Judging Freedom - Alastair Crooke: Is Israel America’s Tool or Boss?

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

Alastair Crooke: Is Israel America’s Tool or Boss?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you. Hi everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. 2024. Alistair Crook will be with us in just a moment on why is Israel fighting seven different wars at once. But first, this. A divisive presidential election is upon us, and the winner is gold. Let me tell you what I mean. Since 2016, our national debt has grown a staggering 70% and gold has increased by 60%. Do you own gold? I do. I bought my gold in February 2023 and it has risen 33%. You've heard me talk about Lear Capital, the company I trust. Let me tell you why.

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Alistair Crook, good day to you, my friend, and welcome here. Thank you for your time, as always. We have much to discuss. The theme that I want to discuss with you is the theme of your most recent and tantalizing article, Why is the United States Israel's Partner for War? But before we get there, let's talk about the latest breaking news, and that would be the reports of IDF killed and injured in southern Lebanon. It appears that at least four IDF have been killed and that about 68 have been injured.

Now, these are very small numbers compared to the number of people that the IDF has slaughtered in Gaza, but these may be very significant numbers for the Israeli people. How do the Israeli people perceive this news? I think it's a shock and a real concern, because they've largely been spared any real pain in this. Not true, of course, for the forces. The forces both in Gaza have suffered great losses and increasingly there's a lot of gaslighting going on,

but the Israeli forces are still on the border with South Lebanon. They're not really crossing it at all. They've entered three villages, Maroon, which is about 800 metres from the border where the Irish post is, and then two other places, which are about 600 metres, and another place which is about quite close. So they've just gone in and they're suffering enormously from ambushes and from anti-tank measures. They're losing more, they certainly, they're losing more

men than Hezbollah in the south. They have not been able to really penetrate into the South. So it's not a success. It's painful. People who've been there say it's a grim, grim process. I'm talking about Israelis who've been there and said, you know, it's not nice at all. People are not, it's not going well at all. Then you've got Gaza, another terrible event taking place this morning in Gaza, an attack on the hospital

like buildings by Israel and Palestinians, children being burnt alive. There are pictures of them being alive in a sort of absolute, engulfed in flames and just impossible to reach and just dying, just dying, being burnt alive. And this now has come, and as you say, much smaller in terms of casualties, but psychologically hugely important because it's south of Haifa. And this was in a dining room of the Golani Brigade, which is an elite brigade of troops. And in their training base, they were all at dinner and two drones came from across the Mediterranean,

not directly over the land. And this one, one of them, we don't know quite why it was so successful in avoiding it. And the Israelis say that somehow they thought they had it on the radar and then it just dropped out of sight. Now, it may be a new form of drone or it may be that it was guided by some sort of laser, but that's unlikely because of the distance from Lebanon for it to reach this.

But it's caused a great fright to both the authorities, but people generally, this large loss. Well, it's quite a large loss of life, but the injured, I mean, the death rate is likely to go up from four, which it is at the moment, because there are 68 injured, and some of them seriously. Does the IDF typically reveal the true and accurate numbers of its forces that have been killed and injured, or does the Netanyahu government choose to keep this from the Israeli public? Absolutely kept from the Israeli public,

firstly, but also from the United States, from that, if you like, that segment of the population that is pro-Zionist in the U.S. So they're kept from them because what's happening in a sense is, and I call it, and this is a metaphor, of course, is that there's so much gaslighting, so much propaganda coming out of Israel. It's really like a Ponzi scheme. You know, when you have a Ponzi scheme, you have to keep the thing going. You always have to have new

money coming in, which more than compensates for any money going up. So the propaganda, so the gaslighting has to be kept going and it has to be keep going. And as soon as someone sort of suggests there's a problem or a difficulty, it gets doubled down because otherwise the Ponzi scheme collapses. If too much is sort of lost, and I'm talking here about not about money going out, but, you know, bad news comes in because at the moment the news is, what is the Ponzi scheme? The Ponzi scheme is Israel's on a winning streak. It's set to remake the Middle East.

It's set to take on and land a blow on Iran. That is the Ponzi scheme. That is the narrative. So anything that goes against it says, no, that isn't actually what happened. That isn't what happened at that big airbase in the Negev, where it seems now that actually there was the latest American radar, the X-band radar from Raytheon, which is the only radar that really provides Israel with the ability to pinpoint when a missile may be fired further in the region, as well as to indicate when it's, track it as it's coming. And it seems very certain that Iran actually used

possibly a hypersonic missile, but a fast-flying missile, and took up this expensive main X-band radar is the sort of, if you like, the jewel in the crown of Israel's defensive. And then the 20 missiles landed on the airbase. This is the cash going out of the Ponzi scheme when people start talking about that. When... Is it such a... Pardon me?

No, sorry, I'm saying that's when people start to get anxious, and we saw Netanyahu very anxious when he said, oh, and we had Biden as part of this too because he said, oh no, they defended, they defeated it all, and they defeated those Iranian missiles.

They were totally ineffective. Just not true. Right. When the United States gives a very expensive and unique piece of equipment, like this radar you're talking about, to Israel, and then it's destroyed by Iranian or Hezbollah missiles. Do they tell the United States or do they keep that secret as well? This podcast is sponsored by Talkspace. You know, when you're really stressed or not feeling so great about your life or about yourself, talking to someone who understands can really help. But who is that person? How do you find them?

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it's not clear that he knew that because, I mean, what he was saying, and he repeated it several times, all of the missiles from Iran were eliminated, were shot down. They were ineffective. They were defeated. And it's the opposite. They didn't shoot down any of them nor did the american vessels who were in the um offshore they fired 12 missiles they took down none of the iranians i can't tell you exactly how many got through but we're told there's something the order of 90 something substantial if you like some of them would decoy missiles not intended

to cause damage or to destroy things but to deflect any um air defenses that israel it was ensured a major a major failure of western air defense systems not not just Israelis, but Western air defence systems, which is why suddenly we have the United States prepared to send an air defence system, a THAAD system, with 100 American troops to Israel. And this is a major success, of course, because what I've been saying all along with is netanyahu's aim is to pull the united states into the war well they're very vulnerable and if you know if israel attacks iran iran will have every reason um to attack um that air defense system wherever it's located, probably in that stream in the Negev Desert, I should think.

With the American troops, we understand the number is around 100, sent ostensibly, I underscore ostensibly, to operate and maintain this equipment. Would they be a tripwire? Is this an excuse? Are they out there so that when they are attacked, Joe Biden and company have an excuse? Benjamin Netanyahu has an argument for more American troops. Precisely. I mean, this is what, this is the whole plan, dating back a long, long time, to gradually bring the United States in to a war with Iran. And this is precisely the first step, because if that missile system is attacked by Iran in retribution for what Iran suffers from Israel in this next period, which is promised. We don't know what it will be exactly. But yes, and because also it's not a very

effective system. It has, and it's fairly limited. It can have, I think, something, I'm not an expert in these things, but it has about a full battery, such as is being sent to Israel, has about, I think, 27 interceptors are available to it. You fire two at every time at every target. So it brings it down quite considerably. The Iranians only have to send probably, you know,

twice that number of decoys. And even that, even if they don't use a hypersonic missile and take it out directly as they did with the X-band radar. So it's a very different situation, very dangerous, because, of course, a red line for America has been when its troops are killed in the Middle East. And this will be a red line crossed and justifying, in the view of many in those circles in the United States, an escalation against Iran, clearly. Big picture. What has made the United States Israel's partner in war? Is it the influence of the Israeli donor class on American politics? Or is it America's lust for oil?

Or is it something else? Or is it a combination of those things? Well, as I wrote about, and I was drawing on the experience of Professor Michael Hudson, who worked in the Hudson Institute in the 70s, 74 to 76. And he was there at this time when it really started. And everything we've seen since really began around about that time between the Hudson Institute, Herman Kahn who was in charge of it, and Scoop Jackson, who was a very celebrated senator,

represented the military industrial complex, he came from Washington State, but he was also the Democratic contender for presidency twice. So a formidable presence then in the Democratic Party, although many of the, if you like, stoop Jacksonists then went over to the Republican, which is why you've got the, if you like, the confluence in the uniparty of the neocons are both in the Democratic and in the Republican Party. That's how it happened when he split from the Democrats and has moved

across to the Republicans. But the aim of it, and it was very clear, the Hudson Institute was working at that stage with Uzi Arad, whom I used to know when I was there. Uzi Arad was a formidable, really hard line. You know, you talk about the right on Israel now. He was absolutely in line with Ben-Gavir and Smotrich and all of the rest. Was he Mossad? Yeah, and then he became head of Mossad. Not just Mossad, he was head of Mossad. And his view was, you know, and he kept saying this then in the 70s, you know, the solution to where we are

is we have to kill the Arabs, kill the Arabs. He kept saying this all the time. And what Herman Kahn did was say to Senator Jackson, look, this is the solution for how we are able to sort of progress the empire in the Middle East, because we need the oil. We must have the oil, and we've got to have the oil. And this is the way to do it. We can't field an army. After really, after the Vietnam War, it was quite clear, because at the time, the presidential aspirant had to drop out of the competition because of the anti-war sentiment.

Having conscription, a draft was just no longer acceptable. So war had to be, if you like, supported by not actually occupying and invading. There was a small affair in Iraq in 2003, but it wasn't really a fighting force because the Iraqis had already surrendered. They'd already accepted monetary compensation and other things. So it had to be done by bombing and by, if you like, terrorism, about actually subjugating people. And so the plan from 73, 74 was, if you like, so to make life so unbearable for Palestinians

that either decide it wasn't worth living and just go and find somewhere to go to. Or if they wouldn't go, you bomb them and you bomb them and kill them because you don't have to lose forces if you bomb you don't lose your own men in this process this is what was said and uh professor hudson says i was in these meetings i was there in there in the Hudson when all of this was discussed. And Scoop Jackson bought into this. And so then he made sure to put Zionists in State Department. And he made sure to put the Zionists in the National Security Council. And so it was they were there to make sure that this idea and this thinking was, if you like, built out and developed and embedded so that it couldn't be easily rolled back.

And so for all these years, it's done. And what happened to the Palestinians was an exact copy from Vietnam, The Hamlets, the dividing of Hamlets, the dividing of the Palestinians. A lot of the Vietnam theory came in through that period and through Stoop Jackson and the Jacksonites, Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, all these people who then became the sort of the neocons. And the aim was not just to take the Palestinian area, Richard Perle, all these people who then became the neocons.

And the aim was not just to take the Palestinian area, but to take Lebanon, to take all of the, if you like, if you think of the Middle East divided east and west, east is Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, which weren't difficult for the United States to manage, but the other part in the west, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, all of these had to be, if you like, attributed by bombing and by force so that they could be brought to some form of surrender.

On one side, you had the jihadists as a proxy force, and the other side, you had Israel as the other proxy force. But the aim was to go right through. The question is, is it going to work today? Is there going to be pushback in the United States that will stop it? Clearly, there's some in the Pentagon who are sort of questioning this and saying we're overextended as it is. I mean, can we really sort of contemplate? Because, you know, not only is Israel talking about invading Lebanon, and then now the White House says it wants to completely change the political disposition of Lebanon. They want to actually put in a proxy president of Lebanon.

But they've started, they've even invaded Syria recently, invaded with forces into Syria, only about 500 meters or so. But they've made it clear that, you know, this isn't just about the Palestinian. It is about taking a whole swathe of land. And what's the White House reaction? Full support for what they're doing in Lebanon. We can change the whole character of the region, is what Blinken is saying and Hochstein is saying in Lebanon.

We want General Aoun to be the new president and we want to make sure that she are removed from politics altogether. Very dangerous process because it could start a civil war again in Lebanon. You know, this was after the civil war that these things were sort of divided up and the president is is how does um how does europe and how does the kremlin view this partnership of americans giving the israelis whatever they want whether it's because of the donor class in america or the american lust for oil? Well, I mean, firstly, I'd say what they understand very clearly, that this is, you know, what we're seeing being is a show-off. This is good cop, bad cop. You know, America says, oh, no, no, I mean, we have values,

we have the values of the United States, and we're pursuing those. Israel is, you know, and it's all Netanyahu, and Netanyahu is out of control. This is just a charade, because they both have, they have, there's a confluence of interests. American influence is to weaken the, if you like, the power of Iran, ultimately, which they see is going to weaken Russia. So they want to weaken the, if you like, the power of Iran ultimately, which they see is going to weaken Russia. So they want to weaken Iran and they want to get at Iran through Hezbollah and through Syria. And so there's a confluence of interest. One plays the bad cop, that's Netanyahu's role, and if you like, the White House is saying, oh, no, well, we're

trying to get restraint. But the reality is, everything that Netanyahu wants is given to him, money, the bombs, you don't see any real pushback, except something from the Pentagon. That's true. You see something from the Pentagon from there. But is it enough to stop this embedded? I mean, these are deep-seated policy initiatives in the United States. These are what I call these, you know, these are the structural, deep structural layers of foreign policy has always been the support for Israel and the aim to control the Middle East. And if they can get at Iran, of course they crush China, because then China loses its own source of fuel and oil. It's heavily dependent on Iran. It would be a major blow to China strategically and of

course would weaken Russia which depends on Iran for the whole of the, if you like, Central Asia corridor because Iran has that experience. Russia has a certain drawback there. So it all makes sense and that's why we see you know this confluence of interest but for presentational purposes of course we're trying to dissuade israel from going ahead but america's interest has been for 50 years this project in the Middle East to bring it under the US government control. This is a neocon project. It doesn't belong to this or that, but it combines, if you like, parts of all the parties. Will Russia ever allow the United States, without resistance on the part of the Russians, to damage Iran? No, I don't believe they will.

And I believe that's why they've been providing Iran with assistance, with weapons, with missiles, with air defense systems, with electronic warfare, and I think they're very determined. I don't think, and I think there's been a big change, and I think, you know, with the killing of Hassan Nasrallah marked a big sort of shift in thinking, you know, because before that we were in the era of sort of shift in thinking, you know, because before that we were in the era of sort of careful calculation, incremental moves up the escalatory ladder, and I've said that before, and I know that it was all being carefully

calibrated. I think, you know, what's understood in Russia is we're no longer playing chess. We haven't got an adult on the other side of the chessboard. What we have to do now is to get the message across is you have to take a hammer and smash the chessboard. That's the change that's taken place in this recent period. I'm going to play a little clip from, actually two clips, from the very public meeting of President Bazeshkin of Iran and President Putin of Russia and ask you for your thoughts. Chris, please play consecutively number two and number three. I'm very glad, dear Mr. President,

that there is an opportunity to meet you personally and discuss our current issues. Relations with Iran are a priority for us, and they are developing very successfully. We have many opportunities now. We should help each other in many areas. Our viewpoints and positions in the world are much closer to each other than to those of others. God willing, we will take part in the BRICS summit and will do everything to sign agreements that will allow beneficial mutual cooperation. Did they sign a mutual defense pact?

No, they didn't. Not then. But I just want to say about this, I mean, we don't have much detail of what was the substance of the sudden meeting. And so only guess what? And I have my guesses. But it's certainly he's not the man to talk about neutral defense or defense pact. Because Ashkian, I mean, knows nothing about the military. He's a heart surgeon and has always been a doctor. He's not, and he's not served in the forces. He's not the interlocutor for having a discussion with Putin.

This was being done by Shoigu with the National Security Council. What is your gut feeling as to why this sudden ostentatious public meeting? This is my gut guesswork, is that recently you've heard quite a lot from Iran about needing to change its doctrine about nuclear weapons, and that it's thinking of it, and about 39 members of parliament then wrote to the Supreme Leader saying they wanted it sort of considered. Look, if that happens in Iran, the Supreme Leader is not opposed to it. I mean,

this is a little bit of theater going on. Clearly, something is changing in terms of the doctrine. My sense is that when Iran gets to the point where it's talking about changing the doctrine, it's already almost at the point where that doctrine can be implemented by just putting fissile material into a receptacle or something like that. But don't forget that Russia, Putin is a lawyer, but Russia is against proliferation. And so is formerly the BRICS. And so I would think that probably, possibly, but guess what, is that they

were discussing how to manage the question of proliferation if it happens and the doctrine has been changed. After all, Russia's just changed its doctrines, so you know there is an understanding that circumstances can change and you may need to change your doctor so i would think that it may be that he was called to really talk about how to manage the the sort of diplomacy the big diplomacy bricks and russia about it if were russia were iran to change its doctrine on nuclear weapons. How do you see the resistance coalescing to stop Israel from continuing to slaughter innocent civilians? First of all, I mean, as I tried to indicate, really, we're in a new phase.

And in this phase, there's still the desire to not let things get out of control. I mean, that's the desire on all members of the resistance to do this slowly. We still see that Hezbollah are not using, they're still using rockets and sort of drones and things they haven't got used their big very accurate long-range and medium-range missiles which they could do so iran has not used it directly against the infrastructure of israel although that might be the next step that's going to happen. But the Houthis have said they're going to really escalate the war by taking much firmer action and widening the level of interception and intervention to prevent vessels moving towards Israel,

and perhaps even to end the sort of land corridor to undermine the rat route that is run by UAE through to Israel over land in trucks, which still continues. So maybe something like that will come under a greater effect a lot port has already had to file for bankruptcy because it it has no business any longer and as you will have seen and this recent drone attack underlines it um this um barracks, Binyamin barracks, is just south of Haifa. And Haifaras have been under continual rocket fire from Lebanon, from Hezbollah.

Every day, 100, 200 missiles landing in Haifa. So the port hasn't functioned. Do things like a non-functioning port or the deaths of four IDF, Chris informs me, all of them were 19 years old, have a political effect on the Netanyahu government? Yeah, that's why. I mean, it links into the two things that I said. These were recruits. I mean, I know they were recruits and they were young recruits, but it was a big base. And the Golan is the special forces base, if you like.

And they landed in it in that way. It has a big base and the Golan is the special forces base if you like and they landed in it in that way it has a big when I say it has a big psychological effect it's huge but you know this is what I talk about the Ponzi scheme in the sense Netanyahu has to keep the language going the Ponzi scheme saying we're on a winning streak, we're beating them, we're beating them in Gaza, we're beating them in Lebanon, we're now going to land a terrific, they won't know what's hit them when we strike in Iran. And when something like this happens, people start to say, well, you know, are you sure this narrative holds? Is it really valid? Is this true?

And so there's a sort of swirling of anxiety in Israel, beginning people say, well, you know, we're not sure all of this. I mean, are we really winning or are we losing? And so he can't afford that. And that's why, really, in many ways, an attack on Iran has become now or never in terms of Israeli politics. And I think the politics of some of those in the White House. It's now or never. Now's the time. We've persuaded everyone that, you know, that Israel is on this winning streak. We can have a new Middle East.

We can get rid of all the problematic parts of it, and we can go on and win. And then suddenly people have these great fear. They see what's happening in, you know, in South where they're saying that the public line is we're slicing through Hezbollah in the south of Lebanon. And the truth is, there are only a few hundred meters into it and losing lots of men. And so people start to say, well, now you want to take on Iran, a big country like Iran? Is this really wise or is this going to finish us or is this going to destroy us?

And I think that is on one side. I mean, really deep division in Israel like that. And I think there's an element of this also in America, too. And Europe doesn't count in this thing. Israel like that and I think there's an element of this also in America too and Europe doesn't count in this thing but in America it's happening with the Pentagon I think there are people in the Pentagon who understand exactly what happened on the 1st of October with this with the Iranian missiles coming in and it completely overwhelmed the air defenses of Israel. But it also showed that America doesn't have air defenses that are really substantive. I mean, this is a

major strategic thing that if they can't stop Iranian missiles and weren't able to stop them with all of the arrow and X-band radar and things like that, then does America have that ability in principle? And the answer was a great big sort of question mark. So I think the Pentagon is also having these sort of questions. But against that, and this is where I'm pessimistic, I think it's, you know, the sense of it's now or never. Now is the chance. We've got the public support at the moment. It could evaporate at any time. Let's go on. And of course, you know, in America, I'm sorry to put this sort of rather crudely, there's a big pot of money that is sitting there and it's being doled out to Congress,

aspirants on both sides, large sums of money for fighting campaign contributions from this huge pot. So everybody is, we're supporting Israel. Everyone on left or right, yes, we're supporters of Israel, because they need a big slice of that pot of money. And it's most unfortunate this is happening at this time. Alistair Crook, thank you, my dear friend. Always fascinating for us in the East Coast of the U.S., an eye-opener at breakfast, listening to you. Thank you. We'll look forward to seeing you again next week. Thank you very much for having me. Thank you. Of course. Coming up later today, at 10 in the morning, Ray McGovern. At 11 in the morning. Larry Johnson at four o'clock this afternoon. Scott Ritter

at five this afternoon. Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thank you.