Philip Giraldi – The Unz Review Aug 22, 2024

There are some simple truths surrounding all the nonsense being spewed by Israel’s agents and its cheerleaders in the United States, Canada, Europe as well as elsewhere in the Anglophone world. First of all, Israel is no democracy and never has been one since its foundation over seventy-five years ago. It used massacres of entire villages and other assorted terrorism to drive three quarters of a million indigenous Palestinians from their homes. It then passed laws to forbid any return home by those refugees. Many of those displaced are to this day still living in United Nations (UNRWA) funded settlements, up until recently in Gaza, and also in neighboring countries. Diaspora Jews with no roots in the historical Palestine were by way of comparison allowed to enter and settle freely and were given the stolen Palestinian properties. The Palestinians who did not flee and unfortunately found themselves within the new Israeli borders had only limited rights compared to their Jewish neighbors even though many of them were nominally Israeli citizens.

Second, the claim is that Israel is a close ally and friend of the United States and the other nations that have been coerced into supporting it. In his recent speech to the joint session of the US Congress Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced a conceit that went like this: “My friends, If you remember one thing, one thing from this speech, remember this: Our enemies are your enemies, our fight is your fight, and our victory will be your victory.” This brought the assembled congress-critters to their feet and cheering, but it was as phony a claim as the rest of the assertions that filled the nearly hour-long lecture by Bibi. In reality, Israel is no one’s actual ally even though totally bought and paid for American politicians delight in repeating that fable. Alliances are by their very nature reciprocal and Israel has entered into no agreement to aid any other country that might come under attack. Indeed, even defining an attack on Israel is problematical as it has no fixed borders since it is an occupying power over much of what was once Palestine.

The US, on the contrary, has not helped matters by repeatedly pledging an “ironclad” commitment to “defend” Israel even if the Jewish state were to start a war, which is precisely what we are seeing at the present time vis-à-vis the assassinations and other saber rattling by Netanyahu being directed against Lebanon, Syria and, most of all, Iran. In reality, Israel could care less about the lives or well-being of Americans, Brits and the others whom their sacred text the Talmud and many Israelis regard as subhumans that only exist to serve Jews. Those goyim are little more than sources of consequence-free money, weapons and political cover as the “Chosen” wreck the Middle East and engage in genocide to achieve their objective of obtaining a Palestinian free greater Israel running from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, with some other chunks of their neighbors like Egypt and Lebanon also included.

There is plenty of first-hand evidence coming from Israeli politicians and Rabbis to confirm Israel’s complete disdain for non-Jewish lives among its “friends” and enemies as well as its utter willingness to see them be killed or starved to death without any remorse. And what makes the matter worse is that the Israelis have so corrupted the US federal and state governments at several levels and in so many of their operations that the average citizen who is abused or even killed by Israel will not find the State Department or the judiciary interested in crossing the Zionists by demanding answers over what took place. There is rarely any seeking of punishment for those who were the perpetrators, who are frequently soldiers or armed vigilante settlers. The standard response in press conferences at State Department when an American has been murdered, as in the recent case of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, is to claim that Israel will no doubt carry out an appropriate investigation of the possible crime, which the US government spokesman surely knows is a lie. Israel almost never punishes its soldiers or policemen or even its armed settlers for killing Arabs or foreigners.

And in many cases the US government will actually intercede in a cover-up of the crime even when one or more American citizens are the victims. One can easily cite a number of instances in which the Israeli government felt so free of possible consequences that it either deliberately killed or created an incident that could have injured Americans without any concern that there would be retaliation from Washington. That is the ongoing tragedy that the American government has been so “occupied” and controlled by the Israeli monster that it no longer has the ability to react rationally when actual interests are at stake. That is the case currently with a highly vulnerable American flotilla making its way to the Middle East to “defend” Israel against Lebanon and Iran in response to Netanyahu’s government’s triggering of a new regional crisis after having carried out high level assassinations recently in both those countries. If it comes to war, young Americans will undoubtedly be sent by their leaders to die to protect war criminal Israel.

And it is only going to get worse with the upcoming election. If Kamala Harris wins the Democratic Party policy plank on the Middle East pledges that she will continue the arming and funding of Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians. It will be no change from what has been supported by Killer Joe Biden and Harris’s Jewish husband has already committed himself to leading the fight against antisemitism in the US, saying “I know that…the United States will continue to stand with Israel and will combat the rising tide of antisemitism.” That means Israel and American Jews, who constitute the wealthiest and most powerful demographic in the US, will continue to benefit and be both coddled and protected at taxpayer expense. And goodbye to free speech or association in the US if it in any way involves critiquing Israel or Jewish group behavior.

If Donald Trump wins in November it will be even worse as he has pledged to further empower Jewish groups. Trump, who is not exactly a noted Holocaust scholar, says what’s going on right now in the United States “is exactly what was going on before the Holocaust.” He recently promised to restore the power of the Israel Lobby over Congress during a “fighting antisemitism” event with Jewish donors and pro-Israel megadonor Miriam Adelson. Earlier this year, it was reported that Adelson, the widow of the late billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, was going to give Trump $100 million for his campaign in return for his signing off on Israel annexing the West Bank. Trump also promised that he would block or even deport antisemites, saying “I will implement strong ideological screening of all immigrants. If you hate America, if you want to abolish Israel, if you don’t like our religion (which a lot of them don’t), if you sympathize with jihadists, then we don’t want you in our country and you are not getting in.”

Trump continued in that vein, saying that “years ago” if you said “anything bad about Israel or Jewish people you were finished as a politician… The most powerful lobby in this country by far was Israel and Jewish people. Today, it’s almost like what happened? What happened? What happened to [Sen. Chuck] Schumer? What happened to all these people? Schumer is like a Palestinian!… Is he a member of Hamas?” Turning to Adelson, he continued with “The power, Miriam, of this lobby this powerful– and it was for the good, not for bad. Fifteen years ago it was the absolute most powerful — you couldn’t have an ‘AOC plus three’ — they wouldn’t have a chance of being elected anywhere and today you have AOC and some of these people and they’re uh, pretty violent, pretty violent and they hate Israel and they hate Jewish people.”

It is an incredible pledge, astonishing for its ignorance above all, as the Israel Lobby already owns both major political parties and has been running US foreign policy as well as the so-called Justice Department for years. The United States also uniquely has ambassador level posts dealing with antisemitism and the so-called holocaust, both staffed and headed by Jews. They are the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism and the Office of the Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues.

Confirming some of what Trump maintained, anyone who has spent any time in Washington and who has been reasonably engaged in watching the fiasco playing out there might agree that the most powerful foreign lobby is that of Israel, backed up as it is by a vast domestic network that exists to protect and nourish the Jewish state. Indeed, it is the domestic element of the lobby that gives it strength, supported as it is by extravagantly well-funded think tanks and a news and opinion media that is demonstrably pro-Israel when it comes to developments in the Middle East. The power of what I prefer to call the Jewish lobby, because that is where the money and political access come from, is also manifest down to state and local levels, where efforts to peacefully boycott Israel due to its war crimes and crimes against humanity have been punished and even criminalized in more than thirty states. In several states, including Virginia, special trade arrangements are designed to benefit Israeli companies at the expense of local residents and taxpayers who have no say in what is done on their behalf.

The Jewish control of issues and government functions dear to the hearts of American Zionists also explains why no pro-Israel group has never been forced to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) even though they operate out-in-the-open illegally on behalf of a foreign country. It is also how Israel escaped any censure for having stolen material and technology to develop its own secret nuclear arsenal, for which it would be denied any aid if relevant US laws were actually enforced by the Justice Department. Israel also should be blocked from receiving any arms or aid under the US Leahy law because it has been guilty of war crimes, up to and including genocide. It always gets a free hand in committing war crimes and crimes against humanity without a peep coming out of the President or the Secretary of State, both of whom are currently declared Zionists. The last US President to seriously confront the Jewish/Israel lobby was John F. Kennedy and he may have paid the ultimate price for his temerity.

Few Americans know about the most egregious killing of their fellow citizens by Israel during the attack on the USS Liberty on June 8, 1967, which killed 34 American sailors and wounded 171 more in the two-hour assault, which was clearly intended to destroy the intelligence gathering ship operating legally in international waters collecting information on the ongoing Six Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The Israelis, whose planes had their Star of David markings covered up, attacked the ship repeatedly from the air and with gun-and torpedo boats from the sea. They sought to sink the ship, blaming Egypt, so the United States would respond by attacking Israel’s Arab enemies.

A Liberty survivor Joe Meadors recalls how “No Member of Congress has ever attended our annual memorial service at Arlington National Cemetery on the anniversary of the attack. We are condemned as ‘anti-Semitic’ and ‘bigots’ simply because we have been asking that the attack on the USS Liberty be treated the same as every other attack on a US Navy ship since the end of WWII. All we have is ourselves. Not Congress. Not the Navy. Not the DoD. Just ourselves. We need a place where we are welcome. We need our reunions.”

Indeed, the incredible courage and determination of the surviving crew was the only thing that kept the Liberty from sinking. The ship’s commanding officer Captain William McGonagle was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic role in keeping the ship afloat, though a cowardly and venal President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who may have connived with the Israelis to attack the ship, broke with tradition and refused to hold the medal ceremony in the White House, also declining to award it personally, delegating that task to the Secretary of the Navy in a closed to the public presentation held only reluctantly at the Washington Navy Yard. The additional medals given to other crew members in the aftermath of the attack made the USS Liberty the most decorated ship in the history of the United States Navy.

The cover-up of the attack began immediately, to include concealing the White House’s actual recall of fighter planes launched by the Sixth Fleet to assist the under-attack Liberty. The Liberty crew was subsequently sworn to secrecy over the incident, as were the Naval dockyard workers in Malta and even the men of the USS Davis, which had assisted the badly damaged Liberty to port. A hastily convened and conducted court of inquiry headed by Admiral John McCain acted under orders from Washington to declare the attack a case of mistaken identity. The inquiry’s senior legal counsel Captain Ward Boston, who subsequently declared the attack to be a “deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew,” also described how “President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered him to conclude that the attack was a case of ‘mistaken identity’ despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.” The court’s findings were rewritten and sections relating to Israeli war crimes, to include the machine gunning of life rafts, were excised. Following in his father’s footsteps, Senator John McCain of Arizona subsequently used his position on the Senate Armed Services Committee to effectively block any reconvening of a board of inquiry to reexamine the evidence. Most of the documents relating to the Liberty incident have never been released to the public in spite of the 57 years that have passed since the attack took place.

To cite only one other example of how ambitious politicians still rally around to protect Israel, Florida Governor and recent presidential aspirant Ron DeSantis is a former Navy officer who once served as a congressman for a district in Florida where several Liberty survivors were living. They have recounted how repeated attempts to meet with DeSantis to discuss a possible official inquiry were rejected, with the Congressman refusing to meet them. Even the veterans’ organization the American Legion walks in fear of Israel. It has refused to allow the USS Liberty Veterans Association to have a table or booth at its annual convention and has even banned any participation by the group at its meetings in perpetuity!

So, the treatment of the USS Liberty and the suppression of fundamental rights for Americans should surprise no one in a country whose governing class has been for decades doing the bidding of the powerful lobby of a tiny client state that operates illegally and has been nothing but trouble and expense for the United States of America. Will it ever end? Possibly, but only when the Jewish state has extracted the last dollar from the US Treasury and the last weapon from America’s arsenals, at a point when what remains of the United States will be just an old bit of rags and tags that can easily be discarded.

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org

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