No Matter Who Becomes President Israel Wins
POSTED BY PHILIP GIRALDI ON DECEMBER 29, 2015 IN NEWS &
ANALYSIS , USA ,
PALESTINE/ISRAEL | | 2 RESPONSES
by Philip Giraldi
(The Unz Review) – The next American president will almost
certainly be bought and paid for by the Israel Lobby. Hillary Clinton has
already declared that that when she is elected president she intends to take
relations with Israel
“to the next level” and has also promised to invite Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu to visit on her very first day in office. It is difficult to imagine
what the next level might actually be in America ’s already servile deference
to Israeli interests so she should perhaps be careful regarding what she
commits herself to do. Netanyahu just might feel empowered to remain in the
Oval Office on his visit, possibly also moving the Knesset to Washington so it
will be closer to the U.S. Treasury if Israel’s budget comes up a bit short as
well as just across the river from the Pentagon and all those nifty weapons that
can be used to kill Palestinian children..
Hillary’s pledge of fealty to Israel took place at a meeting
of the Saban Forum, which is an annual dialogue between American and Israeli
leaders from across the political and social spectrum, hosted by the Brookings
Institute, which also has a Center for Middle East Policy, formerly also named
after Saban. The eponymous Saban is Haim Saban an Israeli who has made his
billions of dollars in the United
States in the television and entertainment
industry. His best known brand is the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. He is
consistently one of the largest donors to the Democratic Party, contributing
$10 million in 2001-2, whose stated formula for influencing American politics
is to donate to politicians and parties, establish think tanks and control the
media message. He has worked hard to do all three on behalf of Israel , to
include paying for the Democratic National Committee headquarters in DC.
Saban’s dealings with the Democrats have apparently not inhibited his cooperation with Israel ’s
intelligence service Mossad. In 2009 Congressman Jane Harman was contacted by
an Israeli intelligence “agent” and reportedly agreed to attempt to influence a
reduction in the espionage charges in the then ongoing trial of accused
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spies Steve Rosen and Keith
Weissman. In return, Harman’s contact promised to support her bid to become
chairman of the House Permanent Committee on Intelligence. The Israeli, who
some suspect was Haim Saban himself, indicated that he would pressure House
speaker Nancy Pelosi using threats to withhold political contributions from
Saban if Harman were not given the position. Harman was later spoken of as a
possible candidate to become Director of Central Intelligence and, without the
FBI recordings of her phone conversations, which were made known to Pelosi, she
might have obtained either position or possibly both in succession.
Saban has also long been associated with the Clintons and he
and a tight group of like-minded donors may indeed constitute the most
financially significant part of Hillary’s political base. When Bill was
president Saban was a regular overnight visitor at the White House. He has
pledged to spend “whatever it takes to elect Hillary in 2016 because “the
relationship with the US and
Israel
will be significantly reinforced.” Saban has repeatedly claimed that “I’m a
one-issue guy, and my issue is Israel .”
Hillary and Bill appear to agree and one might even argue that Bill has a soft
spot for money coming from Israeli spies, witness his pardoning of fugitive
Marc Rich in 2001. So put it all together if you will and if you think that the
wag the dog relationship between Washington and Tel Aviv is bad now, just wait
because it will be moving “to the next level” if Hillary is elected.
So who is standing up for the interests of the American
people? Nobody, apparently. Senator Ted Cruz has no less than 69 press releases
on his web site pledging support for Israel . Jeb Bush has pledged to ban
the pro-Palestinian Boycott Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement in the U.S. which most
people would consider to be free speech. Every Republican candidate also
continues to pander directly and personally to Benjamin Netanyahu, including
Donald Trump who planned to drop in on Bibi but had to cancel the trip because
of the reaction to his comments about Muslims. Trump had also caused somewhat
of an uproar by telling a Jewish Republican audience in New York City that they wouldn’t support him
because he didn’t need their money. Imagine the cheek of Trump to link Jews
with money with buying influence! In any event, Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL),determined
that Trump’s comments were not anti-Semitism because they had been
misinterpreted and I for one am relieved that we have a brave and enlightened
organization like the ADL to keep us on our toes when it comes to potential
hate speech.
George Washington could not have envisioned the manner in
which money has corrupted American politics. Congressmen complain that much of
their time is spent fundraising and, in such a system, it is inevitable that
the most generous donors are able to position themselves for favors from the political
class. Some become Ambassadors even though they are completely unqualified.
Others choose to push certain legislative agendas, to include tax breaks and
bailouts that enrich them personally.
But now we have something that goes way beyond that in the new
breed of mega-rich, colossally wealthy multi-billionaires who are well
positioned to use their resources to support a political candidate willing to
accept the money and sell out his or her principles to someone advancing the
interests of a foreign country. We are now on the verge of having a Manchurian
Candidate president.
Last November an organization called the Israel-America
Council (IAC), which ostensibly represents expatriate Israeli citizens residing
in the United States , hosted
an inaugural bash in Washington .
Present were Saban and Sheldon Adelson sharing a stage. Adelson, the principal
funder of IAC, was born in the United States
and lives in Las Vegas but also has a home in Israel and
presumably has Israeli citizenship. His wife is Israeli and he has said that he
regrets serving in the US Army in World War Two while also expressing a fervent
desire to have a son who would serve as an Israeli military sniper. Both
Adelson and Saban are essentially Israelis who live in the United States
for economic reasons. Scott McConnellhas described them as having “maximal
loyalties to Israel and
minimal ones to the United
States .”
Adelson is the Republican version of Saban. He believes that
the United States should
nuke Iran as a “negotiating
tactic,” has an estimated $23.8 billion fortune derived mostly from casinos in Las Vegas and in Asia . He
is a Republican funder for those prospective candidates who promote unlimited US support for Israel . He bankrolled Newt
Gingrich’s bid for the GOP nomination in 2012 as well as Mitt Romney for a
total of $150 million and also contributed $10 million to Republican candidates
in the 2014 congressional campaign. Newt Gingrich in return repaid the favor by
praising Israel in his
foreign policy pronouncements, taking a hard line with Iran and
describing the Palestinians as an “invented people.”
Adelson and Saban’s “spirited public discussion”at IAC
included a number of zingers that have been widely reported in the alternative
media. Saban commented that in the event of a “bad” deal between Washington
and Tehran over the latter’s nuclear program
(bad as being defined by Israel )
Netanyahu “should bomb the living daylights out of the sons of bitches.”
Adelson noted that
“the purpose of the existence of Palestinians is to destroy Israel ” before
dismissing the possibility of a democratic state including both Arabs and Jews
by responding “So Israel won’t be a democratic state, so what?” He added that
democracy was not mentioned in the Torah.
The two also joked about combing their resources to buy the
New York Times by offering to pay “more than it’s worth” to make its coverage
of Israel
even more favorable than it already is. Saban added that he had even used “threats” to obtain favorable media reporting about Israel . The
seven hundred “Israeli-Americans” in the audience reportedly responded to the
conversation with “wild applause.”
Adelson and Saban concluded that
“there’s no right or left when it comes to Israel ” and the
conference Chairman Shawn Evenhaim joked at its conclusion that “After the
election in 2016 one of you will get me a private tour of the White House.”
The jest was on target. At this point it is almost certain
that both Saban and Adelson will become the largest single donors for whoever
becomes the GOP and Democratic candidates. That will buy them enormous access,
as Hillary Clinton has already demonstrated. Given that reality one has to
accept the obvious conclusion that the two Israeli billionaires might well be
able to substantially define the relationship between Washington
and the Muslim world, to Israel ’s
benefit.
That Adelson and Saban might think privately that they have
become political kingmakers is one thing, but stating as much in a public forum
defies belief. They should be recognized for what they really are: agents of a
foreign government and there is no reason why the Justice Department should not
require them to register as such under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of
1938. Their close and continuing relationships with Israeli government can no
doubt be demonstrated, validating the claim and registering as foreign agents
would make illegal their funding of American politicians.
And once one starts recognizing foreign advocacy groups for
what they are, other organizations like IAC, the Washington Institute for Near
East Policy (WINEP) and AIPAC should also be required to register as agents of
the Israeli government. And there are many more such organizations, a virtual
alphabet soup. Registration would mandate transparency in their funding and end
their phony status as educational tax exempt organizations.
It does not require any particular genius to realize that
someone living in one country while favoring the interests of another is not a
desirable citizen but we retain at least some semblance of freedom of speech
and anyone should be able to advocate anything. But it would be nice for a
change if our two venerable national parties might for once seize the high
ground and act respectably. I would suggest that the Democratic National
Committee and the Republican National Committee might consider developing some
backbone and combine in issuing a joint statement refusing to take any
donations from either Adelson or Saban in the current election cycle. It could
remove both considerable influence peddling and Israel itself from the electoral
process, which would be a blessing all around. Might it actually happen? Almost
certainly not.
This article originally appeared at The Unz Review
Relation between USA and Israel
is always intimate and lovely
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