Chief Rabbi Metzger thanks Bush for intervening in Iraq

[bemildred]

During a short verbal exchange Wednesday at the Ben Gurion Airport Terminal Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger thanked President George Bush for the US's military intervention in Iraq.

"I want to thank you for your support of Israel and in particular for waging a war against Iraq," Metzger told Bush, according to the chief rabbi's spokesman.

Bush reportedly answered that the chief rabbi's words "warmed his heart".

Metzger's stand on the Iraqi war, while reflecting the Israeli majority and Orthodox Jewry, is not shared with most US Jews. The American Jewish Committee's annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion, published last year, found that 70 percent of US Jews disapprove of the Iraq war, with 28 percent backing it.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517335513&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[LeftishBrit]

1. 'Israeli majority' - well, perhaps

In the run-up to the war, Israeli polls suggested an even split as to whether it was a good idea - certainly less support than in America. A poll in May indicated that 59% thought the war was justified, and 36% thought it wasn't. Some of the 59% might have been people who just thought that America should have a right to pursue its own 'interests', so I suspect the number of people actively supporting the war may be lower.

Most British Jews - and non-Jews! - don't support the war either.

[bemildred]

2. Yeah. Like Israelis like SCUDs or something.

And let's not forget the little model airplanes with bombs in them

I was just taken by how far Bush had to go to find praise for his Iraq venture.

Do you suppose this Rabbi is in the Sanhedrin?