Coastal
Post Online
June, 2003
Israel: A Conspiracy Here, A Conspiracy There
By Karen Nakamura
In January 2003, a funding scandal
threatened Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's re-election campaign. It
involved Knesset/Likud Party vote buying. The American media covered the
scandal but the lack of detail was evident. More digging was necessary. That
digging was achieved by Anton Chaitkin in the January 24, 2003, Executive
Intelligence Review, (larouchepub.com/2003/3003likud_usgansta.html)
and needs to be read by anyone interested in Middle East politics.
Though illegal, foreign, especially
American, donations have rolled into Israel's right-wing Likud party to the
tune of millions of dollars. It doesn't take much to recognize long-range aims
of ultra conservative American Jews and Israelis. This American funding takes
on greater meaning when we see how its influence has crept into American
politics. Are Americans doing Tel Aviv's bidding by sending our troops to be
killed in the Middle East so Conservative Jews can achieve their aims?
In a democracy, there is nothing
wrong with like-minded folks coming together to support a cause. What's wrong
here is the suffering these aims are causing to the entire Middle East,
including Israeli citizens. This determined group of wealthy Americans and
Israeli politicians are not averse to taking action to achieve their aims.
According to Chaitkin, Likud and cohorts are "driving the Middle East and
the world into religious-ethnic wars." Their aim is to restore Israel to
its Biblical borders. That means Palestinians must totally surrender, be
"transported" or suffer ethnic cleansing, a war crime according to
the Geneva Convention.
Likud's vote last year to never
accept a Palestinian state affirms that position. Ariel Sharon himself has
advocated Palestinian transport as a solution. Israeli opposition to Bush's
Road Map to Peace centers on removal of the idea of a Palestinian state, at
least for the present. This dodge has worked for fifty years.
Who then are the American advocates
of this catastrophic policy? Let's start with Ariel Sharon. When Ariel Sharon
retired as a General, the Israeli government granted him a long-term lease to
his Sycamore Ranch in the Negev Desert. With the help of Meshulam Riklis, a
wealthy Jewish-American businessman, Sharon was able to transform the place
into his beloved ranch, ala Ronald Reagan's California home and Fernado Marcos'
pied-a-terre in Hawaii. Riklis is also a member of the Roundtable Political Action
Committee.
Another American politician with
conservative ties in Israel is former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. He
was present at Sycamore Ranch with Sharon and Riklis, when the plan for West
Bank settlements was developed. The expansion of West Bank and Gaza settlements
has always been Sharon's baby.
The Roundtable Political Action
Committee includes Riklis, junk-bond king Michael Milken and founders Jay,
Selig and Seymour Zises. Seymour Zises is also president of the National
Political Action Committee, NPAC, which works in tandem with AIPAC, the highly
influential American-Israeli Political Action Committee. Jay Zises is president
of "Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces." Others include Ivan
Boesky and executives of United Fruit/Chiquita Banana while the son of Loew
Corp. owner, Laurence Tisch, is a co-founder.
Menachem Atzmon, convicted of
campaign financing fraud in the 90s, and Stephen L. Friedman are partners of
International Consultants on Targeted Security (ICTS) run by former Israeli
military commanders and government intelligence agencies. In 1999, ICTS took
over management of security at Logan Airport in Boston under its subsidiary
Huntleigh, USA and was in charge on 9/11. Friedman is a member of the Israel
Defense Fund. And then there's Ronald Lauder, heir to the Estee Lauder cosmetic
fortune who is treasurer of the World Jewish Congress and a trustee of the
Special Reserve Fund of the Anti-Defamation League.
Media links are not missing. Marc
Belzberg, business partner of the Zises, owns the Jerusalem Post and funds West
Bank settlements. He's a major supporter of the Sharon-linked yeshiva seminary
rumored to be training the priesthood for the Third Temple to be built on the
Temple Mount after the Al Aqsa mosque is destroyed. Along with Ira Rennert, and
Irving I. Moscowitz, Belzberg was involved in the contentious opening of the
tunnels under the Al Aqsa mosque; one opening caused 76 Palestinians deaths in
three days of fighting. Rennert now controls the tunnel entrances. Moscowitz
funded Jewish take-overs of housing in East Jerusalem and settlements in the
West Bank.
Marvin Josephson, owner of
Hollywood's International Creative Management (ICM) agency, has not only been
Henry Kissinger's literary agent but is Chairman of NPAC. Mortimer Zuckerman
owns US News and World Report and the New York Daily News. He regularly
agitates for war against Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations in his column US
News. He is a director of "Friends of the Israel Defense Forces."
Mervyn Adelson, ex-husband of Barbara
Walters and former Chairman of Lorimar Telepictures, is a friend of Benjamin
Netanyahu. His lawyer, Yaakov Ne’eman, was Israeli Finance Minister under
Netanyahu. Henry Kravis of RJR Nabisco is also a sponsor of Israel's right wing
and a Republican donor with ties to the Bush family.
Underworld connections come from
casino owners with early ties to the Meyer Lansky/ Moe Dalitz Mafia syndicate.
They include Mervyn Adelson and Sheldon Adelson. Sheldon wants to build casinos
in Israel and has been granted gambling licenses in Macao, China along with
Steven Wynn, owner of the Mirage casinos. Wynn sponsors right-wing Israeli
causes, has ties to Lansky and is a member of the board of the George Bush
Presidential Library. Henry Kravis has early ties to Lansky but isn't connected
to gambling. However, the EU has accused him of narcotic money laundering.
Pat Robertson of the Christian
Broadcasting Network seeks support for an Armageddon scenario among right-wing
American Jews. Perhaps the most frightening is Aish Hatorah who runs
HonestReporting.com, an internet "police" organization created to
attack American critics of the Likud's war policies.
This group prefers Armageddon and
greed to peace for Arabs and Jews alike.