Israel Connections To Iraq Occupation

Juan Cole 11/10/2003

Israel Connections to the Iraq Occupation

Delinda Hanley charges that there is a strong Israeli connection to US plans for Iraq, citing three developments. One is the Israeli demand that an oil pipeline be built from northern Iraq to Haifa. The second is the opening in Baghdad of an office of MEMRI, an Israeli propaganda project that translates only articles that make Arabs look bad or that advance Likud agendas. The third is Ahmad Chalabi’s pressing for a peace treaty with Israel. Most other members of the Interim Governing Council have said Iraq will not recognize Israel until the Arab League does.

(Informed oil economists I have read say that the oil pipeline plan is not economically feasible, and that the northern fields are anyway declining. Turkey is extremely upset by the plan.)

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About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page