In 1996, the neocons advised Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom they continue to have close ties, that what Israel needed to do to secure itself was to destabilize and overthrow Arab governments. They published a document titled “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” arguing that Israel should attack Syrian military targets in Lebanon and even Syria if necessary. At the time, conventional wisdom saw Iraq as a major threat to Israel, and the neocons urged Netanyahu to support the Jordanian Hashemites’ challenge to Iraq’s borders.

Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politi…, loc. 390