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Nie dosc, ze ograbiono Kraj, teraz posla na smierc !December 9, 2002


BY WAY OF DECEPTION

Israel pulls a fast one – and gets caught
The Israelis are riding high, these days – but not, perhaps, for long. Ever
since 9/11, the Israeli government and its American amen corner have been
making the point that Israel's fight is now America's fight, and this
argument has met with some success. A recent article in Ha'aretz notes that
Israel is winning the struggle for American hearts and minds:

"The conventional wisdom among policy-makers in Israel and the United States
is that if there is one front on which Israel enjoys a clear advantage in the
international arena, it is hasbara – information and public relations in the
United States."

Congress is practically Israeli-occupied territory, and the Bushies are in
their back pocket: however, there are still some elements of the American
public who have not been brought to heel, and this, we are told, shows
that "Israel has cause for concern."

It seems that only half of the "influentials" – professionals in the media,
politics, and academia, and others who regularly follow the news – take the
Israel-can-do-no-wrong line. The Israelis and their American supporters find
this worrisome, as well they should. In spite of a constant drumbeat of pro-
Israel propaganda, a well-organized cadre of American boosters, and the
slavish support of our government, still a great many Americans are able to
think clearly and critically about our troublesome "ally." As Ha'aretz puts
it: "

"For every individual that supports Israel, there is another who opposes it.
This is happening at time when the Palestinians are at a disadvantage in
public relations, when the president has openly declared his support for
Israel and Israel's political lobby is at its height."

Those numbers are bound to get worse as news of the latest Israeli caper hits
the headlines. It really wasn't such a hot idea for the Mossad to recruit
Palestinians into a phony Al Qaeda cell in Gaza. It was too easy to trace the
cell-phone calls and emails back to Israel, as well as Germany and Lebanon.
Aside from that, however, there was something a little fishy about their
recruitment methods, such as this message cited by ABC News (via Reuters):

"After receiving reports from your brothers in the area about your good
morals and Islamic beliefs...we appeal to you to work within the ranks of the
mujahideen (Muslim fighters) and we will support you with money and weapons.
Call us at this number...and identify yourself as Abu Anas. The telephone
call should be made between three and five in the afternoon... After you read
the letter and understand its content, burn it.

"(Signed), Your brother and humble slave of God, Osama bin Laden."

Recruits to this faux-Al Qaeda were given weapons (most of them didn't work)
and money provided by "Palestinian collaborators with Israel," three of whom
are in a Palestinian jail. According to PLO "preventive security" chief
Rashid Abu Shbak, some of the money "was transferred from bank accounts in
Jerusalem or Israel."

These revelations come in the wake of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
claim that Al Qaeda is behind recent attacks on Israel, and is present in the
occupied territories and Lebanon. A phony "Al Qaeda" website has been set up,
which we are supposed to believe is the voice of the Evil One in cyberspace:
its recent pronouncement that a Palestinian "branch" of Al Qaeda has been
formed was duly reported by the Washington Post, which also transcribed the
lamentation of one Rachel Bronson, director of Middle East Studies at the
Council on Foreign Relations:

"'The idea that al Qaeda is establishing a special cell to focus on Israelis
is horrifying news…' ... Al Qaeda's role could be extremely destabilizing,
she added, because 'it will be weighing in on the side of Hamas,' the
Palestinian Islamic group that launches suicide bombings against Israeli
civilians and has been deemed a terrorist organization by the U.S.
government."

What is horrifying is that anyone takes such thinly-disguised disinformation
seriously. Repeating such nonsense with a straight face is, one imagines,
what makes Ms. Bronson so well-qualified for her job.

Israel's great achievement in the political and diplomatic realm has been to
draw the unleashed anger of the American giant away from the perpetrators of
9/11 and toward its own enemies: Saddam Hussein, Hamas, and the
fictitious "Islamic Al-Qaeda of Palestine," which exists only "by way of
deception," to borrow a phrase from the official motto of the Mossad.

"By way of deception, thou shalt do war" – a principle the Israelis have
always lived up to. Juxtaposed against the mounting evidence – a recent
series of reports in the German and British media depict Mossad agents in the
U.S. living "next door to Mohammed Atta" – the exposure of this "false flag"
operation draws the curtain on the terrorist enigma. This demonstrates that
an Israeli connection to the worst terrorist atrocity in our history is not
an "urban myth," as one Justice Department spokesperson put it, but a
sinister and increasingly likely possibility.

In all the columns I've written on this subject, my thesis has been limited
in scope. I've said only that the Israelis had a certain amount of
foreknowledge – to what degree is not known – and failed to warn us. Not that
they were behind 9/11. Nor am I saying that now. But I have a question: If
the Israelis are running phony "Al Qaeda" cells in Palestine and Lebanon, why
not in South Florida, or New York?

This question, you can be sure, won't be asked by the Kissinger Commission,
as the "National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States" will
inevitably be called, and yet surely – given the way in which 9/11 changed
our lives – it is one worth raising. Which brings us to the reason I'm taking
most of this week off….

Well, not really "off" – I'll be working harder than ever, unfortunately,
trying to get the first draft my new book in shape. The Terror Enigma: Israel
and the 9/11 Connection will be published next year by Verso Books. The book
lays out the evidence that Israeli intelligence not only shadowed the
hijackers, but also succeeded in diverting the American authorities away from
the plotters' trail. They launched a massive covert action aimed at
government facilities in the U.S. – the infamous "art students."

"By way of deception, thou shalt do war" – a war for survival, as the
Israelis see it, that must be waged against the West as well as the Muslim
world. As long as Americans see the "war on terrorism" as the two-sided
Manichean struggle described by George W. Bush – "you're either with us, or
with the terrorists" – their anger and frustration can be mobilized in
support of an all-out war on the Arab nations. But if Israel had some
foreknowledge – or even a connection with – Al Qaeda in America, and not just
the Palestinian "branch," then American rage will be directed at
another target.


Andrew Sullivan is outraged that opponents of the Iraq war are putting
the "war on terrorism" in ironic quotes, and has initiated one of his
tiresome campaigns to have it stamped out:

"QUOTATION MARK WATCH: Have you begun to notice how some commentators (mainly
on the left but also on the paleo-right) have begun to put the term 'war on
terrorism' in quote marks? I wonder what part of the phrase they don't buy.
That we are fighting terrorism?"

You got that right, Andy. Surely there is a dangerous sort of irony in the
act of declaring a war, and then failing to see one of your opponents. It is
a danger tha