Is Israel Burning?

By Janet Phelan

It only takes a slight adjustment to the lens through which we view the Middle East to see that the US’s policies in the region have put her purported ally, Israel, at increased risk. Rather than securing the tiny Jewish state, the policies of the US have turned the entire region into a cauldron of fire and have plummeted Israel into an increasingly fragile position. The rightful rage of those who have seen their  countries invaded, their loved ones killed, has increasingly been directed towards Israel, although it was the US which made the decision to launch invasions and topple regimes.

The brutal reality is that the US is not Israel’s friend. The history of the US’s sabotage of Israel is part of the secret history of our world. The US’s refusal to lift Jewish immigration quotas during WWII, the withholding from the public the known atrocities taking place in the concentration camps and the decision NOT to bomb and therefore destroy the extermination centers only lays the groundwork for understanding the real regard the US government holds for the Jewish people.

The continuing nature of the sabotage was laid out clearly in John Loftus and Mark Aarons 1992  bestselling intelligence history,The Secret War Against the Jews. According to one review of the 672 page tome,

The authors demonstrate that numerous Western countries, especially the United States and Great Britain, have conducted repeated and willful spying missions on Palestine and later Israel over many decades. While on the surface these two countries and others profess to be ardent allies of Israel, they work, in fact, through their intelligence services to betray Israel’s secrets to the Arabs. Their motive: oil and multinational profits, which must be attained at any price through international covert policies.

The general response to these claims is to point to the three billion dollars that the US gives Israel in foreign aid each year. This foreign aid is earmarked for Israel to buy weapons from the US. At this point in time, when the tensions are ramping up between Israel and Iran, it might be useful to review the efficacy of these weapons. As it stands, the US may have foisted onto Israel a whole load of junk.

“It’s one of the greatest frauds in modern times,” declared MIT Professor Emeritus Ted Postol, speaking of the purported efficacy of missile defense systems. In an interview this past week, Postol stated to this reporter that what is protecting the Israelis is not the Iron Dome missile defense. It is the warning system, which not only involves sirens but also alarm messages sent through cell phones to those in the targeted area.  “People are making money hand over fist through these defense systems,” stated Postol, “when what is protecting people is the shelters. The Iron Dome simply does not work.”

Postols’s investigation of the efficacy of the Iron Dome involved analysis of videos showing intercept —  or the failure to intercept — incoming artillery missiles and has been published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.  He estimates the actual successful interception by the Iron Dome to be around 5%.

Israel today maintains  a multi-tiered missile defense system. The Iron Dome, which is deployed to intercept short range rockets and artillery shells, constitutes one tier. The Arrow system constitutes another.

The Arrow system was jointly developed by the US and Israel and has a range of around 150 miles. It is touted as “the first operational missile defense system specifically designed and built to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles.”

And according to Dr. Nathan Farber, former head scientist of the missile division at Israel Military Industries, the Arrow doesn’t work, either. In an article in Haaretz, Farber’s criticisms are enumerated. The article states

Farber’s analysis shows that the current policy based on defensive missiles (Arrow 2, Arrow 3, David’s Sling, Patriot and Iron Dome) is fundamentally flawed, likely to fail miserably when put to the test, carries an unreasonable price tag and instills the illusion that the Israeli home front is protected from missile attacks.

On the topic of ballistic missile interception, there is no significant data… They may have conducted some real interception trials for the Arrow-2, but half of them were failures. The faults were identified and corrected, but since more trials could not be conducted (due to financial considerations), it’s clear that a lot of malfunctions will be discovered only during a real war.

The third component of Israel’s missile defense system is David’s Sling, which was developed by Israel’s Rafael  and the US company, Raytheon, to take out mid-range ballistic missiles. As reported in the Jerusalem Post, “With all three systems up and running (David’s Sling is expected to be fully operational during the first quarter of 2016), Israelis will reap the psychological benefits of feeling protected by the best anti-missile systems available in the world.”

But are the Israelis being conned?

In a 2010 article in Haaretz, the late Dr. Reuven Pedatzur unequivocally stated that “Israel is investing billions of dollars in the development of defensive systems that will not be effective in a crisis and formulating an erroneous strategy for dealing with the ballistic missile/rocket threat.” In the article, Pedatzur crunches the numbers and concludes that any missile defense system as currently funded would only potentially deter the first two or three hundred incoming missiles.

Budgetary limitations will obviously prevent the procurement of tens of thousands of defensive missiles. In the best case, defense officials talk about hundreds of such missiles. Thus even if these systems prove effective (and there is no guarantee of that ), they can provide a defense against only a small portion of the rockets and missiles that would be fired at Israel during a war.

Dr. Pedatzur, a missile defense expert, discussed the history of missile defense and reviews its likelihood of succeeding in this video, as it relates to the Iranian nuclear threat.

Author and former DOJ prosecutor John Loftus also weighed in on the financial impact of the recent announcement by President Trump to exit the Iran nuclear deal, a decision which has increased nervousness in Israel and has apparently gravely disappointed the US’s allies in Europe. In an interview this week, Loftus stated that Trump’s decision will greatly aid the oil companies, whose revenues are predicted to shoot up with the return of sanctions on Iran. Loftus sees this as benefiting the Russian economy, as well. Alluding to an already existing oil pipeline between Russia and Iran, he stated that the sanctions may not hurt Iran as intended. A recent article in Haaretz quotes a former Israeli General who states that the US vacating the Iran Deal will only help Iran.

“An American announcement that it’s withdrawing from the agreement would let Iran drive a wedge between the world powers and gradually loosen international oversight over its nuclear program. If the Americans abandon the agreement, they have to prepare for alternatives, and I don’t see this being done,” stated the former research chief of Israeli military intelligence, Amos Gilad.

The missile threat is not the only thing that Israelis should be worried about. As exposed for the first time in my 2014 book, EXILE, the delivery system which resulted by the adding on of a second line to extant water systems,  enabling water to serve as a conduit for a selective bio or chem attack, is in evidence in Israel (and appears to be also at play with most of the US’s western allies, as well as in the US itself). The existence of this in Israel has been backed up by WikiLeaks cables.

The fate of the Jewish people, the fate of any group of people residing within the borders of any country pledged to protect its citizens, should not be subject to the cold and calculated efforts of war profiteers and eugenicists.  The fact that Israel, established after the horrors of the Holocaust, has fallen prey to the same interests and savage duplicity as it promised haven from should not go without note.

“Israel will cease to exist by 2020”– attributed to Henry Kissinger
“I stand for anti-bigotry, anti-Semitism, and anti-racism”– George H.W. Bush
“Fuck the Jews”– James Baker, former Secretary of State

Janet Phelan is an investigative journalist and author of the groundbreaking exposé, EXILE. Her articles previously appeared in such mainstream venues as the Los Angeles Times, Orange Coast Magazine, Long Beach Press Telegram, etc. In 2004, Janet “jumped ship” and now exclusively writes for independent media. She is also the author of two collections of poetry—The Hitler Poems and Held Captive. She resides abroad. You can follow her on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100012703457651

Image credit