Democratic Palestine : 27 (ص 50)
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- Democratic Palestine : 27 (ص 50)
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in an attempt to disguise the parties involved. The missiles were
to be assembled and tested in Iran whose larger territory pro-
vided more space and possibilities for secrecy. In 1978, Iran
made its down payment, $260 million worth of oil, and sent
engineers to ‘Israel’ to begin designing the assembly plant.
Though these plans were disrupted by the Shah’s overthrow,
‘Israel’ profited from the contribution to continue its
development of the nuclear-tipped Jericho missile which is now
stationed in the occupied Golan Heights and Negev.
STRIKING BACK
Having worked in tandem with the Shah on secret military
and intelligence projects, the Zionists reverted to their regional
strike force role upon his fall. While US imperialism was
caught off-guard by the quick succession of events, Zionist
figures took the lead in advocating modes of dealing with
revolutionary Iran. Returning to ‘Israel’, an Israeli who had
served as adviser to the Iranian regime, wrote in Haaretz,
January 10, 1978, that the Shah should have been much
tougher, «putting strikers in front of machine guns» because
«The Iranian people are not yet ready for democracy.» Israeli
General Dan Shamron (now chief of staff) counselled the US
on the hostages in Iran: «The fact of liberating them is more
important than the cost in human lives.» Labor MK Meir
Amit, former Israeli army intelligence and Mossad head, con-
tended that «a clear military option exists, not precisely in
order to extricate the hostages who are in the Embassy, but in
order to solve a much more extensive problem... The US can
and is obligated to insure its supply of oil from Iran by a
military action to seize the region... This operation would
bring about an American ‘new order’ in which every crazy na-
tion must submit to the rules of the game» (Maariv, November
16, 1979).
In connection with the Irangate hearings, facts have come to
light that military action against Iran was in fact seriously
contemplated. Retired US Air Force General Secord, a central
figure in Irangate, told Playboy magazine in an interview that
a «small invasion» of Iran was planned after the failure of the
US mission in 1980, purportedly to rescue the American
hostages in Teheran (International Herald Tribune, September
3, 1987). In August this year, the Washington Post revealed a
joint Israeli-US plan for military action after September 1985,
when initial arms shipments to Iran failed to gain the release of
all the hostages in Lebanon.
IRANGATE
Short of conventional aggression, ‘Israel’ began shipment of
US arms to Iran from the early stages of the Gulf war, aiming
to make money while detracting Arab and Iranian resources
from the main struggle in the area against the Zionist state and
imperialist intervention. According to some reports, these arms
shipments were quietly approved by the US administration, or
parts of it, from the beginning. Other motives played a role as
well. The Zionist state used these arms shipments to secure the
immigration of Iranian Jews to ‘Israel’, since according to
Zionist ideology all Jews living in ‘unfriendly’ countries are
considered ‘hostages’. While the Zionist leadership denied such
50
cynical games, in 1984 «Israel announced that it was halting a
‘Jews-for-arms’ agreement that had been formally concluded
between the two governments in early 1980» (Israeli Foreign
Affairs, February 1985). In the wake of the Irangate scandal,
reports have again surfaced that ‘Israel’ is offering arms in
return for the remaining Iranian Jews’ immigration.
The Zionist leadership has also toyed with the idea of trying
to subvert the Iranian government from within. According to
the testimony of former National Security Council consultant,
Michael A. Ledeen, in October 1985 the Israelis were discuss-
ing the use of the profits from arms sales to Iran to pay an
Iranian official «who wanted to change the government... by
parliamentary means...» He had purportedly asked for small
arms and silencers in order to «protect him and his allies» (Jn-
ternational Herald Tribune, September 30, 1987). In an inter-
view with the Boston Globe, Moshe Arens, then Israeli am-
bassador to the US, stated that Israel had provided arms to
Iran «in coordination with the US government... at almost the
highest of levels... The objective was to see if we could not find
some areas of contact with the Iranian military, to bring down
the Khomeini regime» (quoted in Chomsky, Noam, The
Fateful Triangle, 1983, p.457).
Another aim was gaining access to Soviet weapon systems.
According to Anthony H. Cordesman, writing in American-
Arab Affairs, Spring 1987, US and Israeli intelligence officials
tried to obtain captured Iraqi weapons such as the T-72 tank,
by leading Iran to believe it would receive fighters, tanks and
helicopters from private sources; and ‘Israel’ sought to trade
arms for captured Soviet tanks.
With over two decades of experience in infiltrating Iran in
line with the periphery orientation, ‘Israel’ was the ideal part-
ner for the Reagan Administration’s ill-fated arms sales to Iran
and the diversion of profits to the contras. In effect, ‘Israel’
and the US teamed up to make the Islamic Republic foot the
bill for one of their dirtiest covert operations. It is not the first
time the Zionist state had a role in securing arms for forces
which US imperialism found it awkward to support openly.
Rather, this has. often been the case, especially in Latin
America.
Moreover, ‘Israel’ with its long history of covert operations
was ideally suited to cooperate with the ‘state-within-a-state’
created by Reagan and his inner circle to carry out this project
without the knowledge of the US Congress and other govern-
mental bodies, not to mention the public. The Zionist state’s
own arms deals are often based on a circle of ‘unofficial’ of-
ficials - retired generals or arms industrialists who ‘privately’
sell arms with the permission and consultation of the Israeli
Defense Ministry and/or Prime Minister’s Office.
It is no coincidence that at the height of the illegal arms
shipments to Iran, US Attorney-General Ed Meese made an
eight-day visit to ‘Israel’. According to the Jerusalem Post,
May 30, 1986, his visit focused on «sharing of intelligence,
doctrine and tactics» and institutionalizing «anti-terrorist»
cooperation. If the revelation of the Iran/contragate scandal
does, as some predict, result in restrictions on the US National
Security Council and CIA activities, then one can only expect
greater US reliance on ‘Israel’ to continue its espionage as the
CIA’s extended arm in the Middle East. - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 27
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