In 1953 the United States and United Kingdom overthrew
the democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad
Mosaddegh. The catalyst was the Iranian government’s
decision to exert more sovereign control over the
extraction, export and revenues from its domestic energy
industry, which British Petroleum and the UK opposed.
The dictatorial rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi featured
massive embezzlement, graft, corruption and repression.
Brutal SAVAK crackdowns on popular dissent were aided and
abetted by Israeli intelligence operatives that flooded into
the regime. Yaakov Nimrodi, a longtime intelligence and
military operative and arms merchant, was posted to Tehran
in 1955 for 13 years. According to Nimrodi, “When one day we
shall be permitted to talk about all that we have done in
Iran, you will be horrified…It is beyond your imagination.”
Iranian Israel relations were so close, that when American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Executive Director
Isaiah Kenen was under U.S. investigation as an Israeli
foreign agent in 1961, he fled to Iran to thwart a subpoena.
“In 1961, it was rumored that [Senator
J. William] Fulbright intended to investigate foreign
agents. I was subjected to a barrage of inquiries from
friends and foes wherever I went, and while I was confident
that I would survive the attack I decided to vanish from the
scene. Coincidentally, I was invited that year to visit Iran
as a guest of the Iranian government. I accepted the
invitation…”Source,
“All my causes in an 80-Year Life Span” Washington, DC, Near
East Research, 1985, p 103.
AIPAC was not incorporated at the time, and its host
organization the American Zionist Council (AZC) was ordered
to register as anIsraeli
foreign agent in 1962. Though covered by the order,
AIPAC quickly split off and took over as the lead Israel
lobbying organization in the US The Department of Justice
never enforced its FARA order.
Israeli arms sales to Iran under the Shah were extremely
lucrative. In 1977, Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres
signed a secret agreement for advanced technology transfer
of an Israeli missile design that had been underway since
the 1950s. This “turn-key” package included a special
airport, a missile assembly plant, and a long-range test
site in exchange for $1 billion in Iranian oil. Israel even
attempted to interest Iran in Israel’s US funded, but
doomed, Lavi jet fighter project.
The 1979 Iranian Revolution finally ousted the Shah.
Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage
for 444 days during the hostage crisis. But Israel in the
1980s, with a failing economy and desperate to salvage its
partnership with a major regional oil producer, helped
orchestrate a secret “arms for hostages” deal to the
Ayatollah purported to help free Americans kidnapped in
Lebanon. In concert with Reagan administration operatives,
profits from Israeli stocks of US supplied missiles sold to
Iran partially helped fund the Nicaraguan Contras after
Congress outlawed US support.
After Israeli influence over Iran ended, Israel’s US lobby
AIPAC began working to precipitate a U.S.-Iran military
confrontation in order to improve Israel’s strategic
position. The most recent of these efforts included:
1. Lobbying to create the US Treasury Department’s “Office
of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence” unit in the
aftermath of 9/11 to wage US economic warfare against Iran.
The unit has until recently been led by a string of Zionist
ideologues. See “Treasury
Sanctions Foreigners for Israel”Antiwar.com,
August 30, 2018.
2. Stealing Department of Defense secrets in concert with
convicted spy for Israel Col. Lawrence Franklin. AIPAC
intended to channel the secrets to theWashington
Postin 2004 to convince Americans that it
was time for troops fighting in Iraq to pivot to Iran.
Though the Pentagon source was convicted, the two AIPAC
officials involved in espionage escaped justice after a
series of judicial contortions. SeeCongressmen
Pressed Obama to Pardon Spy Lawrence FranklinAntiwar.com,
November 27, 2017.
3. Demanding cyber-attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities
under threat of Israeli military action, costing the US
billions of dollars, unintentionally unleashing
sophisticated cyber weapons across global computer networks.
See “Israel
and the Trillion-Dollar 2005-2018 US Intelligence Budget”
Antiwar.com, November 7, 2018.
4. Coordinated opposition to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of
Action (JCPOA) designed to provide transparency into Iran’s
nuclear program and avert war. While Israel spied on
negotiations, releasing them to US operatives. AIPAC
corralled mainstream Israel lobby opposition to the deal,
and helped insert a “poison pill” requiring proactive action
in the form of a presidential waiver to keep the deal from
expiring. President Trump withdrew from the deal to
thunderous Israel lobby applause in May of 2018.
5. Demanding the US designation of the Iranian Revolutionary
Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization.
AIPAC began demanding sanctions on the IRGC through the
Treasury Department in 2007. The April 2019 Trump
administration formal designation of IRGC cleared the way
for the US to assassinate Iranian leaders as part of the
“War on Terror.”
Israel and its lobby will likely labor mightily to keep
U.S.-Iran hostilities going, while attempting to avoid blame
for the conflict they labored so mightily to precipitate.
This will have many ancillary benefits for Israel and its
lobby. Armed conflict will empower additional Israeli
demands for US foreign aid. Israel has received more than
$282.4 billion in unclassified aid since 1948. Conflict will
boost the prospects of Israeli military contractors in
Israel and those streaming into the US under variousstate
subsidy programs. Most of all, the conflict will allow
Israel to divert world attention away from its brutal
ongoing ethnic cleansing of the native populations in
Palestine and ever more robust systematized apartheid.
