One emerging key issue in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination is Israel, and more specifically, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The question for would-be Democratic presidents is: Does AIPAC have too much influence over U.S. policy toward the Middle East? Or is AIPAC’s influence a non-issue? In the social media binary...
Category: Israel/Palestine
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Rafi Eitan’s Two Nuclear Missions for Mossad
In an obituary of the late Rafi Eitan, Israeli journalist Yossi Melman notes that the legendary Mossad operative played a leading role in another operation obtaining uranium for Israel’s secret nuclear program. I reported last week on Eitan’s role in diverting several hundred pounds of fissile material from a uranium refining facility in Pennysylvania. Melman...
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RIP Rafi Eitan, Mastermind of Mossad’s Uranium Heist
On September 10, 1968 Raphael Eitan and three other Israeli nationals arrived in Apollo, Pennsylvania, a small city north of Pittsburgh that was home to a company called the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation. NUMEC packaged and stored enriched uranium, which it supplied to nuclear power plants in northeastern United States. Eitan, who died Saturday...
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Did Iran Hack Israel’s Election? Or Did Netanyahu Hack His Rival?
Iranian hackers, suspected of penetrating the phone of Benny Gantz, former Israeli general running for prime minister, have thrown Israeli politics into turmoil. Or maybe Iranian hackers had nothing to do with it. The story broke last week on Israeli television and was picked up by Haaretz.com Lurid rumors regarding what was on the phone...
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In Honor of James Angleton, Founding Father of the CIA-Mossad Alliance
In an obtrusive spot on a winding path through a hilside park above the ancient walls of the Old Jerusalem lies a stone memorial to one of the CIA’s most controversial spies. It a geopolitical monument hidden in plain view. The stone–carved in English, Hebrew and Arabic—honors the memory of James Angleton, the first chief...