Bribing Bibi and His Proxies to Behave
They won't anyway and it will cost us much more.
By Philip Giraldi
September 02, 2015 "Information
Clearing House" - "Unz
Review" -
There are a lot of expressions about standing up to bullies being
the best policy. Unfortunately the White House has difficulty in
following that sound advice when it comes to Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and his governing coalition of
racists and thugs. And one might also add that the reticence
also applies to dealing with Israel’s many friends in Congress, some
of whom have apparently extorted their pound of flesh in exchange
for their votes on the Iran deal.Israel is
already the military colossus in the Middle East, with formidable
high tech ground, sea and air forces backed up by a semi-secret
nuclear arsenal with modern delivery systems and several defensive
missile system referred to as Iron Dome, Arrow 4 and David Sling.
The defense systems were developed and deployed using $3 billion of
U.S. Treasury
special “grants” while roughly 20% of Israel’s annual total
defense budget comes directly from the American taxpayer. This is
all justified on the basis of sustaining Israel’s “Qualitative
Military Edge,” an expression that has its own acronym QME and that
is much loved by America’s national legislators, the White House and
the media. In reality, Israel possesses an enormous military
superiority relative to all its neighbors combined and has benefited
from that capability for many years, all thanks to the United States
of America.
But for some, too much is never enough. President
Barack Obama is struggling to line up sufficient Democratic votes to
block any congressional veto of his Iran agreement. At this point it
looks like he will succeed, but the effort has brought with it the
type of backstage politicking that most Americans have come to
despise. Both Netanyahu and select Congressmen are being treated to
a package of bribes for Israel that defies all reason, particularly
given the fact that even the Israeli defense and intelligence
establishments have split with Bibi’s government and sensibly
declared the agreement with Iran to be better than any
alternative. So even though defanging Iran is good for Israel,
Washington nevertheless feels compelled to sweeten the pot, with
actual American interests as usual ignored or not even considered.
How it all works
has been revealed by Walter Pincus of the Washington Post,
who apparently has seen a copy of a personal letter from President
Obama that was sent to Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler, a
representative from New York who was hesitating over how to cast his
vote regarding Iran. Nadler’s district is reported to be heavily
Jewish and the congressman, himself Jewish, has long been an
outspoken advocate for Israel. The letter he received may have been
similar or even identical to letters presumably sent to other
Congressmen who have also been sitting on the fence over the Iran
deal.
Obama, to give him his due, cleverly focuses on
“our enhanced support for Israel” as the way to get to Nadler’s
vote, thereby enabling the Congressman to cite what Israel will be
getting out of it as he explains to his angry constituents why he is
defying the call by Netanyahu to vote down the deal.
President Obama, boasting in the letter that “no
administration has done more for Israel’s security than mine,” adds
that he is “prepared to further strengthen the relationship.” Indeed
he does. He commits the United States to extend the U.S. commitment
to provide Israel with $3.5 billion per year for purchasing military
equipment for an additional decade after the current George W. Bush
era program expires in 2018. The letter notes a “unique element” in
the purchase agreement which allows Tel Aviv to spend up to 26.3% of
the money on Israeli manufactured equipment.
Beyond the $3 billion plus per annum,
Obama also pledged to continue extra funding for “collaborative
research and development for tunnel detection and mapping
technologies,” a program that only benefits Israel. Israel will also
be the only country in the Middle East to receive the new advanced
F-35 fighter when it finally becomes operational next year, all paid
for by the American taxpayer.
Apart from the fact that the United States is
inexplicably giving billions to an Israel that has a thriving
economy with Western European levels of income, there are a number
of problems with this Obama deal and the nature of the “special
relationship” that it represents. For Washington, Israel is the
squeaking wheel that is constantly requiring applications of grease
to keep quiet. The grease is liberally applied, but the wheel keeps
squeaking, the noise generally emanating from the office of Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been directly interfering in
U.S. politics since 2012.
One problem is that the United States is allowing
Israel to use the money to be armed and equipped in a fashion which
is directly contrary to American interests.
A May offering of $1.88 billion in new equipment to Israel
included 50 BLU-113 5,000 pound bombs with special penetrating nose
cones that can be used against underground targets. Those targets
would include Iran’s nuclear facilities, most notably its Fodrow
underground uranium enrichment plant. Israel’s friends have also
been agitating for the much larger 30,000 pound version of the
bomb together with the heavy bombers needed to drop it on target. If
past history is anything to go by it is merely a matter of time
before they are granted their wish.
Bombing Iran is not exactly a U.S. interest at the
moment – quite the contrary. Is it far-fetched to imagine Netanyahu
staging such an attack to upset the apple cart and destroy any
chance of Iranian rapprochement with Washington? A month ago I would
have said no, but last week former Israeli Prime Minister and
Defense Minister Ehud Barak revealed that both he and Netanyahu did
indeed
want to bomb Iran in 2010-2012 but backed down because of
technical issues and also due to the refusal of key cabinet members
and military officers to support the decision.
A second problem is the authorization for Israel
to spend American taxpayer money on equipment produced locally.
Israel is a major weapons supplier worldwide, sometimes both selling
and providing training to regimes that many
consider unsavory. Its own military industrial complex was built
up
using the largesse coming from the United States and it now
competes with American companies. It also has a well-established
record of
stealing United States developed military technology and then
re-exporting it under its own label, a win-win for Israel but a
lose-lose for American companies.
While I am far from a fan of America’s military
industrial congressional complex, using American tax dollars to
subsidize a foreign competitor is the height of insanity. It will
cut into exports and cost American jobs. Combining that reality with
the fact that no amount of bribery will make Netanyahu shut up and
that Israel will likely use some of the gifted weapons in ways that
will cause difficulties for Washington the constant introduction of
more money and more arms for Israel is just not a good idea. Kudos
to Obama for having proceeded as far as he has with the Iran
agreement but if a Congressman from New York cannot for once
perceive that a deal is good for America he should resign his seat
and go home. Constantly playing the Israel card has not been good
for politics in the United States and it has also not been good for
Israel itself as well as for the Middle East region. It is time to
cut the tie that binds.
Phil Giraldi is a former CIA Case Officer and
Army Intelligence Officer who spent twenty years overseas in Europe
and the Middle East working terrorism cases. He holds a BA with
honors from the University of Chicago and an MA and PhD in Modern
History from the University of London. In addition to TAC, where he
has been a contributing editor for nine years, he writes regularly
for Antiwar.com. He is currently Executive Director of the Council
for the National Interest and resides with his wife of 32 years in
Virginia horse country close to his daughters and grandchildren.