|
Considering that the Mossad is quite possibly the most ruthless and
efficient intelligence agency in the world, it is peculiar that they
have never been scrutinized in relation to the Kennedy assassination,
especially when practically every other entity in the world (short of
Elvis impersonators) has been implicated. But that all changed in
January, 1994 with the release of Michael Collins Piper's Final
Judgment. In this book, Piper says, "Israel's Mossad was a primary (and
critical) behind the scenes player in the conspiracy that ended the life
of JFK. Through its own vast resources and through its international
contacts in the intelligence community and in organized crime, Israel
had the means, it had the opportunity, and it had the motive to play a
major frontline role in the crime of the century - and it did."
Their motive? Israel's much touted Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who
ruled that country from its inception in 1948 until he resigned on June
16, 1963, was so enraged at John F. Kennedy for not allowing Israel to
become a nuclear power that, Collins asserts, in his final days in
office he commanded the Mossad to become involved in a plot to kill
America's president.
Ben-Gurion was so convinced that Israel's very survival was in dire
jeopardy that in one of his final letters to JFK he said, "Mr.
President, my people have the right to exist, and this existence is in
danger."
In the days leading up to Ben-Gurion's resignation from office, he and
JFK had been involved in an unpublicized, contentious debate over the
possibility of Israel getting nuclear capabilities. Their disagreement
eventually escalated into a full-fledged war of words that was virtually
ignored in the press. Ethan Bronner wrote about this secret battle
between JFK and Ben-Gurion years later in a New York Times article on
October 31, 1998, calling it a "fiercely hidden subject." In fact, the
Kennedy/Ben-Gurion conversations are still classified by the United
States Government. Maybe this is the case because Ben-Gurion's rage and
frustration became so intense - and his power so great within Israel -
that Piper contends it was at the center of the conspiracy to kill John
Kennedy. This stance is supported by New York banker Abe Feinberg, who
describes the situation as such: "Ben-Gurion could be vicious, and he
had such a hatred of the old man [Joe Kennedy, Sr., JFK's father]."
Ben-Gurion despised Joe Kennedy because he felt that not only was he an
anti-Semite, but that he had also sided with Hitler during the 1930's
and 40's. [We will touch upon this aspect of the story in an upcoming
article entitled The CIA and Organized Crime: Two Sides of the Same
Coin].
Anyway, Ben-Gurion was convinced that Israel needed nuclear weapons to
insure its survival, while Kennedy was dead-set against it. This
inability to reach an agreement caused obvious problems. One of them
revolved around Kennedy's decision that he would make America his top
priority in regard to foreign policy, and not Israel! Kennedy planned to
honor the 1950 Tripartite Declaration which said that the United States
would retaliate against any nation in the Middle East that attacked any
other country. Ben-Gurion, on the other hand, wanted the Kennedy
Administration to sell them offensive weapons, particularly Hawk
missiles.
The two leaders thus engaged in a brutal letter exchange, but Kennedy
wouldn't budge. Ben-Gurion, obsessed by this issue, slipped into total
paranoia, feeling that Kennedy's obstinance was a blatant threat to the
very existence of Israel as a nation. Piper writes, "Ben-Gurion had
devoted a lifetime creating a Jewish State and guiding it into the world
arena. And, in Ben-Gurion's eyes, John F. Kennedy was an enemy of the
Jewish people and his beloved state of Israel." He continues, "The
'nuclear option' was not only at the very core of Ben-Gurion's personal
world view, but the very foundation of Israel's national security
policy."
Ben-Gurion was so preoccupied with obtaining nuclear weapons that on
June 27, 1963, eleven days after resigning from office, he announced, "I
do not know of any other nation whose neighbors declare that they wish
to terminate it, and not only declare, but prepare for it by all means
available to them. We must have no illusions that what is declared every
day in Cairo, Damascus, and Iraq are just words. This is the thought
that guides the Arab leaders … I am confident … that science is able to
provide us with the weapons that will serve the peace and deter our
enemies."
Avner Cohen, in Israel and the Bomb, published by Columbia University
Press, reinforces this sense of urgency by writing, "Imbued with lessons
of the Holocaust, Ben-Gurion was consumed by fears of security … Anxiety
about the Holocaust reached beyond Ben-Gurion to infuse Israel's
military thinking." He further adds fuel to this point by pointing out,
"Ben-Gurion had no qualms about Israel's need for weapons of mass
destruction," and "Ben-Gurion's world view and his decisive governing
style shaped his critical role in instigating Israel's nuclear
progress."
Kennedy, on the other hand, was adamant in his refusal to promote
Israel's ascension to the nuclear stage. Avener Cohen, in Israel and the
Bomb, stresses, "No American president was more concerned with the
danger of nuclear proliferation than John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was
convinced that the spread of nuclear weapons would make the world more
dangerous and undermine U.S. interests." Cohen continues at the end of
this passage, "The only example Kennedy used to make this point was
Israel."
Realizing that Kennedy would not change his mind, Ben-Gurion decided to
join forces with Communist China. Both countries were greatly interested
in creating nuclear programs, and so began their secret joint dealings.
Working in unison through intermediary Shaul Eisenberg, who was a
partner of Mossad gun-runner and accountant Tibor Rosenbaum, Israel and
China proceeded to develop their own nuclear capabilities without the
knowledge of the United States.
If you find this scenario improbable, I strongly urge you to read Gordon
Thomas' excellent book, Seeds of Fire, where he exposes how the Mossad
and CSIS (Chinese secret service) have conspired on many occasions to
not only steal American military secrets, but to also doctor U.S.
intelligence programs such as the Justice Department's PROMISE software.
This instance, I am afraid to say, is but the first where echoes of the
JFK assassination can still be felt today reverberating through our post
9-11 world. The danger of Israel developing the Bomb in unison with
China became a highly volatile situation, and was closely monitored by
the CIA.
Intent on pursuing this path, the Israeli's constructed a nuclear
facility at Dimona. When Kennedy demanded that the U.S. inspect this
plant, Ben-Gurion was so incensed that he erected another PHONY facility
that held no evidence of nuclear research and development. (Does this
scenario sound eerily familiar to the game we're playing with Saddam
Hussein in Iraq right now?) Fully aware of their shenanigans, though,
JFK told Charles Bartlett, "The sons of bitches lie to me constantly
about their nuclear capability."
Avner Cohen, in Israel and the Bomb, reiterates this claim by saying
that Ben-Gurion had taken the nuclear issue so closely to heart that he,
"concluded that he could not tell the truth about Dimona to American
leaders, not even in private."
Dr. Gerald M. Steinberg, political science professor at Bar-Ilan
University's BESA Center for Strategic Studies in Tel Aviv, weighs in by
saying, "Between 1961 and 1963, the Kennedy administration placed a
great deal of pressure on Ben-Gurion in the effort to pressure for
acceptance of international inspection of Dimona and Israeli abdication
of their nuclear weapons. This pressure apparently did not alter Israeli
policy, but it was a contributing factor to Ben-Gurion's resignation in
1963."
To convey how serious this situation had become in modern terms, look at
what is happening in Iraq with United Nations security teams inspecting
the royal palaces and bunkers for nuclear weapons and materials. This
matter is so urgent that our nation is on the verge of war. Forty years
earlier, the heat that JFK was placing on Ben-Gurion was equally as
strong as what George Bush is laying on Saddam Hussein today.
In Israel and the Bomb, Avner Cohen reinforces this point. "To force
Ben-Gurion to accept the conditions, Kennedy exerted the most useful
leverage available to an American president in dealing with Israel: a
threat that an unsatisfactory solution would jeopardize the U.S.
government's commitment to, and support of, Israel."
The pressure on Ben-Gurion was so immense that he ended up leaving
office. But Kennedy, in true pit-bull style, didn't let up on
Ben-Gurion's successor, Levi Eshkol, as Avner Cohen reports. "Kennedy
told Eshkol that the U.S. commitment and support of Israel 'could be
seriously jeopardized' if Israel did not let the U.S. obtain 'reliable
information' about its efforts in the nuclear field. Kennedy's demands
were unprecedented. They amounted, in effect, to an ultimatum." Cohen
concludes this thought by asserting, "Kennedy's letter precipitated a
near-crisis situation in Eshkol's office."
In the end, as we're all aware, Kennedy was assassinated in November
1963; but less known is that China conducted its first nuclear test in
October, 1964. What makes this event more profound is Piper's claim that
even though Israel said its first nuclear tests took place in 1979, they
actually occurred in October, 1964 along with the Chinese! If this is
true, other than August, 1945 when the United States dropped atomic
bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, October 1964 may possibly be the most
dangerous month in 20th century history.
Let's return, though, to JFK's assassination and the direct results of
it in regard to the Jewish lobby, American foreign policy, and the
militarization of Israel. To understand how powerful the Israeli lobby
is in this country, venerable Senator J. William Fulbright told CBS Face
the Nation on April 15, 1973, "Israel controls the U.S. Senate. The
Senate is subservient, much too much; we should be more concerned about
U.S. interests rather than doing the bidding of Israel. The great
majority of the Senate of the U.S. - somewhere around 80% - is
completely in support of Israel; anything Israel wants; Israel gets.
This has been demonstrated time and again, and this has made [foreign
policy] difficult for our government."
Do you hear what Senator Fulbright said? This isn't a crazy conspiracy
theorist or a KKK anti-Semite. It's a much-respected U.S. Senator saying
that about 80% of the Senate is in Israel's hip pocket. Adding clout to
this argument is Rep. Paul Findley, who was quoted in The Washington
Report on Middle East Affairs in March, 1992, "During John Kennedy's
campaign for the presidency, a group of New York Jews had privately
offered to meet his campaign expenses if he would let them set his
Middle East policy. He did not agree … As the president, he provided
only limited support of Israel."
To understand how important Kennedy's decisions were during his
short-lived presidency, we need to look at the issue of campaign
finance. Considering how influential the Israeli lobby is in the U.S.
Senate (hearkening back to the words of Senator Fulbright), they had to
have been enraged when President Kennedy genuinely wanted to cut the
knees out from under the current campaign finance methods because it
made politicians so reliant upon the huge cash inlays of
special-interest groups. Regrettably, Kennedy did not have the time to
implement this program, and to this day our political system is still
monopolized by lobbyists from the very same special-interest groups. One
can only imagine what changes would have occurred in regard to our
foreign policy had Kennedy eradicated these vipers and blood-suckers
from the halls of Congress.
Tragically, Kennedy's ideas never came to fruition, and his heated
battle with Prime Minister Ben-Gurion over whether Israel should be
allowed to develop a nuclear program was ultimately lost. The reason why
is that Lyndon Baines Johnson, who Kennedy intended to drop from his
ticket in 1964 due to his extreme dislike for, had a complete reversal
in foreign policy. As you will see, not only did Israel's nuclear
program move ahead unchecked; they also became the primary beneficiary
of our foreign aid.
But this absolute turnaround would not have occurred if
Kennedy would not have been assassinated. Up until LBJ became president,
Kennedy dealt with the Middle East in a way that most benefited the U.S.
His primary goal - and one which would most keep the peace - was a
balance of power in the Middle East so that each and every nation would
be secure. This decision adhered to the Tripartite Declaration which the
U.S. signed in 1950. But under the Johnson administration, this fragile
balance was overturned, and by 1967 - only four years after Kennedy's
assassination - the U.S. was Israel's main weapons supplier, and OUR
best interests were put well behind those of Israel!
As Michael Collins Piper writes: "The bottom line is this: JFK was
adamantly determined to stop Israel from building the nuclear bomb. LBJ
simply looked the other way. JFK's death did indeed prove beneficial to
Israel's nuclear ambitions and the evidence proves it."
Reuven Pedatzer, in a review of Avner Cohen's Israel and the Bomb, in
the Israeli Newspaper Ha'aretz on February 5, 1999 wrote, "The murder of
American president John F. Kennedy brought to an abrupt end the massive
pressure being applied by the U.S. administration on the government of
Israel to discontinue their nuclear program." He continues, "Kennedy
made it quite clear to the Israeli Prime Minister that he would not
under any circumstances agree to Israel becoming a nuclear state."
Pedatzer concludes, "Had Kennedy remained alive, it is doubtful whether
Israel would today have a nuclear option," and that, "Ben-Gurion's
decision to resign in 1963 was taken to a large extent against the
background of the tremendous pressure that Kennedy was applying on him
concerning the nuclear issue."
If you're still not convinced; how about some numbers? In Kennedy's last
fiscal budget year of 1964, Israeli aid was $40 million. In LBJ's first
budget of 1965, it soared to $71 million, and in 1966 more than tripled
from two years earlier to $130 million! Plus, during Kennedy's
administration, almost none of our aid to Israel was military in nature.
Instead, it was split equally between development loans and food
assistance under the PL480 Program. Yet in 1965 under the Johnson
administration, 20% of our aid to Israel was for the military, while in
1966, 71% was used for war-related materials.
Continuing in this same vein, in 1963 the Kennedy administration sold 5
Hawk missiles to Israel as part of an air-defense system. In 1965-66,
though, LBJ laid 250 tanks on Israel, 48 Skyhawk attack aircrafts, plus
guns and artillery which were all offensive in nature. If you ever
wondered when the Israeli War Machine was created, this is it! LBJ was
its father.
According to Stephen Green in Taking Sides: America's Secret Relations
with a Militant Israel, "The $92 million in military assistance provided
in fiscal year 1966 was greater than the total of all official military
aid provided to Israel cumulatively in all the years going back to the
foundation of that nation in 1948."
Green continues, "70% of all U.S. official assistance to Israel has been
military. America has given Israel over $17 billion in military aid
since 1946, virtually all of which - over 99% - has been provided since
1965."
Can you see what's happening here? Within two years of JFK's
assassination, Israel went from being a weak, outmatched member of the
volatile Middle Eastern community that was not allowed to develop
nuclear weapons to one that was well on its way to becoming a undeniable
military force on the world stage. John Kennedy adamantly put his foot
down and refused to allow Israel to develop a nuclear program, while LBJ
bent over backward to facilitate and bolster them. Or, as Seymour Hersh
wrote in The Samson Option, "By 1968, the president had no intention of
doing anything to stop the Israeli bomb."
The result of this shift in focus from the Kennedy to Johnson
administration is, in my opinion, the PRIMARY reason behind our current
troubles in the Middle East which culminated in the 9-11 attacks and our
upcoming war with Iraq (and beyond). I have a great deal of confidence
in this statement, for as Michael Collins Piper points out, here are the
results of John F. Kennedy's assassination:
1) Our foreign and military aid to Israel increased dramatically once
LBJ became president.
2) Rather than trying to maintain a BALANCE in the Middle East, Israel
suddenly emerged as the dominant force.
3) Since the LBJ administration, Israel has always had weaponry that was
superior to any of its direct neighbors.
4) Due to this undeniable and obvious increase in Israel's War Machine,
a constant struggle has been perpetuated in the Middle East.
5) LBJ also allowed Israel to proceed with its nuclear development,
resulting in them becoming the 6th largest nuclear force in the world.
6) Finally, our huge outlays of foreign aid to Israel (approximately $10
billion/year when all is said and done) has created a situation of
never-ending attacks and retaliation in the Middle East, plus outright
scorn and enmity against the U.S. for playing the role of Israel's
military enabler.
In Israel's, and especially David Ben-Gurion's eyes then, what were
their alternatives - to remain weakened (or at least balanced) in
relation to their neighbors and handcuffed by JFK's refusal to bow to
their will, or KILL the one man standing in their way to becoming
dominant in the Middle East, the recipient of huge amounts of military
aid, and one of the premier nuclear forces in the world? It's something
to think about. Also, while these thoughts are running through your
head, ask yourself this question. If Kennedy, LBJ, and all subsequent
administrations would have adhered to the 1950 Tripartite Declaration
and did everything in their power to maintain balance in the Middle East
instead of pushing Israel to the forefront, would our Towers have been
attacked on 9-11, 2001, and would we be on the verge of a possibly
catastrophic war today? It's certainly something to ponder.
- Original Article Link Located At:
http://www.john-f-kennedy.net/mossadandtheassassination.htm
BACK-TO-TOP
|
