TO ISRAEL, WITH LOVE. PLEASE DON'T MISTAKE BUSH FOR A FRIEND..

AlterNet: Our Willful Blindness in Lebanon: "Bush could stop Israel in its tracks with a snap of his fingers. But why would he? Israel is doing Bush's bidding -- redrawing the map of the Middle East to facilitate U.S. domination. Bush began that task with Iraq; Israel is following suit with Palestine and Lebanon. Indeed, Bush is hoping Israel's next stop will be Iran or Syria.

A July 21 list of talking points from the White House Office of the Press Secretary referred to a Los Angeles Times op-ed by Max Boot titled, 'It's Time to Let The Israelis Take Off the Gloves.' The White House release contained this quote from Boot's piece: 'Our best response is exactly what Bush has done so far -- reject premature calls for a cease-fire and let Israel finish the job.'

That quote was preceded by this language: 'Iran may be too far away for much Israeli retaliation beyond a single strike on its nuclear weapons complex. (Now wouldn't be a bad time.) But Syria is weak and next door. To secure its borders, Israel needs to hit the Assad regime. Hard. If it does, it will be doing Washington's dirty work.'

We turn a blind eye at our peril."

Marjorie Cohn, professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, is president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild and the U.S. representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists.