(WMR) -- America�s
special envoy to the Middle East, former Senator George Mitchell, is facing the
wrath of Israeli government ministers and the Israel Lobby�s most strident
supporters in Congress over his threat of withholding U.S. loan guarantees to
Israel if the Israelis continue to build illegal settlements in east
Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Mitchell�s threat, aired during an interview on PBS, witb
Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz saying Israel could live without U.S.
loan guarantees. WMR previously reported that jailed Wall Street fraudster
Bernard Madoff had parked much of his ill-gotten money in Israeli banks, so
Steinitz�s statement that Israel can live without loan guarantees from the
United States may not be a mere idle boast.
Israeli Education Minister Gideon Sa�ar also shrugged off
Mitchell�s threat. Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman immediately
criticized Mitchell�s attempt to deny Israel assistance for its continuing
insistence on building illegal settlements. Both senators are completely owned
and operated by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
The suspension of loans guarantees for Israel hearkens back
to the George H. W. Bush administration that faced similar recalcitrance from
the Yitzkak Shamir government over the building of illegal settlements in the
West Bank. AIPAC immediately used its clout in Congress to override any threat
of housing loan guarantee suspensions by the Bush I administration. Israel�s
demands that the Bush administration continue its loan guarantees prompted
Secretary of State James Baker to say in a private conversation that became
public, �Fuck the Jews. They don�t vote for us anyway.� However, Baker soon backed
down and phoned Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy to announce that the U.S.
would provide $400 million for housing loan guarantees for continued Israeli
illegal settlement expansion.
Mitchell is on political thin ice in confronting Israel,
according to WMR�s White House press sources. Former Bill Clinton Middle East
envoy Dennis Ross, who headed up the neocon Washington Institute for Middle East
Policy before being hired on as a special envoy for Iran in the Hillary Clinton
State Department for Iran issues, has been placed inside the White House
national security team with a Middle East advisory portfolio. Ross is known as
a supporter of the �Jerusalem will always be united as Israel�s capital� camp
and his strongly pro-Israel policies ensured that when he was at the State
Department, Hillary Clinton ensured that Ross had little access to important
State Department documents and meager responsibilities. Mrs. Clinton reportedly
does not care for Ross and blames him for �stabbing Bill in the back� during
the Camp David peace talks between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
After Ross was placed by Clinton in his State Department
Middle East job without responsibilities, Ross complained to White House
Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel -- whom Hillary Clinton also despises from her
husband�s days in the White House, Obama policy adviser David Axelrod, and
Thomas Donilon, the deputy national security adviser under Obama. Previously,
Donilon worked for the law firm O�Melveny & Myers and his top clients
included Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Hyatt hotel heiress and strong Israel
backer Penny Pritzker of Chicago. Ross was moved from the State Department to
the White House where he now has much more sway over Obama�s Middle East
policies.
Ross has now positioned himself, with the assistance of
Obama economic adviser Larry Summers, as a virtual AIPAC wall within the White
House. That means that Mitchell, in throwing down the loan guarantee gauntlet
to Israel, must now worry about his back -- and the long knives wielded by
Ross, Emanuel, Axelrod, Donilon, and Summers are drawn with Mitchell as the
target.
Previously
published in the Wayne
Madsen Report.
Copyright � 2010 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne
Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and
nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report
(subscription required).