Up against the wall: Baker Hamilton sets off Israeli alarm bells - Debka

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Encapsulated here in a nutshell, from the Israeli intelligence, perma-leak, Debka, are Israel's fears of being "sold out" by United States in its "orderly retreat" from Iraq. Obviously if the United States is to maintain even a shred of prestige in the Middle East and if any of its "moderate" Arab allies are to survive, Israel will have to return all the land taken in 1967, including Jerusalem and Israel will have to pay (read the US taxpayer will have to pay) reparations to the Palestinians uprooted in 1948 in lieu of repatriation. Just as traditional anti-Semites ascribe all the ills of the world to a deep, dark Jewish conspiracy, many Jews apparently believe in a massive Goyish (in this case cold, thin-lipped WASP) conspiracy to eradicate them. To anyone thinking of adhering to either camp I would advise they apply the wisdom of "Hanlon's Razor": Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. DS
Abstract from Debka: The pair is pursuing new policy line which sacrifices the traditional US-Israeli alliance for the sake of wooing Iran, Syria and Iraq’s neighbors for help in Iraq. During his senate hearings, Gates confirmed - and indirectly justified - Iran’s quest for a nuclear weapon by declaring that Iran wants the power of deterrence against “the nuclear countries surrounding them – Pakistan in the east, Russia in the north, Israel in the west and the United States in the Persian Gulf.”(...) The designated US defense secretary did not consult – or even inform - Israel before a disclosure that violates a confidence long-held between the two governments. Gates also said that “If Iran obtains nuclear weapons no one can promise it would not use them against Israel.” He was then confirmed as defense secretary Wednesday by an overwhelming 95-2 Senate vote. The only two opposing votes were cast by two Bush allies, Sens. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and Jim Bunning, R-Ky. They cited his criticism of the war and his view that the U.S. should engage Iran as part of a solution. The Pentagon, which has warned against granting a role to Iran and Syria at Israel’s expense, has a new master, Robert Gates. He has already applied the broom to his predecessor Donald Rumsfeld’s senior aides. Some Washington pundits accused the co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, James Baker, as forcing President George W. Bush to resort to dealing with the Iraqi Shiite-led government for the sake of an orderly US exit from Iraq. The price offered is acceptance that Iran could go nuclear within two years at Israel’s expense. The group’s recommendation of a Madrid-2 peace conference for a Middle East peace would pander to the Arabs and their European backers by pushing for a full Israeli withdrawal from territories captured in the 1967 war. Israel and its supporters in the United States would have no say – “…a unique opportunity for the US to strike a deal without Jewish pressure,” as one Washington observer put it. This sort of crude language has not been heard in Washington’s top circles since George Bush the elder was president and James Baker his secretary of state. The new-old gang has also revived the threat of an imposed “peace.” It is barely veiled in the Baker-Hamilton report’s statement: “The US cannot achieve its goals in the Middle East unless it embarks on a renewed and sustained commitment to a comprehensive peace plan on all fronts.” READ IT ALL