\"Fair-Weather Friends? America shunned Israel during the Gulf War. That would be an even bigger mistake this time.\" These words crown an article by Wall Street Journal contributing editor Seth Lipsky, published September 19, 2001. Excerpts thereof:
\"The worst moment in America\'s relations with Israel came... when Saddam Hussein began launching Scud missiles at the Jewish state. Wanting to scramble its fighter aircraft and other forces to attack what Scud positions it could find, Israel sought from the Pentagon the aircraft codes known as IFF, which means \"Identify Friend or Foe.\" The Pentagon refused. President Bush the elder refused to intervene...
\"Forty-one years later, as the Scuds arced into Tel Aviv, the idea that America would ask Israel to stand down in the fight to destroy the enemies she shared with America seemed bizarre and even dangerous. President Bush persisted, not wanting to offend the Arab members of the Gulf War coalition... There were those who suggested that he ought to make a willingness to fight alongside Israel a price of joining the coalition. Instead, Mr. Bush held out to Israel the hope that from the victory of the gulf coalition would come the talks that would finally bring peace between Israel and its Arab enemies.
\"The end result, though not the direct result, was the disaster of Oslo, the folly of which finally became clear even to its boosters with the terrorist war the Palestinian Arabs launched against Israel in the wake of Camp David II...
\"The knowledge of this history is no doubt the reason why, in recent days, Israel\'s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been resisting the pressure from the State Department that it stand down from its defense during the attacks by the Palestinian Arabs so as to aid in the forming of a coalition between America and Israel\'s Arab enemies in the war against Osama bid Laden... But it would not be surprising to see the issue re-emerge as a defining question as to how deeply the current President Bush understands the nature of the war he is entering...
\"No doubt President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell abhor racism as much as any other leaders. But when the price of joining in a conference against it became the isolation and denigration of Israel, it walked out. That has to give hope that should the price of the antiterrorism coalition become the exclusion of the very countries that are most closely allied with our values, the administration will hear the inner voice of conscience and find another way to fight the war.\"
\"The worst moment in America\'s relations with Israel came... when Saddam Hussein began launching Scud missiles at the Jewish state. Wanting to scramble its fighter aircraft and other forces to attack what Scud positions it could find, Israel sought from the Pentagon the aircraft codes known as IFF, which means \"Identify Friend or Foe.\" The Pentagon refused. President Bush the elder refused to intervene...
\"Forty-one years later, as the Scuds arced into Tel Aviv, the idea that America would ask Israel to stand down in the fight to destroy the enemies she shared with America seemed bizarre and even dangerous. President Bush persisted, not wanting to offend the Arab members of the Gulf War coalition... There were those who suggested that he ought to make a willingness to fight alongside Israel a price of joining the coalition. Instead, Mr. Bush held out to Israel the hope that from the victory of the gulf coalition would come the talks that would finally bring peace between Israel and its Arab enemies.
\"The end result, though not the direct result, was the disaster of Oslo, the folly of which finally became clear even to its boosters with the terrorist war the Palestinian Arabs launched against Israel in the wake of Camp David II...
\"The knowledge of this history is no doubt the reason why, in recent days, Israel\'s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been resisting the pressure from the State Department that it stand down from its defense during the attacks by the Palestinian Arabs so as to aid in the forming of a coalition between America and Israel\'s Arab enemies in the war against Osama bid Laden... But it would not be surprising to see the issue re-emerge as a defining question as to how deeply the current President Bush understands the nature of the war he is entering...
\"No doubt President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell abhor racism as much as any other leaders. But when the price of joining in a conference against it became the isolation and denigration of Israel, it walked out. That has to give hope that should the price of the antiterrorism coalition become the exclusion of the very countries that are most closely allied with our values, the administration will hear the inner voice of conscience and find another way to fight the war.\"