J-Marsh points us to this piece by Daniel Levy in Ha’aretz called “Ending the Neoconservative Nightmare.” With a title like that, it is naturally quite good. Some exceprts:

In 1996 a group of then opposition U.S. policy agitators, including Richard Perle and Douglas Feith, presented a paper entitled “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm” to incoming Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The “clean break” was from the prevailing peace process, advocating that Israel pursue a combination of roll-back, destabilization and containment in the region, including striking at Syria and removing Saddam Hussein from power in favor of “Hashemite control in Iraq.” The Israeli horse they backed then was not up to the task.

Ten years later, as Netanyahu languishes in the opposition, as head of a small Likud faction, Perle, Feith and their neoconservative friends have justifiably earned a reputation as awesome wielders of foreign-policy influence under George W. Bush.

George W. Bush: crazier than Netanyahu.

Terrifying, isn’t it?

The key neocon protagonists, their think tanks and publications may be unfamiliar to many Israelis, but they are redefining the region we live in. This tight-knit group of “defense intellectuals” – centered around Bill Kristol, Michael Ledeen, Elliott Abrams, Perle, Feith and others – were considered somewhat off-beat until they teamed up with hawkish well-connected Republicans like Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Newt Gingrich, and with the emerging powerhouse of the Christian right. Their agenda was an aggressive unilateralist U.S. global supremacy, a radical vision of transformative regime-change democratization, with a fixation on the Middle East, an obsession with Iraq and an affinity to “old Likud” politics in Israel. Their extended moment in the sun arrived after 9/11.

Finding themselves somewhat bogged down in the Iraqi quagmire, the neoconservatives are reveling in the latest crisis, displaying their customary hubris in re-seizing the initiative. The U.S. press and blogosphere is awash with neocon-inspired calls for indefinite shooting, no talking and extension of hostilities to Syria and Iran, with Gingrich calling this a third world war to “defend civilization.”

Yessir, those neocons are certainly kooky. But since Levy has dared to mention they exist, he must now accept his mantle as an anti-Semite self-loathing Jew.

Israel and its friends in the United States should seriously reconsider their alliances not only with the neocons, but also with the Christian Right. The largest “pro-Israel” lobby day during this crisis was mobilized by Pastor John Hagee and his Christians United For Israel, a believer in Armageddon with all its implications for a rather particular end to the Jewish story. This is just asking to become the mother of all dumb, self-defeating and morally abhorrent alliances.

Y’think? C’mon, guys, you’ll all be fine in the end if you convert to JEEEEEEEEEE-ZUS-AAAAAAAH!!!!

Predictably, a bunch of dumb-ass American wingnuts have sent messages to Levy chiding him for not wanting to be America’s colonial outpost. Here’s “Ben Stein” from San Francisco:

Mr. Daniel Levy is a fraud and must be dealt on the basis if he has commited treasonous acts or not.

It is quite obvious that the result of his action while in power was a total disaster for Israel.

It is high time to pay for you vanity and for your stupid theories – Mr. Levy should be charged with the treason of Israel and should be deported unarmed to Gaza with his entire family.

I love how some guy from California is telling another country to execute one of its citizens for treason. Pretty lame, Milhouse.

Here’s Jane from Palm Beach, who has a post titled “Levy has Bought Into Islamist Propaganda”:

The notion of neoconservatives was invented, concocted and manufactured to discredit Jews serving in the US governemnt and in the media.

Oh God, we’re back to the “neoconservatives don’t really exist; the term was just invented by the Left to discredit serious thinkers like Irving Kristol” schtick.

And lastly, here’s Howard from the USA:

DanielLevy`s A crazy Leftist

You nutty leftists never learn that Muslims are out to destroy the Jewish people. Then they wil get the Christians.

The only thing that could have made that better would be if he’d finished it with this:

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The OJ Simpson Case