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<DIV><FONT size=2>Ah, this will be a great move for improving Mideast relations.
>From The Independent (UK).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>CK</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>
<H1 class=head1><FONT size=4>US general with Iraq role linked to hardline
Israelis</FONT></H1>
<P class=padnone>26 March 2003
<P>
<P>The retired general named as civilian governor of occupied Iraq has visited
Israel on a trip paid for by a right-wing group that strongly backs an American
military presence in the Middle East.</P>
<P>Lieutenant-General Jay Garner, the co-ordinator for civilian administration
in Iraq, put his name in October 2000 to a statement blaming Palestinians for
the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence and saying that a strong Israel was
an important security asset to the United States.</P>
<P>The statement was sponsored by the Jewish Institute for National Security
Affairs (Jinsa), which pays for retired US military officers to visit Israel for
security briefings by Israeli officials and politicians. Richard Perle, one of
the architects of the US invasion of Iraq, is a member of the institute's board
of advisers, as was Vice-President Dick Cheney before he took office in
2001.</P>
<P>Lt-Gen Garner went on Jinsa's annual trip to Israel in 1998. Two years later,
he and 42 other senior retired officers said: "We are appalled by the
Palestinian political and military leadership that teaches children the
mechanics of war while filling their heads with hate. The security of the state
of Israel is a matter of great importance to US policy in the Middle East and
eastern Mediterranean, as well as around the world. A strong Israel is an asset
that American military planners and political leaders can rely on."
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