The Israeli Angle, As War Talk Heats Up

There’s no doubt about it that war talk is heating up, and events on the ground and in the air in the Levant are also heating up. Israel is once again claiming that if they don’t attack Lebanon today it will be tomorrow—or maybe next week, or … You get the picture. My guess is that this is one more rhetorical attempt to pressure the US into committing to a major Middle East war—something the US isn’t prepared for and doesn’t want. Israel isn’t prepared for a real war, either—who thinks the military that can’t take Gaza is ready for Hezbollah? Just a bombing campaign, but that’s exactly what could lead to Hezbollah unleashing its missiles. At which point everything becomes less predictable.

The GOP’s utterly reckless and irresponsible quest for Jewish money has led to the invite to Netanyahu to gaslight Congress and the public. My guess there is that, with regard to the public, that’ll be like pushing on a string. The public knows it’s being gaslit. Well, so do our reps, but they want Jewish money more than they care about the impression they make.

But if the US does commit to war in the Middle East, what does that mean for Russia, Ukraine, and NATO. People like Armchair Warlord (and others) argue that a Middle East war would suck in virtually all of America’s resources, especially ISR assets, that Russia would essentially have a free hand. The US would be simply incapable of fighting a Three Front war, even by proxy, if China and North Korea become part of the mix. Not to mention lesser global conflicts, such as across the Sahel in Africa. For this reason—and not out of idealism or humanitarian considerations—it appears in the Anglo-Zionist empire’s interests to muddle through the Middle East, short of a major war. And any attack on Hezbollah would appear to translate into the start of a major war.

In what follows I’ve transcribed the first part of a highly pertinent discussion between Judge Nap and Phil Giraldi (retired CIA). What I’ve chosen to focus on is the political influence angle, simply because I believe that angle is far more important than the intel/spying angle that they get into in the second half. Simply put, if the Israel Lobby staffs the upper reaches of career and political appointees in the NatSec policy field and also controls most of Congress, the spy stuff becomes—if not entirely beside the point—certainly less important.

For those who listen to the full half hour, I would also point out that the FBI undoubtedly learns much about nefarious doings by our “allies” who spy on us, but the FBI doesn’t make the calls on what—if any—action is taken. The FBI gets input, but ultimately is subordinate to the higher levels of the NatSec and legal establishments in the government when it comes to action decisions. If you wonder how this political angle works, keep reading. The Judge and Giraldi don’t scratch the surface about how pervasive this influence is, but this is a good start.

Finally, again with regard to spy stuff, it’s necessary to bear in mind the connection of intel gathering to influence. Intel gathering isn’t illegal, it’s not espionage. If you think that the Israel Lobby doesn’t assist Israel in gathering intel about vast swaths of the American public and their views on Israel, you need to reconsider your ideas. Your Jewish “friends”? Sure—why not? And guess what? The Chinese are doing the same thing here, and they want to influence US politics, too. I don’t doubt other countries do the same thing, perhaps through business connections more than ethnic organizations. It’s a big deal, and in the digital age the possibilities for scooping up vast amounts of sensitive personal information are barely conceivable. But who wants the FBI monitoring this activity? It would involve monitoring Americans based on ethnicity, religion, race, whatever. This is a real problem.

Phil Giraldi : Israel’s Control Over America

Phil Giraldi, how is it that American Middle East foreign policy has been managed by American Jews--at the present time one of whom was born in Israel, fought for the IDF, and today has joint Israeli American citizenship? This seems to happen no matter who the president is or which party controls Congress!

This has been particularly evident ever since 9/11. Basically, you recall as I recall, that we had a group of American Jews who were largely in control of the Pentagon--I'm talking about Wolfowitz, I'm talking about Feith and also, in the vice president's office, Scooter Libby. They basically did everything they could to start a war with Iraq ,and the reasoning behind starting a war with Iraq was not because Iraq had weapons of mass destruction--as our good friend Scott Ritter would confirm--but rather because Saddam Hussein was supporting the Palestinians. When the Israelis were arresting Palestinians Saddam Hussein would support the families of those people who were arrested, and [Israel supporters] were very very angry about this. It was a major issue for the Israelis at that time. So at that time we we wound up going to war with Iraq for no reason whatsoever except that Israel wanted it. And this has persisted.

But the point that I've been trying to make is that this has really gone far beyond what we saw in the years 2001 to 2003. It's at the point now where our liberties are under attack, where this law--the anti-Semitism law that was recently introduced is intended to shut down all criticism of Israel. It accepts a definition of criticism of Israel being ipso facto anti-Semitism. And we also have 35 states in the United States that punish people in one way or another who will not sign a statement, or agree to a statement, that they will not support boycotts or other action against Israel. So in other words states are stepping in to deny American citizens and citizens of those States benefits, jobs, and this is all going on, this has accelerated the process of of Israel and Israel's partisans in the government running the show.

I've seen estimates of the senior appointments in the current presidential Administration that 70% of them at the senior level are Jewish, and almost all of those that do National Security and foreign policy are Jewish. So you have Jewish people with a vested interest in Israel deciding what the United States policies will be vis a vis Israel.

And this does this happens no matter who''s'' president or which party controls the Congress?

Yeah, it's just a variation on how they play it and who's providing the money and the corruption. With Donald Trump of course it was Sheldon Adelson--and now [Adelson's widow] wife Miriam who's offering, according to news reports, has offered Donald Trump a $100 million in a campaign contribution, but the quid pro quo is that Trump has to go along completely with the Israeli government taking over all of what was historic Palestine. In other words there will be no two-state solution, there will be only a one state solution, and it will be Jewish.

[Plays video clip of Amos Hochstein gaslighting about needing peace in Lebanon.]

Who is Amos Hochstein?

He's the Special Envoy and, of course, he is, as you say, Israeli born. It's again a ridiculous appointment. Why would anyone wanting to basically support US national interests in the Middle East appoint an Israeli Jew as one of the chief envoys? He's the chief envoy in terms of dealing with Lebanon and, as you can see from what he just said, basically he is he is blaming Lebanon for what is going on in the region, whereas many people would quite differently interpret what has been the dynamic there for the last 50 years. And this is typical of what is going on in the region now at the West Bank and the Israeli border with Lebanon. Basically the Israelis are hoping to bring America into the loop in their own interests in terms of defeating Hezbollah--which they have concerns about because Hezbollah has proven to be a very effective fighting force--and also to go after what they see as the Iranian surrogates in the region in places like Syria, and essentially to get rid of the Palestinian entity as a political entity in their own borders, or what they see as their own borders. So this is essentially it. They want to be the big dog in the game in that region and it requires the United States to take out their enemies, because they can't do it themselves.

Israel and the Netanyahu government hope to spread their borders to what they call Greater Israel. We were using this phrase a few months ago, from the River to the Sea, but that includes not only Gaza but the West Bank. And Hezbollah is determined to be certain to make sure that this doesn't happen--at least with respect to the West Bank. Do I have that right?

Well, you have it essentially right, yeah, but Lebanon is a target, too. When Israelis speak of Greater Israel they're not stopping with Palestine--they are interested in obtaining the water resources of Southern Lebanon and, in fact, they fought a war over that in the 1980s. You might think back. They are also interested in parts of Jordan--to have control of the Jordan River on both banks--they're also interested, according to some accounts, in invading Egypt and moving all the way to the Nile River. So this is a fantasy to a large extent, but when when the real extreme right-wing Israelis speak of Greater Israel that's what they're talking about.

...

I'm going to switch gears slightly. Are candidates for the Congress asked by AIPAC and other groups to sign pre-election pledges in support of Israel?

Yes. According to some congressmen--Trafficante from Ohio back some years ago made that claim, Cynthia McKinny has made that claim. As soon as you're running for office for Congress a friendly AIPAC person shows up in your office and asks what your intentions are in terms of policy towards Israel, and if you give the wrong answer you find that you're being confronted by a well-funded opponent who is a friend of Israel and is also getting good media coverage. They've managed to get rid of a lot of congressmen by this kind of stuff and there a ton of others. William Fulbright, for example.

This is a common trait of the Israel Lobby. You come up with a lot of money and you use that money to buy candidates, and if you can't buy them you buy someone else as your candidate, and pretty soon you have what we have now in the US Congress, which is Knesset East. We are owned on foreign policy by Israel. Nobody dares stand up against Israel except a few voices in the Progressive wing of the Democratic party. And Tom Massie. It's frightening. Our system is being taken over, it's being managed, and we get people like Ariel Sharon making the claim that, 'Don't worry about the United States, we Jews own the United States and the Americans know it,' and we have our current prime minister BiBi Netanyahu saying things like, 'Don't worry about the United States--it's easily moved.’

Congressman Massie Republican of Kentucky, probably the successor to Ron Paul amongst the few Libertarians with courage in the House of Representatives, told me on my Newsmax show what he also told Tucker Carlson, and that is that AIPAC approaches nearly every member of Congress and proposes a minder, a monitor, a person to hang out with you to answer your questions, to help you out, to guide you--obviously to guide you towards supporting Israel. Congressman Massie has refused such a minder but I imagine very few other members of Congress have made this refusal.

Yeah, the minder, as I understand it, is in the form of a staffer. So it's a staffer that's appointed to the staff of the congressman and this is somebody that's deliberately put in by AIPAC, and his job of course is not only to advise the congressman but also to advise AIPAC if the congressman is not doing enough for Israel. So this is like a two-edged short and Massie, actually, went on to say he that he may be the only Republican congressman who doesn't have a minder.

...

Does Mossad spy on Americans?

[Laughter]

Yeah, Mossad constantly spies on Americans. I remember in my time in the agency where I used to talk to some officers who had served in Israel and the spying on them was was constant. Their quarters were bugged with microphones, their cars were bugged. The spying was constant, and they also spy on Congress. A few years ago the FBI discovered that there were a bunch of radiotransmitters located in street lights and that sort of thing all around Capitol Hill and near the White House. These were planted to be able to pick up telephone conversations and that sort of thing, and that was done by Israel.

Why does the United States tolerate this? Isn't it the job of the FBI to protect us from foreign agents spying on us?

Well with the exception of Israel. That's the problem--Israel gets a free pass on almost everything. As I said, this investigation never went anywhere. As I recall somebody in the FBI slipped up and said, 'Yes it was Israel that did it,' which was kind of an embarrassment, but it's a given that they spy on us.