Israel congradulates Bush, tries not to gloat

Dec. 14, 2003
Israel congradulates Bush, tries not to gloat
By HERB KEINON

Israeli leaders tried to restrain from gloating and react in a mater-of-fact manner to the capture of Saddam Hussein, even though the deposed Iraqi dictator has for decades cast a long shadow over the Jewish State.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon phoned US President George W. Bush and congratulated him on the capture of Saddam. "As I told President Bush, today is a great day for the democratic world and for those who fight for freedom and justice, and those opposed to terror," Sharon said before meeting with US Congressman Christopher Cox (R-Ca), chairman of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security.

Sharon said "the whole world is breathing easier since the dictator who destroyed Iraq can no longer interfere in its reconstruction."

Sharon said he congratulated Bush on his "courageous stand against world terror. I believe that the democracies in general, and those beset by terror in particular, learned a historic lesson today. The enlightened international community saw that it can, when needed, defend freedom and roundly defeat terror."

<snip>

"Our position is that we are pleased he was apprehended, and he needs to be tired," the official said. "There are enough people out there trying to say the Zionists were behind Bush going into Iraq in the first place, that we do not have to give them more ammunition by dancing right now."

<snip>

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1071395079491&p=1008596981749

I would have been excoriated for using the R/W source, but that's the way it goes...

Secondly, I believe this is all chatter anyway.

It seems to me the Israelis should be happy since Bush First made them sit on their proverbial hands when Saddam Hussein was busy lobbing missiles into Israel during the 1993 Gulf War.

How do you think Palestinians feel about U.S. administrations sitting on their hands while Israel's military regularly gets busy lobbing missiles into refugee camps?

(Actually, it's worse than sitting on their hands, since the U.S. actively supplies the weapons needed to murder Palestinians with.)

There is already a thread discussing Sharon's reaction to Saddam's capture open on this forum.