Is the so-called “Israel lobby” leading the US into another war in Iraq against American interests?

from honestreporting.com, Jun. 26, 2014

The latest neo-conservative war drums are giving Stephen Walt a headache. But Jonathan Chait points out that Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu already said for the record that Israel opposes US intervention in Iraq.

How can this be? The answer is that Israel’s primary rival is Iran, and its client Hezbollah, both of which are Shiite. Iran is backing the Iraqi government, which is fighting the Sunni ISIS rebels. Israel may not like ISIS, but it does not want to increase Iran’s power, and aiding the Iranian-backed government in Baghdad would do that. And so the neoconservatives currently demanding American intervention in Iraq are acting not in the service of Israel’s interests but against them. Indeed, Israel was always far more ambivalent about war with Iraq in 2003 than Walt’s crude argument ever allowed.