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Sharing Israeli Intelligence but the Dog Ate My Homework [1]

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Date: 2023-10-09  

When Hamas indiscriminately shelled Israel over the past weekend, killing hundreds of Israeli civilians, I stared at my watch, counting down how long the GOP would take to blame President Biden with a chorus of; it is his fault. The Republican National Chairwoman, Ronna [Romney] McDaniel, stated,’ I think this is a great opportunity for our candidates to contrast where Republicans have stood with Israel….’ Setting aside the gross exploitation of a tragedy for political gain, the statement itself can be challenged as projection. When former President Trump in 2017 revealed he divulged Israeli intelligence to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during a meeting at The White House, alarm bells went off in the Israeli government.

When you pair that with at least five unrecorded meetings with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Israel was reportedly “furious.” The American president insisted on no official readouts or translations. The report further said that before Donald Trump visited Tel Aviv, Israeli intelligence officials were shouting at their American counterparts in meetings, furious over news that the U.S. commander-in-chief may have compromised a vital source of information on the Islamic State and possibly Iran. Even the fans of the former President know he has loose lips, as evidenced by the recent revelation that he told an Australian businessman vital secrets about America’s nuclear submarine technology and strategies on how close they can approach enemy forces before detection.

Unfortunately, Commander is bitey

While the Republicans have slowed the confirmation of President Biden’s appointments, like Jack Lew, who was nominated in early September as America’s ambassador to Israel, the GOP blanket opposition to Biden nominees in both the military, judiciary and foreign service is hurting both America and its allies. Further complicating the matter, the GOP dysfunction in the House of Representatives has resulted in the lack of a Speaker, thereby exacerbating the vulnerability of the United States. Part of the blame for allowing the GOP to misinform and disinform the American public lies at the feet of the press. What should have been a hair-on-fire story about a former American President chatting about guarded American secrets, possibly over chocolate cake and coffee, Biden’s dog Commander biting Secret Service agents was the headline.

Again, the Sunday news programs, which are the summary point for news to many Americans, allowed Republicans to lie about the 6 billion dollars in frozen Iranian funds. The money was transferred to Qatari banks after the release of American hostages and is still being held there—and is characterized by the GOP as the funds used to attack Israel. The GOP theory is that President Biden gave six billion dollars as a ransom for the five hostages recently returned to America, and subsequently Iran bankrolled Hamas’ attack on Israel. The lies reached such heights that Fox News, still feeling the sting of a 787 million dollar defamation case loss, found it necessary to fact-check the six billion dollar funding for terror disinformation assertion. Correspondent Jennifer Griffin, in a segment aired on Fox, reported:

The $6 billion is still currently held in a Qatari bank account with U.S. Treasury oversight, I’m told. The money came from Iranian oil sales to South Korea and did not include U.S. taxpayer dollars. NSC spokesperson Adrian Watson said in a statement, ‘Not a single cent from these funds has been spent, and when it is spent, it can only be spent on things like food and medicine for the Iranian people. These funds have absolutely nothing to do with the horrific attacks today, and this is not the time to spread disinformation.’ In fact, the U.S. has pre-positioned $2 billion worth of weapons stored in Israel. I’m told the U.S. will likely release some of these pre-positioned weapons to assist Israel in the coming days.

Unfortunately, honesty has never gotten in the way of an excellent Republican lie, no matter the consequences. So, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wholesale retaliatory strikes in Gaza helping to cover his country’s intelligence failures, which may or may not be related to Mr. Trump’s classified intelligence leaks, the GOP will continue to use the tragedy as a club to bludgeon the Biden administration, truth be damned.

Vote Against Guns

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