The Passionate Attachment

By Maidhc Ó Cathail
The Passionate Attachment
December 31, 2012

In order to advance its hegemonic designs, Israel has long exploited ethnic and sectarian differences in the Middle East and beyond. To date, the 2011 secession of South Sudan from Khartoum stands as one of the most successful examples of Tel Aviv’s divide and conquer strategy. Now, the involvement of individuals with intimate ties to the self-defined “Jewish state” in a project whose stated aim is to rescue Christians in Pakistan strongly suggests that Islamabad is also being targeted for destabilization.

Introducing the ostensibly humanitarian project on his website, Walid Shoebat, a prominent figure in the Israeli-inspired and -funded Islamophobia network, writes:

Pakistan is our primary focus for our initial push to save Christians who are suffering from the Blasphemy laws, which are used by Islamic extremists to make up charges against innocent Christians, in order to steal their property and stir up violence against the Christian population.On March 4th the Christian Minister of Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti was gunned down by Islamic extremists causing tremendous fear within the Christian community. Even in the short time since his murder, the violence against Christians has increased dramatically.

The Raoul Wallenberg Project is working with people on the ground who are well connected in the Christian community. They have reached out to us for our support to help alleviate their suffering, and in certain situations, help with their escape. For their protection we cannot expose their names publicly. In the future, large donors who are concerned about the transparency of fund ing [sic], we can provide the names and details privately.

The work we do is practical. We will be supplying food, medicine, safe houses, legal help for visa applications, and in extreme circumstances, security details for rescue missions.

Our financial goal is to raise one million dollars a month – solely for the Raoul Wallenberg Project – which will allow us to make a significant impact to alleviate much of the suffering of persecuted Christians and remove them from their circumstances. We are working behind the scenes with members of Congress, in particular the staff of Congressman Allen West, who has kindly offered his help on Capital [sic] Hill. Other members of Congress will be recruited as public opinion puts pressure on them for their support of this real, and dangerous threat to Christians worldwide.

Shoebat’s reference to Congressman West is revealing. While AIPAC ensures that most members of Congress dare not openly oppose Israeli policies, West is particularly eager to please the lobby. In a letter to Florida constituents before his 2011 visit, he wrote:

In Israel, I will get the opportunity to meet with a true Leader, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. At a time when western civilization has no leading voice, I believe the only one that resonates, speaks Hebrew.

As for Shoebat, his purported concern for persecuted Christians appears to be motivated by a similar passionate attachment. According to the description on his website of his alleged conversion from Muslim terrorist to Christian activist,

“He has set out to bring the cause of Christ, the Bible, and the case for Israel to millions throughout the world.”

Given Israel’s dispossession and ongoing oppression of Christians in Palestine, it seems likely that the Raoul Wallenberg Project’s stated mission of rescuing their co-religionists in Pakistan is merely cover for another Israeli project for the destabilization of the Islamic world.

Maidhc Ó Cathail is an investigative journalist and Middle East analyst. He is also the creator and editor of The Passionate Attachment blog, which focuses primarily on the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

By Maidhc Ó Cathail
The Passionate Attachment
December 28, 2012

The Washington Institute is currently tweeting their top ten most-viewed videos of 2012. One wonders if the viral video of its research director Patrick Clawson suggesting that “it would be best if somebody else” attacked the United States in order to start a war with Iran will make their list.

When The Passionate Attachment broke that story on September 25, there were only about 100 views for “How to Build US-Israeli Coordination on Preventing an Iranian Nuclear Breakout.” As of this writing, there are 11,457 views for the YouTube video of that one-and-a-half hour policy forum luncheon. An edited version of Clawson’s remarks (posted by a blogger who plagiarized the TPA report) has had over 83,000 views.

Needless to say, we are delighted to have helped bring so much attention to the pro-Israel think tank’s ceaseless efforts to get the US into another devastating war in the Middle East.

Update: Peter Lavelle, the host of Russia Today’s excellent Crosstalk program, just posted this comment on my :

It is interesting that the Washington Institute sent my CrossTalk producers a message that we are not to request appearance for our program from them any longer. The Washington Institute, it would appear, is not interested in open and honest debate……

Maidhc Ó Cathail is an investigative journalist and Middle East analyst. He is also the creator and editor of The Passionate Attachment blog, which focuses primarily on the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

By Jeff Gates
The Passionate Attachment
December 17, 2012

The 9/11 attacks were not about terrorism; they were about setting conditions similar to post-WWI Germany. Much as the U.S. and the E.U. are mired in debt-induced recessions with no clear path to recovery, the reparations imposed on Germany in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles threw a proud and industrious people into a humbling hyperinflation and a protracted depression. Out of that toxic financial mix emerged a rabid nationalism that took political form as the National Socialist Workers Party (Nazis). Could that be what we now see emerging in the U.S.?

Since the end of WWII and enactment of the Employment Act of 1946, the U.S. Federal Reserve has operated with a dual mandate: price stability and full employment. With inflation moderate and jobless numbers stuck at record highs, Fed chairman Ben Bernanke announced in September the Fed’s intent to pump liquidity into the U.S. economy until the jobless rate falls to 6.5% while keeping inflation under 2.5%.

The latest terminology for central bank pump priming is “quantitative easing.” Rather than a timeframe target for the third in a series of QEs, the Fed promises interest rates near zero until the target unemployment rate is reached. As with QE1 and QE2, QE3 will operate through the Fed’s purchase of distressed mortgages and the acquisition of U.S. bonds for the Fed’s balance sheet (aka ‘printing money’).

QE1 began November 2008 with the Fed-assisted bailout of banks, investment banks and insurance companies whose financial “creativity” was applauded by Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan as he maintained low interest rates during his 19-year tenure. With Depression-era investor protections repealed during his tenure as Clinton-era Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin emerged as co-chairman of Citigroup with Sanford Weill to prey on investors worldwide who trusted in the investment grade ratings given portfolios of securitized loans.

Those AAA-rated portfolios (many sold to pension plans) included hundreds of billions of dollars of toxic “junk” mortgages. Those portfolios, in turn, were insured against default by the Hank Greenberg-led American Insurance Group. QE1 began soon after New York Fed chief Tim Geithner was appointed Treasury Secretary.

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By Maidhc Ó Cathail
The Passionate Attachment
December 17, 2012

As Jewish lawmakers lead the push for gun control in the wake of the Connecticut school shooting, the rabbi of Newtown’s small Jewish community has castigated the culture that led to the massacre. Speaking to Israel’s Army Radio, Rabbi Shaul Praver of Temple Adath Israel said he told his congregants:

“We live in a culture of violence. All of our culture is based on violence and we need to teach the kids about the ways of peace. We need to change everything. There’s too much war, too much violence in our streets.”

Apparently Rabbi Praver saw no irony in decrying a culture of violence on the radio network operated by the Israel Defense Forces which had just been responsible for the deaths of 34 children in its Biblically-named “Pillar of Cloud” onslaught on Gaza. On the contrary, as the rabbi explained in 2005, in Palestine “only one party seeks the destruction of the other”:

Israelis simply want peace and would much prefer spending their time, tending their gardens, doing art, finding a cure for cancer, composing and performing world class music, and inventing more incredible bio-pharmaceuticals and computer technology. Real time internet applications, cellular telephones, color printing are just a few examples of the technology developed in Israel. There is so much brainpower and creative energy emanating from Israel’s diverse ethnic population that benefits every person on the planet. Yet even at a time that Israel pursues territorial concessions for the sake of peace, many people lack the ability to say even a few kind words.

I will say to them then, “Zionism is Beautiful!”

In light of such ideological blindness, Americans should be very wary of those who decry “their” culture of violence.

Maidhc Ó Cathail is an investigative journalist and Middle East analyst. He is also the creator and editor of The Passionate Attachment blog, which focuses primarily on the U.S.-Israeli relationship.