The implementation of the Israeli strategy goes back to 1990. Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in a sudden attack on August 1, 1990, giving rise to an international crisis. Israel headed the list of those forces which encouraged that crisis. Israel was the fiercest supporter of the attitude adopted by the United States in the wake of the invasion of Kuwait. The Israelis even regarded the United States as moderate, and wanted a harsher policy. To such an extent in fact that the President of Israel Chaim Herzog recommended that the American use nuclear weapons. On the other hand, the Israeli lobby in the United States was working to bring about a wide-ranging attack on Iraq.

This whole situation encouraged the idea in the United States that the attack against Iraq under consideration was actually planned in Israel’s interests. The well-known commentator Pat Buchanan summarised this idea in the words "There are only two groups that are beating the drums for war in the Middle East – the Israeli Defense Ministry and its amen corner in the United State."[2]

Israel had also initiated a serious propaganda campaign on the issue. Since this campaign was largely waged in secret, Mossad also entered the equation. Former Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky provides important information on this subject. According to Ostrovsky, Israel had wanted to wage war with the United States against Saddam long before the Gulf crisis. So much so in fact, that Israel began to implement the plan immediately after the Iran-Iraq war. Ostrovsky reports that Mossad’s Psychological Warfare department (LAP – LohAma Psicologit) set about an effective campaign using disinformation techniques. This campaign was aimed at representing Saddam as a bloody dictator and a threat to world peace. (Victor Ostrovsky, "The Other Side of Deception: A Rogue Agent Exposes the Mossad's Secret Agenda", pp. 252-254).

Ostrovsky describes how Mossad used agents or sympathisers in various parts of the world in this campaign and how, for example, Amnesty International or "volunteer Jewish helpers (sayanim)" in the US Congress were brought in. Among the tools employed in the campaign were the missiles launched against civilian targets in Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. As Ostrovsky makes clear, Mossad’s later use of these missiles as a propaganda tool was quite peculiar, since those missiles had actually been directed towards their targets by Mossad, with the help of information from US satellites. Having supported Saddam throughout his war with Iran, Israel was now trying to portray him as a monster. Ostrovsky writes:

The Mossad leaders know that if they could make Saddam appear bad enough and a threat to the Gulf oil supply, of which he'd been the protector up to that point, then the United States and its allies would not let him get away with anything, but would take measures that would all but eliminate his army and his weapons potential, especially if they were led to believe that this might just be their last chance before he went nuclear. (Victor Ostrovsky, "The Other Side of Deception: A Rogue Agent Exposes the Mossad's Secret Agenda", p. 254) [3]

The Israelis were so determined on this matter, and with regard to the United States, that on August 4, 1990, Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy issued a diplomatically worded threat to William Brown, the American ambassador to Israel, stating that Israel "expects the U.S. will fulfill all of the goals it set for itself at the beginning of the gulf crisis," in other words that it attack Iraq. According to Levy, if the United States failed to do so, Israel would act unilaterally. [4]

It would be of enormous benefit to Israel to have the United States engage in the war and for Israel to remain entirely uninvolved: and that is indeed what happened.

However, the Israelis were actively involved in the United States’ war plans. Some US staff officers involved in planning Operation Desert Storm received fine tactical advice from the Israelis that "the best way of wounding Saddam was to strike at his family."

The Mossad-inspired propaganda campaign reported by Ostrovsky set up the necessary public backing for the Gulf War. It was again Mossad local assistants who lit the touchpaper for the war. The Hill and Knowlton lobbying firm, run by Tom Lantos of the Israeli lobby, prepared a dramatic scenario to convince members of Congress on the subject of war against Saddam. Turan Yavuz, a noted Turkish journalist, describes the incident:

October 9, 1990. The Hill and Knowlton lobbying firm organises a sitting in Congress on the subject of "Iraq’s Barbarities." A number of "eye witnesses" brought to the session by the lobbying firm maintain that Iraqi troops killed new-born babies in the hospital wards. One "eye witness" describes the savagery in enormous detail, saying that Iraqi soldiers killed 300 new-born babies in one hospital alone. This information deeply disturbs the members of Congress. This works to President Bush’s advantage. However, it later emerges that the eye witness brought by Hill and Knowlton to Congress is in fact the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to Washington. Nevertheless, the daughter’s account is sufficient for members of Congress to give Saddam the nickname "Hitler". (Turan Yavuz, ABD’nin Kürt Kartı (The US’ Kurdish Card), p. 307)

This leads to just one conclusion: that Israel played an important role in the United States’ to wage its first war on Iraq. The second one is not much different.

Contrary to popular belief, the plan to attack Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime by force was prepared and placed on Washington’s agenda long before the environment of the "fight against terror," which emerged in the wake of September 11. The first indication of this plan emerged in 1997. A group of pro-Israeli strategists in Washington began to put forward the scenario of the invasion of Iraq by manipulating the "neo-con" think-tank, called PNAC (Project for The New American Century). The most notable names in the PNAC were those of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, who as defense secretary and vice-president would be the most influential figures in the George W. Bush administration.

An article titled "Invading Iraq Not a New Idea for Bush Clique: 4 Years Before 9/11 Plan Was Set" [5] written by William Brunch and published in the Philadelphia Daily News, sets out the following facts:

.....Who is directing the attack on Iraq? Vice-President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice. These are the "senior level" backers of the attack. Yet the rest of the iceberg is even richer and more interesting. There are a number of "lobbies."

Heading these lobbies are the Jewish Institute for Security Affairs team, pro-Likud and Israeli-right and known for their close relations with US arms manufacturers. These have close relations with the "arms lobby," Lockheed, Northrop, General Dynamics and Israeli military industries ... JINSA’s fundamental principle is this: America’s and Israel’s security are inseparable. In other words, they are the same thing.

JINSA’s objective is not solely the overthrow of the Saddam regime in Iraq: it also supports the overthrow of the Saudi Arabian, Syrian, Egyptian and Iranian regimes with a logic of "total war," and the subsequent importation of "democracy." ... In other words, a number of American Jews on the same wavelength as the most extreme factions in Israel at the moment comprise the hawks in Washington. (Cengiz Çandar, "Iraq and the ‘Friends of Turkey’ American Hawks", Yeni Şafak, September 3, 2002.)