For someone who touts her knowledge of the oil business as a foreign policy credential, Sarah Palin's view that "we cannot second-guess the steps that Israel has to take to defend itself" comes off as profoundly ignorant -- and dangerous.

Of course we can! We give Israel $3 billion a year in military aid, for starters, about 20 per cent of its defense budget. 

That means -- duh -- we will be held accountable for any Israel attacks, particularly on Iran. And our most vulnerable spot?

Persian Gulf oil-shipping lanes. 

Conservatives have been complaining that MSNBC's Chris Mathews twisted the remarks Palin made about Israel in her ABC-TV interview, attributing incendiary statements to her that she never made.

And they are right.

Palin never said, or even meant to say, as the increasingly erratic Matthews insisted, that she wouldn't "second guess" an Israel request for American "AWACS ... intelligence ... radar (and) refueling help" for an attack on Iran.

But that's beside the point.

Forget about AWACS, intelligence, etc. 

Israel cannot launch an air war on Iran without our assent, period. 

Look at the map. Without our permission to fly over Iraq, Israeli jets can't attack Iran.

Is that enough to stop her from freelancing a war that would draw us in? 

Yes, there's a precedent.

During the first Gulf War in 1990, Israel told the U.S. it was going to bomb Iraq for launching missiles at it. 

We said, no, you're not, it will shatter the Arab coalition we've cobbled together to evict Saddam's troops from Kuwait.  The Arabs will retaliate. We'll take care of it. Stand down.

But the Israelis insisted, threatening to go it alone.

So the White House just lifted the air bridge, recalled Brent Scowcroft, the first President Bush's national security advisor, at a dinner focused on foreign policy last week. 

"We wouldn't give them the codes to pass through our air space, okay?" Scowcroft said -- and that was the end of it. 

Now, even in its most preemptive mood, it's hard to imagine the Bush-Cheney team opening an air bridge over Iraq for the Israelis to attack Iran. 

An already shaky world economy could collapse under the weight of soaring oil prices, if not a complete closure of Persian Gulf shipping lanes. 

And that's just for starters.

Does Sarah Palin, who well could ascend to the presidency in an administration headed by the elderly McCain, really not understand what she's so glibly saying? 

Let's hope (and what a new low that is.)  Let's hope that the governor was just parroting her handlers' talking points about not "second guessing" Israel.

And that she gets a fast education.

The alternative is just too damn frightening.