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A Strike, a Leak, and a Threat Walk into a War

October 22, 2024

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday struck 30 out of 50 total branches of a Hezbollah-operated bank, al-Jihad al Hasan, as the besieged nation inches ever closer to defeating its ring of surrounding enemies. “This is Israel eradicating their number one enemy,” declared Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) on “Washington Watch” Monday. “Israel has a house, and in that house there’s a room with a terrorist living in it. And that terrorist is Hezbollah … Islamic Jihad, and Hamas. … Israel is very serious about extinguishing this threat so that they can live peacefully.”

“Israel has experienced some tremendous breakthroughs in the last few weeks in taking out the leadership of Hamas and Hezbollah,” acknowledged Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. “I would think that the momentum is building to go ahead and finish this off.”

Yet a total Israeli victory is not on the Biden-Harris administration’s Christmas list. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel Tuesday on a multilateral diplomatic tour, hoping against hope to negotiate a ceasefire that neither side wants. “Biden and other U.S. officials believe that the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind behind the October 7th terrorist attack, could open up new avenues for diplomacy,” said Perkins, but “they’re scrambling to try to negotiate a resolution” at a time when “trust for the U.S. is somewhat diminished even further.”

“The United States’ stock has gone down pretty significantly in terms of the way that Israel views it,” affirmed Caroline Glick, senior contributing editor of the Jewish News Syndicate, on “Washington Watch.” This weekend, alleged U.S. intelligence collected by the Department of Defense National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency was “leaked to a Telegram page that has links to the Iranian regime,” Glick explained.

“Based on American espionage against Israel,” the document exposed details about Israel’s planned response to Iran’s ballistic missile barrage, including “the types of aircraft that Israel is using to train for the mission” and “what sort of bombs are — actually, air-launched, ballistic missiles — they claim that Israel is training to launch against Iran,” said Glick.

“This is essentially a direct and complete betrayal [from] Israel’s greatest ally,” Perry exclaimed. “As soon as I heard there was a leak … I was like, ‘Somebody on the inside of the United States government did this.’” He asserted that the Biden-Harris administration is “rife with anti-Semitism” and “has been working against [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu … to overthrow his leadership there and … [play] both sides of this war.”

This information would be accessible by anyone from political appointees to contractors, he reasoned, in “an administration that is pretty loose with security clearance obligations.” This laxity translates into “plenty of individuals within this administration that seek the downfall of Netanyahu and don’t hold Israel as a dear ally of the United States of America.”

What has angered Israel is not simply the fact that American satellites were spying on them. “We all watch each other. We all look to see best practices and tactics, techniques and procedures,” added Perry. “Israel does it to the United States. We do it to allies as well as foes. Everybody’s understanding of that.”

But, he added, “Here’s what Israel won’t be able to countenance: the revealing of that information to their adversary.” Releasing this information to Iran “equates to lost lives on the ground,” he explained, because “one of the primary elements of success in military operations is the element of surprise, and, once the enemy has that, your folks are in great peril.”

An investigation is underway, but the U.S. government has recently developed a poor track record of finding and prosecuting leakers. Perry added that, “while President Biden has commented on this leak … the person that … wants to be president for the next four years has been eerily silent.”

This is not the only leak that has shaken U.S.-Israel relations. Weeks ago, U.S. officials told the press about Israel’s ground incursion into Lebanon before it happened. Only a week ago, U.S. officials leaked a private letter from Blinken and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to their Israel counterparts. “How do they trust the United States of America when these kinds of things occur?” pressed Perry. Perkins agreed, “I would be shocked if Israel would trust the United States and share information with them in the future.”

The contents of that letter were even more provocative. In it, Blinken and Austin threaten “an arms embargo against Israel if we continue to act to secure our war goals, whether that’s in Lebanon or in Gaza or in Iran,” or “if Israel outlaws UNRWA’s operations in its in its territory,” summarized Glick.

UNRWA, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, “has been exposed as a terrorist organization over the past year,” she added. “Its members have held Israeli hostages. They killed Israelis. They took them hostage on October 7th. … Hamas’s headquarters are in UNRWA’s headquarters.” After Israel killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar last week, they found UNRWA food rations squirreled away in his underground bunker, where he hid for months. Yet “The Biden administration has been demanding that Israel allow more and more and more of this UNRWA aid … into Hamas regime areas of Gaza to supply Hamas,” said Glick.

This threat by the Biden-Harris administration provides further evidence of what many observers have long suspected, that “they’re on both sides of this war,” declared Perry. “They’re not really in support of the Jewish state. They’re certainly not in support of Prime Minister Netanyahu. And this has become political for them. … Instead of going after the terrorists and demand that they lay down their arms, they’re going after Israel.”

American double-dealing has the potential to distract Israel from its primary mission, which is defeating our mutual enemies. “The main concern that you hear today in Israel is not what Israel has to do, but how the United States is working under the Biden-Harris administration to subvert all of Israel’s war and aims,” lamented Glick. “It’s not just the leaked, top-secret information about Israel’s preparations for the attack in Iran. It’s also … threatening an arms embargo against Israel if we work to secure our war aims, and even if the Knesset passes legislation to outlaw UNRWA.”

But even after an attempted drone strike on his residence, Netanyahu remained resolute. “Two days ago we took out Sinwar, the terrorist mastermind whose goons beheaded our men, raped our women, burnt babies alive,” he noted. “We took him out, and we’re continuing our battle with Iran’s other terrorist proxies. We’re going to win this war.” When asked whether anything would deter him, he answered simply, “No.”

“There’s an expectation and a demand” that Israel respond forcefully to Iran’s missile barrage, said Glick. “There is a sense of optimism. There’s a sense, a little bit, of growing frustration: when are we going to be attacking Iran already?” Perhaps the American intelligence leak delayed that operation, but Israel remains committed to carrying it out. “The announced intention of Israel is to carry out an extensive assault against Iran in retaliation,” asserted Glick. “It’s not just going to be a ‘response.’”

“What Israel is thinking about now is overthrowing the regime. So, I don’t think that this is going to be a strike, just a demonstration of capabilities,” she declared. “The targets that are going to be hit, whatever they are, are going to be significant to the regime … from Iran’s strategic perspective. … Their purpose, among others, is going to be to destabilize and weaken the regime’s grip on power in Iran.”

“That would be in keeping with the comments [Netanyahu] made two or three weeks ago directly to the Iranian people,” recalled Perkins, “saying, ‘Our beef is not [with] you. We look forward to a day when the people of Iran and Israel live together in peace.’” Glick agreed. “That sentiment is shared by millions and millions of Iranians. … The people of Iran have been in near continuous revolt against the regime that so harshly oppresses them for well over a decade and a half.”

Whatever Israel intends, they expect they have until November 5, Election Day, in the United States to act. “The fear here … is that, once the Biden-Harris team is no longer burdened by the need to pay lip service to being supportive of Israel, they’re just going to use the two and a half months between the election and the inauguration … to massively escalate … their hostile actions against Israel,” said Glick.

That could take the form of weapons embargoes, U.N. Security Council resolutions condemning Israel, or support for International Criminal Court arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. “All of these things are happening with a ‘nod, nod, wink, wink,’ at a minimum, by the Biden-Harris administration,” complained Glick. “So Israel understands that … whatever pressure is being brought to bear against Israel today is going to just get exponentially raised beginning on November 6th.”

Israel’s astonishing intelligence, effective security, and advanced military are capable of handling anything its declared adversaries can dish out. Their erstwhile ally, however, is the great question mark. “The main thing that’s troubling Israelis is the open hostility that the Biden administration — and that Kamala Harris specifically — are exhibiting really on a daily basis, both through formal action and through statements on behalf of Israel’s enemies.”

“O God, have mercy on the United States, given what this administration has been doing as it pertains to Israel,” pleaded Perkins.

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.



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