Opinion Editorials, August 2010

 Israel's Pillars of Samson:

Not Quite Armageddon But...

By Alan Sabrosky

Redress, Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, August 19, 2010

11 August 2010 Alan Sabrosky considers the relationship between the subservience of successive US presidents, including Barack Obama, to Israel and Israel’s ongoing access to US nuclear codes and systems, and its ability to override safeguards in the US to obtain command and control over at least US land-based strategic nuclear systems. As the US edges toward an unprovoked and utterly needless war with Iran, some remarks by an eminent and experienced observer of that part of the world caught my attention. First, he noted that  “Israel and the US realize that the next war will burn much of the Middle East and may well spell the end of Israel.” Now, Israel certainly believes that about the Middle East, and in fact hopes it happens, because that just makes its position stronger. But neither Israel nor the US – at least at a government level – accept the second part of the proposition, just the opposite, that in fact it will be the saving of Israel – because (as I’ve noted elsewhere) if the regional chaos is great enough, Israel will take the opportunity to ethnically cleanse all Palestinians (and probably Israeli Arabs as well) from “Greater Israel” by shoving them over its borders, into Jordan and the Sinai (and some into the Lebanon as well). That will leave it intact and Jewish, its neighbours overwhelmed by a few million destitute Palestinians – a second and even worse Nakba – and everyone else in ruins or teetering on the edge. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and their merry thugs won’t shed a tear or lose a second’s sleep over any of it, much less over the many Americans who will die in yet another of America’s Jewish wars. Second, he remarked that “Every week Israel becomes weaker vis-a-vis the 'resistance axis' and at what point does Israel decide to bring down the house and start again if it can survive with enough military power (backed by the US) to remake the region.”

“... Israel defines its usable power (and therefore its security) not only in terms of what it has, but also what it can command from its “most favoured goyim”, or gentiles, in the US – and that, now, is virtually everything.”

But I simply don’t see Israel getting weaker, just more beleaguered, which is not the same thing. We need to keep in mind that Israel defines its usable power (and therefore its security) not only in terms of what it has, but also what it can command from its “most favoured goyim”, or gentiles, in the US – and that, now, is virtually everything. We know about Israel’s control of the Congress and the media, and I think people on our side generally understand about their control of political appointments that absolutely keep opponents of Israel out of office – the Chas Freeman incident ought to have been telling. The American public, unfortunately, is almost absolutely clueless about the whole enterprise, thanks to the prevailing dominant theme they get from the president, national politicians, the press and mostly the Protestant pulpit.

Yet it goes beyond that. The fate of White House correspondent Helen Thomas and 20-year CNN editor Octavia Nasr has sent a signal to absolutely every journalist in the print and electronic media that any attempt to cross even slightly Israel’s line (which is what Nasr did), much less question Israel’s basic premise (as Thomas did), means total and almost instantaneous professional ruin. If senior people like them can be chopped in hours, what chance does a rising younger journalist have? None at all. This is along the lines of the old French saying (I translate roughly), “Shoot a few to encourage the others,” in this case encourage them to behave or at least to keep silent and not misbehave (as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, and company define misbehaviour). So, the American public will continue to hear, see and read just what Israel wants, barring a small if growing number who do get at least some of their news from the internet. Sadly, it is mostly the same for the US military now as well. The sequential sacking on overlapping grounds of Admiral William Fallon, Admiral (ret.) Dennis Blair and General Stanley McChrystal (and the concurrent enhancement of Admiral Michael Mullen and General David Petraeus) has sent the same signal to the professional military, and not just the generals and admirals. Question official policy (Fallon), do not conform to the administration (i.e. Israeli) priorities (Blair and Fallon), or speak openly (however unwisely) what almost all professional military here feel about this hapless commander-in-chief and his Zionist amateurs in the White House (McChrystal), and your careers are done, no matter how distinguished they might have been. So behave – and almost all will, knowing absolutely now that they’ll have no effective support from the generals and admirals if they don’t.

“...Israel has had ongoing access for decades to US nuclear codes and systems, and may well be able to override safeguards here to obtain command and control (and therefore targeting and launch capabilities) over at least US land-based strategic nuclear systems."

Besides, putting lots of discrete pieces together, including published information on Israeli penetration of the telecommunications, security and cybernetic systems in the US since the 1970s and 1980s, the movement of Israelis (with or without dual nationality) or American Jews serving Israel across the US and Israeli governments and lobbies like AIPAC, and the presence of Israelis (again with or without dual nationality) and American Jews serving Israel throughout the US national security apparatus for decades (remember the far-from-unique stories of Lani Kass or David Wurmser, much less the likes of “Scooter” Libby or Rahm Emanuel?), one thing seems painfully clear to me. This is that Israel has had ongoing access for decades to US nuclear codes and systems, and may well be able to override safeguards here to obtain command and control (and therefore targeting and launch capabilities) over at least US land-based strategic nuclear systems.

Think about it. With those technical means, oversight of security and especially in-place human assets, Israel would have had to make a deliberate decision NOT to acquire that access and obtain those capabilities in order not to have them now, and that flies in the face of everything else Israel has done in its national security and espionage fields. That may be the club Israel holds over US presidents, and it would certainly explain a host of otherwise inexplicable actions by them. Understanding the actual dynamics of this phenomenon and how to counter them must have the highest priority.

Alan Sabrosky (PhD, University of Michigan) is a 10-year US Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the US Army War College. He can be contacted at docbrosk@comcast.net. A version of this article was originally published on My Catbird Seat. The version here is published by permission of Alan Sabrosky.

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