Israeli leaders have spoken out about revelations that the Washington Post’s story based on leaks from a conversation that US President Donald Trump had with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov may have compromised an Israeli mole embedded with ISIS.
Israel’s Defence Minister, the well known hardliner Avigdor Lieberman Tweeted the following,
The security relationship between Israel & our greatest ally the United States, is deep, significant & unprecedented in volume.
— אביגדור ליברמן (@AvigdorLiberman) May 17, 2017
This relationship w/ the US is unprecedented in its contribution to our strength. This is how it has been & how it will continue to be.
— אביגדור ליברמן (@AvigdorLiberman) May 17, 2017
Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz also issued a statement playing down the fears which had been widely circulated throughout the media.
Katz said,
“Intelligence cooperation between Israel and the United States regarding the threats posed by Iran and its proxies and ISIS and its affiliates will continue and deepen”.
Likewise, Israel’s former security service director Avi Dichter stated,
“The current president has been serving for slightly over 100 days. This is not enough time to accumulate experience, that (being said the situation) is (not) as bad as it is described by the media.
I am familiar with a few other cases over the years in other countries where they made use of materials — perhaps even in a more scandalous manner than was described by the media in this case”.
As The Duran’s Alexander Mercouris reported,
“As a general principle however, even if ‘Trumpleak’ were as bad as is being alleged – which it isn’t – there would be no risk of any country that shares intelligence with the US walking away in a huff and in future refusing to share intelligence with the US. The claim that such a risk exists (made for example today by both the Financial Times and the Guardian) is not so much empty as non-existent since it completely misrepresents the whole nature of the intelligence partnerships which exist between the US and other countries allied to it.
The key fact about these intelligence partnerships is that the US is always and invariably the overwhelmingly dominant partner. The reason for this is because the US’s worldwide intelligence operation dwarf those of every other country with which it is allied. Not one of these countries – not Britain with MI6 and GCHQ, not Israel with Mossad and Shin Beth, not Germany with the BND – comes close”.
READ MORE: Claims US intelligence partnerships jeopardised by ‘Trumpleak’ are baseless. Here’s why.
These words proved to be factually true in respect of America’s closet intelligence and political partners. Not only did Israel more or less rubbish the idea that this represented a breach in the Tel Aviv–Washington alliance, but furthermore, the British Prime Minister said that the incident would have no impact on Britain’s close relationship with the United States.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the issue at hand is simply another part of America’s domestic malaise rather than a serious issue of international concern. The exception to this reality is the fact that the Washington Post and not Donald Trump could have actually endangered the well being of the Israeli mole in question.
READ MORE: The Washington Post has endangered the life of an Israeli agent embedded with ISIS. Donald Trump has not
Trump’s opponents seem in reality to care little about foreign policy and they appear to know even less. They are simply using various elements of Donald Trump’s forays into foreign affairs to lacerate him on domestic policy.
Why might that be? It sounds more professional than criticising him for proposing sensible tax cuts, attempting to bring manufacturing back to the US and rejecting the idea that grown men should enter a female lavatory.
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