Democratic Palestine : 27 (ص 46)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 27 (ص 46)
- المحتوى
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The Israeli Role in the Middle East
Regional CIA Station
This is a continuation of the study printed in previous issues of Democratic Palestine on the role played by
‘Israel’ in the region, based on inciting war and developing nuclear weaponry. In this issue, we deal with
Zionism’s alliances and covert activities. These two fields are almost synonymous for the Zionist state,
since its own aggressiveness has precluded normal relations with surrounding countries. Rather, in its ef-
forts to secure and expand its artificial existence, ‘Israel’ has turned itself into the CIA’s extended arm.
To secure the occupation of Palestine and defeat the Arab
national movement, the first Israeli prime minister, Ben-
Gurion, launched the periphery orientation to forge relations
with non-Arab states on the perimeters of the Arab world,
especially Iran, Turkey and Ethiopia, all under autocratic rule
at the time. Parallel to this were Zionist efforts to manipulate
religious or ethnic minorities in the Arab countries - Christians
in Lebanon, Kurds in Iraq, etc. This second aspect was an ex-
tension of the original Zionist policy of singling out Arab Jews
for immigration to ‘Israel’ or engagement in subversion in
their homelands. This policy was carried out by covert means
from the start, as when the Mossad planted bombs in Baghdad
to scare Iraqi Jews into immigrating. Another example was
when Zionist agents (Egyptian Jews) planted bombs in Egypt
in the 1950s. Though this led to a scandal, forcing Lavon, the
defense minister, to resign, ‘Israel’ this year honored the spies
who carried out the sabotage. Speaking to surviving members
of the team and their families, Defense Minister Rabin said,
«The great (intelligence) effort during the wars and between
the wars, including your efforts, brought us in the end to peace
with Egypt,» showing that covert sabotage activities are indeed
a cornerstone of the Zionist state’s foreign policy (Monday
Morning, October 5-11, 1987).
By accentuating religious and ethnic differences, the
Zionists aimed to acquire justification for their own sectarian
state, while countering the secular, progressive tendency in the
Arab liberation: movement, ideologically and in the battlefield.
This article focuses on the Zionists’ two major success stories
in forging regional alliances. Typically, these involved rela-
tions with ultrareactionary forces: the Shah of Iran and the
Lebanese fascists. The first paved the way for the current
lran/contragate scandal, while the second culminated in the
1982 Israeli invasion and continuing occupation in Lebanon.
In connection with Irangate, an Israeli foreign ministry of-
ficial complained that his country had become «a sort of se-
cond CIA available for dirty missions when the White House
prefers not to go through the regular channels» (International
Herald Tribune, June 1, 1987). Yet this is a role which the
Zionist state has deliberately created for itself, not least via its
policy towards Iran and Lebanon. Its regional role in turn laid
the basis for its international role as arms supplier and military
trainer for reactionary forces and regimes in Asia, Africa and
Latin America.
Israeli radio reporter Haim Hecht wrote the following in
Monitin, April 1983, about the Israeli plans for installing
Phalangist Bashir Gemayel as president of Lebanon: «Mossad
genuinely believed... that the political system used by the Shah
of Iran, Heile Selassi of Ethiopia and General Delimi of
46
Morocco could work and enable Israel to control Lebanon...
By the summer of 1981, Mossad’s view had become that of the
government and this had to end with the war in Lebanon»
(quoted in A! Fajr, July 15, 1983).
Indeed the link between ‘Israel’ the occupier, the regional
CIA and the international arms merchant is even reflected on
the level of personnel. In the mid-70s, Brigadier General Bin-
jamin Ben-Eliezar was military commander of the occupied
West Bank, as well as the top liaison officer to the Phalangists.
He had spent the years 1970-73 in Singapore, training its army.
Uri Lubrani, one time Israeli representative in Uganda,
Ethiopia and longest in the Shah’s Iran, where he forged the
Mossad-Savak connection, was appointed coordinator of af-
fairs in South Lebanon after the 1982 Israeli occupation. David
Kimche, former Mossad agent, built his foreign ministry career
on relations with Black Africa, where the military aspects
predominate in Israeli aid. He was also one of the architects of
the Mossad’s Lebanon policy and negotiated the ill-fated May
17, 1983 Israeli-Lebanese treaty. Kimche has gained recent
notoriety as a key figure in the Israeli part of the Iran/con-
tragate affair and was recalled to ‘Israel’ to avoid interrogation
in the US.
ZIONIST—PHALANGIST RELATIONS
Israeli Minister of Science Yuval Neeman frankly expounded
the Zionist attitude towards Lebanon on Israeli radio,
February 22, 1985, saying, «Lebanon is not worth recognizing
as a state.» Like his open advocation of annexing the West
Bank, Neeman emphasized that Lebanese territory «up to the
Litani is essential for Israel’s security» and that «all elements
who don’t like us» should be pushed out «like in 1967.»
Defense Minister Rabin expressed equal contempt for the
Lebanese when explaining the Israeli withdrawal from Tyre:
«We didn’t want too many of the Lebanese in the security
zone» (Israeli radio, April 29, 1985). On this background, the
Israeli leadership has espoused the «protection of the Chris-
tians» while in reality encouraging a fascist minority whose
bloody drive for hegemony has been catastrophic for Lebanese
as a whole, Christians and Moslems alike.
Zionist officiais gained contact with right-wing Lebanese
Maronites as far back as 1920. «In 1948, a Phalange Party
contactman proposed to Zionist leaders that Israel help the
party organize an insurrection to overthrow the pro-war regime
in Lebanon» (Benny Morris, Jerusalem Post, July 1, 1983,
based on a declassified Israeli foreign ministry file for 1948-51.
By pro-war regime, Morris refers to the Lebanese
government’s opposition to the creation of the Zionist state). - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 27
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