GIULIANI AND PODHORETZ

The naming of leading neoconservative Norman Podhoretz as one of Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani's senior foreign policy advisers is disconcerting to those Americans who have hoped that the current disagreements with Iran might be resolved short of war. Giuliani

Podhoretz has recently called on the United States to bomb Iran and he describes the current situation -- pitting Washington against what he describes as "the Islamofascist threat" -- as World War IV. Podhoretz basically advocates a world-wide conflict not unlike World War II to defeat Islamists everywhere they are to be found. Giuliani is already the U.S. presidential hopeful who is perceived most favorably in Israel because of his uncompromising stance on issues like the Iranian threat and terrorism, and the addition of Podhoretz will certainly be viewed favorably by many influential neoconservatives. Podhoretz is himself an uncompromising advocate of what he sees as Israeli national security imperatives very much in the mold of the right-wing Likud party.