Brian4Liberty
02-01-2017, 01:34 PM
Like Saudi Arabia, Israel Has a Soft Spot for Sunni Extremism (http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2017/january/31/like-saudi-arabia-israel-has-a-soft-spot-for-sunni-extremism/)
Written by Brian McGlinchey - Tuesday January 31, 2017
Thanks to last summer’s release of 28 pages detailing a variety of links between 9/11 hijackers and Saudi government officials—and the October leak of a 2014 email from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declaring the Saudi government was directly supporting ISIS—it’s increasingly clear that the US government’s depiction of Saudi Arabia as a vital ally in the “war on terror” is dishonest.
Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia isn’t the only supposed “ally” whose official depiction as a steadfast foe of terrorism is out of sync with reality: The branding of Israel is also deeply misleading.
Israeli Aid to Al Qaeda in Syria
Though it received very little coverage in US media, last year it was revealed that the Israeli government was providing medical support to the al Nusra Front, a Syrian arm of al Qaeda.
That would seem inconsistent with routine declarations from US politicians that there should be “no daylight” between the United States and Israel, language that suggests two peoples whose interests are in perfect alignment.
Where Israel’s support of an al Qaeda affiliate is concerned, however, a former chief of the Mossad—Israel’s national intelligence agency—pulls no punches in differentiating between US and Israeli interests.
Al Jazeera’s Mehdi Hasan asked Efraim Halevy why Israel would give medical aid to wounded members of al Qaeda—and return them to jihad in Syria—but not to the wounded of Hezbollah, the Iran-allied Shi’a militant group in Lebanon that has often clashed with Israel and has been linked, sometimes dubiously, to terror attacks.
“We have a different account with Hezbollah. A totally different account. Al Qaeda, to the best of my recollection, has not attacked Israel,” he said.
Incredulous, Hasan replied, “It has attacked your number one ally and protector and sponsor, the United States of America!”
“Israel was not specifically targeted by al Qaeda, and therefore it’s a different kind of account than we have with Hezbollah,” replied Halevy.
So much for “no daylight.”
Former Israeli Diplomat: 'Let the Sunni Evil Prevail'
It wasn’t the first time a former Israeli official voiced a preference for Sunni extremism, even though Sunni terror has proven—before, during and after 9/11—a far greater menace to American and Western lives than Shi’a extremism.
Speaking at the Aspen Institute in June 2014, former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren said Israel should hope Sunni extremists prevail in Iraq.
“If we have to choose the lesser of evils, it’s the Sunnis over the Shi’a,” said Oren. “From Israel’s perspective, if there’s gotta be an evil that’s gonna prevail, let the Sunni evil prevail.”
...
In seeking to counter Iran and its Hezbollah allies, however, the Israeli government is incentivized to lead US policymakers and citizens to regard Iran as a great menace to America and to cultivate false allegations about Iran’s nuclear program—supported by counterfeit intelligence that has plausibly been attributed to Israel.
It’s a repeat of the pattern observed in 2002, when Benjamin Netanyahu (at that time, both a former and future prime minister) and the Israeli government urged the United States to launch its disastrous regime change invasion of Iraq to eliminate a non-existent nuclear weapons program.
...
In 2012, the Defense Intelligence Agency warned that regime change efforts in Syria could prompt the rise of an ISIS-like entity. However, the Obama administration plunged ahead in what former DIA Director Michael Flynn and current National Security Advisor called a “willful decision” to support an insurgency that included Salafists and al Qaeda.
...
More: http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2017/january/31/like-saudi-arabia-israel-has-a-soft-spot-for-sunni-extremism/
Written by Brian McGlinchey - Tuesday January 31, 2017
Thanks to last summer’s release of 28 pages detailing a variety of links between 9/11 hijackers and Saudi government officials—and the October leak of a 2014 email from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declaring the Saudi government was directly supporting ISIS—it’s increasingly clear that the US government’s depiction of Saudi Arabia as a vital ally in the “war on terror” is dishonest.
Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia isn’t the only supposed “ally” whose official depiction as a steadfast foe of terrorism is out of sync with reality: The branding of Israel is also deeply misleading.
Israeli Aid to Al Qaeda in Syria
Though it received very little coverage in US media, last year it was revealed that the Israeli government was providing medical support to the al Nusra Front, a Syrian arm of al Qaeda.
That would seem inconsistent with routine declarations from US politicians that there should be “no daylight” between the United States and Israel, language that suggests two peoples whose interests are in perfect alignment.
Where Israel’s support of an al Qaeda affiliate is concerned, however, a former chief of the Mossad—Israel’s national intelligence agency—pulls no punches in differentiating between US and Israeli interests.
Al Jazeera’s Mehdi Hasan asked Efraim Halevy why Israel would give medical aid to wounded members of al Qaeda—and return them to jihad in Syria—but not to the wounded of Hezbollah, the Iran-allied Shi’a militant group in Lebanon that has often clashed with Israel and has been linked, sometimes dubiously, to terror attacks.
“We have a different account with Hezbollah. A totally different account. Al Qaeda, to the best of my recollection, has not attacked Israel,” he said.
Incredulous, Hasan replied, “It has attacked your number one ally and protector and sponsor, the United States of America!”
“Israel was not specifically targeted by al Qaeda, and therefore it’s a different kind of account than we have with Hezbollah,” replied Halevy.
So much for “no daylight.”
Former Israeli Diplomat: 'Let the Sunni Evil Prevail'
It wasn’t the first time a former Israeli official voiced a preference for Sunni extremism, even though Sunni terror has proven—before, during and after 9/11—a far greater menace to American and Western lives than Shi’a extremism.
Speaking at the Aspen Institute in June 2014, former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren said Israel should hope Sunni extremists prevail in Iraq.
“If we have to choose the lesser of evils, it’s the Sunnis over the Shi’a,” said Oren. “From Israel’s perspective, if there’s gotta be an evil that’s gonna prevail, let the Sunni evil prevail.”
...
In seeking to counter Iran and its Hezbollah allies, however, the Israeli government is incentivized to lead US policymakers and citizens to regard Iran as a great menace to America and to cultivate false allegations about Iran’s nuclear program—supported by counterfeit intelligence that has plausibly been attributed to Israel.
It’s a repeat of the pattern observed in 2002, when Benjamin Netanyahu (at that time, both a former and future prime minister) and the Israeli government urged the United States to launch its disastrous regime change invasion of Iraq to eliminate a non-existent nuclear weapons program.
...
In 2012, the Defense Intelligence Agency warned that regime change efforts in Syria could prompt the rise of an ISIS-like entity. However, the Obama administration plunged ahead in what former DIA Director Michael Flynn and current National Security Advisor called a “willful decision” to support an insurgency that included Salafists and al Qaeda.
...
More: http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2017/january/31/like-saudi-arabia-israel-has-a-soft-spot-for-sunni-extremism/