American Politics in the Age of Oil : The Bernie Sanders Phenomenon by Iakovos Alhadeff - HTML preview

Bernie Sanders and Israel

Something else that worries me about Sanders rise, is how it relates to Israel. The Arab Spring, the improvement in the US-Iran relations, and the Turkish-Israeli hostility, have created great dangers for Israel’s security. Some analysts believe that Israel will not survive the Arab Spring. See for example “Op-Ed: New Study: 'Preparing for a Post Israel Middle East”, September 2012.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/12159#.VsG8U_l95dg

The United States have reduced their army in the Middle East, and the US-Iran rapprochement forced the Russians to bring to Syria their most modern military equipment in terms of radars, aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles. Among other things the Russians want to make sure that after the abolition of economic sanctions against Iran, Iran will not try to construct the Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline without Gazprom. Russia might actually decide to block Iran in Syria.

But the huge Russian presence in Syria forces Israel to cooperate with Russia, so that Russia does not intervene when Israel attacks Iranian arm cargoes to South Lebanon (Hezbollah) and the Golan Heights at the Syrian-Israeli borders. Remember that both Hezbollah and Iran have as an official policy the annihilation of Israel. But if the Israelis cooperate with the Russians, they will not be as useful as they used to be for the United States. The fact that the Israeli-Russian cooperation is to a large extent a by-product of the American foreign policy does not matter. It is not the causes but the outcome that matters.

At the following Yahoo article you can read that the CIA considers the Israelis as the number one threat for espionage. See Yahoo “US sees Israel, tight Mideast ally, as spy threat”, July 2012.

http://news.yahoo.com/us-sees-israel-tight-mideast-ally-spy-threat-132232395.html

It is not uncommon for secret agencies of allied countries to spy on each other. But for the United States it is very different when Israel is cooperating cooperate with Russia, because American secrets could end up to Russia, at least theoretically speaking. And I will say once more that one cannot use the argument that it was the American foreign policy that led to the Israeli-Russian cooperation, because it is the outcome that matters. And the outcome is that Israel and Russia are cooperating against Turkey, a common enemy, while the United States are cooperating with Turkey against Russia. Even though the Turkish-American relations are simply a shadow of what they used to be in the past. And it is again the Turks who attacked Israel and destroyed the Turkish-Israeli alliance, but again it is the outcome that matters.

Israel’s cooperation with Russia makes Israel less useful for the United States, and that’s a big problem because it is only the United States that can keep Israel alive. Moreover Israel is a thorn in the normalization of the US-Iranian relations. The war against Israel has been for Iran a great advantage in its effort to counterbalance the influence of the Turks and the Saudis in the Muslim World. The Iranians are Shiite (Shia) Muslims, and Shia Muslims are only 15-20% of the Muslim population, while the Turks and the Saudis are Sunni Muslims, and 80-85% of the Muslim population are Sunni Muslims.

Israel was a great advantage in Iran’s effort for influence in the Muslim World, given that Turkey and Israel were until recently allies, and given that Saudi Arabia could not attack Israel as forcefully as Iran could, since Saudi Arabia was an American ally. Now Saudi Arabia and Israel are cooperating against Iran.

I believe that the United States will never want to destroy Israel, which is the only democracy of the Middle East. However the question is whether the United States will be willing to carry the cost of keeping Israel alive. The Democrats believe more in the US-Iranian rapprochement and care less about Israel. After all it is the Obama policy that jeopardized Israel’s security, even though I believe it was done unintentionally. I do not mean that Obama did that to destroy Israel. He is just very tolerant towards Islamists and he does not care too much about Israel. The Republicans are less tolerant towards Islamists and care more about Israel. At least that’s the rule.

Therefore the Democrats, even though unintentionally, are responsible for the great threats that Israel is facing today. If some circles within the democrats expect, or even wish, that Israel falls, they would see favorably a Jewish candidate, who is also anti-Israel. If Israel falls, and the Turks, the Arabs and the Iranians invade Israel there will be a second Holocaust, only 70 years after the first one. The Americans and the Europeans would not want to be held accountable for a second Holocaust. Therefore Israel’s fall would seem much better for the American Democrats, if a Jew was their leader, or even the President of the United States.

This might again sound like a conspiracy theory but it is not. I am only saying that some circles within the Democrats might seem a Jewish candidacy as an insurance against a second Holocaust. Moreover, for the pure anti-Israel ones, an anti-Israel Jewish president would be a great weapon, because it would be a disaster for Israel. Imagine what would happen if Noam Chomsky was the American president. His constant attacks to Israel would convince everybody that Israel is doing something wrong. How else could people who do not follow politics explain the attacks on Israel by a Jewish American President? Most people have no idea about socialism, Islamism, oil ect.

At the following map you can see the problems associated with Israel’s security. At Southern Lebanon Israel is facing Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran and Russia, at the South Israel is facing Hamas, which is supported by Iran, Turkey and Qatar. At the east i.e. the West Bank and Jordan, Israel might soon have to face ISIS, because hundreds of thousands of immigrants have infiltrated in Jordan, and ISIS is now very strong in Jordan and the West Bank. At the Golan Heights Israel is facing ISIS and Iran, which are fighting each other about who is going to better position itself. Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS and Iran, all are openly asking for the annihilation of Israel.

Map 2 Israel

https://lax2tlvbus404.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/map-of-israel.jpg

Therefore there is a great economic and diplomatic for the United States, if they want to keep Israel alive. And at the other side of the scale is Israel’s usefulness to the United States, and the ethics of saving the only Jewish state in the world. But Israel’s cooperation with Russia, and the US-Iranian normalization, reduces Israel’s usefulness. Therefore it is mostly the ethics of saving the Jewish state at the other side of the scale, and that’s not good for Israel, because international relations are not based on ethics, at least not for most of their part. Therefore the United States might say that they will offer Israel some limited financial and military aid, and after that Israel should do what it can to survive. There is a place for Bernie Sanders in such a scenario.

To make a long story short, Bernie Sanders might be useful for the American political elite that wants a larger share of the oil and gas production, but also for Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, i.e. the countries that will benefit from Sanders heavy taxes on American energy companies. At the same time Sanders could be convenient to the Democrats in case Israel falls, because it would be much harder to accuse the Democrats for jeopardizing Israel’s security while they are having a Jewish leader. Who will blame the Democrats, if they have elected a Jew as their leader? On the other hand the Democrats might be simply using Sanders to threaten Israel, both for its disrespect to Obama, and also for its cooperation with Russia.

Sanders might be convenient for many different reasons at the same time, and that has nothing to do with conspiracy theories. It is just politics. After all Sanders might not even be elected, and I hope he is not. American Jews had a contribution in making America great. It is a disgrace that it is a Jew who is trying to steal America from its people, simply by using cheap rhetoric and promising everything to everybody. It is not a coincidence that Sander’s most fanatic supporters are students. Many of us have been students, and we all know how students think. Actually we all know how students don’t think. Most of them don’t even know that it was capitalism that made American great.

And if Sanders is elected, and he hurts the American economy with his socialist policies, he will be used by the socialists, the Arabs and the Iranians as a great example of a Jewish conspiracy. They will say that he caused financial pain on the US not because he was a socialist, but because he was a Jew. People who do not live in socialist or Islamist countries have no idea about how propaganda works. But we do. See also “The True Causes of Greek Anti-Semitism”.

https://iakal.wordpress.com/2014/08/15/the-true-causes-of-greek-anti-semitism/

Articles

“Islamic State Lured a Son of Jordan’s Elite”, December 2015

http://www.wsj.com/articles/islamic-state-lured-a-son-of-jordans-elite-1449015451

“Al Jazeera to Shut Down American News Channel”, January 2016

http://www.wsj.com/articles/al-jazeera-to-shut-down-american-news-channel-1452713303

“The case against Al Jazeera America”, January 2013

http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/the-case-against-al-jazeera-america-clifford-d-may-1.4427104

“Ranking the media from liberal to conservative, based on their audiences”, February 2016

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/10/21/lets-rank-the-media-from-liberal-to-conservative-based-on-their-audiences/