The announcement last week by the United
States of the largest military aid
package in its history – to Israel – was
a win for both sides.
Israeli prime
minister Benjamin Netanyahu could boast
that his lobbying had boosted aid from
$3.1 billion a year to $3.8bn – a 22 per
cent increase – for a decade starting in
2019.
Mr Netanyahu has presented this as a
rebuff to those who accuse him of
jeopardising Israeli security interests
with his government’s repeated affronts
to the White House.
In the past weeks alone, defence
minister Avigdor Lieberman has compared
last year’s nuclear deal between
Washington and Iran with the 1938 Munich
pact, which bolstered Hitler; and Mr
Netanyahu has implied that US opposition
to settlement expansion is the same as
support for the “ethnic cleansing” of
Jews.
American president Barack Obama,
meanwhile, hopes to stifle his own
critics who insinuate that he is
anti-Israel. The deal should serve as a
fillip too for Hillary Clinton, the
Democratic party’s candidate to succeed
Mr Obama in November’s election.
In reality, however, the Obama
administration has quietly punished Mr
Netanyahu for his misbehaviour. Israeli
expectations of a $4.5bn-a-year deal
were whittled down after Mr Netanyahu
stalled negotiations last year as he
sought to recruit Congress to his battle
against the Iran deal.
In fact, Israel already receives
roughly $3.8bn – if Congress’s
assistance on developing missile defence
programmes is factored in. Notably,
Israel has been forced to promise not to
approach Congress for extra funds.
The deal takes into account neither
inflation nor the dollar’s depreciation
against the shekel.
A bigger blow still is the White
House’s demand to phase out a special
exemption that allowed Israel to spend
nearly 40 per cent of aid locally on
weapon and fuel purchases. Israel will
soon have to buy all its armaments from
the US, ending what amounted to a
subsidy to its own arms industry.
Nonetheless, Washington’s renewed
military largesse – in the face of
almost continual insults – inevitably
fuels claims that the Israeli tail is
wagging the US dog. Even The New York
Times has described the aid package as
“too big”.
Since the 1973 war, Israel has
received at least $100bn in military
aid, with more assistance hidden from
view. Back in the 1970s, Washington paid
half of Israel’s military budget. Today
it still foots a fifth of the bill,
despite Israel’s economic success.
But the US expects a return on its
massive investment. As the late Israeli
politician-general Ariel Sharon once
observed, Israel has been a US
“aircraft carrier” in the Middle East,
acting as the regional bully and
carrying out operations that benefit
Washington.
Almost no one blames the US for
Israeli attacks that wiped out Iraq’s
and Syria’s nuclear programmes. A
nuclear-armed Iraq or Syria would have
deterred later US-backed moves at regime
overthrow, as well as countering the
strategic advantage Israel derives from
its own nuclear arsenal.
In addition, Israel’s US-sponsored
military prowess is a triple boon to the
US weapons industry, the country’s most
powerful lobby. Public funds are
siphoned off to let Israel buy goodies
from American arms makers. That, in
turn, serves as a shop window for other
customers and spurs an endless and
lucrative game of catch-up in the rest
of the Middle East.
The first F-35 fighter jets to arrive
in Israel in December – their various
components produced in 46 US states –
will increase the clamour for the
cutting-edge warplane.
Israel is also a “front-line
laboratory”, as former Israeli army
negotiator Eival Gilady admitted at the
weekend, that develops and field-tests
new technology Washington can later use
itself.
The US is planning to buy back the
missile interception system Iron Dome –
which neutralises battlefield threats of
retaliation – it largely paid for.
Israel works closely too with the US in
developing cyberwarfare, such as the
Stuxnet worm that damaged Iran’s
civilian nuclear programme.
But the clearest message from
Israel’s new aid package is one
delivered to the Palestinians:
Washington sees no pressing strategic
interest in ending the occupation. It
stood up to Mr Netanyahu over the Iran
deal but will not risk a damaging clash
over Palestinian statehood.
Some believe that Mr Obama signed the
aid package to win the credibility
necessary to overcome his domestic
Israel lobby and pull a rabbit from the
hat: an initiative, unveiled shortly
before he leaves office, that corners Mr
Netanyahu into making peace.
Hopes have been raised by an expected
meeting at the United Nations in New
York on Wednesday. But their first talks
in 10 months are planned only to
demonstrate unity to confound critics of
the aid deal.
If Mr Obama really wanted to pressure
Mr Netanyahu, he would have used the aid
agreement as leverage. Now Mr Netanyahu
need not fear US financial retaliation,
even as he intensifies effective
annexation of the West Bank.
Mr Netanyahu has drawn the right
lesson from the aid deal – he can act
against the Palestinians with continuing
US impunity.
- See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2016-09-19/palestinians-lose-in-us-military-aid-deal-with-israel/#sthash.fL4Eq28N.dpuf
Here
Are
Clinton's Speeches To Goldman Sachs For
Which She Was Paid $675,000
By Tyler Durden
October 16, 2016 "Information
Clearing House"
-
"Zerohedge"-
As has
been widely reported, in
2013 Hillary Clinton was paid $675,000
for three speeches to Goldman Sachs. One
was delivered on June 4, 2013 at the 2013
IBD CEO Annual Conference at The Inn at
Palmetto Bluff in South Carolina, a second
one took place on October 24, 2013 at the
Goldman Sachs Asset Management AIMS
Alternative Investment Symposium, and the
last one was delivered on October 29, 2013
at the Goldman Sachs builders and innovators
summit.
The
speech transcripts, in their entirety,
were revealed for the first time in an email
from Tony Carrk, research director at
Hillary for America, in an email dated
January 23, 2016, and disclosed to the
public for the first time ever during
today's latest Wikileak of Podesta emails.
In
the email Carrk says:
The 3 (I misspoke about 5 earlier)
speeches to Goldman are attached with
some parts highlighted. Below are some
of the more noteworthy quotes.
The
highlights Carrk refers to are the
following:
In
the first excerpt Hillary Clinton
(rightfully) mocks Dodd Frank as nothing but
a political contrivance which was created
solely for political reasons as "there was
also a need to do something because for
political reasons." To wit: "*Clinton
Said, With Dodd-Frank, There Was “A Need To
Do Something Because For Political Reasons”
Because Members Of Congress “Can't Sit Idly
By And Do Nothing.”
“And with political people, again, I
would say the same thing, you know,
there was a lot of complaining about
Dodd-Frank, but there was also a need to
do something because for political
reasons, if you were an elected member
of Congress and people in your
constituency were losing jobs and
shutting businesses and everybody in the
press is saying it's all the fault of
Wall Street, you can't sit idly by and
do nothing, but what you do is really
important.” [GS2, 10/24/13]
* *
*
In
the second highlighted excerpt, Tim O'Neill,
Global Co-Head of the Investment Management
Division, thanks Hillary for her "continued
involvement in the issues (inaudible) to be
courageous in some respects to associated
with Wall Street and this environment" and
then thanks her "very much."
*Tim
O’Neill Told Clinton “We Really Did
Appreciate It” When She Had Been “Courageous
In Some Respects To Associated With Wall
Street And This Environment.”
“MR. O'NEILL: By the way, we really did
appreciate when you were the senator
from New York and your continued
involvement in the issues (inaudible) to
be courageous in some respects to
associated with Wall Street and this
environment. Thank you very
much. SECRETARY CLINTON: Well,
I don't feel particularly courageous. I
mean, if we're going to be an effective,
efficient economy, we need to have all
part of that engine running well, and
that includes Wall Street and Main
Street. And there's a big disconnect and
a lot of confusion right now. So I'm not
interested in, you know, turning the
clock back or pointing fingers, but I am
interested in trying to figure out how
we come together to chart a better way
forward and one that will restore
confidence in, you know, small and
medium-size businesses and consumers and
begin to chip away at the unemployment
rate. So it's something that I, you
know, if you're a realist, you know that
people have different roles to play in
politics, economics, and this is an
important role, but I do think that
there has to be an understanding of how
what happens here on Wall Street has
such broad consequences not just for the
domestic but the global economy, so more
thought has to be given to the process
and transactions and regulations so that
we don't kill or maim what works,
but we concentrate on the most
effective way of moving forward with the
brainpower and the financial power that
exists here.” [GS2, 10/24/13]
* *
*
In
a third noted excerpt, Clinton pitches the
idea that the best regulation of Wall Street
is self-regulation because "the people that
know the industry better than anybody are
the people who work in the industry.”
*Speaking
About Financial Regulations, Clinton Said
“The People That Know The Industry Better
Than Anybody Are The People Who Work In The
Industry.”
“There's nothing magic about
regulations, too much is bad, too little
is bad. How do you get to the golden
key, how do we figure out what works?
And the people that know the
industry better than anybody are the
people who work in the industry.”
[GS2, 10/24/13]
* *
*
In
a fourth excerpt, Hillary admits she had
"great relations and worked so close
together" with Wall Street and has "a lot of
respect for the work you do and the people
who do it."
*Clinton Said “I Represented
All Of You For Eight Years.
I Had Great Relations And
Worked So Close Together After 9/11 To
Rebuild Downtown.”
*“I
represented all of you for eight years.
I had great relations and worked so
close together after 9/11 to rebuild
downtown, and a lot of
respect for the work you do and the
people who do it, but I do -- I
think that when we talk about the
regulators and the politicians, the
economic consequences of bad decisions
back in '08, you know, were devastating,
and they had repercussions throughout
the world.” [GS2, 10/24/13]
The
fifth and final highlighted excerpt blames
banks' unwillingness to "do what they need
to do" due to fear of regulations, the same
regulations which in the same speech she
said should be left to Wall Street.
*Clinton Said “Banks Are Not Doing
What They Need To Do Because They're Scared
Of Regulations, They're Scared Of The Other
Shoe Dropping.”
*“I mean, right now, there are so many
places in our country where the banks
are not doing what they need to do
because they're scared of regulations,
they're scared of the other shoe
dropping, they're just plain scared, so
credit is not flowing the way it needs
to to restart economic growth. So people
are, you know, a little -- they're still
uncertain, and they're uncertain both
because they don't know what might come
next in terms of regulations, but
they're also uncertain because of
changes in a global economy that we're
only beginning to take hold of.” [GS2,
10/24/13]
* *
*
Addtionally, as flagged by Reuters earlier,
in the June 4 Goldman Sachs speech, Hillary
warned Beijing it would "ring China
with missile defense" unless it did
more to rein in North Korea's missile
program.
Because they could not
only do damage to our treaty allies,
namely Japan and South Korea, but they
could actually reach Hawaii and the west
coast theoretically,
and we're going to ring
China with missile defense. We're going
to put more of our fleet in the area.
Clinton told Goldman that the message to
China had been, "You either control them, or
we're going to have to defend against
them." According to Reuters, the State
Department on Friday declined to comment on
"alleged leaked documents." When asked
whether such a message had been delivered to
China, an official said it was not
department policy to comment publicly on
diplomatic discussions. Although
Clinton's reported comments raised a stir in
Asia, Reuters adds.
Clinton said she also told her Chinese
counterparts that the United States had as
much a claim to the Pacific as China, given
that U.S. forces had liberated it in World
War Two.
China had "a right to assert themselves,"
but the United States needed to "push back
to create a balance" to prevent China taking
a chokehold on sea lanes and countries
bordering the South China Sea, she said.
* *
*
Clinton gives yet another confirmation that
Saudi Arabia and the Emirates are funding
the "Jihadis" in Syria, aka the Islamic
State:
If you look at what's
happening in Syria, it's clearly a
multiply leveled proxy battle.
We've got Iran
with their agents in Hezbollah, and
they're being taken on by indigenous
rebels but increasingly a collection of
Jihadists who are funded by the Saudis,
funded by the Emiratis, funded by Qatar,
and you have the Turks that were very
active in the beginning, but then began
to be concerned by some of the
development inside Syria, particularly
among the northern and northeastern
Kurdish population in Syria.
Here are some interesting thoughts on Syria
from June 2013, in which she herself
admitted that a no fly zone in Syria would
"kill a lot of Syrians."
So
let's just take a step back and look at
the situation that we currently have in
Syria. When -- before the uprising
started in Syria it was clear that you
had a minority government running with
the Alawites in lead with mostly the
other minority groups -- Christians, the
Druze, some significant Sunni business
leaders. But it was clearly a minority
that sat on top of a majority. And the
uprisings when they began were fairly
mild in terms of what they were asking
for, and Assad very well could have in
my view bought them off with some
cosmetic changes that would not have
resulted in what we have seen over the
now two years and the hundred thousand
deaths and the destabilization that is
going on in Lebanon, in Jordan, even in
Turkey, and the threat throwing to
Israel and the kind of pitched battle in
Iran well supported by Russia, Saudi,
Jordanians and others trying to equip
the majority Sunni fighters.
I
think that we have tried very hard over
the last two years to use the diplomatic
tools that were available to us and to
try to convince, first of all, the
Russians that they were helping to
create a situation that could not help
but become more chaotic, because
the longer Assad was able to hold out
and then to move offensively against the
rebels, the more likely it was that the
rebels would turn into what Assad has
called them, terrorists, and well
equipped and bringing in Al-Qaeda and
its affiliates.
The Russian's view of this is very
different. I mean, who conceives Syria
as the same way he sees Chechnya? You
know, you have to support toughness and
absolute merciless reactions in order to
drive the opposition down to be
strangled, and you can't give an inch to
them and you have to be willing to do
what Assad basically has been willing to
do.
That has been their position. It pretty
much remains their position, and it is a
position that has led to the restocking
of sophisticated weapon systems all
through this. The Russians' view
is that if we provide enough weapons to
Assad and if Assad is able to maintain
control over most of the country,
including the coastal areas where our
naval base is, that's fine with us.
Because you will have internal fighting
still with the Kurds and with the Sunnis
on the spectrum of extremism. But if we
can keep our base and we can keep Assad
in the titular position of running the
country, that reflects well on us
because we will demonstrate that we are
back in the Middle East. Maybe in a
ruthless way, but a way that from their
perspective, the Russian perspective,
Arabs will understand.
So
the problem for the US and the Europeans
has been from the very beginning: What
is it you -- who is it you are going to
try to arm? And you probably read in the
papers my view was we should try to find
some of the groups that were there that
we thought we could build relationships
with and develop some covert connections
that might then at least give us some
insight into what is going on inside
Syria.
But the other side of the argument was a
very -- it was a very good one, which is
we don't know what will happen. We can't
see down the road. We just need to stay
out of it. The problem now is that
you've got Iran in heavily. You've got
probably at least 50,000 fighters inside
working to support, protect and sustain
Assad. And like any war, at least the
wars that I have followed, the hard guys
who are the best fighters move to the
forefront.
*
* *
So
we now have what everybody warned we
would have, and I am very concerned
about the spillover effects. And there
is still an argument that goes on inside
the administration and inside our
friends at NATO and the Europeans.
How do intervene -- my view was
you intervene as covertly as is possible
for Americans to intervene. We
used to be much better at this than we
are now. Now, you know, everybody can't
help themselves. They have to go out and
tell their friendly reporters and
somebody else: Look what we're doing and
I want credit for it, and all the rest
of it.
So
we're not as good as we used to be, but
we still -- we can still deliver, and we
should have in my view been trying to do
that so we would have better insight.
But the idea that we would have like a
no fly zone -- Syria, of course, did
have when it started the fourth biggest
Army in the world. It had very
sophisticated air defense systems.
They're getting more sophisticated
thanks to Russian imports.
To have a no fly zone you
have to take out all of the air defense,
many of which are located in populated
areas. So our missiles, even if they are
standoff missiles so we're not putting
our pilots at risk -- you're going to
kill a lot of Syrians.
So all of a sudden
this intervention
that people talk about so glibly becomes
an American and NATO involvement where
you take a lot of civilians.
Some thoughts on Putin:
Look, I would love it if we could
continue to build a more positive
relationship with Russia. I worked very
hard on that when I was Secretary, and
we made some progress with Medvedev, who
was president inname but was obviously
beholden to Putin, but Putin kind of let
him go and we helped them get into the
WTO for several years, and they were
helpful to us in shipping equipment,
even lethal equipment, in and out of out
of Afghanistan.
So
we were making progress, and I
think Putin has a different view.
Certainly he's asserted himself in a way
now that is going to take some
management on our side, but obviously
we would very much like to have
a positive relationship with Russia and
we would like to see Putin be less
defensive toward a relationship with the
United States so that we could work
together on some issues.
We've tried very hard to work with Putin
on shared issues like missile defense.
They have rejected that out of hand. So
I think it's what diplomacy is about.
You just keep going back and keep
trying. And the President will see Putin
during the G20 in Saint Petersburg, and
we'll see what progress we can make.
Here is Hillary opining on Wikileaks and
Edward Snowden:
MR. BLANKFEIN: I'll discuss that after I
leave here. Let me ask you another
question because this is also a topical
question. Let's say, hypothetically,
that one country was eavesdropping on
another country.
(Laughter.)
MR. BLANKFEIN: And I didn't hear the
crisp denials, but I didn't hear any
confirmation of it. How would you --
would you be looking forward to giving
that explanation? How do you go -- what
do you do now?
SECRETARY CLINTON: So, all right. This
is all off the record, right? You're not
telling your spouses if they're not
here.
MR. BLANKFEIN: Right.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Okay.
I was Secretary of State when WikiLeaks
happened. You remember that whole
debacle. So out come hundreds of
thousands of documents. And I have to go
on an apology tour. And I had a jacket
made like a rock star tour. The Clinton
Apology Tour. I had to go and apologize
to anybody who was in any way
characterized in any of the cables in
any way that might be considered less
than flattering.
And it was painful.
Leaders who shall remain nameless, who
were characterized as vain, egotistical,
power hungry --
MR. BLANKFEIN: Proved it.
SECRETARY CLINTON: -- corrupt. And we
knew they were. This was not fiction.
And I had to go and say, you know, our
ambassadors, they get carried away, they
want to all be literary people. They go
off on tangents. What can I say. I had
grown men cry. I mean, literally. I am a
friend of America, and you say these
things about me.
MR. BLANKFEIN: That's an Italian accent.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Have a sense of
humor.
MR. BLANKFEIN: And so you said, Silvio.
(Laughter.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: So, fast forward.
Here we are. You know, look, I have
said, and I will continue to say, we do
need to have a conversation with and
take a hard look at the right balance
that we could strike between, you know,
privacy and security because there's no
doubt, and I've seen this and understand
it, there's no doubt that much of what
we've done since 9/11 has kept us safer.
That's just a fact. It's also kept our
friends and our partners and our allies
safer, as well. The sharing of
intelligence requires the gathering of
intelligence and the analysis of
intelligence.
*
* *
MR. BLANKFEIN: Maybe embedded you've
already given part the answer, but how
serious, how bad was it what Snowden and
Assange did? What are the -- I mean,
Assange -- if this were a destroyer and
innovator conference, we might have had
Assange here.
SECRETARY CLINTON: I wouldn't be here.
MR. BLANKFEIN: But how much did that
hurt us? Aside from the embarrassment,
clearly some avenues now, some things we
relied on that, have been closed off for
us. I know it was very important to try
to get some legislation that would have
made it legal to get some more of this
metadata that's been very helpful
without having the carriers face
liability. That's probably been put on
the back burner. What are the
consequences long term for this in terms
of our own safety and the safety of the
Republic.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, separate the
two. The WikiLeaks problem put at risk
certain individuals. We had to -- we had
to form a kind of investigative team
that looked at all the names and all the
documents, which was quite a challenge,
to make sure that identities that were
either revealed or described in enough
detail that they could be determined
would not put people who were at risk. I
mean, without going into detail, you
know, maybe they're -- let's just
hypothetically say there was somebody
serving in a military in a certain
country who was worried about some of
the activities of the military that he
served because he thought they were
doing business with rogue states or
terrorist networks, and so he would seek
out an American diplomat to begin a
conversation. And the American diplomat
would report back about the concerns
that were being expressed about what was
happening in this country. And then it's
-- you know, it's exposed to the world.
So we had to identify, and we moved a
number of people to safe -- to safety
out of where they were in order for them
to be not vulnerable.
So
on the WikiLeaks, there was the
embarrassment factor, there were the
potential vulnerability factors that
individuals faced. The WikiLeaks issue
was, you know, unfortunate. Private
Manning should have never had access to
a lot of what he did have access to. So,
in effect, it was a problem. But it
didn't expose the guts of how we collect
and analyze data.
*
* *
So, you know, if Snowden has given them
a blueprint to how we operate, why is
that in any way a positive. We should
have the debate. We should have the
conversation. We should make the changes
where they're necessary. But we
shouldn't put our systems and our people
at risk. So I think that WikiLeaks was a
big bump in the road, but I think the
Snowden material could be potentially
much more threatening to us.
* *
*
We
are currently readying the transcripts for
further informative details about what
Hillary tells the world's most important
commercial bank in private.
Here
are the full speeches with links:
Speech
#1 (link)
* *
*
Speech
#2 (link)
* *
*
Speech
#3 (link)
In case you missed it:
NSA whistleblower
says DNC hack was not done by Russia, but by
U.S. intelligence:
US government whistleblower William Binney
threw his hat into the DNC hack ring by
stating that the Democratic National
Committee’s server was not hacked by Russia
but by a disgruntled U.S. intelligence
worker. |