With Friends Like These...

Andrew Sullivan on Netanyahu and a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities:

What to make of all this? I'd say, as I did earlier today, it's a further escalation of Netanyahu's attempt to use US domestic politics to back a war on Iran. First we get McCain et al on Israeli soil backing the Israeli prime minister against the US president and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Then we get the report that Israel is preparing to strike alone. Now we hear via Haaretz that Netanyahu is demanding that Obama threaten a US military strike if Iran does not back down on its secluded nuclear research, rather than repeat the "all options are on the table" diplo-speak. Could this confusing set of signals have something to do with this:

A new poll of Israeli public opinion found surprisingly low levels of support for a military strike against Iran -- and especially if Israel has to go it alone. Just 19 percent of Israelis believe that Israel should strike Iran's nuclear facilities if it must do so without American support. A significantly higher number -- 42 percent -- support a military strike if Israel has American support. Thirty-four percent do not support a military strike at all.

So Israelis are deeply conflicted on this - something you won't find reported every day on the op-ed page of the Washington Post. That's why Netanyahu desperately needs US cover for an attack; and is furious he cannot simply push them around as he was once wont to do.

How on earth do Republican politicians get away with siding with Israel versus the Obama Administration?  How can they put Israel's interests (supposedly) ahead of their own country's?  If Democrats did the same thing, they'd be attacked as traitors.  Other than religion, what makes Israel so much more special than anyone else?  This sick march to war so many people are on really pisses me off.  Iran is no real threat to Israel, no matter what crazy things they say.  Remember Saddam Hussein and "the mother of all wars?"  How did that work out for him?  More importantly, how did that work out for us?