According to a report in Yedioth Achronoth this week, Israel’s Emergency Economic Administration has produced a report about what the next Arab-Israeli war will look like. The report comes at a time when Israeli military and intelligence circles are expecting some sort of Hezbollah attack in response to the assassination of its leader, Imad Mughniyeh on February 12th. The report describes a “reasonably grave” situation rather than a “worst case scenario.” But it’s quite bad enough.

The Emergency Economic Administration predicts that the next war would last a month. There would be “missile barrages hitting the greater Tel-Aviv area and other urban conglomerates, a total shut-down of Ben-Gurion Airport, roads bombed incessantly, nationwide power cuts for many hours and the collapse of the water supply. . . .”

This is not the Iran nuclear nightmare scenario, the realization of which requires a technological breakthrough. It is rather an attack that could happen right now.

So what is Israel doing about it? Certainly, the Israel Defense Forces is preparing to defend the country in the event of such an attack. Even more certain is that the IDF is capable of hitting back hard in response (Defense Minister Ehud Barak has made the issuing of dire threats, with references to Israel’s “long arm,” a specialty). The knowledge on the part of its enemies that Israel will respond strongly is itself a deterrent. And, as we see in this report, the government is working to mitigate the economic impact of the next war.

But neither the Israelis (nor their American allies) are doing very much to prevent it—although they do go through the motions. Vice President Cheney, for instance, said last week that a Palestinian state was “long overdue” and spoke about the need for “painful sacrifices” by Israelis and Palestinians to achieve it. But he also ruled out any change in U.S. policy toward Hamas. He insists that Hamas has to accept U.S. and Israeli demands before we accept its participation in a Palestinian unity government or a role in negotiations—demands Hamas has repeatedly rejected. How Cheney would achieve the “long overdue” establishment of a Palestinian state is a mystery.

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Gershom Gorenberg has a terrific piece in the latest American Prospect about Robert Malley who has faced a Salem witch style type shunning because he has been deemed unfriendly to Israel. Malley was a top foreign policy adviser to President Clinton at the Camp David negotiations. He's Jewish, a first-generation American, and a Rhodes scholar with a Harvard Law degree.

Gorenberg's piece explores why Malley was tagged with the anti-Israel label. Marty Peretz, former proprietor of the New Republic called him a "rabid hater of Israel." The New York Times idiotically reported the "charges" against Malley without explaining how ridiculous they are. And a million emails went out to Jewish primary voters warning about the dangerous Malley.

So what is the evidence that Malley is anti-Israel? As Gorenberg -- an Israeli and Orhodox Jew -- reports it stems from several articles Malley wrote following Camp David which made the claim (get ready to be shocked) that the failure of the 2000 Clinton summit was not all Arafat's fault but that Ehud Barak was also to blame.

That's it. For stating something that everyone (including Bill Clinton) says is true, Malley is condemned as a Jew-hater. Of course, politics in involved too. Malley was one of Obama's informal advisers which meant that he could be used by some Clinton and McCain supporters as evidence that Obama is, you know, like Jesse Jackson and the rest of them.

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