re: Israel - US Ties Hit New Low As White House Halts Missle Shipment

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Posted by Ralph_Wiggum Israel can be a viable state without unquestioned US support.

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Doesn't matter. We owe it to them to offer unquestioned support. Because they've always had our best interest at heart.

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And never sold our secrets to the Soviet Union.

And never blew up a fricking US Naval Vessel.

And never shat on our government while having their hands out the entire time.

We're fond of talking about our special relationship with the UK, who have actually had our backs when they could have sided with Europe and told us to GFOSs. Or our close relationships with the FVEY nations, including Australia, who have fought alongside the US in every major conflict in memory. Bibi and 'nem are the ones who are "owed" our support. This all in spite of the fact that at NMITC, I was told that I could marry a Russian or Chinese broad and probably have my clearances favorably adjudicated. But if I brought home an Israeli, I may as well start packing my shite.

That really happened.

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American relations with Israel plunged to their lowest point in a decade yesterday when the White House denounced as "unacceptable" statements by the Israeli prime minister comparing the US coalition-building in the Arab world to British appeasement of the Nazis in the 1930s.
The Bush administration was reported to be furious with Mr Sharon's actions, and the White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, told journalists that the president felt personally affronted by the comparison to Neville Chamberlain and the discredited policies of appeasement in the run up to the second world war. Mr Bush is an avid admirer of Winston Churchill.

In an extraordinary speech, the Israeli prime minister had poured scorn on the campaign aimed at building an Arab consensus behind the campaign against terrorism.

Mr Sharon said: "Don't repeat the terrible mistake of 1938 when the enlightened democracies of Europe decided to sacrifice Czechoslovakia for a temporary solution. Do not try to placate the Arabs at our expense... Israel will not be Czechoslovakia."

In a blunt response, Mr Fleischer said: "The president believes that these remarks are unacceptable. Israel could have no better or stronger friend that the United States and no better friend that President Bush."

In an unusual move, the angry message was relayed to Israel through three parallel channels: in a personal phone call from the secretary of state, Colin Powell; in a message conveyed by the US embassy in Israel; and a separate message passed on by the national security council.

Ariel Sharon further signalled his contempt yesterday for the US diplomatic strategy of mending fences with the Arab world, by launching the heaviest Israeli military offensive since the start of the Palestinian uprising last year.

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Buried deep in the archives of America's intelligence services are a series of memos, written during the last years of President George W. Bush's administration, that describe how Israeli Mossad officers recruited operatives belonging to the terrorist group Jundallah by passing themselves off as American agents. According to two U.S. intelligence officials, the Israelis, flush with American dollars and toting U.S. passports, posed as CIA officers in recruiting Jundallah operatives -- what is commonly referred to as a "false flag" operation.

The memos, as described by the sources, one of whom has read them and another who is intimately familiar with the case, investigated and debunked reports from 2007 and 2008 accusing the CIA, at the direction of the White House, of covertly supporting Jundallah -- a Pakistan-based Sunni extremist organization. Jundallah, according to the U.S. government and published reports, is responsible for assassinating Iranian government officials and killing Iranian women and children.

But while the memos show that the United States had barred even the most incidental contact with Jundallah, according to both intelligence officers, the same was not true for Israel's Mossad. The memos also detail CIA field reports saying that Israel's recruiting activities occurred under the nose of U.S. intelligence officers, most notably in London, the capital of one of Israel's ostensible allies, where Mossad officers posing as CIA operatives met with Jundallah officials.

The officials did not know whether the Israeli program to recruit and use Jundallah is ongoing. Nevertheless, they were stunned by the brazenness of the Mossad's efforts.

"It's amazing what the Israelis thought they could get away with," the intelligence officer said. "Their recruitment activities were nearly in the open. They apparently didn't give a damn what we thought."

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There is no denying that there is a covert, bloody, and ongoing campaign aimed at stopping Iran's nuclear program, though no evidence has emerged connecting recent acts of sabotage and killings inside Iran to Jundallah. Many reports have cited Israel as the architect of this covert campaign, which claimed its latest victim on Jan. 11 when a motorcyclist in Tehran slipped a magnetic explosive device under the car of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a young Iranian nuclear scientist. The explosion killed Roshan, making him the fourth scientist assassinated in the past two years. The United States adamantly denies it is behind these killings. . . . . .

The report then made its way to the White House, according to the currently serving U.S. intelligence officer. The officer said that Bush "went absolutely ballistic" when briefed on its contents.

"The report sparked White House concerns that Israel's program was putting Americans at risk," the intelligence officer told me. "There's no question that the U.S. has cooperated with Israel in intelligence-gathering operations against the Iranians, but this was different. No matter what anyone thinks, we're not in the business of assassinating Iranian officials or killing Iranian civilians."

Israel's relationship with Jundallah continued to roil the Bush administration until the day it left office, this same intelligence officer noted. Israel's activities jeopardized the administration's fragile relationship with Pakistan, which was coming under intense pressure from Iran to crack down on Jundallah. It also undermined U.S. claims that it would never fight terror with terror, and invited attacks in kind on U.S. personnel.

"It's easy to understand why Bush was so angry," a former intelligence officer said. "After all, it's hard to engage with a foreign government if they're convinced you're killing their people. Once you start doing that, they feel they can do the same."

A senior administration official vowed to "take the gloves off" with Israel, according to a U.S. intelligence officer. But the United States did nothing -- a result that the officer attributed to "political and bureaucratic inertia."

"In the end," the officer noted, "it was just easier to do nothing than to, you know, rock the boat." Even so, at least for a short time, this same officer noted, the Mossad operation sparked a divisive debate among Bush's national security team, pitting those who wondered "just whose side these guys [in Israel] are on" against those who argued that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

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How were my remarks bulkshit?

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England and France might all be speaking German if not for the USA and there might be very few Jews left alive.

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American financial assistance in WWII was indispensible to allied victory. The fact is however that the Soviets won that war.

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Capitalism is superior to communism as an economic system.

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The Muslims are fighting a Jihad against all non muslims, you can bury you head in the sand, but they aren't going away.

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"The Muslims" are not a single entity. Also, all "non-Muslims" are not a single entity in the eyes of Muslim extremists. Furthermore...

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We have made the commitment to unequivocally support Israel a long time ago

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and there's nothing wrong with high-ranking military personnel issuing needed pre-determined weapons to Israel. I certainly trust military ppl to conduct military business with Israel (our #1 ally in the world) more than I do our muslim-lovin community organizer. Snap out of it, America, and stop drinking the anti-sematic kool-aid... We MUST support Israel 100%, and any administration that doesnt should be dissolved.

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unequivocally support Israel a long time ago

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Israel (our #1 ally in the world)

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and you certainly don't unequivocally support the United States. Why Israel?

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