Bolton To Israel-Keep Focus on National Security

John Bolton has a message for the Israeli Government. Stop worrying about political rhetoric and creating a legacy keep focusing on security. The former UN Ambassador and and my choice for the next Secretary of State (with Daniel Pipes as National Security Adviser) was interviewed by IsraelNationalRadio's Tovia Singer and made his case for sanity in foreign policy. Some of the highlights include

• On driving the left crazy: "I like to think that Sen. Joe Biden actually tipped his hand a little back in 2001 when he opposed my confirmation for my first job in this administration as Undersecretary for Arms Control; he said that his trouble with me was that over the years I have been 'too competent.' They were worried that I might actually change things."

• On the NIE Report:"I don't think we should call it an intelligence report, but rather a document of the Executive Branch. It was a highly-politicized document, written by some who are not even intelligence community professionals, but rather from the State Department... In theory, they all work for the President, but they don't like his policies and they think that he's too belligerent towards Iran - though my own personal view is that the President was not tough enough - and this paper was intended to undercut the Bush position. This report has put Bush's policy on the bottom of the ocean.Bolton went on to say that the job of the intelligence community is merely to "provide the facts, and what we do not need from the intelligence people is their view on how to put those facts into a political policy; for that, we have government leadership. Unfortunately, this report shows that the intelligence community has gone way beyond its legitimate boundaries."

"The headlines all over the world after the report were that Iran has no nuclear weapons program - but in fact the document refers only to a halt on weaponization - putting a nuclear device on top of a ballistic missile, which is just a sliver of the all-out nuclear program. It's an important piece, yes, but it's just a small part. Since 2003 Iran has made steady progress towards all the technology it needs for a nuclear weapon, and it can turn its program back on - if it was ever turned off - in a snap. This report will be very harmful to the cause of stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon."

• On the Israeli Air Strike in Syria "I think we should all be paying more attention to the site that Israel struck in Syria back on September 6. You know, you in Israel are operating under extraordinary censorship about that, but I think this is a mistake - we need to get the facts out about what was going on there at that site near the Euphrates River. We need to know more about the nuclear partnership between Syria and North Korea there."

• A Message for Israel "I think it's important to keep your focus on national security and not get diverted by political rhetoric and the demands of people who are out trying to build legacies for themselves. You have to keep the long-term and your national interest in mind and remember who your friends are."

AND who your friends AREN'T