Posted on 07/11/2022 5:34:52 AM PDT by Red Badger
Many observers believe leaking this information is tied to the Biden administration's efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
As President Biden prepares to visit Israel and Saudi Arabia next week, experts and former officials are warning that an often-overlooked issue risks undermining efforts to increase cooperation among U.S. allies in the Middle East.
That issue is anonymous U.S. officials consistently leaking information to the media about alleged covert Israeli operations against Iran, from targeted killings to explosions at nuclear sites.
"It's a sign of extraordinary incompetence and unprofessionalism from Biden and his foreign policy team," said Fred Fleitz, a former CIA analyst who also served as a senior staffer on both the House Intelligence Committee and the National Security Council. "It's outrageous they would leak this kind of information."
Unnamed officials recently told CNN that Israel has ramped up its covert attacks in Iran and is largely keeping the U.S. in the dark.
A month earlier, an American intelligence official leaked to the New York Times that Israel told Washington it was behind the assassination of top officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), an Iranian military force and a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
The leak infuriated Israeli officials, who often share intelligence with American counterparts.
"It mainly harms trust," Ram Ben Barak, who heads the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of Israel's parliament, said at the time.
"We have very many close relationships and a lot of cooperation between us, which all depend on trust, and when it is violated in some way then it damages future cooperation," he added. "I hope the Americans investigate the leak and figure out where it came from and why it occurred."
Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer explained on the podcast "Diplomatically Incorrect" that the Biden administration seems to be trying to distance itself from Israel by putting the blame on Jerusalem and keeping Washington out of it.
"That's very disturbing because that would only encourage attacks against Israelis," he said. "The fear of potential American action against Iran or other actors, that actually deters aggression. For the United States to think they're going to stabilize the situation by distancing themselves from Israel not only endangers Israeli citizens and officials but it actually also makes the chance of an attack much higher."
Interpreting these leaks as a "message to Israel that the U.S. disagrees with the action that was taken," Derner said, "And essentially what that means is they are trying to curtail Israel's freedom of operation" to combat Iranian aggression.
Such leaks have been occurring for years, indicating the problem is entrenched within America's national security bureaucracy, not just among political appointees. During the Obama administration, anonymous U.S. officials told media outlets about Israeli military plans to strike Iran's nuclear facilities. During the Trump administration, officials confirmed Israel bombed Iranian targets in Iraq.
However, the leaks have been occurring with striking frequency since Biden entered office. Last year, for example, unnamed U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal that Israel had been attacking several Iranian ships.
"This decreases trust," said Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran. "I think it's irresponsible for any U.S. official to seek to implicate Israel in an attack in Iran using anonymous quotes in the media. Unfortunately, all too often, we have seen this tactic employed in the past, likely to express disapproval and send a message that Washington was not part of the operation."
These leaks, added Brodsky, risk "provoking Iran to retaliate against a U.S. ally in the region."
The Biden administration has warned Israel against what U.S. officials described as "counterproductive" operations targeting Iran's nuclear program.
Iran's leaders frequently pledge to destroy Israel, which views a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat.
Israel's embassy in Washington didn't respond to a request for comment for this story.
Repeated U.S. leaks to the media have led Israel in many cases to give as little notice as possible to Washington about operations against Iran.
Many observers believe leaking this information is tied to the Biden administration's efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, which placed temporary curbs on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting large-scale sanctionsIran on Iran.
Former President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal in 2018, and Biden has made it a top priority to reverse that decision through so-far-unsuccessful talks with Iran and other world powers.
"These leaks are troubling because they undermine one of the closest intelligence and security relationships in the world just for the sake of nuclear deal negotiators who are desperate to make sure their Iranian counterparts don't think the U.S. is complicit," said Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who previously served on the White House National Security Council. "It's not like anyone thinks it's someone other than Israel carrying out these attacks."
Israel opposes a revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, which allows Iran to develop an industrial-sized nuclear program.
Fleitz argued Biden wants to "sabotage" Israeli covert actions in order to help his administration's nuclear talks with Iran.
The White House didn't respond to a request for comment.
Several observers told Just the News that Israel has essentially decided to take matters into its own hands to stop Iran's nuclear advancements, believing the Biden administration won't take certain actions out of fear of jeopardizing nuclear talks and escalating tensions with Iran.
"When the founding principles of Iran are dedicated to destroying the state of Israel, the Jewish state has a right to defend itself," said Brodsky. "When the world is busy chasing after an Iran nuclear deal while ignoring the urgent non-nuclear security concerns of Israel, it can't be surprised when Israel resorts to self-help."
Brodsky added that, despite current disagreements over Iran, the U.S.-Israel alliance will endure.
However, Israel isn't the only country affected by U.S. leaks to the media about Israeli operations.
"It hurts our relationships with other countries," said Fleitz. "We get crucial intelligence from foreign countries that is needed to save lives."
He added these countries may be more hesitant to share information with the U.S. if they think it may be leaked to the press.
Such concerns are especially relevant amid reports that the U.S. and Israel are trying to lay the groundwork for an alliance with Arab states that would connect regional air defense systems to combat Iranian drone and missile attacks.
Such an idea would have been unthinkable not long ago. But the Abraham Accords, a series of historic peace agreements between Israel and Arab states brokered by the Trump administration, opened up several potential new opportunities.
Israel hopes it can work with the U.S. to expand the accords to include Saudi Arabia, which hasn't committed to any such arrangement and is reluctant to move too quickly on normalizing relations.
However, the Saudis are reportedly considering a trilateral meeting with both the U.S. and Israel next week when Biden is in the Middle East — a major step for a country that's long opposed the Jewish state.
The administration's apparent efforts to foster greater Arab-Israeli cooperation come after months of being criticized for appearing largely uninterested in building on the Abraham Accords, one of Trump's key foreign policy legacies.
Last May, when asked about the status of the accords, the then-White House Press Secretary responded, "Aside from putting forward a peace proposal that was dead on arrival, we don't think they [the Trump administration] did anything constructive, really, to bring an end to the longstanding conflict in the Middle East."
At the same time, the Washington Free Beacon reported the State Department was discouraging employees from referring to the accords by their official name, erasing the name from official communications and instead using the term "normalization agreements."
Several analysts described Biden's tepid follow-up to the Abraham Accords as a missed opportunity.
The State Department didn't respond to a request for comment for this story.
If the Israeli PM comes out and directly states, "Yeah. That's us. We did that and we'll do more without apology" then it runs the risk of ginning up a beelyun Muslim masses to attack Israel -- including masses in nations that are recently making peace deals with Israel. But with this indirect style of messaging it's heard more by the Muslim leaders than the Muslim masses.
By “eroding” they mean something that has resembled the Grand Canyon since Clinton.
Bush II mouthed kind words but filled his cabinet (I think by ignorance rather than malice on his part) with active antisemites like Condoleeza Rice.
Obama, of course, was actively hostile and make no secret he wanted all Jews dead.
Trump was fantastic and a true friend, but completely surrounded by deep staters that were either hostile to Israel or just wanted Trump to fail because they are nasty people. He did far more to hell the area than any President since (ironically) Lyndon Johnson (who, for all his faults, was very good to Israel). And Trump did it, dragging the kicking and screaming state department along.
Biden is Obama II with the extra layer of being a corrupt idiot completely compromised by numerous foreign intel agencies.
The existence of the phony Biden regime in and of itself does that.
If Biden’s CIA or NSA knew the identities of Mossad’s operatives within Iran , they would tell the mullahs very quickly. There would be a “leak” the way the names of the CIA’s Chinese operatives were “leaked” to China during the Obama Administration. The Biden cabal will do everything it can to weaken the American nation and its allies to achieve the “great globalist reset”.
Stop the pigeon!
for the record....... there is no mention of a visit to Saudi Arabia by President Biden in the Saudi Press.
The Hajj and related events in Iran are noted. The Biden visit seems to be a non event
That didn’t take long. Next pallets of money?
Obama’s hostility to Israel is yet another carry over into the Biden regime. What a surprise!
US and Israeli interests in that region are diverging, ultimately the US wants Iranian gas & oil back on the international market to make up for the loss of Russian energy because of the ongoing sanctions the US intends to keep on Russia. Obviously Israel isn’t happy with this situation, but the US just expects them to suck it up.
I don’t understand why Obama and Biden will do anything for a worthless deal with a sinister country like Iran.
Birds of a feather f-—k together................
Stolen elections have more consequences.
It is all good to Biden's handlers.
Anything that weakens the USA is viewed as good by China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba...
They are wrong, and will suffer greatly if Pax American is destroyed. They are too powermad and isolated from reality to realize it.
It's because their policies are HEAVILY influenced by the hostility to Israel, and the flat out anti-Semitic bigotry, of much of the base of their party.
In the case of Obama, he himself was a constant companion and associate of known anti-Semites right up to the time he ran for President.
Don’t be surprised if Biden takes a “Historic” trip to Tehran. His folks have no understanding and are desperate to do “Something” that they can weave into a ‘victory’ for them. Desperate people do desperate things, and they might wake Biden up enough to be the focus.
Jim Baker, a Jew Hater on the take from the muslims, did the same as Secretary of State during George H. W. Bush administration and got a number of Israelis killed.
Oil, no matter what the source, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, et al, will always find its way onto the world market.
Once there, it is indistinguishable without finite laboratory analysis.
To say Russian oil is not on the world market is rubbish.
Oil can be pumped into other tankers at sea and taken anywhere.
It is bought by China and India and North Korea, so that they will not have to buy oil from other countries in as great of quantities, so the world price of oil isn’t affected hardly at all.
Biden Blaming Putin for the high price of oil is an outright lie to deflect from his own polices which did............
That continued while he was POTUS.
Things are complicated by the fact that different grades of oil require different refineries to process the different grades. To change a refinery over to process other grades of oil is an expensive and time consuming process.
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