Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com
Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2003

“It’s a tough little democracy that will slam-dump them [Iraq] if they try anything.”

In Jerusalem doing a week of live remote broadcasts of the G. Gordon Liddy Radio Show (through Friday), the “G-Man” says he’s been amazed at the war footing that he has witnessed, drawing special attention to the relentless mock-war military flying maneuvers that roar overhead.

This is Liddy’s third trip to Israel to combine his passion for jumping with the Israeli paratroops and participating as an American broadcaster in “The America's Voices” program, which invites and sponsors talk-show hosts (Oliver North was a recent guest) to Israel to glean what is going on for themselves and to report to the American people the realities of the situation on the ground. The Jerusalem Post offers the program.

Liddy says that neither his sponsors nor the state of Israel “impose any kind of agenda. We have complete freedom. They have nothing to hide. Believe me, Israel sells itself – all by itself.”

He is an unabashed admirer of the little nation. “As one who has lived through 70 percent of the 20th century and a student of history, I remember the birth of the modern Israel when I was 18 years old and appreciate its singularity as the only democratic country in the Middle East, an area aswarm with medieval and/or tyrannical governments infected with religious fanaticism and hatred of other religions and cultures.”

Field Trips to Gaza and Golan

On this trip, Liddy is traveling to Gaza and the Golan Heights and reinforces an impression he has garnered on other trips over a 10-year period. He remarks that the country, small as it is, contains 60 percent mountains and 20 percent desert. “They are reclaiming about one kilometer per year from the deserts.”

Liddy says that he finds Israel incredibly small and vulnerable to military attack. “I examined the Golan from my military experience and determined quickly that to surrender it would be madness.”

And why does the colorful Watergate figure keep returning?

“I return to get a sense of the resolve of the Israeli people, and better educate myself on the issues so that I can do my small part to rebut on the air to the American people the specious arguments of the Arabist American Department of State, and the blatant Palestinian propaganda being fed them by the major American television network news organizations.”

Spoken with the characteristic G-Man from-the shoulder punch.

Liddy, who since 9/11 has been referring to his broadcasts as “the Wartime Edition,” has a frenetic schedule to keep in the short week, including interviewing patients at Jerusalem’s Sheba Rehabilitation Hospital – all victims of terror attacks, including one “especially beautiful young woman” who was severely burned and maimed about eight months ago when a bomber blew himself up in a Tel Aviv coffee shop.

Also on the crowded talk schedule, Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad, the head of government activities in the territories, newly appointed national voice on Iraq, and former military adviser to Yitzhak Rabin and Yitzhak Shamir. Gilad recently shared intelligence on Iraq with Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA chief George Tenet, and other White House senior officials.

And as to that looming Iraq conflict that preoccupies most of the citizenry of Israel, Liddy is on record and remains on record with NewsMax that in his opinion American military intervention is inevitable and imminent:

“We’re killing some time to take advantage of those long, cold winter nights over there. Those chemical suits are just too hot to wear otherwise.”

During this trip and past trips to the land where terror can often be a daily event, Liddy has eschewed anything remotely resembling a personal fear factor:

“I'm a life member of the American Special operations Association, a former wartime artillery officer in our army, and a former bureau supervisor of the FBI,” he shrugs. “If someone starts shooting at me, and there is a gun nearby, they are going to be damned sorry.”

So far, however, things appear safe enough for the conservative broadcaster, who is staying in a luxury suite at the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem, a hostel he says is “world class.”

But amenities and bravado aside, Liddy pondered over the open airwaves Tuesday during a telephone interview with Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., “I wonder about this situation between the U.S. and Israel – the U.S. pushing for a Palestinian state …” (Liddy has long been on record that Yasser Arafat's only plan is the extinction of Israel.)

Rep. Cantor, chairman of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, was quick to agree: “There should not be talk about the creation of a Palestinian state until the terror is gone. There has been no progress in reform.”

Fighting words in a dangerous land – even if you are the G-Man.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Israel
Media Bias
Middle East
Editor's note:
You can fight terrorism: David Horowitz’s Defense of Israel Campaign