For Israel, it’s even all right to spy on the US! [Archives:2004/777/Opinion]

The observer is inclined to believe that even the advocates for the Zionist cause would take care not to compromise the national interests of their beloved country, the United States for the sake of the Hebrew state. But it seems that support for Israel should not be governed by any limits. There are indeed some supporters who are ready to go to the limits of even suggesting that Israeli spying on the United States is harmless and really not worthy of making any fuss about and even suggesting that the United States is just as guilty of spying on Israel: Lee Smith assures us, “it is almost certain that, despite official denials, Israel spies on the United States)just as U.S. clandestine services in turn spy on Israel and other allies”. On September 22, 2004, Lee Smith, supposedly a “writer, who lives in Brooklyn wrote an article for Slate Magazine (a Microsoft web publication) titled, “Enough 'Likud'-Bashing, Already! It's time to focus on policy, not its proponents”. The article seeks to play down the latest disclosure by the Federal Bureau of Investigations of Israeli spying at the highest levels in the Department of Defense in the United States by a Pentagon analyst, named Larry Franklin, working for Douglas Feith, 'the third highest ranking official in the Pentagon” (See Common Sense YT Issue 768 of August 30, 2004). Part of this playing down can be seen in the very subtle hint to the connection between Franklin and Feith, which never implies that Franklin was in fact a subordinate of Feith. Thus, Smith draws Feith out of possible association in the case. Of course, other sources are cited as already alluding an innocence to the case: “According to CBS, law enforcement figures were unsure whether the investigation, under way for a year, would eventually lead to 'charges of unlawful disclose [sic] of classified material or espionage.” Smith then goes on to dismiss any idea of any wrongdoing by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee: “, it is improbable that AIPAC would knowingly entangle itself in espionage. AIPAC is one of the most powerful, and most scrutinized, lobbies in Washington, and it is unlikely to risk its reputation and access to U.S. decision-makers for a document that has been described as a 'glorified Op-Ed.'” Therefore, people shouldn't waste their time with such irrational thought! Needless to say, AIPAC is implicated in the John Pollard case as well, if anybody cares to remember! Then Smith goes on to play water down the significance of the information that Franklin “allegedly passed” to AIPAC: “Apparently, however, the information was not so sensitive that officials refrained from sketching for the Post some of the directive's main topics and noting that competing parties in the administration disagree over the direction of Iran policy. Some of the directives main topics is not the same as passing over the whole document, Mr. Smith, and thus your man Franklin did indeed deliver classified information, which is by law and conscience an act of treason on any book. Then Smith delves into the document's treatise on US policy on Iran and again suggests that “No one is currently pressing for military action against Iran”, so there is no danger in such slip of information.
Of course, Mr. Smith then makes a suggestion that an unfound rumor is being circulated of a tie up between some US officials and the Likudniks of Israel and many conspiracy theories are arising: “while the research into the neocons' ideas about the region and their connections to Israel might have begun as a partisan exercise in aggressive political journalism and speculative intellectual history, it has now come to resemble an old narrative in Western culture that engenders rumors of a “cabal,” a secret government within the government, run by people whose loyalty to the state that harbors them is dubious. The word “Jew” isn't used, but “Likud” is tossed around with an alarming facility”. There we go again, the anti Semitic shame. Do people who follow this thought have any factual evidence to draw on?, asks Smith, referring to those who suggest that the Neo-cons and the Likudniks are so intimately attached. Mr. Smith forgets that he himself has noted that Douglas Feith is one of the strongest advocates for an American invasion of Iraq, way back in 1996, for the sake of the security of Israel. The danger of suggesting this to Smith is that “some of the talking heads they're hearing are advancing conspiracy theories and accusing U.S. government officials of dual loyalty verging on treason”. God forbid that anyone who spies for Israel should be a traitor!
Then, Smith goes on to suggest that it is really 9/11 that has driven the neo cons towards advocating the present White House Administration's policy in the Middle East; “The fundamental issue is that had it not been for Sept. 11, the neocons' ideas that wound up winning the day)among them, regime change in Iraq, and perhaps elsewhere, and the push for democracy in the Middle East)would have remained fodder for policy papers. Up until 9/11, the premise of U.S. Middle East policy was to maintain stability in the region in order to secure our national interests”. Come on Mr. Smith, for a year and a half, the White House literally relinquished itself from doing anything for the sake of peace in the Middle East and allowed the Intifadha to mushroom into an ugly hell for the Palestinians, thanks to Israeli prodding, well before 9/11. In fact, this closed eye attitude may have been the cause d''tre for 9/11, if not its driving influence. Nevertheless, why roam into disparate fields to cover up for a clear case of treason (against the United States), which for people like Mr. Smith is almost honorable, because they themselves are more keen on defending the illegitimate interests of Israel than the legitimate interests of their very own homelands?
It is worth noting that Lee Smith has written several misleading articles and books on the Qur'an, the Arabs and the Middle East, all of which show a clear effort to misinform the American public about the Middle East culture and religion, with a view towards enhancing Israel's image. This includes the outrageous lie that “beheadings are Quranic ordinances” (The Qur'an never mentions the word!).
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