[littlefieldjohn]

Like Saudi Arabia, Israel Has a Soft Spot for Sunni Extremism
"Let the Sunni Evil Prevail"
In the War on Terror, Israel’s Government is Not a Reliable Friend of the American People—But Neither is Our Own

By Brian P. McGlinchey


Thanks to the summer of 2016's release of 28 pages detailing a variety of links between 9/11 hijackers and Saudi government officials—and the October leak of a 2014 email from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declaring the Saudi government was directly supporting ISIS—it’s increasingly clear that the U.S. government’s depiction of Saudi Arabia as a vital ally in the “war on terror” is dishonest.

Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia isn’t the only supposed “ally” whose official depiction as a steadfast foe of terrorism is out of sync with reality: The branding of Israel as a "friend" is also deeply misleading.

Israeli Aid to Al Qaeda in Syria

Though it received very little coverage in U.S. media, last year (2016)it was revealed that the Israeli government was providing medical support to the al Nusra Front, a Syrian arm of al Qaeda.

That would seem inconsistent with routine declarations from U.S. politicians that there should be “no daylight” between the United States and Israel, language that suggests two peoples whose interests are in perfect alignment.

Where Israel’s support of an al Qaeda affiliate is concerned, however, a former chief of the Mossad—Israel’s national intelligence agency—pulls no punches in differentiating between U.S. and Israeli interests.

Al Jazeera’s Mehdi Hasan asked Efraim Halevy why Israel would give medical aid to wounded members of al Qaeda—and return them to jihad in Syria—but not to the wounded of Hezbollah, the Iran-allied Shi’a militant group in Lebanon that has often clashed with Israel and has been linked, sometimes dubiously, to terror attacks.

[B]“We have a different account with Hezbollah. A totally different account. Al Qaeda, to the best of my recollection, has not attacked Israel,” he said.

Incredulous, Hasan replied, “It has attacked your number one ally and protector and sponsor, the United States of America!”

“Israel was not specifically targeted by al Qaeda, and therefore it’s a different kind of account than we have with Hezbollah,” replied Halevy. TJB

It wasn’t the first time a former Israeli official voiced a preference for Sunni extremism, even though Sunni terror has proven—before, during and after 9/11—a far greater menace to American and Western lives than Shi’a extremism.

Speaking at the Aspen Institute in June 2014, former Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren said Israel should hope Sunni extremists prevail in Iraq.

So much for “no daylight.”

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https://28pages.org/2017/01/31/like-...nni-extremism/