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
U.S. “Operations Room” In Syria Destroyed By
Russian Missile Attack
Thirty Israeli, American, British, Turkish,
Saudi, Qatari Intelligence Officials Killed,
Report
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
September 26, 2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- "GR"
-
The US and its allies had established a
Field Operations Room in
the Aleppo region integrated by intelligence
personnel. Until it was targeted by a
Russian missile attack on September 20,
this “semi-secret” facility was operated by
US, British, Israeli, Turkish, Saudi and
Qatari intelligence personnel.
According to Fars News, this
intelligence facility was attacked by Russia
in the immediate
wake of the US Air Strikes against
Syrian SAA forces at Deir Ezzor
in support of the ISIS-Daesh
terrorists.
“The Russian warships
stationed in Syria’s coastal waters targeted
and destroyed a foreign military operations
room,
killing over two dozen
Israeli and western intelligence officers”
“The Russian warships fired three
Caliber missiles at the foreign
officers’ coordination operations
room in Dar Ezza region in the
Western part of Aleppo near Sam’an
mountain, killing 30 Israeli and
western officers,”
The operations room was located in
the Western part of Aleppo province
in the middle of sky-high Sam’an
mountain and old caves. The region
is deep into a chain of mountains.
The
Fars report conveys the impression that the
Operations Room was largely integrated by
Israelis. In all likelihood, the US was
“calling the shots” and the facility was
coordinated by Washington’s regional allies,
in close liaison with (and on behalf) of the
US military and intelligence apparatus.
With the exception of the Fars report and
Sputnik Arabic, this Russian attack directed
against a US-led coalition intelligence
facility has not made the headlines. In fact
there has been a total news blackout. The
accuracy of the Fars report is yet to be
fully ascertained.
What is significant is that the Operations
Room situated in rebel held territory in the
Aleppo region is manned by the main state
sponsors of ISIS Daesh and Al Qaeda inside
Syria, namely the US, UK (largely involved
in the air raids), plus four countries of
the region: Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel and
Qatar. The respective roles of the four
regional countries relating to recruitment,
training, logistics and the financing of
terrorism have been amply documented.
This
Operations Room (i.e Combat
Information Center) in the Aleppo
region as well as field operations rooms in
other regions (in territories controlled by
rebel forces) are in permanent liaison with
the US, Israeli and allied military command
and control.
We
will recall that in October 2015, Obama
announced that he was dispatching US Special
Forces to operate on the ground inside Syria
in the alleged counterterrorism operation
against ISIS-Daesh. These US Special Forces
would “involve fewer than 50 Special
Operations advisers, who will work
with resistance forces battling the Islamic
State in northern Syria but will not
engage in direct combat” (WP,
October 30, 2015).
They will not engage in combat, they will be
involved in”advisory” activities, –i.e. both
within rebel formations as well as in the
field operations rooms.
In
recent months (May 2016), Washington
confirmed that another 250 US special forces
were to be deployed on the ground in Syria.
A select number of intelligence officials
were no doubt assigned to the field
operations rooms.
This dispatch of US special forces coincided
with the influx of thousand of newly
recruited “jihadist mercenaries” who joined
the ranks of the various terror
formations. “Thousands of terrorists” were
reported to have crossed the Turkey-Syria
border in early May 2016, to be deployed
against government forces in the Aleppo
region.
Voice of America (undated)
http://www.voanews.com/a/us-to-send-special-forces-to-syria-to-fight-islamic-state/3029684.html
The
Operations Room in the Aleppo region was
used to coordinate actions on the ground,
drone surveillance as well as air-strikes.
According to the Fars report, the
intelligence personnel assigned to the US
led coalition Operations Room destroyed by
Russia was involved in coordinating US and
allied sponsored terrorist attacks in Aleppo
and Idlib. In all likelihood, the Operations
Room destroyed by Russia was also involved
in the planning and implementation of the
Deir Ezzor attack by the US Air force
against Syrian SAA forces, carried out in
the immediate wake of the Geneva ceasefire
agreement.
The
Syria based “Operations Rooms” were also in
liaison with US and allied command as well
as Special Forces on the ground (including
Western military personnel hired by
private mercenary companies) embedded within
the various rebel terror groups including
ISIS-Daesh and Al Nusra.
The
existence and location of the Aleppo region
Operations Room facility must have been
known and (until recently) tolerated
by both the Syrian government and the
Russian military. And until recently no
action was taken.
According to the Fars News
Agency report (yet to be fully confirmed),
it would appear that
Moscow chose to target the
Aleppo region (“semi-secret”) Operations
Room in the immediate wake the Pentagon’s
decision to order the USAF airstrikes
against Syrian government forces involved in
combating the ISIS-Daesh terrorists in Deir
Ezzor.
The Russian attack against a US-NATO
intelligence facility reported by Fars
News Agency has not been picked up by
the media, nor has it been acknowledged
at the official level.
Assuming that the Fars New Report is
accurate, the Russian attack against the
US led coalition operations room has
significant implications. Does it create
a precedent? Russia attacks a US-led
intelligence facility in reprisal for
the Deir Ezzor attack against Syrian
forces
It
constitutes a potentially dangerous
watershed in the evolution of the war on
Syria, which should be seen within the
broader context of military escalation.
Yet at the same time the Operations Room
is an undeclared intelligence facility.
Washington has not acknowledged it and
Moscow has not provided an official
confirmation of the attack. The Russian
media is mum on the subject and so is
Washington. Neither side has interest in
making this issue public.
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