WHY DO MOST AMERICANS KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THESE ISSUES

Exclusive: by Dr Alan Sabrosky (Ph.D, University of Michigan), a ten-year US Marine Corps veteran and a 1986 graduate of the US Army War College VIA Intifada Palestine.

This is not intended for those who follow these issues, but as a primer  for a general public (especially Americans) who do not follow them, and in fact are not even aware that they are issues!  Hoping that others may also find useful material in it.   Far too often, issues involving Israel and its actions are addressed in a sophisticated and complex manner, often with little or no linkage among them. This is fine for professionals who are well versed in the subject matter, and can infer detail and linkages where none is explicitly given or made.

But it is NOT so for a general public, most of whom are not even aware that these issues exist, and have been exposed to a steady diet of pro-Israel propaganda throughout most if not all of their lives.

This can be used in many ways, but I would focus on state and local officials, newspapers and radio and TV stations, and veterans groups. The classic “grass roots” approach is the only way to circumvent the virtual lock the Zionists have at the national level in the political realm and the media. So let us begin.

Towards a Changing View

I began as a supporter of Israel. I knew nothing of ‘the Nakba’ (Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948) and wouldn’t have cared much if I had heard of it. In the years of death, ethnic cleansing and resettlement of peoples during and after WWII, it just didn’t matter. And with the USSR supporting most of the Arab countries, US support of Israel (like Iran under the Shah) made sense. It was only in the aftermath of the Six Days War (1967) that things changed.

Israeli Attack on the USS Liberty

On June 8, 1967, early in the Six-Day Middle East War, Israeli aircraft and motor torpedo boats attacked the USS Liberty, a US Navy intelligence ship off the coast. Over 200 sailors and Marines were killed or wounded. Israel declared it had mistaken the ship for an Egyptian horse transport, and the US Government accepted that explanation. So did I, until 8 years later. Then I learned. Separate attempts by the two carriers with the US 6th Fleet to launch aircraft to come to the rescue of the USS Liberty were recalled: The first by Defense Secretary Robert McNamara; the second personally by then-President Lyndon Johnson. Either rescue effort would have prevented most of the US casualties.

It is interesting to know that even then, the US Commander-in-Chief valued Israel more than the lives of Americans in uniform. And isn’t it a pity that nothing has changed?

But the Killer is 9/11, orchestrated by Israel

We have all heard of 19 named Arabs in 4 planes, bringing down the two tallest buildings at the World Trade Center, striking the Pentagon, and putting one plane into a Pennsylvania field.

We have not heard the rest of the story.

It begins with WTC7,and creates an evidentiary trail leading directly to Israel and its cohorts in the US.

WTC7  – so much more than the proverbial  “smoking gun”

The 47-story WTC7 collapsed straight down into its own footprint the  evening of 9/11, even though it was not hit by a  plane. This map depicts  the layout of the World Trade Center, and the path of debris from the  impacting  aircraft.

Note that smaller buildings  closer to the Twin Towers did not collapse in that manner, even though at  least one was hit by debris from  a plane and others by debris from  WTC1 & WTC2.

A striking video involves  an interview on Dutch TV with a Dutch  demolitions expert named Danny Jowenko.

It  should be seen in its entirety:

Some key images follow:

The Implications of WTC7

• First, the controlled demolition of WTC7 means if one building at the WTC was wired for a controlled demolition, then all three were.
• Second, the impacting civilian airliners were intended to provide a gruesome and shocking distraction that would facilitate the actual destruction of the buildings by other means.
• Third, any successful operation of this type requires expertise, access to the target(s), and effective local support to facilitate post-attack escape & evasion.
• Fourth, neither the 19 named Arabs nor any of their possible supporters in the US or elsewhere had the expertise, access and local support needed to do that.
• Fifth, only Israel had the required expertise, access and local support – inside and outside of the US Government – and a positive incentive to bring down those buildings, which was to enrage the American public and bring the US into war against Israel’s enemies.

So much links Israel to 9/11 – Only a public confession is missing, e.g.

• Many key Bush Administration officials came from PNAC (Project for a New American Century). All were Zionists (Israeli partisans). They wrote about the need for a “catalytic event” to mobilize the American people.
• Eight months after coming into office, they got their catalytic event on 9/11, followed by the wars their agenda required.
• The company providing 24/7 electronic & personal security to the WTC, Kroll Associates, was owned & operated by Zionists, as was the WTC itself as of July 2001.
• The owners and their immediate relatives seem to have been uncharacteristically absent on the morning of 9/11. Hundreds of American Jews died at the WTC & the Pentagon, but as best as can be determined, only 3 Israelis out of some 4,000 normally there, plus 2 more on the planes.
• The senior fatality among WTC personnel was a retired Irish-American FBI agent in his first days on his job as Director of Security.
• A private Israeli-owned security company called ICTS, registered in the Netherlands, provided security services (sometimes through a wholly owned subsidiary) to all three airports from which the four hijacked planes departed.
• ICTS also provided security at the airports in Paris & Amsterdam, from which the so-called “shoe” & “underwear” bombers respectively departed.
• Bergen, NJ residents saw five people on a white van filming the attacks and visibly celebrating. They had set up their cameras before the first plane hit. Police arrested them. All were Israelis. Bomb-sniffing dogs reacted as if they had detected explosives, although officers were unable to find anything. The FBI seized the van for further testing.
• All 5 were later released at the instigation of Israeli & American Jewish leaders, some in the US Government. Details are still classified.

A second van was stopped on the approaches to the George Washington Bridge. As CBS’s Dan Rather said in his live report:

“Two suspects are in FBI custody after a truckload of explosives were discovered around the George Washington Bridge. That bridge links New York to New Jersey over the Hudson River. Whether the discovery of those explosives had anything to do with other events today is unclear, but the FBI, has two suspects in hand, said the truckload of explosives, enough explosives were in the truck to do great damage to the George Washington Bridge…“

Those suspects and the incident then seem to have disappeared from the record.

• NORAD (North American Air Defense command) and its fighters were conspicuously tardy. They should have intercepted the 4 aircraft within minutes but did not do so, due to a linked series of failures to (1) get timely FAA reports of the deviating aircraft, (2) scramble fighters from the closest bases, (3) intercept at maximum speed, and (4) redeploy already airborne fighters to do the intercepts.
• Several PNAC alums and their counterparts were in positions to affect that outcome.

And as for the 9/11 Commission…

• A fatally flawed commission, not least because of its pro-Israel staffing.
• Many implausible details were accepted or allowed to stand without comment, such as the delivery by a well-dressed man of an intact passport to a detective at the base of the Twin Towers – a passport used to identify one of the named hijackers, that somehow survived the plane’s impact, the ensuing explosion and fire, and an 800-foot fall unaffected by wind.
• The 9/11 Commission’s Executive Director Philip D. Zelikow evidently ensured that nothing deflecting attention from the 19 named Arabs, or toward Israel, would make the final report, whose reading defies belief.
• He also told an audience at the University of Virginia on September 10, 2002 that the real reason for his urging war with Iraq regardless of 9/11 was “the threat against Israel.” His concerns and loyalties are at least consistent.

So just what is the US supporting?

• History, policy, and governmental actions tell only part of the story, of course.
• The attitudes and values prevalent in Israel are also important, and almost unknown in the US.
• Here are some of both that speak volumes.

Attack on Gaza: Israel’s Way of War

• The Israeli assault on Gaza in December 2008 – January 2009 is a classic case in ruthlessness applied to a densely populated urban area. In the operation, some 1,400 Palestinians were killed – nearly a third of whom were women and children who had no conceivable military role – and approximately 5,400 more were wounded.

• Israel denied any excesses or significant casualties among noncombatants. The evidence says otherwise.

• Differing estimates are presented here from: (1) B’Tselem, an Israeli Human Rights organization; (2) its Palestinian counterpart; and  (3) the official Israeli military estimate.

You will note that the Palestinian organization has a lower figure of combatants killed than the other two, but is still very close to that of B’Tselem. Both consider police officers to be different from combatants, while the Israeli military makes no such distinction. Also the two Human Rights groups have nearly identical counts of women and children killed, while the Israeli military minimizes those losses, perhaps considering families of dead police officers to be militants, too.

The first Israeli attacks

Israel opened its attack on Gaza with simultaneous strikes on numerous Palestinian police stations, including the graduating class of a Palestinian police academy. Nearly a third of the so-called “militants” killed were police officers and young cadets.

I was reminded of my own graduation from Marine boot camp, standing there in my new uniform with my family and friends across the parade ground. It was a time of celebration.

But in Gaza, the Israeli strike force – mostly American-made, with American munitions – came, and left this carnage. Had I survived something like this at my Marine Corps graduation, I would want the perpetrators (to quote Rahm Emanuel) dead, dead, dead…

Then there were the “militants” who disguised themselves as children….

....compounded by the widespread use by Israel of white phosphorus and cluster bombs (both provided by the US) in a densely populated urban area, the former a war crime – and therefore its Israeli perpetrators war criminals. The image on the left below is a UN school under attack; the other is a woman whose husband and baby daughter were killed by the white phosphorus shells that burned her. A Jerusalem Tribunal seems to be in order…

And we wonder why they, and so many others, hate the US

Every international tribunal and agency that investigates Israel and Palestine, including one headed by a Jewish judge from South Africa, has strongly condemned Israel for this onslaught, among many others. Joining the condemnation are many traditional US allies. This, too, few Americans understand.

But the US Government continues to exercise its veto in the UN Security Council to protect Israel from any international sanctions. On February 18, 2011, the US used its veto against all 14 other members.

This happens often. In recent years, the US has used its veto power more than the other 4 permanent members combined – almost always on behalf of Israel.

An article of faith

A key issue is the extent to which an orthodox or ultra-orthodox version of Judaism permeates an otherwise largely secular Israeli society.

The former Israel Defense Forces’ chief rabbi, Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki, told students in a pre-army yeshiva program in 2009 that soldiers who “show mercy” toward the enemy in wartime will be “damned”.

His views were controversial, but he was NOT repudiated by the Israeli government, and he completed his full 4-year term.

His replacement is somewhat less extreme, but Rontzki’s views are still popular in Israel, especially with Jewish settlers and the ultra-orthodox.

So this is faith? (An Israeli girl inscribes her own message of hate)

One of the most extreme examples to emerge is a controversial book called The King’s Torah, written by two settler rabbis. One chilling edict is that:

The prohibition ‘Thou Shalt Not Murder’ applies only “to a Jew who kills a Jew,” write Rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur of the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. Non-Jews are “uncompassionate by nature” and attacks on them “curb their evil inclination,” while babies and children of Israel’s enemies may be killed since “it is clear that they will grow to harm us.”

Many in Israel condemned it. Many also supported it.

Most Americans heard nothing about it. Guess why…

Then there is the Wall…

One of the great ironies is that two decades after the Berlin Wall fell, Israel has been constructing an “Apartheid Wall” around and within occupied Palestine, to protect Jewish settlers and contain Palestinian resistance.

It has been noted that The most obvious historical parallel to the barrier is the Berlin Wall, which was 96 miles long…. Israel’s barrier, still under construction, is expected to reach at least 403 miles in length… The average height of the Berlin Wall was 11.8 feet….compared with the maximum current height of Israel’s Wall — 25 feet… four times as long and in places twice as high as the Berlin Wall.

For the US, what was bad in Europe is fine in Palestine, if Israel wants it.

…And the Jewish Settlers

There are perhaps a half-million Jewish settlers, many from the US & Russia, in Palestine. Not all are religious fanatics, racist or violent.

But the most extreme ultra-orthodox beliefs, blatant racism and an affinity for violence have fertile ground in the settlements, all of them on Palestinian lands illegally, except, of course, to Israel and the US Government.

Their influence in Israel is significant and rising, the tip of an Israeli society that is far more racist, militarist and intolerant than South Africa during apartheid – a point many black South Africans have made repeatedly, but which somehow is never considered “newsworthy” by the mainstream media (MSM) in the US.

And as if that were not enough, here is the Israel we support and enable

Israeli expansion of settlements continues in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Their usual practice is for armed police to enter a Palestinian area at night and evict the residents, then bring in Jewish settlers and protect them.

This is what happened to the woman in the picture and her family, losing a home of nearly a half-century. She and friends returned the next day to try to salvage something from the ruin of their life. This is what she met; the picture was taken by a friend.

Lovely, right? This is what the US protects with its pledges of eternal support for Israel…

The face of an Israel it dares not let Americans see.

So why do most Americans know nothing about these things?

• Accurate portrayals and graphics that leave no doubt about what Israel has done, to the US and to others, are rarely seen in the US.
• The US Government generally, like the 9/11 Commission itself, studiously avoided any evidence pointing to Israeli involvement.
• Few in Washington, D.C.– any branch, either party or independents, elected or appointed — dare stand up & criticize Israel for anything.

And just WHO is in charge here?

Few Americans therefore even suspect what much of the world knows: Israel, through the ownership of the mainstream media (MSM) and the leverage exercised by a hydra-headed pro-Israel lobby, effectively

controls the US Government, especially the Congress. Indeed, the Congress has for decades accurately been described as “Israeli occupied territory.”

This is particularly true of candidates for the Presidency. No one today can be a serious contender for President from either major party without what have become obligatory pledges of fealty to Israel and laudatory appearances before major Jewish audiences.

But I remember when that was not so, and when our President was expected to serve US & not Israeli interests…

The same holds for the Administration, no matter which party is in power

Almost all of the key US officials dealing with the Middle East were and are Jewish, many with dual citizenship. (The “neo-conservatives” began as Jewish Democrats dissatisfied with President Carter, but now include some who are not Jewish.) Those who are not are strongly pro-Israel, a virtual condition of their appointment, confirmation and support by a Congress whose members compete for Israeli approval – or keep silent

Ha’aretz, an Israeli newspaper, remarked in late 2009 that “Every appointee to the American government must endure a thorough background check by the American Jewish community.“No surprise to Israelis, nor to anyone in the US policy community, but a great surprise to most Americans – if they ever heard or read about it.

Anyone in the US pointing this out, or even criticizing Israel in any way, is immediately assailed as an anti-Semite or (if Jewish) a self-hating Jew, no matter how ridiculous the charges might be in reality.

This is not surprising. Israel’s politicians and supporters have no choice. Like lawyers who find themselves defending a hopelessly guilty client with both law and evidence against them, they pound the table and hurl vile accusations, hoping to quiet the accusers.

But it is important to understand that the current concept of anti-Semitism has nothing to do with bigotry towards Jews or Judaism.

Indeed, the entire debate over Israel is not one of “Jew versus anti-Semite” as Israel’s supporters would have everyone else believe. It is one of Zionists (supporters of Israel, not all of them Jewish) versus Israel’s critics, a growing number of whom are themselves Jewish, including some Israelis.

What “anti-Semitism” means now is any criticism of Israel, or its foreign or domestic policies and actions, or its treatment of Palestinians, or of any individual in the US or elsewhere who supports Israel.

The “new” charge of anti-Semitism is therefore intended to shield Israel in the face of activities that, to Israel & its supporters, are “existential threats” to “delegitimize” it, and not an elementary quest for justice and peace, which to most Israelis means only their hegemony.

So what is this about the Zionist control of the US mainstream media (MSM)?

Information is power, and the overwhelmingly Zionist-owned MSM makes sure that Americans see, hear and read what Israel wants them to do. This, plus the enormous financial leverage provided by a brigade of Jewish political action committees (PACs) in the US, gives them effective control of both public opinion and the US Government.

This is what it looked like in 2001-2002…

Mainstream Media 2001-2002

CEOs and Directors of companies can change as often as Boards of Directors vote.

But if we could “freeze frame” the CEOs of the largest U.S. Media companies in mid 2002, covering the aftermath of 9/11, the attack on Afghanistan and the lead-in to the war in Iraq, we would find that ten outspoken Zionists ran the vast majority of U.S. television networks and other media companies including movies, radio, and publishing at that time.

Note that all except Rupert Murdoch are Americans and Jewish; Murdoch is an Australian, apparently with one Jewish grandparent, but a fervent & influential Zionist nonetheless.

….Zionist control has visibly increased today: Media conglomerates owned or led by Zionists in 2011 control:

• •All of the major networks (ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, NBC).
• •All of the major national newspapers (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today).
• •All three weekly news magazines (Time, Newsweek, US News & World Report).
• •All major political journals (Nation, National Review, New Republic, Weekly Standard).
• •Most of the major film studios in Hollywood and New York City.
• •Most of the major publishing houses.
• •Many ISPs (internet service providers).

The silence of the media on WTC7 and so many of the anomalies associated with 9/11 is deafening. The natural tendency of the media is to investigate any alleged governmental misdeeds with relish, seeing therein prestige and profits.That the media did NOT do that with 9/11, and has generally either ignored or disparaged other efforts to do so, is because its ownership and management knew, suspected or feared that any evidentiary trail would lead directly or indirectly to Israel and its US support base.

And lobbies, lobbies everywhere…

• Israel has so many PACs and supporting groups that it has a “Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations” to coordinate the activities of its current list of 51 members.
• AIPAC (the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee) which focuses on the US Government (especially the Congress), is just one of those 51 members, although arguably the most potent because of its focus on Washington.
• The Israeli Government sponsored ICIC Hasbara (public diplomacy) offers a wide range of services.
• The Hasbara Fellowships program extends this to campuses.
• “StandWithUs” continues this, with a strong pro-settler spin.
• The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) assails any effort to hold Israel accountable for its actions, seeing “anti-Semites” (their own witches, perhaps?) everywhere.
• Campus Watch
• Jihad Watch
• UN Watch
• Plus a host of funded “policy” and “research” centers, often at otherwise legitimate Institutes and study centers, in Washington and elsewhere, catering to both liberals and conservatives of any and all political persuasions

Epilogue: Costs & Consequences

The price the US pays…

For the joy and satisfaction of providing unlimited and unquestioning support of Israel, we have had a national tragedy (9/11); have waged two needless wars (Afghanistan & Iraq); and are being goaded into a third equallyneedless war against Iran (with Syria to follow) by the same people who brought us the others.

As of 2/2011, these wars have cost the US some $1.2 trillion, exclusive of the losses at the WTC and the assistance we have provided Israel. Our casualties to date are approximately 67,000 killed and wounded. Both figures will rise sharply following an attack on Iran.

And there is the erosion of our freedom under the misbegotten “Patriot Act” and its offspring…

And what we have done to others

• Our price does not include all of the death & suffering & destruction we have caused at Israel’s instigation.
• We have shattered two countries already, and aside from the internal damage to them, there are literally millions of dead, wounded & dispossessed refugees in Afghanistan & Iraq, more of them in Pakistan, and of course the long-suffering Palestinians.

Where we go…

• Depends on what kind of a legacy we wish to leave to our grandchildren and to posterity:
• The US can be a protector, enabler and ally of first and last resort to an Israel few would support if they truly knew what is was and did, spending our lives and treasure in support of its ambitions; or
• The American people can realize that they have been misled & betrayed from within and without, take back their government, and treat Israel as the rogue it is – a criminal state we have fostered.

CHOOSE CAREFULLY & WELL

About the Writer: Alan Sabrosky (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is a writer and consultant specializing in national and international security affairs. In December 1988, he received the Superior Civilian Service Award after more than five years of service at the U.S. Army War College as Director of Studies, Strategic Studies Institute, and holder of the General of the Army Douglas MacArthur Chair of Research. He is listed in WHO’S WHO IN THE EAST (23rd ed.). A Marine Corps Vietnam veteran and a 1986 graduate of the U.S. Army War College, Dr. Sabrosky’s teaching and research appointments have included the United States Military Academy, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Middlebury College and Catholic University; while in government service, he held concurrent adjunct professorships at Georgetown University and the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Dr. Sabrosky has lectured widely on defense and foreign affairs in the United States and abroad. You can email Dr. Alan Sabrosky at:docbrosk@comcast.net

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!