propriety of printing the Unabomber’s declaration, especiallyrnunder pressure from Attorney General Janet Reno. Bradlee wasrnpainfully candid, explaining that there was nothing to be said,rneven supposing there ever had been, in favor of an independentrnpress, adding that all that was really important was to serve thernpublic interest, that is, doing what government officials tell yournto do.rnIt is easy to forget that the original pretext for the NATOrnbombing was to punish the Serbs for the August 28 explosionrnin Sarajevo. American armies have never been reluctant tornbomb civilians, and even if Serb mortar shells might be justifiedrnas a routine event in the siege of any city, the fact is that we dornnot actually know who is responsible for either of the explosionsrnin Sarajevo. In the famous Markale marketplace blast, it provedrnimpossible to pin it on the Serbs, and the U.N. seems to bernbacking off on the August incident that triggered the NATOrnbombing raids. Two of the U.N.’s own specialists, a Russian andrna Canadian, expressed misgivings about the report blaming thernSerbs. In fact, fairly early on the NATO commanders virtuallyrnadmitted their error, when Willy Claes in an interview used thernominous phrase “assuming the Serbs are responsible.” In arnrecent article in the Nation, David Binder points out that AssistantrnSecretary of State Richard Holbrooke had threatenedrnairstrikes three days before the Sarajevo explosion. Binderrndraws the obvious conclusion: “Clearly airstrikes had alreadyrnbeen planned before Holbrooke set off for the Balkans to pushrnPresident Clinton’s peace plan. Only a pretext was needed.”rnThe secret was apparently not well kept, since even MartinrnPeretz had said, at least a week before in the New Republic, thatrnit was time for President Clinton to take dramatic action.rnIf foreknowledge implies complicity, the Russians have gonernfurther in claiming that the August explosion was a setup,rnknown in advance to the West. ITAR-TASS—a source that isrnadmittedly no more reliable than our own press agencies—rnreports that a “top Russian military intelligence officer said therntwo explosions at the Sarajevo market were masterminded by arnWestern secret service as a pretext for the bombings and werernexecuted by Muslim field commander Rahim Delic.” Whomrnto believe, the Russian or the American official press? OrdinarilyrnI’d say it’s a toss-up, but in this ease, where the Russians havernnot committed themselves, TASS is more credible.rnThe wodd becomes a very dangerous place every four years,rnwhen candidates must enter into macho-man patriotismrncontests—my saber’s longer than your saber. The Democratsrn—including the President—had been somewhat nervousrnover the prospect of a draft-dodger sending men into combat,rnbut this summer, the administration was steadily drawn into arnmore aggressive position, openly applauding the Croatian advancernand probably conniving at it beforehand, backing up arnnew peace plan with the threat of airstrikes and military aid tornthe Bosnian Muslims as well as an invitation to Muslim countriesrnto replace withdrawing U.N. so-called peacekeepers, andrnnow by a brutal bombing campaign that caused incalculablern”collateral damage”—the polite military term for the murderrnof civilians.rnThe Clinton administration did not try to disguise its motives.rnIn mid-August, senior White House officials were tellingrnthe New York Times that Mr. Clinton did not “relish going intornthe 1996 election hostage to fortune in the Balkans.” Thernproblem was Senator Dole’s threat to override the President’srnveto of the resolution lifting the arms embargo. Clinton had tornact before the end of the congressional recess. Other officialsrnexplained that the President had to preempt Bob Dole beforernCongress returns from summer recess—since Dole hadrnpromised to override Clinton’s veto of legislation lifting thernarms embargo on the Muslims. The day after the bombingrnstarted. Senator Dole backed off on his threat.rnDo not imagine for a minute that the Republicans will berncontent to be left behind. The party’s leaders are itching for arnshowdown, with Clinton even more than with the Serbs. Thernleading Republican saber-rattlcr is Senator Bob Dole, who hasrnspent several years denouncing President Clinton, former PresidentrnCarter, and all the other appeasers who stand in the wayrnof the crusade for democracy that Senator Dole would like tornlaunch upon the Balkans. Perhaps a better word would bernjihad, since the Senate Majority Leader wants to help the AlbanianrnMuslims of Kosovo, the Serbian Muslims of Bosnia, andrnthe Muslim rebels in Chechnya. There is only one part of thernworld where Mr. Dole does not defend Muslim dissidents,rnrebels, and terrorists, the same part of the wodd that is immunernto the Republicans’ promise to cut foreign aid. “A foolish consistencyrnis the hobgoblin of little minds,” and no one wouldrnaccuse any American senator of letting consistency get in thernway of fund-raising.rnThe situation is complex. The Republican Party has been, atrnleast in recent decades, a staunch ally of Israel, and Israel’srnfriends in the United States have contributed handsomely tornRepublican as well as Democratic campaigns. Israel’s decisionrnto back the Bosnian Muslims seems bizarre, given the realitiesrnof history. Many Jews know that Serbs have been their onlyrnprotectors in the Balkans, and some—both in Israel and thernUnited States—^have heroically tried to put a stop to the propaganda,rnbut why should there be any love between Israel and thernsons of Nazis, on the one hand, and, on the other, an Islamicrnfundamentalist regime?rnOne answer lies in Israel’s precarious position in the MiddlernEast. It is highly convenient, for diplomatic and propagandarnpurposes, to support Muslims in Europe in order to defuse therncharge that Israel is anti-Muslim and in order to establish somernbasis for collaboration with Arab states, and one must not discountrnthe influence of the U.S. State Department upon Israel’srnLabor government. There is also the seductive attraction offeredrnby the holocaust analogies that have been so shamelesslyrnemployed by the Muslims’ American PR agents. Martin Peretzrnknows about as much about the Balkans as I know about quantumrnmechanics, but he knows he is in favor of bombing thernSerbs, because, as he says, “Jews recognize a genocide whenrnthere is one.”rnThe importance of Israel’s decision to sell out the Serbsrnshould not be underestimated; it not only adds respectability tornthe holocaust analogy, but it also offers incentives to politicalrnsaber-rattlers who count on support from American Jews. Fromrnthe perspective of American Jews, the terrible irony is that thernRepublican Party has had a long-standing friendship withrnCroatian Nazis in the United States. A recent book, The SecretrnWar Against the ]ews, supplies convincing evidence that thernEisenhower administration deliberately facilitated the immigrationrnof Nazi refugees, particulady from Croatia, at the samerntime that the COP was forming a so-called ethnic divisionrnprimarily devoted to creating an ex-fascist ethnic opposition tornJewish influence. The creator of this ethnic division wasrnRichard Nixon, who later promised to establish a permanentrnethnic council within the GOP, and this promise was kept afterrnDECEMBER 1995/9rnrnrn