Israeli Experts Say Middle East Was Safer With Saddam In Power

[Mark E. Smith]

The Jewish Daily Forward

Jerusalem - Although few tears were shed in Israel over Saddam Hussein's death last week, a small but
growing chorus - including government officials, academics and Iraqi emigres - is warning that Israel
could find itself in more danger with him gone, and that it might even regret having welcomed his
toppling.

"If I knew then what I know today, I would not have recommended going to war, because Saddam was
far less dangerous than I thought," said Haifa University political scientist Amatzia Baram, one of Israel's
leading Iraq experts.

Saddam was feared and reviled in Israel, both as a tyrant and as an enemy of the Jewish state. He
demonstratively supported Palestinian terrorists, and few have forgiven his bombarding of Israel with
Scud missiles during the 1991 Gulf War.

"Retrospectively, justice has been done," Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh told Israel Radio this
week. Still, he cautioned, Israel must now be concerned "about what is liable to happen in the future."

Saddam's death, Sneh warned, could lead to "a reinforcement of Iranian influence in Iraq." He said that
Iraq had turned into a "volcano of terror" following the war, with "destructive energies" that could spill
over into Jordan and Israel.

Such misgivings, though rarely aired publicly for fear of offending Washington, reach high into Israel's
security establishment. Yuval Diskin, director of the Shin Bet security service, told a group of students
in a military preparatory program last May that Israel might come to regret its support for the American
led invasion in March 2003.

"When you dismantle a system in which there is a despot who controls his people by force, you have
chaos," Diskin said, unaware that the meeting was secretly recorded. "I'm not sure we won't miss
Saddam." The tape was later broadcast on Israeli television.

http://www.forward.com/articles/israeli-experts-say-middle-east-was-safer-with-sad/