Amid the U.S. mainstream media’s hyping of Russia-gate, there has been much less attention given to what some call “Israel-gate,” evidence that Israel was wielding much more behind-the-scenes influence, reports Dennis J Bernstein.
By Dennis J Bernstein
President Trump’s decision to begin moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to the disputed city of Jerusalem — and disclosure that first-son-in-law Jared Kushner failed to disclose his role in a foundation funding Israeli settlements and lobbied against a United Nations’ resolution critical of those settlements during the transition — are reminders that the foreign government with truly broad influence over U.S. politics is Israel.
Trump’s Jerusalem announcement also threatened to touch off more disorder in the Middle East, which Ali Abunimah, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada, says reflected the Trump administration’s determination to demand a full capitulation by the Palestinians. I spoke with Abunimah on Dec. 5.
One of Islam’s holiest sites the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, seen through barbed wire.
Dennis Bernstein: We turn our attention back to occupied Palestine. We have now seen the kind of policy we are going to get from the Trump administration. Jared Kushner has described bringing peace to the region as his dream. We are going to talk about that in the context of his investment in settlements there. I suppose the central issue in Palestine this week is whether the embassy is going to be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and what will the timing be, as in, will it happen some time soon?
Ali Abunimah: Actually, it will not be moved any time soon. Trump will announce tomorrow [Dec. 6] that the US is recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital but he will also sign a waiver delaying the move for another six months and the whole process will likely take years.
Dennis Bernstein: How bad is the situation now? We know that settlements are being built apace, that the repression continues in the Gaza Strip, where life is barely livable.
Ali Abunimah: It is interesting that no one is actually talking about what is happening on the ground in Jerusalem, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians there are facing systematic ethnic cleansing by Israel. This includes home demolitions, revocation of residency rights, land confiscations.
In the words of B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights group, since the occupation of East Jerusalem began in 1967, Israel has treated Palestinians in the city as “unwanted immigrants” and worked systematically to drive them out of the area. Whatever Trump announces tomorrow will not change the situation. The so-called international community is doing nothing about it and is letting Israel get away with it.
Dennis Bernstein: Jared Kushner is a broker for illegal settlements.
Ali Abunimah: He is a donor to illegal settlements, a philanthropist for illegal settlements. How many headlines have been devoted to Kushner failing to disclose important information in his government ethics filings? The latest is that he failed to disclose the fact that he was a director of his family’s foundation, which has donated to building settlements in the occupied West Bank, particularly the settlement of Beit El, the same settlement that receives philanthropic donations from David Friedman, Trump’s ambassador in Tel Aviv.
Kushner, who is supposedly charged with coming up with a peace plan, is actually busy funding settlements. Kushner’s family are close friends of Benjamin Netanyahu. It is just farcical to pretend that anyone like Jared Kushner could ever be an honest broker.
Dennis Bernstein: Is all of this legal?
Ali Abunimah: That’s questionable. Actually, in the past year there were lawsuits filed challenging this massive multi-billion dollar flow of tax-deductible, so-called charitable funds for illegal purposes, including the construction of settlements and massive donations to groups like Friends of the IDF.
Another issue is this whole business of what Jared Kushner was doing during the transition, when he was trying to undermine the policy of the sitting Obama administration and stop the UN Security Council resolution passed last December condemning Israeli settlements. This all came out in the context of the Mueller investigation and Michael Flynn’s guilty plea, which revealed not so much a collusion with Russia as a very close collusion between the Trump transition and Israel.
Dennis Bernstein: You would think then that MSNBC, which makes a living on pumping up Russiagate, would want to jump into this case of collusion.
Ali Abunimah: The Michael Flynn revelation did not show collusion with Russia and certainly did not show any interference in the US election. What Flynn pled guilty to was lying about two meetings. Flynn is a serial liar, he lied about his work for the Turkish government.
The facts that were filed in the documents with his plea show that a “very senior member” of the Trump transition team, who has since been identified as Jared Kushner, had ordered Flynn to contact every member of the UN Security Council to try to defeat this resolution criticizing Israel. It was also reported in The New York Times that Kushner had acted at the urging of Netanyahu.
None of this has anything to do with Russian interference in the elections. What it does show is clear collusion at the highest level with a foreign government [Israel] to undermine and sabotage the policy of the sitting administration.
President Donald Trump places a prayer in-between the stone blocks of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, May 22, 2017. (Official White House Photo by Dan Hansen)
Dennis Bernstein: It doesn’t appear that Arab outrage is going to have much influence over what happens with this plan to move the capital from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Ali Abunimah: On the contrary, I think that it has actually been facilitated by the fact that Saudi Arabia, which markets itself as the guardian of Islam, has been engaging in this major rapprochement with Israel, pressuring the Palestinians to accept what amounts to surrender, in order to get them out of the way so that Saudi Arabia and Israel can embrace each other and go to war together against Iran.
The New York Times reported details of the so-called Trump peace plan that Jared Kushner has been putting together, which basically creates a Palestinian state in name only. The Palestinians would have very limited autonomy in very small non-contiguous areas of the West Bank. They would have no control, no sovereignty, no capital in East Jerusalem, no right of return for refugees, and so on. But they would be free to call this a Palestinian state if they want to.
All of this sounds familiar to people who have followed this issue because this is a rehashing of the kind of schemes that have been put forward since the 1990’s. What is different this time is that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority leader, was called to Riyadh last month and told by Mohammad bin Salman that he was going to accept this or else. The thinking behind it is that the Palestinian issue is a thorn in the side of the Saudi/Israeli alliance that wants to escalate the catastrophic confrontation with Iran.
Dennis Bernstein: How does the crisis with the prime minister in Lebanon play into all of this?
Ali Abunimah: The Saudis have been behind so many of the regional disasters, including escalating the situation in Syria by funding a proxy war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. For two years they have been bombing the poorest Arab country, Yemen, with millions suffering famine and tens of thousands killed and injured. Saudi Arabia has been unable to defeat the people resisting them in Yemen. They were trying to destabilize Lebanon and that failed because [Prime Minister] Hariri went home and rescinded his forced resignation under pressure from the Saudis.
Dennis Bernstein: I guess maybe the one silver lining in all of this is the boycott/divestment movement. There is not much else going on in terms of global resistance to the brutality in occupied Palestine.
Ali Abunimah: I suppose it is possible to look at all of this and just feel immobilized and hopeless. But I think it is important to feel hope as well. Even in Jerusalem, Palestinians have been standing up to Israel and winning victories, as they did this summer when they forced Israel to back down from its efforts to impose stricter control on entrance to the al-Aqsa mosque compound. That was a real victory for people power in Jerusalem against one of the strongest armies in the world.
Despite a twenty-fold increase in lobbying, Israel has not been able to stop the “impressive growth” of the Palestine solidarity movement, particularly the boycott/divestment/sanctions movement. So it’s not time to be hopeless, it’s time to get on with the work, because there is lots to do and people power is still winning victories.
Dennis Bernstein: I guess you could say that proof of those victories is the amount of repression and clamp-down of Palestinian students and their supporters all over the country.
Ali Abunimah: And it is across the board now, including the effort of the big Silicon Valley companies who are helping the establishment to censor and limit the reach of independent media like us. They know that people are listening and we are powerful, even though we may sometimes feel small in the face of the forces that are trying to reshape the world.
Dennis J Bernstein is a host of “Flashpoints” on the Pacifica radio network and the author of Special Ed: Voices from a Hidden Classroom. You can access the audio archives at www.flashpoints.net.
Really? The congress passed a LAW A back in 1996 requiring us to move the embassy to jerusalum.and22 years later we finally get a president with enough balls to do it. Isreal says JUMP and we say how high”….22 years later….case closed on this one.
Congress can pass Laws but can’t balance a Budget. Foreign Policy is not under the direction of the US Congress according to the US Constitution. I read Trump drinls 12 Diet Pepsi’s a day. perhaps he does have swelled up his balls, maybe bigger than Teddy Roosevelt who loved his Rough Riders so. Trump also loves McDonald’s Pizza and Kentucky Fried Chicken eats that stuff every day. Oh he’s a schmart guy all right , a real mensch. PS Trump’s decision isn’t a real decision, it’s like getting rid of the JCPOA or sanctions on Russia but he probably got a little tingle in his drawers when the TV lights went on anyway.
Does it actually matter what two joined-at-the-hip thugs like Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump have to say about Jerusalem. These two corrupt individuals are merely mouthpieces for those who wield the real power. We should not fear the truth, rather we should seek it. All around us freedom is dying because people cling to false beliefs and treat them as if they were realities. Reality is based upon actual facts and evidence – not on lies, propaganda, or blind faith. No one has any more right to claim Jerusalem than its inhabitants: It’s called self-determination. Zionist Jews cannot just barge in and claim that they have a right to steal Palestine or Jerusalem from the people that they found living there because they once ruled this real estate, for a handful of centuries, over two thousand years ago. Zionist Jews pretend that it is somehow “God’s” will that Palestine should be a Jewish state. How ridiculous and phony! Read the Hebrew Bible and recoil, like any honest person, from the horrors of Israel’s jealous and destructive god – Yahweh, and the alleged orders that he gave to his crazed henchman Moses..
What an irony it is that the three so-called Abrahamic religions have been used as killing machines throughout their bloody histories. These three degenerate faiths are responsible for generating more unnecessary violence, more conscientious ignorance and more sincere stupidity than all other faiths of the world put together. It is a crime that they are allowed to continue to do so today.
The Jewish state of Israel has no right to exist, except in the minds of hubristic Zionists. Jews (of all ethnicities), Arabs, and any other ethnicity have a right to co-exist in a free and democratic Palestine, or whatever the inhabitants want to rename this hotly disputed territory. Why do Jews deserve a homeland that excludes, robs, and persecutes “the other?” Are we all supposed to feel sorry for the Jews because they inflicted communism on Russia and murdered tens of millions of innocent Russians and then had the evil and crazed Hitler come after them with his twisted final solution which in return killed millions of innocent Jews and millions of other innocent members of other ethnicities? Communism and Zionism came from the same Jewish brain – Moses Hess (q.v. “Moses Hess: Prophet of Communism and Zionism” by Shlomo Avineri). The venal pope and the corrupt Catholic Church supported the Nazis and Mussolini before, during and after WWII. This war saw Christian supported fascism versus Jewish-generated godless communism with uncle Joe Stalin and his brand of Russian nationalism thrown into the mix. Later, down in the century, neo-liberal fascism and Zionism teamed-up to finally win the cold war.
It is impossible to comment intelligently on the Middle East today without knowing something about its very ancient past. The city that is known as Jerusalem today has an ancient archeological heritage. Millennia before there was even such an entity as the Israelites there was an urban center on this site. As time went on this urban center became more technologically advanced, and by 2500-2000 BCE the city was very advanced with its own water system, massive stone walls, and still no Israelites. The Israelites don’t even get mentioned historically until around 1500 BCE.
People will always play pretend when it serves their selfish purposes, advances their agenda, or because they are frightened of consequences. The Hebrew Bible is not history, the Quran is not history, and the New Testament is not history – they are historical writings that are religious in nature. They are not factual or evidentiary, and they should mean absolutely nothing when it comes to claiming a territory and subjugating its people or ethnically cleansing 800,000 of them on a ruse.
Educate yourself to the facts. Access Manny Friedman’s article in the Times of Israel (July 01, 2012) which is entitled “Jews Do control the Media.” It is pretty obvious that Manny is on to something here. Read the following books: 1) “The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel.” 2) “against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel” by Alison Weir. 3) “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. 4) “Stealing the Bomb: How Denial and Deception Armed Israel” by Roger J. Mattson. 5) “The Nebula: A Political murder traces back to NWO’s absolute Power” by Walter J. Baeyens. 6) “Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance between the Vatican, the CIA, and the Mafia” by Paul L. Williams.
There’s no longer any excuse for not finding out who is creating the smoke and who is behind the mirrors. Decent people seek the truth but only the bravest find it. It takes courage to smash the matrix that has been formulated for us by the MSM and its controllers – they still tell us that Patsy Oswald was the lone gunman.
why there is no israel-gate…because israel is viewed as a friendly power…at least by the media and congress…russia on the other hand is a hostile power…go figure
Israel just broke its own back through its own hubris. Without the US as its “negotiation representative” with the Palestinians stick a fork in Israel. It’s done. The Palestinians have announced that ruse of US “impartiality” is done; the Palestinians are now in consultations with Russia to do the job. Putin has told Erdogan that Russia wants a settlement in line with UN resolutions. All this means that Israel, as an apartheid theocracy, has lost all its cover and protection now that the US can no longer fulfill that role, outside of continued vetoes in the UN Security Council. Does anyone think the European public will allow the EU bureaucrats to actively take on the role of supporting apartheid? Do you have anyone else in mind? Neither do I. Israel has stripped itself bare by demanding this resolution. It has already backfired. There is no return. I expect to see now the real endgame begin, which is of course the economic one, same as in South Africa. Anyone who is anyone will now support BDS, strongly and publicly. The rest will stand with Trump, the US Congress/Senate, and apartheid. Oh. And Kushner is toast.
Given that Washington has become infamous as “Israel-occupied territory,” you’d wonder how Washington elite could get away with selling a new propaganda narrative about Russia “invading” the inner sanctum of American officialdom — and, even harder to believe, that the entire mainstream press and a majority of Americans have swallowed the evidence-free fantasy, hook, line, and sinker.
This article is the second one in the last two weeks that presents a skewed, one-sided view of the Jewish-Palestinian situation. The author of the earlier piece filed–and you printed–an anti-Zionist screed. The facts that the author has questionable academic credentials and projects himself as a Jew who hates Jews should have given you ample warning that something less than the independent journalistic excellence on which you pride yourself would be submitted.
Today’s piece, simply put, is one-sided. The author makes no effort to ask questions that challenge the interviewee’s assumptions and “facts.”
You may know the phrase: Once is chance, twice is coincidence, third time is enemy action. Should I spot another story like the previous two, I will withdraw my support of your organization.
Seth Baby, Dude, Bernstein is a Journalist who interviews people for a radio show. He has been doing this for decades. Israeli policy regarding Palestine and US support thereof is one on many topics and D. Bernstein covers. He knows that his actions are not going to change US or Israeli policy in any way. He is simply informing people like the New York Times only his narrative has 100 times more credibility. He doesn’t claim to be a scholar . As for the Electronic Intifada, they carry a lot of baggage that has nothing to do with the cause of the Palestinian People. What is that CAUSE of the Palestinian People ? To not be driven out of the land of their birth? Why can they be driven out of the land of their birth? Because the USA says it’s OK for the State of Israel to carry out a policy of ethnic cleansing at all levels including torture and summary execution. . There is such a thing as International Law. It is unfortunate that the USA supports Israeli annexation of the West Bank, the Golan Heights and Arab parts of Jerusalem, areas that were taken at about 40 years ago through aggression and WAR. 2 wars in fact that were supported by the USA. Our cut of the deal was having 70 US Navy Sailors on the USS Liberty murdered/ executed ( Without reoperations or justice ) by the IDF, the Israeli Air Force in planes that were given to Israel under the auspices of the USA. . I don’t know what choir you think you are preaching to here. On this thread 90% of the people who post would label Israel an apartheid state and that is what Israel is. Israel is an Apartheid State that does not have to comply to International law because it is shielded from having to do so by the United States Government. This has been US Policy since 1948 when the USA allowed, in fact forced, the creation of the State of Israel in a shady maneuver at the UN on a Saturday when most governments were not even represented. You want a scholar, you can get one pretty easy. This is common knowledge. Shalom. Peace is a two way street. Read your Torah.
Your extreme racism fools no one here. Educate thyself.
“a skewed, one-sided view of the Jewish-Palestinian situation.”
“an anti-Zionist screed.”
“questionable academic credentials”
“a Jew who hates Jews”
Wow, but this fellow pulls out most of the stops! Especially the use of the “Jew who hates Jews”. That’s the way the devoted Zionists try to bully and intimidate American Jews who aren’t monsters themselves.
Perhaps Mr. Kaplan would be kind enough to detail “the other side” of theft, murder, and apartheid. Surely he is at least as brassy as the Southern Slavers who brayed about the virtues of black slavery.
Wow, Mr. Kaplan,
I did not know that being anti-Zionist was such a seemingly horrible thing that could make you so upset. We are all entitled to our cherished beliefs and opinions including the author of this balanced and well-informed article. You certainly have a right to disagree with is content and conclusions, but that does not give you the right to take the moral high ground based srtictly upon your hurt feelings. Try to act like an adult about the whole situation and try not to be so emotional. Answer the gentleman’s argument with facts of your own; debate him in an honest fashion; and please don’t insult the honest fellow by describing him as a Jew who hates Jews. That is not nice and it is hurtful. The man simply loves the truth and he goes about presenting it in a reasonable manner. Your threats and veiled threats come across as a childish tantrum.
Mr. Kaplan, I know that you are better than that. Please, take a very deep breath and exhale. We need your opinions, but try to make them balanced and based upon reason, not emotion. I believe that Mr. Bernstein has presented a very reasonable case; so, why not reply in kind. Don’t drop out in anger Please!
“Trump’s Jerusalem announcement also threatened to touch off more disorder in the Middle East”,…
It’s also good timing for Netanyahu’s flagging ship of state[1] and impending prospects of US troops having to withdraw from Syria due to a shrinking amount of convincing enemies to be found. We now have a reminder of the familiar-sounding police force issue[2] now unwinding in Syria[3] whose roots thread back from Vietnam(Phoenix), El Salvador(Contras), Enron(Guatemala & India), Fast & Furious, Liberia(OPIC & BRE) to Iraq WMDs . There’s quite a cast of inter-locking characters on the road to Syria, e.g., Petraeus, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Black-Scholes-Merton(LTCM), Greenspan’s Put, Rubin(Glass-Steagall), Seal, Summers(Commodity Futures Act), Mosbacher Power, Wisner(Junior), Bernanke’s QE/ZIRP, not to mention the Genie Oil & Gas strategic advisory board. This scene from ‘Lord of War’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFZ4Rvxhx5w,
brings back memories of Oliver North in 1986. We can watch our ‘income tax’ dollars at work funding the State Department’s USAID ESF[4] since 1962. This is not to be confused with the Treasury Department’s 1934 ESF (Exchange Stabilization Fund),… That’s another story.
There’s plenty of profits to go around for well-heeled investors, traders, primary dealers and the stock market can soar to new heights so long as the bill can be made to stick on the national debt for generations to come via the ‘war tax’, but let’s not forget to hand out medals for some of the estimated 250,000 or so Coalition Veterans afflicted by Gulf War Syndrome[5,6], some of their future children, and prospects for future medical & pharmaceutical industry profits to be made and carry on[7]. Such are the spoils of war in the 21st century for modern-day Spartans and Helots. I suppose Trump really can’t help himself from trying to step in it. I wait with bated breath for news of his upcoming CCC/4-Year ‘America First’ and new Hadrian Wall Plan, tongue in cheek.
[1] Will Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted? | Newsweek | 2017
[2] From El Salvador to Iraq | Guardian | 2013
[3] British aid scheme suspended amid allegations of payments to Syrian jihadis | Guardian | 2017
[4] Budget | U.S. Agency for International Development | USAID | 2017
[5] The Pentagon-CIA Cover-Up of Gulf War Syndrome C-Span2 | Youtube
[6] Killing Our Own: The Truth about Gulf War Syndrome | Youtube
[7] The United States used Depleted Uranium in Syria | Foreign Policy | 2017
I’m assuming Saudi Arabia’s fight with Iran is over religion, which if true, just shows that religion is the cause of conflict and mostly a bad influence.
I’m mailing a contribution.
Grist for the mill, Bet you didn’t know that Governor Jerry Brown has signed information sharing agreements with Israel that are worth tens of billions of dollars in a one way flow to the Israeli Tech Industry. Just Sharing. Two) It took the Irish 400 of years to kick the Brits out and they are still in the 6 counties at least until Brexit and finally, it took the Jews thousands of years to retake Jerusalem and it is by no means a done deal. What this article points out is Saudi collusion. So sad, so bad but that is the Sunni way. More, Kushner’s father was heavily into financing the right wing settler movement. Trump’s son in law is a chip off the old block. That Kushner has access to the White House and it affects policy is treasonous because he is clearly a servant of Zionists. You cannot serve two masters. Even Kissinger said that.. This is the first action by Trump that I have seen that should rightly be called Treason and therefore could be seen as an impeachable offense because it benefits no one and places the interests of a foreign state ahead of the foreign policy interests on the American People ( Only Saudi collusion makes this possible). Finally, Dennis Bernstein has been consistent on this issue and I have very little doubt that it has had personal costs for him even if his critique in journalistic and basically ineffectual. Thanks Dennis.
They probably never had it in the first place if ancient Arabic texts are anything to go by. Herodotus never met or mentioned them. They were probably small tribal families. They have done a lot of digging there to unearth their very early supposed history and as far as I know ain’t come up with anything big they expected.
Any historical precedent for Israel is without meaning anyway:
1. There are no more living survivors of the Jewish disasters of WWII to gain thereby;
2. A Jewish homeland was not a sensible method of helping Jewish survivors;
3. Palestine was the worst place in the world to choose for a Jewish homeland, due to opposition there;
4. No one deserves an empire, even when their ancestors had one there;
5. Everyone’s ancestors had empires there, as there were doubtless thousands of empires there in the million or so years in which all of our ancestors migrated through N Africa from our common origins in SE Africa;
This term “Israel-gate” needs to become common language in our culture. Please use it repeatedly in any political discussion with your friends. It might cause some of them to ask you what you mean. Then you might enlighten them with a few choice facts about our very questionable allies.
I just read this urgent message from Bernie Sanders (below) about the sweeping tax rewrite that Senate Republicans passed on December 2nd in Congress.
Could it just be a coincidence that the media is now filled with commentaries about the reckless decision of President Trump’s to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem…not about the outrageous move of the Senate Republicans? Let’s keep alert!
…”This legislation now goes to something called a “conference committee” where the House and Senate work out the differences between their respective bills. Then, the bill comes back for final passage. That means we probably have about three or four weeks to educate and organize the American people to defeat this dangerous bill. Please, get on the phone to your House and Senate members. Email them. Spread the word to your friends by social media. Talk to your co-workers. In the midst of massive income and wealth inequality, this country does not need more tax breaks for billionaires.”
There are many people I know that were simply shocked at Trump’s presidential victory, because they failed to look at what proceeded him. The same can be said here. The US has supported Israel no matter how vile Israeli crimes have been, and we have never been an honest broker in creating a two state solution. It’s ironic that Israel, in it’s treatment of the Palestinians, is like Nazi Germany, where a whole people are perceived as something to be eliminated. That truly disgusts me.
It’s the money Annie. Zionists have a damn political purpose in their sights and they are willing to pay big for it. Most of us don’t have anything like that in our sights so most people don’t give to political parties. As I’ve said before, I think there should be a pool of money collected through taxes for elections and a fair and equitable system be found to hand it out to the parties. No outside money is allowed.
How bent can a system where a foreign power like Israel can through various channels and agents get money into the system and end up with what they want at the end?! In Canada Israel pays to transport parliamentary members for excursions to the region (do they get to see and hear what goes on in Gaza or the West bank). Where does the money come from? A Palestinian village was torn down and Zionists built Canada Park on top of it. Shameful !
I hate to think what Israel would be like if it gets what the Zionists want. Already I think the US leash on it is broken. Too many politicians in the west have no scruples, I gotta win at any cost.
Get the money out !
Never going to happen. Money has a very loud voice in this country and will buy anything. The Supreme Court decision to pass Citizens United which allowed more money to pour in from corporate America tells you how things really work in this country. What is worse is that too many Americans for religious, or racist reasons would prefer to support Israel as opposed to Muslims. Prejudice in this country also gives everything Israel does a pass. Were the people of the ME Christians this simply would not be happening, not all the wars, nor Israel’s brutal treatment of the people of Palestine.
But the money shall be rooted out. This time it will be at unprecedented cost, and will be delayed until the US is isolated and ruined by the rich. Their progeny will be destroyed for their wrongdoing, and they do not care.
Our school system provides so much “brain washing ” material, that people don’t think, clearly. We can’t change for the better until we have political parties that take no corporate money. We need to get the Pledge of Allegiance out of our schools. Children shouldn’t have to pledge when they have no clue about what they are pledging to.
Yes, the base problem is the buying of elections and mass media by money power, the corruption of our formerly democratic institutions by economic concentrations. Restoring democracy requires destruction of mass media facilities and terrorizing the rich. We will see that when the US is embargoed and reduced to poverty by a series of financial bubbles, in 40-80 years.
I hope this interview is read far and wide and provides hope. But I struggle with Ali Abunimah saying Kushner and Flynn were, “trying to undermine the policy of the sitting Obama administration and stop the UN Security Council resolution passed last December condemning Israeli settlements.”
The policy of the sitting Obama administration was at best unclear. It did not encourage voting for the UN resolution. President Obama had been consistently critical of settlement activity. But his administration abstained from voting and did not veto the UN resolution against settlements.
From a certain perspective that’s just cowardly. The resolution was an opportunity to strongly condemn settlements in the interests of peace. If the Obama administration had voted for the resolution, along with Russia, then Flynn’s request would have been an attempt to undermine U.S. policy. But U.S. policy was to not vote and to not veto.
What makes Trump tick? To any sane observer, he appears to be a mass of contradictions. Is he a cynical schemer, throwing up smoke screens to disguise his (sinister) intentions, or is he a bumbling ignoramus with a reverse Midas touch? Probably both.
He has mostly abandoned U.S. support for jihadists in Syria, allowing a clear victory for Assad and Putin over Netanyahu and the neocons. Trump’s brand of realpolitik vis a vis Russia and Syria is probably the major cause of the deep state/neocon effort at regime change in the U.S. Is Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel an attempt to appease Zionist/neocon rage or a heartfelt expression of solidarity with Zionist racism/elitism? Probably both.
Still, on balance, Assad’s sincere, determined, Arab nationalism constitutes a real threat to Israeli apartheid. Jerusalem is a powerful symbol for Islam, but Assad’s/Putin’s victory in Syria far outweighs it, symbolically and practically.
This is an area of the world filled with groups of people hellbent on trying to settle scores and grudges from five thousand years ago. There never has been peace in the region and there never will be so I think it is a bit of a stretch to pin everything that is currently going on on Jared Kushner and Trump. Please.
As for the U.S. and Israel being joined at the hip politically ummm…..yeah…..of course they are. They have been since Truman and the U.S. basically created the state of Israel in 1946. Why everyone periodically dons their shocked face at this “revelation” is beyond me.
The current failure to take appropriate action is properly pinned on the current actors.
You offer no argument that the US should continue a longstanding error. Why?
Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser on Middle East/Israel issues, gave his first on-the-record appearance at the Saban Forum at the Brookings Institution on 3 December 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZyGpirUMvk
Haim Saban, a Democratic mega donor who was a key supporter of Hillary Clinton, praised Kushner for attempting to derail a vote at the United Nations Security Council about Israeli settlements during the Obama administration.
Kushner reportedly dispatched former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to make secret contact with the Russian ambassador in December 2016 in an effort to undermine or delay the resolution, which condemned Israel for settlement construction.
Saban told Kushner that “this crowd and myself want to thank you for making that effort, so thank you very much.”
During the keynote conversation, Kushner and Saban framed Middle East peace as a “real estate issue”.
Addressing the audience at Brookings, Kushner said, “It’s really an honor to be able to talk about this topic with so many people who I respect so much, who have given so much to this issue.” He acknowledged that “We’ve solicited a lot of ideas from a lot of places.”
Kushner’s understanding of “regional dynamics” mirrors “a lot of ideas” from pro-Israel war hawks from the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution.
The June 2009 document “Which Path to Persia? Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran” was authored by a team headed by Martin Indyk, the “director” of the Saban Center, is a former AIPAC staffer.
Kushner used pro-Israel Lobby bellicose rhetoric about “Iran’s aggression” and claims about “their nuclear ambitions and their expansive regional mischief”.
Indyk cofounded the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in 1985 with the wife of AIPAC Chairman Lawrence Weinberg and former president of the Jewish Federation, Barbi Weinberg. Despite his well known affiliation with the Israel Lobby and his Australian nationality, Bill Clinton appointed Indyk as the first foreign-born US Ambassador to Israel in 1995. The issuance of his US nationality had been expedited for his previous appointment by Clinton in 1993 as Middle East adviser on the National Security Council.
Kenneth M. Pollack, the “director of research” at the Saban Center, is a former CIA analyst and National Security Council staffer under Bill Clinton. A prominent “liberal hawk” cheerleader for the Iraq War, Pollack is credited with persuading liberals to endorse the invasion of Iraq. His 2002 book, The Threatening Storm, was influential in selling the “WMD” case. His 2005 book, The Persian Puzzle, recycled many of the same arguments, this time directed at Iran.
Michael E. O’Hanlon, the “director of foreign policy research” at Brookings, is a war hawk and frequent op-ed writer for major news outlets like the Washington Post. In recent years, O’Hanlon has pushed for U.S. intervention in Syria. In April 2007, O’Hanlon and Fred Kagan urged the United States to invade and occupy Iran.
In March 2003, shortly after the United States invaded Iraq, O’Hanlon contributed his name to an open letter published by the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a neoconservative advocacy outfit closely associated with American Enterprise Institute that played a major role generating public support for the invasion of Iraq and pushing an expansive “war on terror.” Among those contributing their names to the document were hardline neocons like Max Boot, Eliot Cohen, Joshua Muravchik, and William Kristol, as well as liberal interventionists like O’Hanlon and Ivo Daalder, also a scholar based at Brookings.
In a March 2006 update on activities of the Israel Lobby, American political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt noted that media mogul Haim Saban is an “ardent Zionist”.
Mearsheimer and Walt observed that “Saban Center publications never question US support for Israel and rarely, if ever, offer significant criticism of key Israeli policies.”
In their landmark book, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy (2007), Mearsheimer and note that the Saban Center at Brookings is “part of the pro-Israel chorus” (pg 156).
In 2002, Saban pledged $13 million to start a “research” organization at Brookings.
The annual Saban Forum hosted by Brookings since 2004 includes Israeli government officials.
In short, Trump’s Middle East Peace “ultimate deal” is ultimately made in Israel.
Trump’s latest “deal” is an effort to advance an Israeli strategic plan to ensure Israeli regional superiority.
The Yinon Plan insists and stipulates that Israel must reconfigure its geo-political environment through the balkanization of the surrounding Arab states into smaller and weaker states.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/pdf/The%20Zionist%20Plan%20for%20the%20Middle%20East.pdf
The Yinon Plan operates on two essential premises:
1) Israel become an imperial regional power, and
2) Israel must effect the division of the whole area into small states by the dissolution of all existing Arab states.
The Zionist hope is that fragmented states become Israel’s satellites and, ironically, its source of moral legitimation.
Israeli strategists viewed Iraq as their biggest strategic challenge from an Arab state. This is why Iraq was targeted as the centerpiece to the balkanization of the Middle East and the Arab World. Israeli strategists called for the division of Iraq into a Kurdish state and two Arab states, one for Shiite Muslims and the other for Sunni Muslims. The first step towards establishing this was a war between Iraq and Iran.
The Yinon Plan was updated in 1996 Israeli policy document titled A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, written by Richard Perle and the Study Group on “A New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000″ for Benjamin Netanyahu, then prime minister of Israel.
When it comes to the influence Israel has had for these so many years over the U.S. Foreign Policies it is a struggling task to imagine their Israeli influence could be any greater, and then there comes along Jared. The U.S. doesn’t give a darn about Americans, but when it comes to submitting to their Zionist Masters, why all of Washington DC gets down on their knees with praise of this illegal nation and it’s warmongering leaders. Like when Netanyahu received from our American congress 29 standing ovations for his speech condemning a sitting presidents agreements with Iran. Ask an American if they had ever heard of Jonathan Pollard, or if they have ever heard of the USS Liberty, and with their wondering expressions you will receive you will then know how bad our MSM reporting truly is.
Yeah, Russian influence is something to worry about (sarcasm), but don’t pay no never mind to that little Zionist who is hiding behind the curtain (not sarcasm). Americans of all strips and conditions have been betrayed to the fullest, all because a little nation who wasn’t proved it could. Oh if Truman would have just not needed the Israeli bribe money for his 1948 election, and he had taken the advice of George Marshall then done of this in the Middle East or America would be happening. Truman set the standard, and Trump just made it worst by the dozens. In closing, let us just have hope that this Trump Declaration won’t last as long as Balfour’s.
or Operation Susannah conducted by israel
Thanks Dave, but if I may add for others who may wish to research this that the common title of this false flag operation is also called, ‘the Lavon Affair‘, Operation Susannah is it’s code name. Again great mentioning of it, Dave. Joe
Truman is a Latvian Jewish name, also a US variant of the German Jewish Trumann or Trautmann.
Likely that is why it took very little money to convince him to twist arms at the UN to create Israel.
But other sources seem to agree that he was not Jewish. Apparently he folded under zionist political threats, thought that recognizing Israel and withdrawing support of the US-UK plan for a federated Palestine meant little, and let the matter be determined by the insufficiency of US funds and troops to enforce a UN occupation of Palestine.
We need a brain like dogs,the ones like Toto,who revealed Oz to the humans.
Israel-gate is rooted in the 1996 Israeli “Clean Break” strategy to use the United States to advance multiple “regime change” projects and forge a “New Middle East” regionally dominated by Israel.
Preparing the Chessboard for the “Clash of Civilizations”: Divide, Conquer and Rule the “New Middle East” by geopolitical analyst Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya discusses the Israeli plan:
“Perle was a former Pentagon under-secretary for Roland Reagan at the time and later a U.S. military advisor to George W. Bush Jr. and the White House. Other members of the Study Group consisted of James Colbert (Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs), Charles Fairbanks Jr. (Johns Hopkins University), Douglas Feith (Feith and Zell Associates), Robert Loewenberg (Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies), Jonathan Torop (The Washington Institute for Near East Policy), David Wurmser (Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies), and Meyrav Wurmser (Johns Hopkins University).
“The U.S. has been executing the objectives outlined in Tel Aviv’s 1996 policy paper to secure the ‘realm.’ Moreover, the term ‘realm’ implies the strategic mentality of the authors. A realm refers to either the territory ruled by a monarch or the territories that fall under a monarch’s reign, but are not physically under their control and have vassals running them. In this context, the word realm is being used to denote the Middle East as the kingdom of Tel Aviv. […]
“The 1996 Israeli document calls for “rolling back Syria” sometime around the year 2000 or afterward by pushing the Syrians out of Lebanon and destabilizing the Syrian Arab Republic with the help of Jordan and Turkey. This has respectively taken place in 2005 and 2011. The 1996 document states: “Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right — as a means of foiling Syria’s regional ambitions.’
“As a first step towards creating an Israeli-dominated ‘New Middle East’ and encircling Syria, the 1996 document calls for removing President Saddam Hussein from power in Baghdad and even alludes to the balkanization of Iraq and forging a strategic regional alliance against Damascus that includes a Sunni Muslim ‘Central Iraq.’ […]
“Perle and the Study Group on ‘A New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000’ also call for driving the Syrians out of Lebanon and destabilizing Syria by using Lebanese opposition figures. The document states: ‘[Israel must divert] Syria’s attention by using Lebanese opposition elements to destabilize Syrian control of Lebanon.’ This is what would happen in 2005 after the Hariri Assassination that helped launch the so-called ‘Cedar Revolution’ and create the vehemently anti-Syrian March 14 Alliance controlled by the corrupt Said Hariri.
“The document also calls for Tel Aviv to ‘take [the] opportunity to remind the world of the nature of the Syrian regime.’ This clearly falls into the Israeli strategy of demonizing its opponents through using public relations (PR) campaigns. In 2009, Israeli news media openly admitted that Tel Aviv through its embassies and diplomatic missions had launched a global campaign to discredit the Iranian presidential elections before they even took place through a media campaign and organizing protests in front of Iranian embassies.
“The document also mentions something that resembles what is currently going on in Syria. It states: ‘Most important, it is understandable that Israel has an interest supporting diplomatically, militarily and operationally Turkey’s and Jordan’s actions against Syria, such as securing tribal alliances with Arab tribes that cross into Syrian territory and are hostile to the Syrian ruling elite.’ With the 2011 upheaval in Syria, the movement of insurgents and the smuggling of weapons through the Jordanian and Turkish borders has become a major problem for Damascus.
“In this context, it is no surprise that Arial Sharon and Israel told Washington to attack Syria, Libya, and Iran after the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. Finally, it is worth knowing that the Israeli document also advocated for pre-emptive war to shape Israel’s geo-strategic environment and to carve out the ‘New Middle East.’ This is a policy that the U.S. would also adopt in 2001.”
Israel unlawfully annexed East Jerusalem to its territory. Since then, and despite its incursion upon their home, it has treated the Palestinian residents of the city as unwanted immigrants and worked systematically to drive them out of the area.
http://www.btselem.org/jerusalem
In June 1967, immediately upon occupying the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Israel annexed some 7,000 hectares of West Bank land to the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem and applied Israeli law there, in breach of international law. The annexed territory greatly exceeded the size of Jerusalem under Jordanian rule (about 600 hectares), encompassing approximately 6,400 more hectares. The additional land belonged, in large part, to 28 Palestinian villages, and some of it lay within the municipal jurisdiction of Bethlehem and Beit Jala. The annexed area is currently home to at least 370,000 Palestinians and some 280,000 Israeli settlers.
Israel’s attempts to shape the demographic reality of East Jerusalem are concentrated in several spheres:
– Land expropriation and building restrictions
– Cutting East Jerusalem off from the rest of the West Bank
– Discrimination in budget allocation and municipal services
In my opinion this is an over-the-top Pollyanna way of looking at the situation. The Palestinians are losing in Israel, and US citizens are losing in the “land of the free”. Both my Indiana Senators want pass a law preventing me from engaging in practical & totally non-violent practices objecting to the murderous barbarism of the Holy Shithole of Israel, and the bludgeon will be “a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison.”
From the link:
And the Zionists are winning. If you think my Indiana Senators are pliable, just imagine how much less expensive State Legislators are to the lobbyists of the murderous and thieving swine. So it is hardly surprising that the “Israel-gate” stuff is changed to “Russia-gate”. All it takes is control of the News Media and a pile of money. Hey, look at the 2001 attacks by Saudi terrorists. A little bit of tweaking, and Bush the dumber was bellowing On To Iraq, a nation which had nothing whatever to do with the attacks.
https://shadowproof.com/2017/12/07/arizona-contractor-refuses-certify-wont-boycott-israel-sues-officials/
FACING LOSS
There are many excellent insights to be gained from Bernstein’s
article above but one must work to find them. Ali Abunimah is always
an excellent source.
HOWEVER….I believe there is a major illusion of many (if not
most) of our champions for anti-Zionism(= for” Palestinian
rights”).
A close scrutiny of many sources reveals that the war for
Palestinian rights in Palestine is over. And it has been lost.
It would be marvelous if the Zionists (aka “Israel”)
ceased to exist. They never had a right to invade in
the first place. (See Thomas Suarez’s; STATE OF TERROR).
One can compare the invasion of the Zionists with the
invasion of America (See Francis Jennings, THE INVASION OF
AMERICA, especially Chapter 1).
Native Americans (defined as “uncivilized”) lost their land
and were eliminated through murder, massacre, fraud etc. The
general picture is so similar to the Zionist invasion of Palestine
that it is eerie.
After the massacre at Wounded Knee (1896 I believe) it was
clear that the Native Americans would never regain their lands.
Recent inquiries of Palestinians have shown two groups: 1)Elder
Palestinians are still devoted to the “right of return”. This is
legal but clearly never to be.2.) Younger generations dream
of escaping Palestine and becoming a doctor, scientist etc.
in France, Germany or some other nation. These :younger
generation Palestinians will never forget their heritage. Nor
can they ever forget the horror that drove them away. Like Native
Americans in North America today they will remain true. But
the recovery of Palestine is not now or will ever be in the
cards.
It should be noted that Palestine has been occupied through
the millenia by many Empires. (See Thomas L. Thompson,
THE MYTHIC PAST).
Many of the implications—that Israel wants peace, will
negotiate etc. etc.—have been fabrications for many
decades and by both American political parties.
I have tried to express a few of these ideas (here abbreviated)
in the Electronic Intifada but they have not past muster for
publication.
Special thanks to Zachary Smith for his comments. (As usual.)
—-Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
But you are advising capitulation to zionism, for which there is no excuse.
While it is certainly possible that the war for Palestinian rights “has been lost”. However, I think comparing it to the Native American’s loss of land is not as good a comparison as you make it.
First of all, there weren’t a total of 1.6 billion Native Americans living outside of North American who shared a common religion and sympathized with those living in North American. Also, as you mentioned Palestine has been occupied through the millennia by many empires and all have fallen. Why should this latest European colonization beginning in 1948 be any exception to the historical trend? Especially, given the Jews long history of expulsion.
The growing arrogance of the Zionists in Israel and the diaspora will eventually lead to a “jump the shark moment”. Whether it’s the destruction of the Al Aqsa Mosque so a third Jewish temple can be constructed or the bombing of Iran with nuclear weapons or some other fatal demonstration of Jewish supremacy, there is a very good chance that the Israeli state will end badly. The proliferation of nuclear weapons will only increase over time and it’s not very comforting to Israelis if they implement the Samson but find their colonized land (now free of Palestinians) is devastated. This may not happen for many decades but I doubt this arrogant power will last the 21st century.
CORRECTION:
The correct date of Wounded Knee massacre (of
Native Americans was 1890. December.—Peter Loeb
Yes, the optimism there is faint, but true enough that “it’s time to get on with the work, because there is lots to do and people power is still winning victories.” The problem is that in the US the poor must destroy the rich and their oligarchy powers to restore democracy, before we can make progress anywhere.
Let’s hope that the complete betrayal of the people of the United States by Bush, Obama, Clinton, and Trump will cause them to destroy the rich and their zionist mass media and bought politicians.
Quite right because until we do there is absolutely no other remedy…an American Spring is coming to town near everyone soon.
WHAT “REMEDY”?
Every Palestinian rights champion will fail to see that
the reality is that the Zionists have already won.And they
continue to win. Daily.
In defeat, utter and fatal defeat, there is no “remedy”.
I am grateful to those who (if cautiously) observed this
obvious truth. No one wants to face it.
(If you are “advising” Palestinians to throw themselves
under enormous Caterpillars, to put the lives of their
families in mortal danger, that is your perogative.)
There are clearly few who will accept my recognition
of defeat.
Incidentally, comparison to the plight of Native Americans
is more apt than most realize.Read the works of
Francis Jennings. As Jennings makes clear, this is
not a case peculiar to Native Americans but repeated
throughout most of history.
—Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
RE: JENNINGS
See for example THE INVASION OF AMERICA, Chapter l.
—–Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA
I think he tries to come across in an optimistic fashion, because if he didn’t and presented the issues as hopeless, it would discourage people from at least trying to make a difference. Hope springs eternal, and maybe it should.
Great post. You really nailed it, i.e. the Zionists in Israel and USA work as a massive, in the shadows integrated organization to basically bribe state and federal politicians to do Israel’s bidding. I read that some Zionist millionaire gave Harry Truman a suitcase with a huge amount of money when he was hard up on the campaign trail–and he immediately changed his tune to openly supporting Zionist Israel. When his advisors asked him why, he said “there ain’t any Palestinians donating to my campaign, that’s why”. And I think this is basically why the Palestinians have always been on the losing end since even before WWII, even going back to the Belflour declaration which has just turned 100 years old. We can all have our ideals about how unjust the ongoing rubbing out of Palestinians is; but as long as the Zionists keep flooding American pols with loads of cash and junkets, bribing them, things will basically remain the same. And how will Palestinians come up with the money to counter the Zionists? Seems highly improbable.
Truman is a Latvian Jewish name, also a US variant of the German Jewish Trumann or Trautmann.
But other sources seem to agree that he was not Jewish.