MER reported the following two yeas ago about the y3j24jq
Top Neocon President Bush this week nominated to be Ambassador to the United Nations:
"U.S. Undersec'y of State John Bolton:
Syria and Iran are next he told Israelis on 17 Feb 2003."

MIDDLEEAST.ORG - MER - Washington - 11 March: Last weekend, before the unprecedented massive anti-U.S. anti-Israeli demonstration in Beirut, before the Egyptian Foreign Minister lashed out at the Americans, before the former Lebanese Prime Minister was reappointed, and before the public signs that both the U.S. and the U.N. are backtracking about Hezbollah, the Israeli Foreign Minster made a few public comments about his visit to Washington this week.
Silvan Shalom's comments were rather short and succinct as reported briefly in The Washington Times in the article below. But even so they were quite revealing. Indeed the Israelis take quite a pride in occassionally telegraphing, albeit obliquely, what they are doing -- though of course one has to examine and extrapolate very carefully between-the-lines.

Back more than twenty years ago in fact, when today's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon first starting talking in public about a Palestinian State, he didn't have in mind the one most other people did and certainly not one the Palestinians would find palatable. Rather, even back then, Sharon's goal was always a mini and everywhere surrounded, controlled and crippled Palestinian Statelet; and indeed today it appears he and his Foreign Minister have concluded fulfilling Sharon's Plan with George Bush's assistance is now within grasp.
Current Israei goals, now more in tandem with the Americans than ever as the 'War on Terrorism' keeps expanding and becoming more consuming, can be summarized as follows:* Pry Syria and Lebanon apart to weaken opposition to Israeli designs on the northern front;* Weaken and isolate Lebanon's major anti-Israel force, Hezbollah, in anticipation of possible future attacks;* At the same time isolate Iran and weaken Iran as well as Iranian links to Syria and Lebanon in anticipation of strikes against Iran's growing military capabilities;* Push the VIP Palestinians still in control of the reborn and refunded Palestinian Authority II (but for how much longer?) to more fully police the Palestinian reservations; and keep trying to corner them into accepting some kind of 'provisional' Palestinian State with 'temporary' borders -- even as Israel further consolidates the Apartheid arrangements long personally championed by Ariel Sharon.
The Israelis have other options as well, strategies that are rarely, even obliquely, discussed in any public forum; nor is the corporate media going to deal with such complicated, controversional, and hard to explain and to substantiate matters of this kind.If the Israelis can't get their way with the Palestinians -- and to a lesser extent because their capabilities are more limited with the Syrians, the Lebanese, and the Iranians -- they will push still further policies with a growing likelihood of bringing about civil wars. Fomenting civil war in Palestine and Lebanon are policies the Israelis have actually pursued for some time; and either doing the same in Iran or bringing about some kind of regime-change coup in Tehran remains a major priority.

Oh by the way, Ambassador John Bolton, the senior neocon the Americans are sending to the United Nations, an organization he is on record many times wanting to see either destroyed or disregarded, is also on record telegraphing important policies. Back in February of 2003 as the U.S. invasion/occupation he and his Israeli friends had been so helpful in bringing about was beginning, MER reported the following: "U.S. Undersec'y of State John Bolton: Syria and Iran are next he told Israelis on 17 Feb 2003."

ISRAELI Foreign Minister To Visit Washington

JERUSALEM - 7 March - Washington Times -- Israel's foreign minister said yesterday that he would try to rally international support for a full Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon when he travels to Washington this week.
"The purpose is to act to get Syrian troops out of Lebanon, include Hezbollah on the list of terror organizations, dismantle their terror infrastructure," Silvan Shalom told Israel Radio.
"I think those things could also contribute to another of our objectives -- progress on the Palestinian front," he said. "If we do both simultaneously, it would contribute much more to the stability of the Mideast and the possibility of us conducting a dialogue with many more Arab and Islamic countries."