On April 26, 2003, the Islamic website Islam Online[1]hosted Wasef Mansour, a diplomat with the Palestinian mission in Morocco, in an online discussion titled "What Israel Gains From the Occupation of Iraq."[2] During the discussion, Mansour held Israel responsible for the looting of museums and banks in Baghdad, called for Jihad against 'the occupiers' of Iraq, Palestine, and three cities under Spanish rule regarded by him as Moroccan, denied Israel's right to exist, and compared President George W. Bush to Hitler and other tyrannical leaders. The following are excerpts from Mansour's discussion with visitors to the website:

'Israeli Agents Looted Baghdad's Museums and Banks'

A visitor to the site asked Mansour what Israel gains from the wars it wages on the Arabs, the most recent of which is the war in Iraq. Mansour replied, "…The first benefit is the shattering of the great military power that Iraq possessed, which posed a danger to the Israeli entity. Second, Israel will enjoy normal relations in various spheres with its surrounding [neighbors] because of American power, and thus will not need military power to implement its historic goal of establishing the State of Israel from the Euphrates to the Nile. It will also benefit from the appearance of ethnic states in the region – as it seems that one of the Americans' first aims is to shatter the region and establish small states. Thus, Israel will become one ethnic state among a great number of ethnic states in the region, and it will no [longer] be an unusual entity."

"To this must be added the economic benefits that began before the war, when the American administration gave Israel $9 billion in aid and guarantees, and the benefits it will derive from its contracts for rebuilding Iraq and from the cheap oil it will get. We should also note what Israel has already done, by sending agents as soon as the American forces entered Baghdad; they looted the museums, information banks, and financial banks. It turns out, therefore, that Israel will reap great economic benefits [from the war in Iraq] – and let us not forget the possibility of the renewal of the oil pipeline from Kirkuk to the port of Haifa which was cut off after the 1948 war…" [...]