Some people are constantly way out of line.
From somewhere in deep space keen alien observers poke elbows and giggle over the state of humanity on Earth. One tiny nation’s hidden leadership pulling powerful titanium stings to cause ongoing crisis for billions of people, the idiocy of rule by the 0.1% must befuddle even big brained beings from Andromeda. ISIL, Putin the archvillain, Trump, a man nicknamed Bibi, George Soros and other evil oligarchs, will humankind ever break free?
I read this morning the headline from the Jerusalem Post “Netanyahu to Warn Putin Not to Cross Red Lines” and rolled my eyes. As a southern boy from America’s South, I could not help asking myself the question; “How is it this tiny piss ant nation emerged to direct on the world stage?” Looking at Israel from a rational point of view, is all the western world’s money, media, investment, and propaganda really that powerful? Clearly it is, for the rivers of blood and the blinding chaos coming out of the Middle East never seem to either stain or darken Zion. At the behest of the Israeli lobby, Russia gets rolled into a trio of “enemies” the US Congress and our president rubber stamped. Washington insiders tell me the AIPAC lobby twisted every arm on Capital Hill to sanction Russia, Iran, and North Korea in one fell swoop. But I ponder the inability of my fellow humans to spot the blatantly obvious. These wars and crises around the world serve only two purposes. First and foremost, profit buys the perpetrators political and economic leverage. Secondly, Israel (and a few other nations) strengthen their own validity and security, while undermining that of neighbors and adversaries.
Looking at defense spending and the coinciding profits since 9/11, it’s not difficult to make the connection in between profit and policy. Israel spending more of its GDP than almost any other nation in the world on defense also bears watching. The SIPRI Military Expenditure Database contains a wealth of data on military spending of countries for the period 1949–2016, and Israel is at the top of many categories. Factor in gifts from the United States, and the Zionists look more like a military junta than a democracy. Not only has Israel been one of the world’s top spenders and arms importers, the country exported more weapons ($1.26 billion) in 2016 than all but a few nations. Embattled Syria, Libya, and all but Saudi Arabia and Oman do not even appear on the lists. With a standing army of over 175,000, and with reserves of almost half a million, the IDF is on par with larger neighbor Saudi Arabia manpower wise. Turning back to the influence of Israel via the AIPAC lobby, this quote from The New Yorker from 2014 concerns the Gaza genocide and the power Israel exerts over the US Congress. When the Obama administration expressed concern over dead Palestinian babies in Gaza, the following was the end political result:
“AIPAC did not share this unease; it endorsed a Senate resolution in support of Israel’s “right to defend its citizens,” which had seventy-nine co-sponsors and passed without a word of dissent.”
While Israel’s role in destroying Syria, and sending millions to the morgue or to Europe as refugees is not altogether clear just yet, its apparent collusion with oil interests is. Back in 2006 Noam Chomsky suggested the convergence of AIPAC and the oil and arms lobbies in a paper entitled “The Israel Lobby?”, and today we read a report from Global Research about Exxon and AIPAC pushing for a partitioning of Syria. Furthermore, author Whitney Webb points out the larger scheme, the Greater Israel project, that coincides with Kurdish interests. So, profit and strategic policy for Israel is in the limelight for those willing to see.
We need not only rely on current events to discover the profit lever the Israelis and others use to pass out death and destruction. This 2006 AP report discusses how CEOs of corporations with big defense contracts were getting paid double what they made before Sept. 11, 2001. The report also brings into the light the fact “normal” company CEOs made nowhere near what the killing machine building contemporaries did. And the weapons game shows no signs of slowing down. A Neil Howe story on Forbes in 2014 tells of vast profits and something more. According to Howe, the “crisis connect” for profits can also be linked to the technocrats we witness leveraging “fake news” to make the Russians the enemy all over again. Quoting Howe on Silicon Valley’s role in war and chaos:
“A 2012 study by Booz & Company, around 40% of what the Penta gon spends on procurement and services now goes to nontraditional companies like Apple and Dell.”
For once my job is made easier simply by connecting the geo-strategy of a tiny militarist nation to the industrial and money interests with interests in war. Syria being wiped out is good for the Zionists strategically, financially, and politically as it turns out. The next time you read a Washington Post piece fostering Russia hate, maybe you’ll be better prepared to trace the propaganda to its roots – to the handlers of Jeff Bezos and back to Bibi himself.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
