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Special Reports Last Updated: Mar 17th, 2010 - 00:46:55


Israel�s threatening message to Biden and Obama
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Mar 17, 2010, 00:24

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(WMR) -- WMR�s government and intelligence sources are concerned about the threatening signals from the Israeli government that could impact on the security of President Obama.

The president clearly is facing a situation that pits those in his administration who oppose Israel�s expansion of settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank and those who are providing support for the Netanyahu regime by stymieing attempts to force Israel to the peace table with the Palestinians. The President�s Special Envoy for the Middle East, George Mitchell, according to published news reports, recently expressed exasperation over the failure of the Obama administration to achieve a Middle East peace accord because of the State Department�s bias in favor of Israel.

On March 11, former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy, in an interview with Israel Radio, stated that the White House had seen a �radical� change due to Obama�s efforts to �rehabilitate� the image of Islam in United States and the Western world by removing the terrorism brand that has been affixed to it. Halevy cited the Obama policy change as the reason for the change in the White House�s attitude toward Israel.

However, Halevy was careful to isolate the White House from the rest of the Obama administration. Halevy�s ploy, coupled with Mitchell�s revelations about the pro-Israel bias of Hillary Clinton�s State Department, is an indication that the Netanyahu regime and its agents inside the Obama administration and Washington power circles are attempting a �divide and conquer� policy with regard to the Obama administration.

On March 11, the same day Halevy made his unusual comments about Obama to Israel Radio, the State Department issued its annual report on human rights. Michael Posner, the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, ensured that Israel got off the hook on the UN�s Goldstone Report that concluded that Israel may have committed war crimes in its invasion of Gaza last year. Posner, a former attorney with the law firm Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal in Chicago and director of Human Rights First, a George Soros-funded organization, criticized the Goldstone Report, a criticism that was praised by the Zionist Organization of America, as well as other Israel Lobby organizations.

Posner, who had the final edit on the State Department human rights report, ensured the report�s entry for �Israel and the Occupied Territories� [no mention is made of Palestine], reiterated the criticism of the Goldstone Report, which has been accepted by the European Union and human rights groups around the world: �On September 29, Justice Richard Goldstone, who headed the mission, presented the report (commonly known as the �Goldstone report�) to the HRC [Human Rights Council] in Geneva. The Goldstone report investigated 36 incidents of alleged violations by the IDF in Gaza, as well as alleged violations by Palestinians. This reflected an effort by Goldstone to broaden the scope of his report beyond the original mandate, which was limited only to violations by Israel. Among its many conclusions, the report claimed that members of the IDF were responsible for deliberate targeting of civilians, for the destruction of critical infrastructure in Gaza, and for using weapons such as white phosphorous in highly populated areas, all of which it deemed to be violations of international humanitarian law.�

The State Departmen�s entry on Israel continues,�The Goldstone report was widely criticized for methodological failings, legal and factual errors, falsehoods, and for devoting insufficient attention to the asymmetrical nature of the conflict and the fact that Hamas and other Palestinian militants were deliberately operating in heavily populated urban areas of Gaza. The government of Israel also sharply rejected the charge that it had a policy of deliberately targeting civilians.IDF military advocate general Mandelblit was responsible for reviewing all allegations relating to Operation Cast Lead, including those contained in the Goldstone Report. At the end of the year, Mandelblit�s investigations were ongoing.�

The bolded section of the State Department report [above] is a reiteration of Israel�s propaganda aimed at covering up its premeditated genocide in Gaza. Secretary of State Clinton proudly released the report with her full endorsement of its �findings.� While the report criticized Goldstone, it had no problem citing what it felt was a more dire threat: �growing anti-Semitism worldwide.� The State Department ridiculously claims that Israel�s Cast Lead invasion of Gaza has resulted in �traditional and new forms of anti-Semitism� arising around the world. In essence, because it was the Jewish state that engaged in genocide in Gaza, any criticism of that action, according to Posner, Clinton, and the Israel cell in Foggy Bottom, is �anti-Semitic.�

The most serious threat against Biden, and, by extension, Obama, came when Netanyahu presented Biden a glass-framed document on the planting of trees in Jerusalem honoring Biden�s late mother, said to have been a strong supporter of Israel. Netanyahu is reported to have broken the glass �accidentally� before handing it to Biden. Netanyahu reportedly shattered the glass when he leaned on the plaque on a podium with his elbows. According to Reuters, Netanyahu told Biden, �I have one thing to offer you right now and it�s broken glass.� But then Netanyahu pulled out the document, with glass shards flying around, and used Biden�s pen to sign a dedication to Biden�s mother. What is not explained is why Netanyahu would have planned to sign a dedication with the document already in a glass frame.

The more likely explanation is that the incident was planned by Netanyahu as a warning to Biden and Obama. In Jewish tradition, including weddings, broken glass is a reminder of the destruction of the ancient Jewish Temple in Jerusalem with the hope that it will be rebuilt in a united Jerusalem under Jewish rule. And for Israel, the �night of broken glass,� or �Kristallnacht,� is remembered as the beginning of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany. In protocol- and symbolism-conscious Israel, the idea of handing the U.S. Vice President broken glass was obviously not an accident. Kristallnacht gets its name from the shattered glass that covered German streets in 1938, most of it from the broken windows of Jewish homes and businesses, as well as synagogues. Kristallnacht is still remembered on November 9 in ceremonies in Israel. They are ceremonies at which the ambassadors of Germany and Austria are expected to attend.

On November 9, 1989, when West and East Germany saw the Berlin Wall come down, Netanyahu�s mentor, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, ensured that there were plenty of references to Kristallnacht in Israeli media reports on the planned German reunification. The reason was that Kristallnacht began on the evening of November 9, 1938. The editor of Ha�aretz declared: �It�s very important that Germany stays divided.�

But WMR�s U.S. intelligence sources warn about a darker meaning. The sound of shattering glass is something that petrifies even the most seasoned intelligence agent. There is a saying among CIA old hands that once you hear the glass shatter, it�s too late to save yourself from the snipers.

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).

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