If the rest of the world is at a loss to understand why United States foreign policy towards the Middle East is held hostage by the whims of Israel, then they would have to understand the covert actions that dictate such policies through a series of spying, lobbying and the distribution of money to fund policy-makers. These spies are not your undercover foreign agents. These operatives are Americans who publicly proclaim their allegiance to their flag. They could be your next-door neighbours, mowing the lawn on a Saturday morning or throwing a couple of steaks on the barbecue. But deep down, they foster an unbending loyalty to Zionism and Zionism alone.
And they can be found at all levels of the US government. Investigative writer James Bamford, a best-selling author probing America’s most secretive intelligence agencies, contends that Israeli intelligence had infiltrated the US communications network and gained access to sensitive and classified communications information.
In his latest book, The Shadow Factory, the Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America, Bamford contends that two companies with suspected ties to Israeli agents routinely gathered classified communications data. He charges that US telecommunications giants, in conjunction with America’s secret National Security Agency (NSA) writs, routinely carried out eavesdropping programmes against the American public, and, in the process, used the services of two hi-tech Israeli firms — Narus and Verint, founded in Israel and long suspected of having close ties to its intelligence services. “What is especially troubling, but little known, is that both companies have extensive ties to a foreign country, Israel, as well as links to that country’s intelligence service — a service with a long history of aggressive spying against the US,” he states.
When one looks back at recent history and American incursion into Mid-East politics, one realises that it has been one fraught with aggression against those countries perceived as a threat to Israel. Remember the US deputy secretary of defence Paul Wolfowitz? He was the loudest proponent on why the US should attack Iraq and take out those illusive “weapons of mass destruction”. He was also a enthusiastic supporter of Israel.
Subsequent disclosures of the false data on Iraq provided to the US president suggest that a preponderance of such mis-information had helped in shaping US foreign policy in this region. And this pattern had not been restricted to an isolated incident. Drums are now beating about the threat of Iran — as a threat to the Israeli expansion plans in the region in the near future.
Israeli spying and twisting of US policies have had a long history. From the bombing and killing of 34 US Navy personnel in 1967 on the USS Liberty, followed by a quashed investigation into the tragic incident and continuing with the arrest and subsequent denials by the Israeli government of a mole, an ‘American’ named Jonathan Pollard, deep within the US Naval Intelligence, the Israelis have been very successful at keeping a tight rein on US affairs and foreign policy.
The Israelis cannot do it all alone, though. They need Americans for that, Americans whose sworn loyalty is first and foremost to Israel. Americans who were more-than-eager to appear on US television and convince their people why Iraq or Afghanistan had to be attacked. Americans who shed no sorrow for the lives of thousands of their countrymen killed in an immoral war. As long as the security of their beloved Israel was guaranteed, everything else became inconsequential.
Following the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US, more than 200 Israelis were arrested for spying. There were reports of an Israeli film crew setting up gear prior to the 9/11 attacks. But none of these disclosures went very far. Powerful ‘American’ figures within the US government suppressed further investigation.
When Mordecai Vanunu squealed on Israel’s development of nuclear weapons, it were ‘Americans’ who tempered the shock of disclosure in their media. When Israel violated countless United Nations resolutions, and continued with its ethnic cleansing, it were ‘Americans’ who turned the US Department of State into an impotent organ of justice with their countless vetoes. When the Israelis recently declared their state to be an ‘all-Jewish state’, an apartheid state in other words, there was not even a whimper from US lawmakers.
Today, America is the only major country standing in the way of Palestinian statehood, and for no justifiable reasons. Their lawmakers have openly threatened the Palestinians with a cut-off in aid if they pursued such a dream. This from a country with the stars and stripes? And the Statue of Liberty?
You don’t have to convince me that Washington’s policy on the Middle East is being dictated by the Israelis. The evidence is all there. But what should begin to worry Americans is the presence of the enemy within. An enemy that walks and talks America’s language, but one that has absolutely no remorse for the shedding of Americans’ blood — all for the sake of Israel.
Tariq A. Al Maeena is a Saudi socio-political commentator. He lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Twitter: @talmaeena.
