![Ha'aretz](../../std/masthead/Haaretz2.gif) Wednesday, September 8, 2004 Focus 10 ways the
Pentagon spy case may damage Israel By Bradley Burston Haaretz Correspondent THE dread felt by Israeli and
American Jewish officials was as rooted as the
Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as fresh as the
headline that they feared could break any
minute. ![click for origin](../../../pictures/RadDiTrans2.gif) David
Irving comments: WE notice that no damage is inferred to
have occurred to the United States, just
Israel. It is a sorry business
-- except of course for AIPAC, which is
using it to milk still more funds from its
loyal and wealthy support base of
half-Americans. Is this any way for the
United States' plucky little Ally (also
known to others including the former
French ambassador in London as "that
sh*tty little country") in the Middle East
to behave? Come to that, isn't it
odd that this plucky little "ally" of the
American people has selfishly failed to
respond to Bush's pleas for more troops on
the ground in Iraq, and has once again
persuaded other countries to send their
soldiers to die for them? No US newspapers have so
far noticed that fact. No, that is not
right, of course -- they have noticed it,
but for some reason have failed to remark
upon it. "It sounds almost like
the Protocols of the Elders of Zion," says
one scholar quoted in this article. You
said it, not we. ![](../../std/dings/squaregrey.gif) ![click](../../02/10/images/birthmark_150.jpg) "Birthmark"
-a Russian cartoonist's view of Israel
(click to enlarge) | Could Israel have used its client American Israel
Public Affairs Committee lobbying group as a
conduit to receive classified information from a
Pentagon analyst or the National Security
Agency?Such was the implication of a flurry of media
reports which emerged last month. Stated
differently, could an Israeli agency have been so
unwise as to have, in a single stroke, risked
blunting the efficacy of AIPAC, casting American
Jews in the shadow of accusations of dual loyalty
and undue influence on US policymaking, and
endangering the Jewish state's only indispensable
alliance, its lifeblood tie to Washington. Israel says no. AIPAC says the same.
[This website says:
"Mandy Rice-Davies" to that] And
although from the start the reports have offered
much smoke and little actual fire, the case
surrounding Pentagon analyst Lawrence
Franklin presented Israel and AIPAC with
the diplomatic equivalent of an unexploded cluster
bomb. Even as the case recedes from the headlines,
it could do significant harm to Israel in a large
number of ways ? whether the allegations are true
or not.
1.
Conspiracy Theory and anti-Semitism "Even if the present affair pales, shrinks and
fades away, it can supply fuel to the conspiracy
theory, one that is widespread in certain sectors
of the American media," said political scientist
Avi Ben-Zvi, citing maverick Republican
rightist Pat Buchanan and other strident
right and left-wing critics of Israeli influence on
American policymaking. According to the theory,
Ben-Zvi said, Jews in key positions in the
administration, among them suspect analyst
Franklin's neo-conservative -- and Jewish --
superiors, Deputy Defense Minister Paul
Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, a senior
aide to Donald Rumsfeld on Iran and Iraq
policy, represent "an enthusiastically pro-Israeli
group diverting American policy to a direction
which serves non-American goals -- manipulating and
directing policy. " "It sounds almost like the
Protocols of the Elders of Zion," Ben-Zvi said. The
post-Saddam quagmire in Iraq has only intensified
the sensitivity of the issue, as some leftists have
argued that only Israel has benefited from a war
which a "cabal" of Jewish neo-conservatives drove
into being.
2.
Closing off sources of shared intelligence
Well-placed former members of the Israeli
intelligence community have said that there are as
many as thousands of contacts a year between
American and Israeli figures, colleagues in a
number of fields, in which non-classified but
potentially valuable information is exchanged. In
the wake of the Franklin case, American officials,
it is feared, will now shy away from contacts with
Israelis, long a key source of information-sharing.
Moreover, the allegations tying Franklin, AIPAC,
and Israel come at a time of strained relations
between the Central Intelligence Agency and the
Mossad,
a tension that may have scaled down CIA cooperation
with Israel of late. The sharing of information is
vital to both sides, as the United States has long
received from Israel clues gleaned from the Middle
East, while the Jewish state has relied on American
sources for early warnings of potential attacks on
Israel or Israeli or Jewish-linked interests
abroad.
3.
Undermining AIPAC Of all the weapons in Israel's policy arsenal,
few have been more consistently potent and reliable
than the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
"Apart from our direct military strength, our
relations with the United States, in which AIPAC
plays a very strong part, are our second-ranking
strategic asset," said former Israeli ambassador to
Washington Itamar Rabinovich. It has been
suggested that a key source of AIPAC's strength is
its widespread image of unparalleled clout in
affecting foreign policy regarding Israel, an image
that the affair could sap. In fact, AIPAC's very
success in lobbying for Israel's interests has also
rendered the group, which boasts 65,000 members in
all 50 states, vulnerable to charges of undue
influence in Washington decision making. Late last
month, FBI agents probing the Franklin case are
said to have questioned two senior AIPAC officials,
its foreign policy affairs director and its
specialist on Iran, the Gulf area and oil-related
issues.
4.
Compromising efforts to curb Iran According to press reports, Franklin, a lead
Iran hand in the Pentagon's policy planning office,
is alleged to have given two AIPAC officials a
draft of a presidential order on US-Iran policy, a
draft which then allegedly reached an Israeli
diplomat. The accounts said that FBI agents , using
wiretaps and other surveillance methods, were
monitoring a meeting between AIPAC officials and
Naor Gilon, chief of political affairs at
the Israeli Embassy in Washington, when Franklin
unexpectedly appeared and joined the group. Unnamed
US officials were quoted as saying that the alleged
document contained a range of proposals aimed at
destabilizing the regime in Tehran. Now, in the
wake of shadowy reports on Franklin -- a key
Pentagon advocate of regime change in Tehran --
there is a sense that the case could swing
Washington's post-election policy balance, in favor
of those officials who argue for a softer approach
toward Iran. "Coming after Iraq, this could take
away momentum for a regime-change policy in a
second Bush term," Middle East affairs expert
Kenneth Katzman told the Forward
newspaper last week. The affair could also blunt a
longtime Israeli campaign to persuade Washington to
marshal its clout to
counter Iran's widely suspected efforts to build
nuclear weapons.
5.
Estranging American Jewry A major figure in the US Jewish community
responded last month with an explicit sense of
relief on hearing that analyst Franklin was not
Jewish. Nonetheless, the affair has already stirred
implied questions of dual loyalty and divided
allegiance among American Jews, until recently a
long-buried staple of native US anti-Semitism. The
implied allegations of dual loyalty could have an
effect on how American Jews themselves make career
choices, persuading them to steer clear of
government work for fear of falling prey to
suspicions. "Even if the story evaporates away, its
unpleasant 'deposits' will not," Rabinovich argued.
"Every affair of this type which fosters the murky
atmosphere [of suspicions of divided
allegiance] makes more
people ask themselves if they really want to hire a
Jewish analyst or other professional. "
6.
Souring ties with Washington George
W. Bush has often been expansive on matters
related to Israel, lauding Ariel Sharon as a
man of peace, inviting
the prime minister to the White House again and
again. But the
administration's
silence over the FBI probe -- reports of
which threatened for a time to shadow what turned
out to be a Bush victory lap at the Republican
Convention -- registered loud and clear in Israel,
which fervently hopes that the alleged spying
affair will not render administration officials
reluctant to appear overly pro-Israel. "The most
important connection is that of the war in Iraq, in
which Israel is viewed as having dragged the United
States into the war," Rabinovich said. "At the same
time, there are figures in the American
intelligence community, or on its margins, who for
years have disliked the intimacy of the ties, and
disliked the fact that Israel both receives US aid
to develop weapons systems and sells weapons
systems, which may compete with American systems.
"
7.
Restirring the Pollard affair In a nadir of US-Israel relations. Jonathan
Pollard, a naval analyst, passed highly
classified American material to Israeli
intelligence agents until he was seized in the
mid-80s. "Although all of the information currently
available shows that this isn't a new Pollard
affair, in certain respects 'the Franklin affair'
could prove more dangerous for the organized Jewish
community," Haaretz Washington correspondent
Nathan Guttman said. "When the case of
Jonathan Pollard erupted 19 years ago, it was
easier for Jews to distance themselves from him and
to claim that the man was a lone operative, not
someone who could tarnish the entire community with
the 'dual loyalty' brush. "Now the situation is
more problematic, not because of Larry Franklin,
but because of AIPAC's role. "
8.
A Congressional investigation A top ranking Republican member of the House of
Representatives, Majority Whip Roy Blunt of
Missouri, has indicated that Congress could at some
point launch its own probe into the Franklin
affair. At the same time, congressional sources
have said that no inquiry is likely unless the FBI
turns up substantive evidence of wrongdoing.
9.
A pattern of allegations A new challenge facing Israeli officials is the
difficulty of responding to news reports which are
long on accusations but short on substance. A
recent Los Angeles Times report stated:
"There is a huge, aggressive, ongoing set of
Israeli activities directed against the United
States," said a former intelligence official who
was familiar with the latest FBI probe and who
recently left government. "Anybody who worked in
counterintelligence in a professional capacity will
tell you the Israelis are among the most aggressive
and active countries targeting the United States.
"
10.
An anti-neocon backlash Some US Jewish leaders have suggested that the
Franklin affair was part of an wider campaign by
CIA and State Department officials to sandbag,
discredit, and ultimately dethrone the
neo-conservatives in positions of influence. Some
believe that the neocon influence has given the
Sharon government unprecedented access and
understanding in the administration, a status they
fear could be blunted by a backlash against neocon
thought.![](../../std/dings/square.gif) ![](../../std/dings/related_250.gif) . . . on this
website-
Ha'aretz: "FBI probes
Jewish sway on Bush government" | AIPAC
asks for money help against allegations in
Pentagon probe
Larry
Franklin information
Data update
US
Financial Aid To Israel -- Figures, Facts, and
Impact ![](../../std/dings/extlink.gif)
Previously: FBI
about to arrest Israeli spy, FBI believes Israel
spy at very highest level of the Pentagon
influenced Bush regime | Alleged
Leak to Israel Probed for a Year | Frequent
visitor to Israel, served in Israeli air
force | AIPAC's
whining defense | Israeli newspaper:
"Dual
loyalty" slur returns to haunt Jews
![](../../std/dings/extlink.gif)
Our
dossier on Jonathan Pollard, Israel's former spy
at the Navy Department, now serving life
imprisonment
FBI believes
Israel spy at very highest level of the Pentagon
influenced Bush regime
Dual-loyalty:
the agonizing dilemma of all Jews living outside
Israel: Jewish Journalists Grapple with 'doing
the write thing.'
The Forward Poll:
43 percent of Americans (Europeans: 59 percent)
declare that Israel is "a threat to world
peace" | Fox
news on same story
Sen.
Jay Rockefeller asks FBI to investigate the
(Israeli?-) forged documents Powell used as
evidence against Iraq | Jacob
G. Hornberger, The Rot at the Center of the
Empire
| FBI
probes fake papers on Iraq : Investigation into
role of foreign intelligence service Guess
whose?
The
Mossad approached FBI translators to serve
Israel, rather than US, promised soft
retirement
Outrage
among New York Jews that FBI is not hiring
them
FBI
Probes Mossad Espionage at Clinton White
House
The bribetakers
Latest
list of your local US lawmakers and the cash
they receive from Israel ![](../../std/dings/extlink.gif)
Not unconnected:
U.S.
Congress overwhelmingly approves Bush's position
on Israel-
|