The Gut Feeling of an Israeli Historian:
When US media want to learn about the Middle East, they often turn to Israeli "experts." They believe that Israelis are better equipped to explain those Arab "savages" to the superior master race. For analysis on Iraq, the media often turn to Israeli historian Amatzia Baram. In fact, in today's New York Times, there is an interview with Baram. (I will not link it out of respect for you). But what the New York Times does not tell you is this: Baram has been consistently wrong on Iraq before (and after) the war. This is what Baram had told The Ottowa Citizen in October 7, 2002: "To my mind, Saddam Hussein is very dangerous to America," said University of Haifa professor Amatzia Baram, who spoke at the Temple Israel on Prince of Wales Drive last night. "Once he becomes a nuclear power, and this could happen in two years or so ... my analysis is that you have a nuclear war in the Middle East very soon," said the professor. "He has a number of missiles that he could send to Israel tipped with non-conventional weapons, chemical and biological," said Mr. Baram..." Baram had also said this to the Jerusalem Post on October 16, 2002 : "There is a definite link between al-Qaida and the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, according to Prof. Amatzia Baram, of the University of Haifa's Department of Middle East History, an expert on Iraqi affairs."I can prove that there is very close ideological affinity and political cooperation between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida. I cannot prove that this has overflowed into operational cooperation, although my gut feeling says this is the case, and also that Saddam Hussein probably knew beforehand about the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington."