, said at a news conference last night] that since the US attack was on Afghanistan, and not Iraq, "it is not a war that Israel is involved in."
What a very ... odd reaction. Do they think that the terrorists distinguish quite that finely? After having lived side by side with terrorists for so long, I can't imagine that Israel would be quite that deceived. (If nothing else, there are simply more terrorists over there -- proportionately speaking, that is -- and ... well, they're there.) And if it's an attempt to reassure the public, it seems a peculiarly misguided one; at the least, it would not be unreasonable to expect Hamas and the other local groups to step up their attacks in response.
On the other hand, if all they mean is that Afghanistan isn't going to shoot missiles at them, then, really, that's a perfectly silly thing even to consider. Afghanistan doesn't have any long range missiles in any event.
(I'm also mildly baffled as to why the beginning of a shooting war isn't a good time to conduct high-level strategic talks: Sharon decided last night not to send Strategic Planning Minister Dan Meridor, National Security Council head Uzi Dayan, and former ambassador to the US Zalman Shoval to Washington for high-level talks. Shoval said the meetings were postponed, because "this is not the time. All eyes need to be focused on the operation, and the Americans are now busy waging a war." Wouldn't you want to be involved in these sorts of talks at the beginning of a war?)
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
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12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!