The announcement last week by the United
States of the largest military aid
package in its history – to Israel – was
a win for both sides.
Israeli prime
minister Benjamin Netanyahu could boast
that his lobbying had boosted aid from
$3.1 billion a year to $3.8bn – a 22 per
cent increase – for a decade starting in
2019.
Mr Netanyahu has presented this as a
rebuff to those who accuse him of
jeopardising Israeli security interests
with his government’s repeated affronts
to the White House.
In the past weeks alone, defence
minister Avigdor Lieberman has compared
last year’s nuclear deal between
Washington and Iran with the 1938 Munich
pact, which bolstered Hitler; and Mr
Netanyahu has implied that US opposition
to settlement expansion is the same as
support for the “ethnic cleansing” of
Jews.
American president Barack Obama,
meanwhile, hopes to stifle his own
critics who insinuate that he is
anti-Israel. The deal should serve as a
fillip too for Hillary Clinton, the
Democratic party’s candidate to succeed
Mr Obama in November’s election.
In reality, however, the Obama
administration has quietly punished Mr
Netanyahu for his misbehaviour. Israeli
expectations of a $4.5bn-a-year deal
were whittled down after Mr Netanyahu
stalled negotiations last year as he
sought to recruit Congress to his battle
against the Iran deal.
In fact, Israel already receives
roughly $3.8bn – if Congress’s
assistance on developing missile defence
programmes is factored in. Notably,
Israel has been forced to promise not to
approach Congress for extra funds.
The deal takes into account neither
inflation nor the dollar’s depreciation
against the shekel.
A bigger blow still is the White
House’s demand to phase out a special
exemption that allowed Israel to spend
nearly 40 per cent of aid locally on
weapon and fuel purchases. Israel will
soon have to buy all its armaments from
the US, ending what amounted to a
subsidy to its own arms industry.
Nonetheless, Washington’s renewed
military largesse – in the face of
almost continual insults – inevitably
fuels claims that the Israeli tail is
wagging the US dog. Even The New York
Times has described the aid package as
“too big”.
Since the 1973 war, Israel has
received at least $100bn in military
aid, with more assistance hidden from
view. Back in the 1970s, Washington paid
half of Israel’s military budget. Today
it still foots a fifth of the bill,
despite Israel’s economic success.
But the US expects a return on its
massive investment. As the late Israeli
politician-general Ariel Sharon once
observed, Israel has been a US
“aircraft carrier” in the Middle East,
acting as the regional bully and
carrying out operations that benefit
Washington.
Almost no one blames the US for
Israeli attacks that wiped out Iraq’s
and Syria’s nuclear programmes. A
nuclear-armed Iraq or Syria would have
deterred later US-backed moves at regime
overthrow, as well as countering the
strategic advantage Israel derives from
its own nuclear arsenal.
In addition, Israel’s US-sponsored
military prowess is a triple boon to the
US weapons industry, the country’s most
powerful lobby. Public funds are
siphoned off to let Israel buy goodies
from American arms makers. That, in
turn, serves as a shop window for other
customers and spurs an endless and
lucrative game of catch-up in the rest
of the Middle East.
The first F-35 fighter jets to arrive
in Israel in December – their various
components produced in 46 US states –
will increase the clamour for the
cutting-edge warplane.
Israel is also a “front-line
laboratory”, as former Israeli army
negotiator Eival Gilady admitted at the
weekend, that develops and field-tests
new technology Washington can later use
itself.
The US is planning to buy back the
missile interception system Iron Dome –
which neutralises battlefield threats of
retaliation – it largely paid for.
Israel works closely too with the US in
developing cyberwarfare, such as the
Stuxnet worm that damaged Iran’s
civilian nuclear programme.
But the clearest message from
Israel’s new aid package is one
delivered to the Palestinians:
Washington sees no pressing strategic
interest in ending the occupation. It
stood up to Mr Netanyahu over the Iran
deal but will not risk a damaging clash
over Palestinian statehood.
Some believe that Mr Obama signed the
aid package to win the credibility
necessary to overcome his domestic
Israel lobby and pull a rabbit from the
hat: an initiative, unveiled shortly
before he leaves office, that corners Mr
Netanyahu into making peace.
Hopes have been raised by an expected
meeting at the United Nations in New
York on Wednesday. But their first talks
in 10 months are planned only to
demonstrate unity to confound critics of
the aid deal.
If Mr Obama really wanted to pressure
Mr Netanyahu, he would have used the aid
agreement as leverage. Now Mr Netanyahu
need not fear US financial retaliation,
even as he intensifies effective
annexation of the West Bank.
Mr Netanyahu has drawn the right
lesson from the aid deal – he can act
against the Palestinians with continuing
US impunity.
- See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2016-09-19/palestinians-lose-in-us-military-aid-deal-with-israel/#sthash.fL4Eq28N.dpuf
Les Deplorables
By Pepe Escobar
September 23, 2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- "Sputnik"
-
Perplexed global public opinion holds its
breath at the (circus) best American
“democracy” is able to conjure.
The
first cage match this coming Monday
between a Queen of War profiting from a
mighty (Clinton) Cash Machine and a
billionaire uber-narcissist adored by a
“basket of deplorables”.
This is a circus quite fitting for a
self-described “indispensable nation” where
“evil” has been propelled – seriously –
to the status of philosophical category.
For
the basket of deplorables, and even
beyond their circle, the temptation is
immense to equate voting for Donald Trump
with raising a finger against the
establishment.
Ultra-savvy at playing mainstream media
for invaluable free publicity, elevating
Outrageousness to an art form and being
impervious to irony and derision, Trump has
been a master at tapping wave after wave
of anger against the new liberal elite —
including a nomenklatura
of crypto-intellectual Ivy league-educated
“experts” who could not give a damn
about understanding the (real world)
consequences of United States Government
(USG) policies. The anger is manifested
by declassified blue collars, the
unemployed, the functionally illiterate,
white trash. Whatever you call them, they
are the excluded form the Neoliberal
Banquet, not only economically but also
culturally. But this being Trump, a master
of self-promotion, the battle is more
like Ego against The Establishment. And it
gets juicier when we learn from powerful,
discreet New York-based interests –
supporters of Trump’s platform — about who’s
really winning:
“The Trump campaign is hardly spending
any money at all and holding all over.
They may use their money in the last
month after the debates if Hillary
recovers for those debates from what
appears to be an attack of Parkinson’s.
He has a shot though no matter who wins
I predict there will be peace
with Russia; the oil price will rise;
imports from Asia of military parts will
be repatriated and rigging of currencies
is over; there will be offsetting
measures to stop the flood of immigrants
and products under mis-valued
currencies. The masters do not lose.”
The
“masters” are of course the Masters of the
Universe who really run the USG.
And
here’s the clincher on how’s in control:
“Both sides are controlled and that
explains everything. Lenin said that the
way to defeat our opponents is to take
over their leadership of the opponent.
Look at the Moral Majority which Jerry
Falwell disbanded when it became too
powerful. Look at Ross Perot who exited
when he started making a real dent. Both
were taken care of and Ross made money
out of it.”
“Their internal lingo for it is the
concept of “dynamic silence”. This is a
technique by the masters to block
out all news coverage of let’s say a
Nazi so that he could gain no following.
That they could have done to Trump if he
were not theirs. Who could have
complained? He was just an apolitical
real estate operator that no one was
interested in.”
“So what do we have in the end? An
entertaining gladiatorial contest that
they control both sides of and the
winner gets all the money — as with the
Clinton Foundation. And the public is no
wiser.”
The
24/7 Circus Maximus
There are subtle gradations to this
scenario. Rothschild interests are not
supporting Trump – according to these
well-connected sources, because Trump has
not been anointed by the club and is thus
unreliable. They recall, for instance, how
“Greenspan was so incompetent that Wall
Street leaders had to give him trades so he
could make money before they put him as the
head of Federal Reserve. Then he was so
out of it that they had to direct his every
move as he had no comprehension what they
do.” “They”, of course, meaning Rothschild
interests. On the Cold War 2.0 front,
things are even hazier. Since 2010, when
Obama was ordered to keep the US nuclear
first-strike strategy, Russia and China know
where this is heading. It’s no wonder Trump
is being relentlessly attacked as Putin’s
own Trojan Horse – because he’s against Cold
War 2.0 and the demonization of Russia.
But
the Pentagon’s strident Ash Carter, soon
out of a job, is one thing; another thing
entirely is what the Masters of the Universe
really want, according to these
Trump-supporting sources; “Hillary would be
following Trump’s guidelines should she win,
as the US military will explain to her that
she has no other options based on Russian
military superiority in submarines, and
defensive and offensive missiles. Trump’s
policies are wise.”
There’s even a P.R. move that could
literally devastate the already wobbly
Hillary campaign:
“Hillary’s reckless threats
against Russia, risking nuclear war,
could bring back the Lyndon Johnson TV
ads against Goldwater by Donald Trump,
where we had a little child in a meadow
picking flowers while a nuclear bomb
goes off. It was an ad of genius and
destroyed Goldwater. The first strike
nuclear attack policy and the reckless
provocations combine to form an
excellent Johnson style ad. This time
Trump can use it against the Democrats,
who have created almost all the wars
in the last 125 years.”
The
daisy cutter ad is
here.
A
Force for Farce?
Even considering that virtually the whole US
establishment – from the Beltway
nomenklatura to Wall Street — is arrayed
against him, the jury is still out on
whether Trump is a real threat to their
interests.
Because Trump could also be the perfect
Trojan Horse. Evidence relies for instance
on his appointment of perfect insiders Larry
Kudlow and Steven Moore as his senior
economic advisors. That’s the Trump as a
Force for Farce scenario. So “dynamic
silence” seems to be the rule. Here’s how
dynamic silence works; “If you oppose those
above the President, the news media blacks
you out and the masses do not hear anything,
so how can they be stirred up? Donald is an
insider and he represents the military
industrial complex including the CIA, DIA,
etc. They will deny it, of course, so they
have deniability and he can say he is
against the establishment when he is an
insider.”
“That is the first line of defense. If you
manage to outsmart them, then they
characterize you as a nut. That is the
second line of defense.
Now, if you persist in making them
uncomfortable, then you end up as William
Colby, Vince Forster or Jack Kennedy.
Richard Nixon was ousted and he went quietly
so that, to quote Tricky Dick, “I am not
going to end up as Jack” as he went out the
back door of the White House.”
“The key here is Donald is receiving more
publicity than Hillary, and by attacking him
for being an America Firster his polls have
risen dramatically. The public loves it so
the Masters of the Universe are helping him.
The military industries have to be
repatriated as we no longer control the seas
and this will require either currency
adjustments or tariffs. Hence, Donald’s
correct calls for an end to currency rigging
which had as part of their purpose the
building up of Germany and Japan at the
sacrifice of our industries. Absurd that we
did that but that is how it was. That is
ending now with Donald and the emergency
situation of lack of control of the Pacific
Ocean for the component transportation
by sea for our military production. Japan
and Germany will be cut loose.”
“Brzezinski said that if any opponent leaps
ahead of the United States militarily, the
US ceases to be a global power. That is the
case and the military knows it. And Trump
knows it or he would not have said that
much. They need a crash program to catch up.
That costs big money. It will probably
require force and base reductions and an
increase in technological expenditure in a
massive way. That is what the Russians did.
They can obtain this from massively reducing
the welfare transfers on illegal immigrants.
That is what Donald is committed to.”
If
this analysis is correct, it ties in with
Trump’s push to organize an immediate
rapprochement with Russia in case he’s
elected, so the US
industrial-military-surveillance complex can
catch up and at least try to remedy the
danger of losing the next war Hillary and
her own neocon bag of deplorables are so
bullish on.
As
we approach the first cage match, the jury
is still out on whether the Queen of War may
lose the election because millennials
absolutely detest her, because the “basket
of deplorables” absolutely detests her, or
both.
But
one thing seems to be certain in the whole
Les Deplorables saga – at least for those
Masters of the Universe-connected sources;
who the real winner will be. So let’s give
them the last word, for now; “It will be
very difficult for Hillary to beat Trump
in a debate as he is quick on his feet and
will take no prisoners. Let me say this. If
Hillary were to win, and we don’t think she
will, she will do what she is told and
follow the same policies as Trump would. |
