by: Mark Aarons and John Loftus (St. Martin's Press, New York, 514 pp., notes, bibliography)
Since just after World War One, and the Balfour Declaration, Western intelligence services have acted against Israel in the pursuit of closer ties with the oil-rich states of the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf. This despite the publicly stated policies of their governments. In this book, the authors document how these illegal activities on the part of the intelligence community were carried out.
The book concentrates mostly on the CIA and Britain's equivalent, MI6. A relationship of common interest has developed between these two organizations, and a partnership has ensued which has targeted Israeli and Jewish interests throughout the past seventy-five years. In this book, the authors show how co-operation between these two organizations was responsible for some of the biggest scandals of this century, and for others which have gone unpublicized.
To begin with, the book is divided into three sections: The Age of Bigotry (1920-1947), The Age of Greed (1948-1973), and The Age of Stupidity (1974-1992). They trace the activities of such nefarious people as Kim Philby, and his father Jack, who begat the first scandals and began to build up the first cover-ups. Evil leads to evil, and over the next seven decades, the scandals and cover-ups became so monumental as to include the President of the United States, most of his cabinet, and even the Prime Minister of Israel. In the initial period, American involvement was handled by Allen and John Foster Dulles, two brothers who would later become the head of the CIA and the Secretary of State, respectively. These, together with the Philby's and some helpful agents in the Vatican, smuggled Nazis and their money to western states after the Holocaust. Such states include Argentina, Spain, Italy, Australia, Canada, and even the United States. The money disappeared, having been laundered repeatedly, and the Nazis themselves blended into their new societies, to surface years later as political campaign workers for the Republican party in the United States, and as old defendants in war crimes trials that never went anywhere.
Later on, Vice-President and then President Nixon used some of the same channels to begin the implementation of secret policies that were Arab-oriented in order to ensure American oil supplies. He was goaded into this by his subordinates, such as the Dulles brothers in the 1950's and Henry Kissinger and George Bush in the same positions in the 1970's. The involvement of the USS Liberty in the Six-Day War is documented, and blamed on the American tilt toward the Arabs. The positioning of the Liberty provided the Arabs, specifically Egypt, with intelligence on Israeli troop movements, which assisted in the planning of an Egyptian counter-attack through holes left in the Israeli lines by troops who had been transferred to the Syrian front. The reason for both American and Israeli silence about the affair even after almost thirty years, is that to publicize the real reason for the attack, and to launch a public inquiry, would mean exposing the entire policy tilt initiated by the CIA, and the illegal provision of intelligence to an enemy in war time.
In 1973, the delay in the American supply of arms to Israel, and the failure of the CIA to tell Israel of the impending attack, is blamed squarely on George Bush and Henry Kissinger. They wanted Israel to either lose or sweat a little before winning, in an effort to protect the oil supply. They also initiated the process of actively destroying Israel's military advantage so that the Arabs would be more inclined to continue supplying US oil. By 1981, the sale of AWACS technology to Saudi Arabia and the supply of arms to Iraq were the final nails in the Israeli military coffin.
During the Reagan-Bush years, the BCCI and Iran-Contra scandals were carried out in an effort to insure the safe return of American and British hostages. What the book publicizes for the first time is that the BCCI was set up by MI6 as a money-laundering centre for PLO-supported terrorists and their gun and drug money so that MI6 could keep tabs on the terrorists. Instead, they allowed the terrorists to infiltrate the bank, and the MI6 and leak all the secrets to Soviet intelligence. Britain and the US actually ended up assisting the illegal gun and drug trade out of the Middle East, and used these networks to supply illegal arms shipments to Iran behind the backs of Congress and Parliament. The anti-terrorist working group of George Bush's Vice-President's office was actually aiding and abetting the terrorists it was supposed to be hunting down.
I found the book to be quite detailed, and meticulously documented. Due to the classified nature of many relevant documents, the source notes need to be vague, but that does not diminish in any noticeable way from the bombshells provided by the book. Many of the major scandals of this century are discussed, including those discussed above, as well as the Jonathan Pollard affair, the oil crisis, the hostage crisis, American arms supplies to Syria and Iraq, and American leaks of Israeli secrets to Egypt and Syria.
Very few Jews, even in political circles, are aware of just how poorly the United States government actually treats Israel. Legislators state their support for Israel, and they can be believed. But it is the executive branch, the CIA, the Vice-President, and their staffs, who pursue opposite policies behind the backs of Congress. These policies are the ones that have lasting effects on the security and safety of Israel and Jews, not the statements of legislators.
Yet such awareness is important if we are to understand how to interact with these agencies and government representatives. The book should therefore be made required reading to all Jewish bureaucrats, whether in government, the Diaspora establishment, or lobbying groups. Additionally, it is important for Jewish students to read this book. The future security of Israel, and of Diaspora Jewish communities, rests on its acceptance as an important contributor to the documented history of the twentieth century.
Copyright 1995. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
