Conflict of Interest

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "bragged that Israel would destroy Hezbollah", a French diplomat said in Washington, "and if he can't do it that's his problem. I don't care what the secretary of state says, we're not going to do it for him." [snip] "We might as well face up to it. Sooner or later the United States is going to have to choose what is more important - its strategic alliance with Europe, or its friendship with Israel." I was going to title this posting "How To Win Friends And Influence People" but that slot is already taken. The article "The loser in Lebanon: The Atlantic alliance" paints, from an Israeli and US POV a very alarming picture. Why the Americans and they Israelis don't undertand that to continually insult your allies while (much more importantly) continually stabbing them in the back is folly I don't know but they don't understand that. The European interest is the survival of Europe. Faced with a choice between that American hegemony in the Middle East they'll pick European survival every time. Americans and their local satrap need to get used to the idea that continually stabbing your friends in the back while adding insult to injury by continually hectoring them is a great way to convert friends and allies into something entirely different. markfromireland