For years, it has been evident that there are retired senior security officials who convey messages in the spirit of American policy in the region, regarding the State of Israel. They flood the studios mainly when it comes to disputes or conflicts of interests between the Americans and Israel. Some even assisted or took part in American security plans that the Israeli government opposed.
The subordination of senior Israeli officials was done using the carrot-and-stick method. The U.S. knows how to bribe through scholarships, years of schooling, medal-style honors to Israeli chiefs of staff, and visits and caresses by senior security officials such as the Joint Chiefs of Staff who "befriend" senior Israeli officers, while the prime minister is under constant attack from the heads of government in Washington and becomes a boxer who protects his jaws while resting on the ropes.
The stick side is the most influential. Only from recent years, without going back to the days of the Pollard affair: Maj. Gen. Israel Ziv was under investigation by the US Treasury Department for no fault of his own, businessman Arnon Milchan was destroyed because of his proximity to Netanyahu in a co-production of information from the American side and an attempt at incrimination on the part of the law enforcement agencies in Israel.
It has been known for quite a few years that senior Israeli defense officials who want to "make their home" in arms trade or in the entrepreneurship of high-tech companies with a security interface need American permits. Less than two weeks ago, the Financial Times published an investigative story titled "Cyber Weapons Manufacturers Conspire to Be on the Right Side of the US."
According to an article by Mahul Stryvastava and Kay Wiggins, the one that failed to be "on the right side" of the US was the Israeli company NSO, with its well-known product - Pegasus. The result was that the Americans, in cooperation with the Israeli defense establishment headed by Benny Gantz (in the summer of 2022), succeeded in effectively eliminating NSO, and on its ruins Paragon is thriving with its product – Graffit. The difference is that Paragon has effectively become an offensive cyber company under American sponsorship. It is headed by the former commander of Unit 8200 and the board of directors includes none other than Ehud Barak.
In an article by Alon Ben David on Channel 13 (July 11, '22), he concluded that "Israel is cutting down the cyber industry under American pressure."
To position themselves on the "right side" of the Biden administration, Paragon contracted with a Washingtonian consulting firm populated by members of the Democratic Party's security-diplomatic establishment who had previously served in the Obama administration: Avril Haines, Michelle Flournoy, Anthony Blinken and Dan Shapiro. Blinken is now secretary of state, former ambassador Shapiro and Haines is director of national intelligence. Thanks to this connection, Paragon registers clients who are agencies of the US government. Ehud Barak is placed in a dual role: as a manager at Paragon, he operates under American auspices, which controls Israeli offensive cyber; At the same time, he zealously employs a subversive campaign to disrupt public order and undermine democracy within Israel.
What shocked the security personnel at the interface with the high-tech sector was the speed and efficiency with which the US government "framed" NSO and blacklisted it. Ariel Kahane quoted a very senior Israeli source in this newspaper (September '22): "In the NSO story, the Americans fired a bullet between our eyes."
NSO offices, developer of Pegasus, photo: AFP
Two other frightening incidents recently recorded in the US attack on the Israeli security establishment are the FBI investigation into the death of Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin, whose existence was made public on November 14, 2022. A slightly odd date; For some reason, two weeks after the right's election victory. and the case of Col. (res.) Gal Luft, who now lives underground because he is wanted to testify in the United States in the Biden and his son Hunter affair.
The Biden administration's violent aggressiveness certainly encourages retired defense officials to appear in the loudest and most threatening manner toward the Netanyahu government, under the excuse that this is merely a legal issue. Conspicuous is the recurring reverberation between messages from law and justice luminaries such as Maj. Gen. Amos Malka (formerly an arms dealer and now a member of the cyber industry) or Dan Halutz or Commissioner Eshed and, of course, Ehud Barak, and messages from the Biden administration.
When the FBI's investigation became known, retired judge Mudryk said, "This is a vote of no confidence in the Israeli investigation." Col. Eldad Shavit of the INSS called the decision "very unusual." Nitzana Darshan Leitner identified that "U.S. Ambassador Nides is very anti-Israel." He certainly proved this in the waves of riots against the Netanyahu government. Blinken also stepped up to give a boost to the "protest."
Attorney Gilad Sher's recent statement in an interview that Ehud Barak is behind the waves of protest together with him and Yossi Kochik and billionaire Orni Petrushka, is apparently perceived as taking credit for a successful venture. The first success was Netanyahu's removal as prime minister in June 2021, a move that was in line with the interests of the Biden administration. The current stage, after Netanyahu succeeded in returning to power, is an attempt to neutralize the Israeli government at a critical point in dealing with the Iranian nuclear program. Ehud Barak and "Paragon" at your service.
Look east
In Jerusalem, you look at Ukraine and see that diplomacy doesn't exist yet. The conclusion is clear: there is nothing to count on Biden on the Iranian issue
In a New Yorker interview with Ted Koppel on the occasion of Henry Kissinger's 100th birthday, Koppel threw out a comment about Donald Trump: "Trump will be seen by historians as a thoroughly despicable man who achieved virtually nothing while he was president."
From an Israeli perspective, Trump has achieved a lot and has been very significant. U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, tying hands and feet to Iran with escalating sanctions and the killing of Qassem Soleimani. Trump almost eliminated ISIS in Syria. All this is accompanied by daring Israeli action; Iran was deterred on the nuclear issue. It is very likely that the Ukraine war would not have broken out either. In the United States, more and more voices are being heard that this is a war that has no point of victory, and we have to think about how to get out of it or how to end it.
So today we have an American president, Joe Biden, on whose watch Iran has ceased to be deterred, and the entire Western world is under the devastating impact of the Ukraine war. That eventual disintegration followed the U.S. panic flight from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Fear for the fate of a nuclear power plant. Nova Kakhovka Dam explosion, photo: Reuters
On the other hand, Israel is proving that despite talking about the "convergence" of the fronts, it is capable of providing lethal treatment in Gaza without a chain of shattering that goes to Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria. In addition, despite the American alienation and the Biden administration's negative activity towards Israel, the fact is that the assassination operation in Gaza, which lasted several days, passed without a tweet from the United States. There was no intervention and demand for an immediate end to the "round of violence." This is quite an unusual event in the history of IDF operations. The Americans were also not involved in ending the fire.
The Americans do not stop making anti-Israel condemnations, but they really are nothing more than scratches on the wing. At the moment, there is no political threat in the Palestinian sector.
But the big problem in the region in the event of a major flare-up, perhaps following an operation in Iran, is similar to Ukraine, and this must be taken into account. The U.S. was a "lamelam" in Gaza – being counterproductive, harmless on the Iranian-Hezbollah front is a big problem. With all the criticism of the United States over the years, Kissinger, the old man that many Americans like to encounter even at his age, established the tradition that Americans know how to intervene at the right moment and end wars with purposeful negotiations and reaching agreements. It sounds so imaginary today. In Ukraine, there is no diplomatic dimension to the campaign, and that is what could happen here as well.
Therefore, among other things, it is reasonable to assume that Israel would prefer to act in a way that is not "all or nothing." In its failed investigations, the IAEA flagged certain nuclear sites. It wanted to avoid bringing the Iranian nuclear issue to a binding arena such as the Security Council. The statements made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Galant and Mossad chief Barnea throughout 2022 indicate an operational direction.
Who is a Democrat here?
When protest groups attack reform supporters and campuses become totalitarian environments, learned jurists have no choice but to lower their heads
The bullying gag against Simcha Rothman at Tel Aviv University caused me to pull a book of essays by George Orwell off the shelf. The reason is mainly that the university authorities, with the university president at the head and together with well-known law professors, found themselves in a tailspin. How do you justify a violent attack on a respected Knesset member to prevent him from speaking in front of students? Some professors were intuitively appalled by the bullying totalitarian spectacle unfolding on their home turf. But then, on second thought, they raised the possibility that, given Rothman's views that endanger democracy and promote dictatorship, they might think that what appeared to be "very bad! It's very bad!", maybe "It's not so bad". Perhaps, in light of the government's plans, the law should be broken.
Rothman is attacked by demonstrators at Tel Aviv University
George Orwell argued without blinking that even in democratic societies one can experience the heavy oppressive hand of totalitarian tyranny. In a totalitarian society, "only one opinion is allowed at a time," he wrote. Some campuses have become totalitarian environments. Referring to England in 1946, Orwell argued in his essay "The Prevention of Literature" that "the immediate enemies of truth, and consequently of freedom of thought, are the tycoons of the press and the media, the tycoons of the film industry, and the bureaucrats." But according to his analysis, the most serious symptom of this condition is the weakening of the desire for freedom among the intellectuals themselves.
He lists a series of topics from the early Cold War period, which are in fact territories that are not allowed in the British press, including the Soviet Union itself.
How many no-go zones exist in the mainstream press in today's State of Israel? The alignment of the totalitarian party line following the establishment of the protest phalanges is prominent among learned jurists. The alignment was achieved with violence similar to that used against Rotman and the Kohelet Institute. Professors who have written extensively about the flaws of the Supreme Court establishment and the fiction of the constitutional revolution have to confront their past. "Friends of totalitarianism tend to argue that since absolute truth cannot be reached (there is no objective truth), the big lie is not fundamentally different from a small lie," Orwell wrote.
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