Here’s why Israel needs to get Trump, or any other Republican, as POTUS in 2024. Not because this “investigation” will go anywhere, but because even announcing an “investigation” goes against Israeli Cognitive War doctrine, to keep silent any criticism, even if just suggestive.
BLUF: "WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. informed the Israeli government in a 2018 letter that it had purchased Pegasus, the notorious hacking tool, to collect data from mobile phones to aid ongoing investigations, the clearest documentary evidence to date that the bureau weighed using the spyware as a tool of law enforcement.”
That would never have happened under a Trump/Republican administration (haha)!
"NSO, the Israeli firm responsible for developing Pegasus, has been engulfed in controversy over reports that tens of thousands of human rights activists, journalists, politicians, and business executives worldwide were listed as potential targets of its Pegasus software."
TO: Distinguished Recipients
FM: John Whitbeck
Transmitted below is HAARETZ's report on the official
Israeli reaction to the reported decision by the U.S.
Department of Justice to investigate the killing of a
prominent American journalist by an Israeli military
sharpshooter.
Such disobedience and insubordination on the part of the U.S
government has clearly come as a shock to Israeli officials.
Not only has outgoing Defense Minister Benny Gantz branded
this apparent American decision "a grave mistake" and made
clear that Israel will not cooperate in any way with such an
American investigation but the HAARETZ article reports that
"Israeli officials believe that the U.S. investigation is a
symbolic statement ... and claim that an investigation is
unlikely to go forward without ... Israeli consent."
Indeed, this American decision, coming more than six months
after the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, cannot have been
easy to make. While I cannot realistically hope for a
full-fledged American declaration of independence in my
lifetime, this decision, coming as Israel is about to
install the most ultra-racist government in its history, may
constitute a small first step on the road toward loosening
the "unbreakable bond" harnessing the United States to
Israel, a bond and a relationship that have made any U.S.
government pretensions to have a principled concern with
human rights anywhere else a transparently hypocritical bad
joke.
U.S. Informs Israel It
Will Open Investigation Into Killing of Shireen Abu
Akleh
Israeli
rights group welcomes news of U.S. investigation into
the death of veteran Al Jazeera journalist Abu Akleh,
who was killed during an Israeli military raid in the
West Bank last May. Defense Minister Gantz said Israel
will not cooperate with the investigation, calling it
‘a grave mistake’.
The United
States has informed Israel that it has decided to
investigate the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, the
Palestinian-American Al Jazeera reporter who was
shot to death during an IDF raid in the Jenin
refugee camp in May this year.
Even though
U.S. and Israeli leaders have traded contentious
statements over Abu Akleh’s killing in the past,
Israeli officials believe that the U.S.
investigation is a symbolic statement, Israeli
sources told Haaretz, and claim that an
investigation is unlikely to go forward without
approval from the U.S. State Department and Israeli
consent.
Defense
Minister Benny Gantz responded to the news of the
investigation on Twitter, calling it “a grave
mistake.” Gantz further claimed that “the IDF
conducted an independent and professional
investigation, the details of which were presented
to the Americans.”
“I made it
clear to the American representatives that we stand
behind the IDF soldiers, that we will not cooperate
with any external investigation, and we will not
allow interference in Israel’s internal affairs,” he
added.
“This is an
overdue but necessary and important step in the pursuit
of justice and accountability in the shooting death of
American citizen and journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh. I
will continue pressing for the full facts and truth in
this case,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who
has led the Democratic pressure campaign on the Biden
administration to conduct an independent investigation.
In a statement
on the news of the probe, the Abu Akleh family said they
were “encouraged by news that the United States opened a
criminal investigation… Our family has been asking for a
U.S. investigation since the beginning, and it is what
the United States should do when a U.S. citizen is
killed abroad, especially when they were killed, like
Shireen, by a foreign military.”
We hope that the
United States will use all of the investigative tools at
its disposal to get answers about Shireen’s killing and
hold those who are responsible for this atrocity
accountable… This is an important step toward
accountability and gets our family closer to justice for
Shireen,” the statement said.
Abu Akleh, one
of Al Jazeera’s most well-known journalists in the Arab
world, was killed while Israeli soldiers were conducting
an operation to arrest wanted men in the Jenin refugee
camp. Her death was widely covered in the international
media and sparked widespread criticism of the IDF and
Israeli policy in the West Bank.
In May, 57 U.S.
lawmakers penned a letter to FBI
Director Christopher Wray and Secretary of State Antony
Blinken calling for an investigation into the death of
Abu Akleh, who was a U.S. citizen.
“As an American,
Ms. Abu Akleh was entitled to the full protections
afforded to U.S. citizens living abroad,” the letter
read.
In September,
the Israeli military released a summary of its own
investigation into the killing of Abu Akleh, but key
U.S. lawmakers were dissatisfied with the
Israeli findings and demanded the Biden administration
to take its own steps.
The Israeli army
later admitted that it was “highly probable”
Abu Akleh was killed by an Israeli soldier. It described
it as “an unfortunate incident” while maintaining it
could not rule out the possibility that Abu Akleh was
killed by Palestinian gunfire.
Israeli human
rights group Yesh Din said Monday that they welcomed the
news of a U.S. investigation into the matter.
“Only an
independent international investigation can lead to the
discovery of the truth,” the rights group said.
“It is important
to emphasize that this is an exceptional event as it
involves an American citizen and a famous journalist. In
most cases, (72 percent of the complaints submitted by
Palestinians) the army does not carry out a criminal
investigation. A thorough and serious investigation is
necessary, not only when it comes to an American
citizen.”