{Originally posted to The Lid}
Here we go again with the modern version of the ancient anti-Semitic blood libel—the false stereotype claiming the warlike American Jews or the militaristic Jewish State of Israel is controlling our foreign policy. Anybody who truly believes that is the case must have been in a cave during the Obama administration. NBC News’ chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel seems to be one of the cave dwellers. In a recent report, Engel said President Trump is trying to lure Iran into war and implies he is doing it on behalf of Israel.
“U.S. officials tell NBC News the threats targeted multiple locations and at the aircraft carrier’s deployment was preplanned but moved up. But in Iran tonight, officials are trying not to take what they see as America’s bait. In February, Iran’s foreign minister told me the Trump administration is looking for war.”
Is Engel suggesting that we should believe the foreign minister of the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, over our own American Secretary of State?
Engel continued:
“So there is this collision, international collision against Iran. The U.S. is part of it. Israel is part of it. So it has a lot of people in the region concerned when they see the United States moving this firepower into the Middle East just after Netanyahu secured his political future. People are wondering is this real or is the U.S. looking for some sort of provocation for other reasons?”
Netanyahu? Other reasons? Engel is obviously making the false suggestion that the reason is Israel and pressure from American Jews.
The fact that the U.S. wanted to move the carrier group into the Persian Gulf and put pressure on Iran is rumored to be one of the reasons Israel agreed to the cease-fire with Hamas on Sunday. Netanyahu was slammed in some Israeli political circles for prematurely agreeing to the ceasefire, but the Prime Minister complied with the request of President Trump, not vice versa.
Engel’s report sounded like it was written by the anti-Semitic Pat Buchanan.
After Bush #43 invaded Iraq, Buchanan wrote an article called “Whose War” that blamed the Bush action on a bunch of mostly Jewish public figures such as Bill Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, Max Boot, and Richard Perle. According to Buchanan those Jews were “colluding with Israel to ignite wars and destroy the Oslo Accords. We charge them with deliberately damaging U.S. relations with every state in the Arab world that defies Israel or supports the Palestinian people’s right to a homeland of their own” Buchanan went on to say, “For whose benefit these endless wars in a region that holds nothing vital to America save oil which the Arabs must sell us to survive? Who would benefit from a war of civilizations between the West and Islam? Answer: one nation, one leader, one party. Israel, Sharon, Likud.”
Actually, Bush 43 did consult with then-Israeli PM Ariel Sharon before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but unlike Buchanan’s fantasy Sharon strongly urged Bush NOT to invade Iraq arguing correctly that if Saddam was removed, “Iran, a far more dangerous player, will be rid of its principal enemy and free to pursue its ambitions of regional hegemony.” Which is precisely what happened.
Richard Engel’s false suggestion that Israel is trying to push the U.S. into a war with Iran is simply a modern version of the anti-Semitic blood-libel. He owes Israel and Jews across the world an apology. And after he apologizes for the Antisemitism, Engel should seek advice from Ken Timmerman, author, war correspondent, and an expert on Iran.
He is one of the half-dozen real experts on the Islamic Republic of Iran in the U.S. today. He’s the former President of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran (iran.org), regularly meets with Iranian dissidents overseas, and he has lectured on Iran at the Pentagon’s Joint Counter-Intelligence Training Academy, JCITA.
Timmerman explains the reason for the deployment of the U.S. carrier into the Persian Gulf, as well as Pompeo’s trip to Iraq, was recent intelligence that Iran was planning “imminent” attacks on U.S. persons or U.S. assets in Iraq. As he wrote Thursday on the Fox News site, the Iranian intelligence came from an Iranian defector:
On April 19, a respected Iranian internet news agency reported that Iran’s Supreme Leader had just fired the intelligence chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) after “classified documents and information leaked to Israel and the U.S. regarding Iran’s nuclear program and secret missile bases.”
The fired intelligence chief, Brig. Gen. Ali Nasiri, was said to have taken refuge in a U.S. embassy or consulate in a nearby Persian Gulf state, where he turned over sensitive documents and intelligence information to the Americans.
Nasiri is arguably the highest-ranking IRGC official ever to have defected to the West or Israel. As intelligence chief, he had access to the darkest secrets of Iran’s nuclear weapons development program. He knows where the long-rumored secret uranium enrichment facilities were located because his men were in charge of guarding them.
Therefore the increased pressure on Iran had nothing to do with the warlike American Jews or the militaristic Jewish State of Israel controlling foreign policy as Engel intimated, and everything to do with a defector from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Timmerman’s entire piece at Fox News is a must read! Click here for the whole article.