16 may 2014

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) speaks to the press ahead of a meeting with US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in Jerusalem, on May 16, 2014
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Friday that world powers must deny Iran any possibility of developing a nuclear weapon as the search for a deal intensifies.
"I think that, while the talks with Iran are going on, there is one thing that must guide the international community and that is not to let the ayatollahs win," Netanyahu's office quoted him as saying at the beginning of their meeting in Jerusalem.
"We must not allow Iran, the foremost terrorist state of our time, to develop the ability to develop a nuclear weapon," Netanyahu said.
Hagel said that Washington had the same goal.
"I want to assure you prime minister, and the people of Israel, of the United States' continued commitment to assuring Iran does not get a nuclear weapon," he said in video distributed by the US embassy.
"America will do what we must to live up to that commitment," he added.
Although Iran currently has a nuclear energy program that it claims is meant for civilian purposes, Israel is known to have a large stockpile of undeclared nuclear weapons.
The Pentagon chief's visit to Israel came as the United States and other major powers pressed talks with Iran on a long-term agreement to allay international concerns about its nuclear ambitions.
A historic deal reached in November between Iran and the United States following the election of Iranian president Rouhani in June has been hailed by many around the world as a harbinger of better relations between the two power.
Israel, however, has strongly opposed the negotiations with its arch-enemy, and has said repeatedly that it is prepared to launch military action on its against Iran's nuclear facilities if it feels it necessary.
Netanyahu says that the diplomatic opening to the West overseen by President Hassan Rouhani since he took office last August is a charade as real power remains in the hands of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
At a meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Thursday, Hagel said the negotiations between the powers and Iran were not open-ended -- the parties are working to a July 20 target for an agreement.
He said Washington was continuing to cooperate closely with its Israeli ally on the Iran issue, even while the negotiations go on.
Hagel is on the last leg of a Middle East tour that also took him to Saudi Arabia, which has its own concerns about the nuclear talks with its regional rival.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Friday that world powers must deny Iran any possibility of developing a nuclear weapon as the search for a deal intensifies.
"I think that, while the talks with Iran are going on, there is one thing that must guide the international community and that is not to let the ayatollahs win," Netanyahu's office quoted him as saying at the beginning of their meeting in Jerusalem.
"We must not allow Iran, the foremost terrorist state of our time, to develop the ability to develop a nuclear weapon," Netanyahu said.
Hagel said that Washington had the same goal.
"I want to assure you prime minister, and the people of Israel, of the United States' continued commitment to assuring Iran does not get a nuclear weapon," he said in video distributed by the US embassy.
"America will do what we must to live up to that commitment," he added.
Although Iran currently has a nuclear energy program that it claims is meant for civilian purposes, Israel is known to have a large stockpile of undeclared nuclear weapons.
The Pentagon chief's visit to Israel came as the United States and other major powers pressed talks with Iran on a long-term agreement to allay international concerns about its nuclear ambitions.
A historic deal reached in November between Iran and the United States following the election of Iranian president Rouhani in June has been hailed by many around the world as a harbinger of better relations between the two power.
Israel, however, has strongly opposed the negotiations with its arch-enemy, and has said repeatedly that it is prepared to launch military action on its against Iran's nuclear facilities if it feels it necessary.
Netanyahu says that the diplomatic opening to the West overseen by President Hassan Rouhani since he took office last August is a charade as real power remains in the hands of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
At a meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Thursday, Hagel said the negotiations between the powers and Iran were not open-ended -- the parties are working to a July 20 target for an agreement.
He said Washington was continuing to cooperate closely with its Israeli ally on the Iran issue, even while the negotiations go on.
Hagel is on the last leg of a Middle East tour that also took him to Saudi Arabia, which has its own concerns about the nuclear talks with its regional rival.
13 may 2014

Member of Hamas's political bureau Mousa Abu Marzouk said that from the moment the Palestinian rivals signed the Palestinian reconciliation agreement, the US veto was present. Abu Marzouk made his remarks during his meeting on Monday with a galaxy of academics and intellectuals at the "House of Wisdom" in Gaza.
The Hamas official asserted that his Movement and Fatah faction were able to overcome many obstacles that had prevented the signing of the reconciliation agreement.
He expressed his belief that the elections would not solve all the problems in the Palestinian arena, and instead could lead to more complications, noting that the Palestinian state is under occupation and there is need for forming a constituent assembly entitled to restructure the Palestinian institutions and write a new constitution.
For his part, senior Hamas official Imad Al-Alami said that his Movement's decision to achieve the national reconciliation is irreversible, stressing that the Palestinian parties are able to overcome any disruptive pressures.
During a conference on the Palestinian reconciliation held in Gaza on Monday, Alami asserted that there were external pressures to obstruct the execution of the reconciliation agreement, but Hamas and Fatah managed to confront them.
He stated that dealing with the reconciliation agreement as a package deal would guarantee that all problems that caused the Palestinian division would be gone.
He also highlighted the importance of the popular rallying around the reconciliation agreement and pooling the national efforts in order to confront the challenges.
The Hamas official asserted that his Movement and Fatah faction were able to overcome many obstacles that had prevented the signing of the reconciliation agreement.
He expressed his belief that the elections would not solve all the problems in the Palestinian arena, and instead could lead to more complications, noting that the Palestinian state is under occupation and there is need for forming a constituent assembly entitled to restructure the Palestinian institutions and write a new constitution.
For his part, senior Hamas official Imad Al-Alami said that his Movement's decision to achieve the national reconciliation is irreversible, stressing that the Palestinian parties are able to overcome any disruptive pressures.
During a conference on the Palestinian reconciliation held in Gaza on Monday, Alami asserted that there were external pressures to obstruct the execution of the reconciliation agreement, but Hamas and Fatah managed to confront them.
He stated that dealing with the reconciliation agreement as a package deal would guarantee that all problems that caused the Palestinian division would be gone.
He also highlighted the importance of the popular rallying around the reconciliation agreement and pooling the national efforts in order to confront the challenges.
11 may 2014

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks with Minister of Intelligence Yuval Steinitz (R)
Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz on Saturday angrily denied the latest media charge of Israeli spying on its US ally and said that someone was trying to sour bilateral relations.
"One gets the impression that someone is trying to sabotage the excellent intelligence cooperation between the United States and Israel," state-owned Channel One TV and army radio quoted him as saying.
"In all my meetings with US intelligence chiefs and the political officials who are responsible for them, I have not heard a single complaint about Israeli spying on the United States," he added.
Newsweek magazine on Thursday said that during a 1998 visit to Israel by then US vice president Al Gore a Secret Service agent surprised an intruder emerging from an air duct in Gore's room, before his arrival.
"He hears a noise in the vent and he sees the vent clips being moved from the inside. And then he sees a guy starting to exit the vent into the room," Newsweek quoted a senior former US intelligence operative as recounting.
The agent "kind of coughed and the guy went back into the vents," he said.
It was Newsweek's second story on the topic this week.
On Tuesday it alleged that Israel spies on the United States more than any US other ally does, and that these activities have reached an alarming level.
The main targets are American industrial and technical secrets, the weekly said, quoting classified briefings on legislation that would make it easier for Israelis to get US visas, the Tuesday report said.
Israeli ministers rushed to deny the charge, saying that Israel was honoring pledges it made after Jonathan Pollard, a US naval analyst, was arrested in Washington in 1985 and sentenced to life in jail for spying on the United States for Israel.
An Israeli army radio presenter on Saturday speculated that the allegations could be calculated to torpedo renewed Israeli attempts to get Pollard freed.
He quoted Steinitz as saying that on Tuesday he would meet US Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein to discuss the reports.
Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz on Saturday angrily denied the latest media charge of Israeli spying on its US ally and said that someone was trying to sour bilateral relations.
"One gets the impression that someone is trying to sabotage the excellent intelligence cooperation between the United States and Israel," state-owned Channel One TV and army radio quoted him as saying.
"In all my meetings with US intelligence chiefs and the political officials who are responsible for them, I have not heard a single complaint about Israeli spying on the United States," he added.
Newsweek magazine on Thursday said that during a 1998 visit to Israel by then US vice president Al Gore a Secret Service agent surprised an intruder emerging from an air duct in Gore's room, before his arrival.
"He hears a noise in the vent and he sees the vent clips being moved from the inside. And then he sees a guy starting to exit the vent into the room," Newsweek quoted a senior former US intelligence operative as recounting.
The agent "kind of coughed and the guy went back into the vents," he said.
It was Newsweek's second story on the topic this week.
On Tuesday it alleged that Israel spies on the United States more than any US other ally does, and that these activities have reached an alarming level.
The main targets are American industrial and technical secrets, the weekly said, quoting classified briefings on legislation that would make it easier for Israelis to get US visas, the Tuesday report said.
Israeli ministers rushed to deny the charge, saying that Israel was honoring pledges it made after Jonathan Pollard, a US naval analyst, was arrested in Washington in 1985 and sentenced to life in jail for spying on the United States for Israel.
An Israeli army radio presenter on Saturday speculated that the allegations could be calculated to torpedo renewed Israeli attempts to get Pollard freed.
He quoted Steinitz as saying that on Tuesday he would meet US Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein to discuss the reports.
9 may 2014

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice assured Israel at high-level talks on Thursday that Washington remained determined to stop Iran developing nuclear arms, the White House said.
"The US delegation reaffirmed our commitment to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon," said a White House statement released after talks in Jerusalem between Rice, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior officials from both sides.
"The delegations held thorough consultations on all aspects of the challenge posed by Iran, and pledged to continue the unprecedented coordination between the United States and Israel," it added.
Earlier, Netanyahu said the best defense against a nuclear Iran was to block it from developing such a weapon in the first place and he referred to a new round of talks between Tehran and world powers due to open next week in Vienna.
"The most important thing is that Iran does not attain the ability to develop a nuclear weapon, and that needs to be and must be the ultimate and most important goal of the current negotiations with Iran," he said.
"That needs to be the object of the talks, that is Israel's position, that needs to be the position of everyone who really wants to prevent the renewed threat of mass destruction by a radical regime," Netanyahu said at a ceremony marking the 69th anniversary of the allied defeat of Nazi Germany.
The White House statement said the Israeli-US talks Thursday also dealt with "other critical regional and bilateral issues," without elaborating.
"The delegations shared views candidly and intensively, in the spirit of the extraordinary and unprecedented security cooperation between our two countries," it said.
It was Rice's first trip to Israel since she took office last July and it came shortly after the collapse of US-brokered Middle East peace talks.
The White House is assessing whether to try to salvage its Middle East peace efforts after the collapse in late April of nine months of US-brokered negotiations vigorously promoted by Secretary of State John Kerry.
Netanyahu suspended negotiations after the Palestine Liberation Organisation, dominated by Abbas' Fatah movement, struck a reconciliation deal with Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
'Catch 22'
"Netanyahu is in a 'Catch 22' situation," senior Palestinian official Nabil Shaath told a convention of the Israeli leftist party Meretz in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening.
"Before the reconciliation with Hamas, (the Israelis) argued that Fatah had no control over Hamas and therefore didn't represent all of the Palestinian people," he said.
"After the agreement with Hamas, they say we made a deal with a terror organisation."
Rice met for dinner late Thursday with President Mahmoud Abbas at his headquarters in Ramallah and said that despite the halt in talks the US remained committed to the process.
"Ambassador Rice underscored that while we have come to a pause in the parties’ talks, the United States believes the only way to achieve lasting peace is through direct negotiations that lead to two viable, independent states living side-by-side in peace and security," another White House statement said after their meeting.
Referring to the Hamas rapprochement: "She reiterated US policy that any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognition of the State of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations between the parties," the statement said.
Abbas told his guest that the Palestinian people's interest was "to seek the unity of land and people through the implementation of the reconciliation agreement and the formation of a government of independents to prepare free and fair elections," his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement.
"The US delegation reaffirmed our commitment to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon," said a White House statement released after talks in Jerusalem between Rice, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior officials from both sides.
"The delegations held thorough consultations on all aspects of the challenge posed by Iran, and pledged to continue the unprecedented coordination between the United States and Israel," it added.
Earlier, Netanyahu said the best defense against a nuclear Iran was to block it from developing such a weapon in the first place and he referred to a new round of talks between Tehran and world powers due to open next week in Vienna.
"The most important thing is that Iran does not attain the ability to develop a nuclear weapon, and that needs to be and must be the ultimate and most important goal of the current negotiations with Iran," he said.
"That needs to be the object of the talks, that is Israel's position, that needs to be the position of everyone who really wants to prevent the renewed threat of mass destruction by a radical regime," Netanyahu said at a ceremony marking the 69th anniversary of the allied defeat of Nazi Germany.
The White House statement said the Israeli-US talks Thursday also dealt with "other critical regional and bilateral issues," without elaborating.
"The delegations shared views candidly and intensively, in the spirit of the extraordinary and unprecedented security cooperation between our two countries," it said.
It was Rice's first trip to Israel since she took office last July and it came shortly after the collapse of US-brokered Middle East peace talks.
The White House is assessing whether to try to salvage its Middle East peace efforts after the collapse in late April of nine months of US-brokered negotiations vigorously promoted by Secretary of State John Kerry.
Netanyahu suspended negotiations after the Palestine Liberation Organisation, dominated by Abbas' Fatah movement, struck a reconciliation deal with Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
'Catch 22'
"Netanyahu is in a 'Catch 22' situation," senior Palestinian official Nabil Shaath told a convention of the Israeli leftist party Meretz in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening.
"Before the reconciliation with Hamas, (the Israelis) argued that Fatah had no control over Hamas and therefore didn't represent all of the Palestinian people," he said.
"After the agreement with Hamas, they say we made a deal with a terror organisation."
Rice met for dinner late Thursday with President Mahmoud Abbas at his headquarters in Ramallah and said that despite the halt in talks the US remained committed to the process.
"Ambassador Rice underscored that while we have come to a pause in the parties’ talks, the United States believes the only way to achieve lasting peace is through direct negotiations that lead to two viable, independent states living side-by-side in peace and security," another White House statement said after their meeting.
Referring to the Hamas rapprochement: "She reiterated US policy that any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognition of the State of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations between the parties," the statement said.
Abbas told his guest that the Palestinian people's interest was "to seek the unity of land and people through the implementation of the reconciliation agreement and the formation of a government of independents to prepare free and fair elections," his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement.
7 may 2014

Israel spies on the United States more than any other ally does and these activities have reached an alarming level, Newsweek magazine reported Tuesday.
The main targets are US industrial and technical secrets, the weekly said, quoting classified briefings on legislation that would make it easier for Israeli citizens to get visas to enter America.
Newsweek said a congressional staffer familiar with a briefing last January called the testimony "very sobering ... alarming ... even terrifying," and quoted another as saying the behavior was "damaging."
"No other country close to the United States continues to cross the line on espionage like the Israelis do," said a former congressional staffer who attended another classified briefing in late 2013, according to Newsweek.
It said that briefing was one of several in recent months given by the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, the FBI and the National Counterintelligence Directorate.
The former congressional staffer said the intelligence agencies did not give specifics, but cited "industrial espionage—folks coming over here on trade missions or with Israeli companies working in collaboration with American companies, (or) intelligence operatives being run directly by the government, which I assume meant out of the (Israeli) Embassy."
Israel's espionage activities in America are unrivaled and go far beyond activities by other close allies, such as Germany, France, Britain and Japan, counter-intelligence agents told members of the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees, Newsweek said.
"I don't think anyone was surprised by these revelations," the former aide was quoted as saying.
"But when you step back and hear ... that there are no other countries taking advantage of our security relationship the way the Israelis are for espionage purposes, it is quite shocking."
The main targets are US industrial and technical secrets, the weekly said, quoting classified briefings on legislation that would make it easier for Israeli citizens to get visas to enter America.
Newsweek said a congressional staffer familiar with a briefing last January called the testimony "very sobering ... alarming ... even terrifying," and quoted another as saying the behavior was "damaging."
"No other country close to the United States continues to cross the line on espionage like the Israelis do," said a former congressional staffer who attended another classified briefing in late 2013, according to Newsweek.
It said that briefing was one of several in recent months given by the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, the FBI and the National Counterintelligence Directorate.
The former congressional staffer said the intelligence agencies did not give specifics, but cited "industrial espionage—folks coming over here on trade missions or with Israeli companies working in collaboration with American companies, (or) intelligence operatives being run directly by the government, which I assume meant out of the (Israeli) Embassy."
Israel's espionage activities in America are unrivaled and go far beyond activities by other close allies, such as Germany, France, Britain and Japan, counter-intelligence agents told members of the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees, Newsweek said.
"I don't think anyone was surprised by these revelations," the former aide was quoted as saying.
"But when you step back and hear ... that there are no other countries taking advantage of our security relationship the way the Israelis are for espionage purposes, it is quite shocking."

Israel is flouting the “friendly” rules of espionage to steal U.S. trade and tech secrets
By Jeff Stein
Whatever happened to honor among thieves? When the National Security Agency was caught eavesdropping on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone, it was considered a rude way to treat a friend. Now U.S. intelligence officials are saying—albeit very quietly, behind closed doors on Capitol Hill—that our Israeli “friends” have gone too far with their spying operations here.
According to classified briefings on legislation that would lower visa restrictions on Israeli citizens, Jerusalem’s efforts to steal U.S. secrets under the cover of trade missions and joint defense technology contracts have “crossed red lines.”
Israel’s espionage activities in America are unrivaled and unseemly, counterspies have told members of the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees, going far beyond activities by other close allies, such as Germany, France, the U.K. and Japan. A congressional staffer familiar with a briefing last January called the testimony “very sobering…alarming…even terrifying.” Another staffer called it “damaging.”
The Jewish state’s primary target: America’s industrial and technical secrets.
“No other country close to the United States continues to cross the line on espionage like the Israelis do,” said a former congressional staffer who attended another classified briefing in late 2013, one of several in recent months given by officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the State Department, the FBI and the National Counterintelligence Directorate.
The intelligence agencies didn’t go into specifics, the former aide said, but cited “industrial espionage—folks coming over here on trade missions or with Israeli companies working in collaboration with American companies, [or] intelligence operatives being run directly by the government, which I assume meant out of the [Israeli] Embassy.”
An Israeli Embassy spokesman flatly denied the charges Tuesday after initially declining to comment. Aaron Sagui told Newsweek "Israel doesn't conduct espionage operations in the United States, period. We condemn the fact that such outrageous, false allegations are being directed against Israel." Representatives of two U.S. intelligence agencies, while acknowledging problems with Israeli spies, would not discuss classified testimony for the record. The FBI would neither confirm nor deny it briefed Congress. A State Department representative would say only that staff in its Consular and Israel Palestinian Affairs offices briefed members of Congress on visa reciprocity issues.
Of course, the U.S. spies on Israel, too. “It was the last place you wanted to go on vacation,” a former top CIA operative told Newsweek, because of heavy-handed Israeli surveillance. But the level of Israeli espionage here now has rankled U.S. counterspies.
“I don’t think anyone was surprised by these revelations,” the former aide said. “But when you step back and hear…that there are no other countries taking advantage of our security relationship the way the Israelis are for espionage purposes, it is quite shocking. I mean, it shouldn’t be lost on anyone that after all the hand-wringing over [Jonathan] Pollard, it’s still going on.”
Israel and pro-Israel groups in America have long lobbied U.S. administrations to free Pollard, a former U.S. naval intelligence analyst serving a life sentence since 1987 for stealing tens of thousands of secrets for Israel. (U.S. counterintelligence officials suspect that Israel traded some of the Cold War-era information to Moscow in exchange for the emigration of Russian Jews.) After denying for over a decade that Pollard was its paid agent, Israel apologized and promised not to spy on U.S. soil again. Since then, more Israeli spies have been arrested and convicted by U.S. courts.
I.C. Smith, a former top FBI counterintelligence specialist during the Pollard affair, tells Newsweek, “In the early 1980s, dealing with the Israelis was, for those assigned that area, extremely frustrating. The Israelis were supremely confident that they had the clout, especially on the Hill, to basically get [away] with just about anything. This was the time of the Criteria Country List—later changed to the National Security Threat List—and I found it incredible that Taiwan and Vietnam, for instance, were on [it], when neither country had conducted activities that remotely approached the Pollard case, and neither had a history of, or a comparable capability to conduct, such activities.”
While all this was going on, Israel was lobbying hard to be put on the short list of countries (38 today) whose citizens don’t need visas to visit here.
Until recently, the major sticking point was the Jewish state’s discriminatory and sometimes harsh treatment of Arab-Americans and U.S. Palestinians seeking to enter Israel. It has also failed to meet other requirements for the program, such as promptly and regularly reporting lost and stolen passports, officials say—a problem all the more pressing since Iranians were found to have boarded the missing Malaysia Airlines flight with stolen passports.
“But this is the first time congressional aides have indicated that intelligence and national security concerns also are considerations in weighing Israel’s admission into the visa waiver program,” Jonathan Broder, the foreign and defense editor for CQ Roll Call, a Capitol Hill news site, wrote last month. He quoted a senior House aide as saying, “The U.S. intelligence community is concerned that adding Israel to the visa waiver program would make it easier for Israeli spies to enter the country.”
The Israelis “thought they could just snap their fingers” and get friends in Congress to legislate visa changes, a Hill aide said, instead of going through the required hoops with DHS. But facing resistance from U.S. intelligence, Israel recently signaled it’s willing to work with DHS, both Israeli and U.S. officials say. “Israel is interested in entering into the visa waiver program and is taking concrete steps to meet its conditions,” Israeli Embassy spokesman Aaron Sagui told Newsweek. “Most recently, the U.S. and Israel decided to establish a working group to advance the process,” Sagui added, saying that “Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Zeev Elkin will head the Israeli delegation.” He refused to say when the Elkin delegation was coming.
Congressional aides snorted at the announcement. “The Israelis haven’t done s**t to get themselves into the visa waiver program,” the former congressional aide said, echoing the views of two other House staffers working on the issue. “I mean, if the Israelis got themselves into this visa waiver program and if we were able to address this [intelligence community] concern—great, they’re a close ally, there are strong economic and cultural links between the two countries, it would be wonderful if more Israelis could come over here without visas. I’m sure it would spur investment and tourist dollars in our economy and so on and so forth. But what I find really funny is they haven’t done s**t to get into the program. They think that their friends in Congress can get them in, and that’s not the case. Congress can lower one or two of the barriers, but they can’t just legislate the Israelis in.”
The path to visa waivers runs through DHS and can take years to navigate. For Chile, it was three years, a government official said on a not-for-attribution basis; for Taiwan, “several.” Requirements include “enhanced law enforcement and security-related data sharing with the United States; timely reporting of lost and stolen passports; and the maintenance of high counterterrorism, law enforcement, border control, aviation and document security standards,” a DHS statement said.
Israel is not even close to meeting those standards, a congressional aide said. “You’ve got to have machine-readable passports in place—the e-passports with a data chip in them. The Israelis have only just started to issue them to diplomats and senior officials and so forth, and that probably won’t be rolled out to the rest of their population for another 10 years.”
But U.S. counterspies will get the final word. And since Israel is as likely to stop spying here as it is to give up matzo for Passover, the visa barriers are likely to stay up.
As Paul Pillar, the CIA’s former national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia, told Newsweek, old habits are hard to break: Zionists were dispatching spies to America before there even was an Israel, to gather money and materials for the cause and later the fledgling state. Key components for Israel’s nuclear bombs were clandestinely obtained here. “They’ve found creative and inventive ways,” Pillar said, to get what they want.
“If we give them free rein to send people over here, how are we going to stop that?” the former congressional aide asked. “They’re incredibly aggressive. They’re aggressive in all aspects of their relationship with the United States. Why would their intelligence relationship with us be any different?”
Source: NEWSWEEK
By Jeff Stein
Whatever happened to honor among thieves? When the National Security Agency was caught eavesdropping on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cell phone, it was considered a rude way to treat a friend. Now U.S. intelligence officials are saying—albeit very quietly, behind closed doors on Capitol Hill—that our Israeli “friends” have gone too far with their spying operations here.
According to classified briefings on legislation that would lower visa restrictions on Israeli citizens, Jerusalem’s efforts to steal U.S. secrets under the cover of trade missions and joint defense technology contracts have “crossed red lines.”
Israel’s espionage activities in America are unrivaled and unseemly, counterspies have told members of the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees, going far beyond activities by other close allies, such as Germany, France, the U.K. and Japan. A congressional staffer familiar with a briefing last January called the testimony “very sobering…alarming…even terrifying.” Another staffer called it “damaging.”
The Jewish state’s primary target: America’s industrial and technical secrets.
“No other country close to the United States continues to cross the line on espionage like the Israelis do,” said a former congressional staffer who attended another classified briefing in late 2013, one of several in recent months given by officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the State Department, the FBI and the National Counterintelligence Directorate.
The intelligence agencies didn’t go into specifics, the former aide said, but cited “industrial espionage—folks coming over here on trade missions or with Israeli companies working in collaboration with American companies, [or] intelligence operatives being run directly by the government, which I assume meant out of the [Israeli] Embassy.”
An Israeli Embassy spokesman flatly denied the charges Tuesday after initially declining to comment. Aaron Sagui told Newsweek "Israel doesn't conduct espionage operations in the United States, period. We condemn the fact that such outrageous, false allegations are being directed against Israel." Representatives of two U.S. intelligence agencies, while acknowledging problems with Israeli spies, would not discuss classified testimony for the record. The FBI would neither confirm nor deny it briefed Congress. A State Department representative would say only that staff in its Consular and Israel Palestinian Affairs offices briefed members of Congress on visa reciprocity issues.
Of course, the U.S. spies on Israel, too. “It was the last place you wanted to go on vacation,” a former top CIA operative told Newsweek, because of heavy-handed Israeli surveillance. But the level of Israeli espionage here now has rankled U.S. counterspies.
“I don’t think anyone was surprised by these revelations,” the former aide said. “But when you step back and hear…that there are no other countries taking advantage of our security relationship the way the Israelis are for espionage purposes, it is quite shocking. I mean, it shouldn’t be lost on anyone that after all the hand-wringing over [Jonathan] Pollard, it’s still going on.”
Israel and pro-Israel groups in America have long lobbied U.S. administrations to free Pollard, a former U.S. naval intelligence analyst serving a life sentence since 1987 for stealing tens of thousands of secrets for Israel. (U.S. counterintelligence officials suspect that Israel traded some of the Cold War-era information to Moscow in exchange for the emigration of Russian Jews.) After denying for over a decade that Pollard was its paid agent, Israel apologized and promised not to spy on U.S. soil again. Since then, more Israeli spies have been arrested and convicted by U.S. courts.
I.C. Smith, a former top FBI counterintelligence specialist during the Pollard affair, tells Newsweek, “In the early 1980s, dealing with the Israelis was, for those assigned that area, extremely frustrating. The Israelis were supremely confident that they had the clout, especially on the Hill, to basically get [away] with just about anything. This was the time of the Criteria Country List—later changed to the National Security Threat List—and I found it incredible that Taiwan and Vietnam, for instance, were on [it], when neither country had conducted activities that remotely approached the Pollard case, and neither had a history of, or a comparable capability to conduct, such activities.”
While all this was going on, Israel was lobbying hard to be put on the short list of countries (38 today) whose citizens don’t need visas to visit here.
Until recently, the major sticking point was the Jewish state’s discriminatory and sometimes harsh treatment of Arab-Americans and U.S. Palestinians seeking to enter Israel. It has also failed to meet other requirements for the program, such as promptly and regularly reporting lost and stolen passports, officials say—a problem all the more pressing since Iranians were found to have boarded the missing Malaysia Airlines flight with stolen passports.
“But this is the first time congressional aides have indicated that intelligence and national security concerns also are considerations in weighing Israel’s admission into the visa waiver program,” Jonathan Broder, the foreign and defense editor for CQ Roll Call, a Capitol Hill news site, wrote last month. He quoted a senior House aide as saying, “The U.S. intelligence community is concerned that adding Israel to the visa waiver program would make it easier for Israeli spies to enter the country.”
The Israelis “thought they could just snap their fingers” and get friends in Congress to legislate visa changes, a Hill aide said, instead of going through the required hoops with DHS. But facing resistance from U.S. intelligence, Israel recently signaled it’s willing to work with DHS, both Israeli and U.S. officials say. “Israel is interested in entering into the visa waiver program and is taking concrete steps to meet its conditions,” Israeli Embassy spokesman Aaron Sagui told Newsweek. “Most recently, the U.S. and Israel decided to establish a working group to advance the process,” Sagui added, saying that “Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Zeev Elkin will head the Israeli delegation.” He refused to say when the Elkin delegation was coming.
Congressional aides snorted at the announcement. “The Israelis haven’t done s**t to get themselves into the visa waiver program,” the former congressional aide said, echoing the views of two other House staffers working on the issue. “I mean, if the Israelis got themselves into this visa waiver program and if we were able to address this [intelligence community] concern—great, they’re a close ally, there are strong economic and cultural links between the two countries, it would be wonderful if more Israelis could come over here without visas. I’m sure it would spur investment and tourist dollars in our economy and so on and so forth. But what I find really funny is they haven’t done s**t to get into the program. They think that their friends in Congress can get them in, and that’s not the case. Congress can lower one or two of the barriers, but they can’t just legislate the Israelis in.”
The path to visa waivers runs through DHS and can take years to navigate. For Chile, it was three years, a government official said on a not-for-attribution basis; for Taiwan, “several.” Requirements include “enhanced law enforcement and security-related data sharing with the United States; timely reporting of lost and stolen passports; and the maintenance of high counterterrorism, law enforcement, border control, aviation and document security standards,” a DHS statement said.
Israel is not even close to meeting those standards, a congressional aide said. “You’ve got to have machine-readable passports in place—the e-passports with a data chip in them. The Israelis have only just started to issue them to diplomats and senior officials and so forth, and that probably won’t be rolled out to the rest of their population for another 10 years.”
But U.S. counterspies will get the final word. And since Israel is as likely to stop spying here as it is to give up matzo for Passover, the visa barriers are likely to stay up.
As Paul Pillar, the CIA’s former national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia, told Newsweek, old habits are hard to break: Zionists were dispatching spies to America before there even was an Israel, to gather money and materials for the cause and later the fledgling state. Key components for Israel’s nuclear bombs were clandestinely obtained here. “They’ve found creative and inventive ways,” Pillar said, to get what they want.
“If we give them free rein to send people over here, how are we going to stop that?” the former congressional aide asked. “They’re incredibly aggressive. They’re aggressive in all aspects of their relationship with the United States. Why would their intelligence relationship with us be any different?”
Source: NEWSWEEK
2 may 2014

Two Republican congressmen called on the White House to sever all financial support for any Palestinian unity government to be formed if it does not acknowledge Israeli’s right to exist. Congressmen Marco Rubio and Mark Kirk said in a letter they sent last night to US secretary of state John Kerry that Hamas has to dismantle its armed wing and refrains from inciting against the US and Israel if it wanted to be part of the political process.
The Palestinian reconciliation agreement signed on April 23 between the Palestinian liberation organization (PLO) and Hamas raised the ire of the US administration, which hastened to declare its opposition of any formation of a government that includes Hamas.
Israel also threatened to impose economic sanctions on the Palestinian authority if it decided to go down the road with its deal with Hamas.
The Palestinian reconciliation agreement signed on April 23 between the Palestinian liberation organization (PLO) and Hamas raised the ire of the US administration, which hastened to declare its opposition of any formation of a government that includes Hamas.
Israel also threatened to impose economic sanctions on the Palestinian authority if it decided to go down the road with its deal with Hamas.
30 apr 2014

The U.S. has warned the Palestinian Authority (PA) of projected aid freeze if they follow through with decisions to form a unity government comprising Hamas members. “No US governmental money will go into any government that includes Hamas,” Assistant Secretary for the Near East Anne Patterson told a House hearing last night.
“Until Hamas accepts the Quartet conditions, and that's renouncing violence, recognizing previous agreements and, above all, recognizing Israel's right to exist, no aid shall be provided to a Hamas-run government,” Patterson further maintained.
For his part Rep. Ted Deutch told the hearing into the budget priorities for the Middle East and North Africa: “No Palestinian government that includes terrorist members of Hamas will receive US funding."
Subcommittee chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said the Palestinian reconciliation deal had "major implications" for the fiscal year 2015 budget, which begins in October.
The warnings come at a time when PLO and Hamas reconciliation delegations agree to turn the division chapter and form a consensus government to catch up on long years of unproductive contention.
But the move has been denounced by Israeli Occupation Authorities (IOA), which has imposed tough sanctions on the PA and cancelled its participation in the peace talks.
Hamas has been pigeonholed under the so-called Terrorism List since 1993 by the U.S administration which, quite observably, has been cheesed off by Hamas-Fatah reconciliation process.
“Until Hamas accepts the Quartet conditions, and that's renouncing violence, recognizing previous agreements and, above all, recognizing Israel's right to exist, no aid shall be provided to a Hamas-run government,” Patterson further maintained.
For his part Rep. Ted Deutch told the hearing into the budget priorities for the Middle East and North Africa: “No Palestinian government that includes terrorist members of Hamas will receive US funding."
Subcommittee chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said the Palestinian reconciliation deal had "major implications" for the fiscal year 2015 budget, which begins in October.
The warnings come at a time when PLO and Hamas reconciliation delegations agree to turn the division chapter and form a consensus government to catch up on long years of unproductive contention.
But the move has been denounced by Israeli Occupation Authorities (IOA), which has imposed tough sanctions on the PA and cancelled its participation in the peace talks.
Hamas has been pigeonholed under the so-called Terrorism List since 1993 by the U.S administration which, quite observably, has been cheesed off by Hamas-Fatah reconciliation process.
29 apr 2014

It is a mark of how upside-down Official Washington has become over facts and evidence that Secretary of State John Kerry, who has developed a reputation for making false and misleading statements about Syria and Russia, rushes to apologize when he speaks the truth about the danger from Israeli "apartheid."After public disclosure that he had said in a closed-door meeting of the Trilateral Commission last week that Israel risked becoming an "apartheid state," Kerry hastily apologized for his transgression, expressing his undying support for Israel and engaging in self-flagellation over his word choice.
"For more than 30 years in the United States Senate, I didn't just speak words in support of Israel," Mr. Kerry said in his statement. "I walked the walk when it came time to vote and when it came time to fight."
He then sought to clarify his position on the A-word: "First, Israel is a vibrant democracy and I do not believe, nor have I ever stated, publicly or privately, that Israel is an apartheid state or that it intends to become one. Anyone who knows anything about me knows that without a shred of doubt."
Kerry added: "If I could rewind the tape, I would have chosen a different word to describe my firm belief that the only way in the long term to have a Jewish state and two nations and two peoples living side by side in peace and security is through a two state solution."
Kerry scurried to make this apology after his remark was reported by The Daily Beast and condemned by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which said: "Any suggestion that Israel is, or is at risk of becoming, an apartheid state is offensive and inappropriate."
The only problem with AIPAC's umbrage -- and with Kerry's groveling -- is that Israel has moved decisively in the direction of becoming an apartheid state in which Palestinians are isolated into circumscribed areas, often behind walls, and are tightly restricted in their movements, even as Israel continues to expand settlements into Palestinian territories.
Key members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud government have even advocated annexing the West Bank and confining Palestinians there to small enclaves, similar to what's already been done to the 1.6 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip where Israel tightly controls entrance of people and access to commodities, including building supplies.
In May 2011, Likud's deputy speaker Danny Danon outlined the annexation plan in a New York Times op-ed. He warned that if the Palestinians sought United Nations recognition for their own state on the West Bank, Israel should annex the territory. "We could then extend full Israeli jurisdiction to the Jewish communities [i.e., the settlements] and uninhabited lands of the West Bank," Danon wrote.
As for Palestinian towns, they would become mini-Gazas, cut off from the world and isolated as enclaves with no legal status. "Moreover, we would be well within our rights to assert, as we did in Gaza after our disengagement in 2005, that we are no longer responsible for the Palestinian residents of the West Bank, who would continue to live in their own -- unannexed -- towns," Danon wrote.
By excluding these Palestinian ghettos, Jews would still maintain a majority in this Greater Israel. "These Palestinians would not have the option to become Israeli citizens, therefore averting the threat to the Jewish and democratic status of Israel by a growing Palestinian population," Danon wrote.
In other words, the Israeli Right appears headed toward a full-scale apartheid, if not a form of ethnic cleansing by willfully making life so crushing for the Palestinians that they have no choice but to leave.
Just days after Danon's op-ed, Netanyahu demonstrated his personal political dominance over the U.S. Congress by addressing a joint session at which Democrats and Republicans competed to see who could jump up fastest and applaud the loudest for everything coming out of the Israeli prime minister's mouth.
Netanyahu got cheers when he alluded to the religious nationalism that cites Biblical authority for Israel's right to possess the West Bank where millions of Palestinians now live. Calling the area by its Biblical names, Netanyahu declared, "in Judea and Samaria, the Jewish people are not foreign occupiers."
Though Netanyahu insisted that he was prepared to make painful concessions for peace, including surrendering some of this "ancestral Jewish homeland," his belligerent tone suggested that he was moving more down the route of annexation that Danon had charted. Now, with the predictable collapse of Kerry's peace talks, that road to an expanded apartheid system appears even more likely.
But apartheid already is a feature of Israeli society. As former CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar wrote in 2012...
"The Israeli version of apartheid is very similar in important respects to the South African version, and that moral equivalence ought to follow from empirical equivalence. Both versions have included grand apartheid, meaning the denial of basic political rights, and petty apartheid, which is the maintaining of separate and very unequal facilities and opportunities in countless aspects of daily life."Some respects in which Israelis may contend their situation is different, such as facing a terrorist threat, do not really involve a difference. The African National Congress, which has been the ruling party in South Africa since the end of apartheid there, had significant involvement in terrorism when it was confronting the white National Party government. That government also saw the ANC as posing a communist threat.
"A fitting accompaniment to the similarities between the two apartheid systems is the historical fact that when the South African system still existed, Israel was one of South Africa's very few international friends or partners. Israel was the only state besides South Africa itself that ever dealt with the South African bantustans as accepted entities. Israel cooperated with South Africa on military matters, possibly even to the extent of jointly conducting a secret test of a nuclear weapon in a remote part of the Indian Ocean in 1979."
Yet, Official Washington can't handle this truth, as the capital of the world's leading superpower has become a grim version of Alice's Wonderland in which speaking truth about the well-connected requires immediate apologies while telling half-truths and lies against "designated villains" makes you a proud member of the insider's club.
When Kerry makes belligerent claims about Syria and Russia -- even when his statements are later shown to be baseless or false -- there is not an ounce of pressure on him to issue a correction or apology. [See "John Kerry's Sad Circle to Deceit."] Yet, when he says something that is palpably true about Israel -- indeed a pale version of the ugly truth -- he cannot run fast enough to issue a clarification and beg forgiveness.
While Kerry and other longtime inhabitants of Official Washington have become accustomed to this madness -- this politicized disdain for reality -- their overly militarized fantasyland has become a nightmare for the rest of the planet.
"For more than 30 years in the United States Senate, I didn't just speak words in support of Israel," Mr. Kerry said in his statement. "I walked the walk when it came time to vote and when it came time to fight."
He then sought to clarify his position on the A-word: "First, Israel is a vibrant democracy and I do not believe, nor have I ever stated, publicly or privately, that Israel is an apartheid state or that it intends to become one. Anyone who knows anything about me knows that without a shred of doubt."
Kerry added: "If I could rewind the tape, I would have chosen a different word to describe my firm belief that the only way in the long term to have a Jewish state and two nations and two peoples living side by side in peace and security is through a two state solution."
Kerry scurried to make this apology after his remark was reported by The Daily Beast and condemned by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which said: "Any suggestion that Israel is, or is at risk of becoming, an apartheid state is offensive and inappropriate."
The only problem with AIPAC's umbrage -- and with Kerry's groveling -- is that Israel has moved decisively in the direction of becoming an apartheid state in which Palestinians are isolated into circumscribed areas, often behind walls, and are tightly restricted in their movements, even as Israel continues to expand settlements into Palestinian territories.
Key members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud government have even advocated annexing the West Bank and confining Palestinians there to small enclaves, similar to what's already been done to the 1.6 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip where Israel tightly controls entrance of people and access to commodities, including building supplies.
In May 2011, Likud's deputy speaker Danny Danon outlined the annexation plan in a New York Times op-ed. He warned that if the Palestinians sought United Nations recognition for their own state on the West Bank, Israel should annex the territory. "We could then extend full Israeli jurisdiction to the Jewish communities [i.e., the settlements] and uninhabited lands of the West Bank," Danon wrote.
As for Palestinian towns, they would become mini-Gazas, cut off from the world and isolated as enclaves with no legal status. "Moreover, we would be well within our rights to assert, as we did in Gaza after our disengagement in 2005, that we are no longer responsible for the Palestinian residents of the West Bank, who would continue to live in their own -- unannexed -- towns," Danon wrote.
By excluding these Palestinian ghettos, Jews would still maintain a majority in this Greater Israel. "These Palestinians would not have the option to become Israeli citizens, therefore averting the threat to the Jewish and democratic status of Israel by a growing Palestinian population," Danon wrote.
In other words, the Israeli Right appears headed toward a full-scale apartheid, if not a form of ethnic cleansing by willfully making life so crushing for the Palestinians that they have no choice but to leave.
Just days after Danon's op-ed, Netanyahu demonstrated his personal political dominance over the U.S. Congress by addressing a joint session at which Democrats and Republicans competed to see who could jump up fastest and applaud the loudest for everything coming out of the Israeli prime minister's mouth.
Netanyahu got cheers when he alluded to the religious nationalism that cites Biblical authority for Israel's right to possess the West Bank where millions of Palestinians now live. Calling the area by its Biblical names, Netanyahu declared, "in Judea and Samaria, the Jewish people are not foreign occupiers."
Though Netanyahu insisted that he was prepared to make painful concessions for peace, including surrendering some of this "ancestral Jewish homeland," his belligerent tone suggested that he was moving more down the route of annexation that Danon had charted. Now, with the predictable collapse of Kerry's peace talks, that road to an expanded apartheid system appears even more likely.
But apartheid already is a feature of Israeli society. As former CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar wrote in 2012...
"The Israeli version of apartheid is very similar in important respects to the South African version, and that moral equivalence ought to follow from empirical equivalence. Both versions have included grand apartheid, meaning the denial of basic political rights, and petty apartheid, which is the maintaining of separate and very unequal facilities and opportunities in countless aspects of daily life."Some respects in which Israelis may contend their situation is different, such as facing a terrorist threat, do not really involve a difference. The African National Congress, which has been the ruling party in South Africa since the end of apartheid there, had significant involvement in terrorism when it was confronting the white National Party government. That government also saw the ANC as posing a communist threat.
"A fitting accompaniment to the similarities between the two apartheid systems is the historical fact that when the South African system still existed, Israel was one of South Africa's very few international friends or partners. Israel was the only state besides South Africa itself that ever dealt with the South African bantustans as accepted entities. Israel cooperated with South Africa on military matters, possibly even to the extent of jointly conducting a secret test of a nuclear weapon in a remote part of the Indian Ocean in 1979."
Yet, Official Washington can't handle this truth, as the capital of the world's leading superpower has become a grim version of Alice's Wonderland in which speaking truth about the well-connected requires immediate apologies while telling half-truths and lies against "designated villains" makes you a proud member of the insider's club.
When Kerry makes belligerent claims about Syria and Russia -- even when his statements are later shown to be baseless or false -- there is not an ounce of pressure on him to issue a correction or apology. [See "John Kerry's Sad Circle to Deceit."] Yet, when he says something that is palpably true about Israel -- indeed a pale version of the ugly truth -- he cannot run fast enough to issue a clarification and beg forgiveness.
While Kerry and other longtime inhabitants of Official Washington have become accustomed to this madness -- this politicized disdain for reality -- their overly militarized fantasyland has become a nightmare for the rest of the planet.