The former head of the Israeli internal security service, Yuval Diskin, doesn't trust PM Netanyahu or DM Barak: "I don't believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on messianic feelings." He also described Israel as an increasingly racist society. And finally warned about more political assassinations in the vein of Rabin's. All in Haaretz.After recent interviews in the same vein by the head of the Israeli Defense Forces and the former head of Shin Bet, the Israeli intelligence service, a lot of red flags are going up over Netanyahu's war-mongering, the growing power of the West Bank settlers, and the political views of Israel's political leaders.Will AIPAC declare these Israelis anti-Semites?Monday, April 30: The NYTimes reports on a speech given by former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert. Speaking in New York he echoed much of what Israeli military and intelligence officials have said. After being booed several times by the American, and presumably largely Jewish audience, he retorted, As a concerned Israeli citizen who lives in the state of Israel with his family and all of his children and grandchildren,...I love very much the courage of those who live 10,000 miles away from the state of Israel and are ready that we will make every possible mistake that will cost lives of Israelis. Do those who live 10,000 miles away seem all too ready to sacrifice American lives as well?

Margaret O’Brien Steinfels is a former editor of Commonweal. 

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