Melodramatic Media Up In Arms Over Alleged Leak
The rampant leaks concerning President Trump continued full speed ahead on Tuesday, with the New York Times quoting a “current and a former American official” saying it was Israel that provided classified intelligence purportedly disclosed by Trump during a White House meeting last week with Russian officials.
The report comes six days before Trump is due here in Israel for a visit and could potentially impact the U.S. relationship with Israel. Indeed, the second sentence of the Times report states that the information about Israel reportedly serving as the source “adds a potential diplomatic complication to the episode.”
The Times failed to note that its own report, if accurate, could endanger Israel’s antiterrorism intelligence collection operations.
Continues the newspaper in the second paragraph of the article: “Israel is one of the United States’ most important allies and a major intelligence collector in the Middle East. The revelation that Mr. Trump boasted about some of Israel’s most sensitive information to the Russians could damage the relationship between the two countries. It also raises the possibility that the information could be passed to Iran, Russia’s close ally and Israel’s main threat in the Middle East.”
However, toward the bottom of the piece, the Times cites Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser, as telling reporters that Trump was not aware of the source of the information.
Israeli officials reached by the Times would not confirm that Israel provided the intelligence, which reportedly concerns the inner workings of ISIS.
One day earlier, the Washington Post first reported that Trump allegedly revealed “highly classified information” during a meeting with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador, according to “current and former U.S. officials.”
McMaster told the Post that “the president and the foreign minister reviewed common threats from terrorist organizations to include threats to aviation.” “At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed, and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly,” McMaster stated. Later, McMaster stated the leak may put U.S. national security at risk.
In January, Israel’s respected Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported U.S. intelligence officials from the Obama administration warned their Israeli counterparts not to trust then President-elect Trump with intelligence secrets, citing alleged fears that Russia held blackmail information over Trump. Those fears seemed to have been in part referencing the now partially debunked infamous dossier falsely claiming that Russia collected compromising videos of Trump.
The dossier was compiled by former intelligence agent Christopher Steele, who was reportedly paid by Democrats and anti-Trump Republicans to investigate Trump.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration faced its share of accusations that it leaked sensitive Israeli intelligence or military operations. In 2012, Israel suspected the Obama administration leaked information to prevent the Jewish state from striking Iran’s nuclear facilities. And in November 2013, Israeli officials were reportedly furious at the Obama White House for confirming that the Israeli Air Force was behind a strike on a Syrian military base. Israeli policy is not to confirm strikes carried out beyond its borders.
Israeli Media Hype Anti-Trump Story
For 24 hours straight, the Israeli news media hyped a story that a senior member of the American delegation prepping President Donald Trump’s trip to Israel sniped at his Israeli counterpart that the Western Wall is “not your territory”; it’s “part of the West Bank.”
The rampant television, radio, newspaper, and Internet news reports framed the official as being associated with Trump’s delegation as if the individual were a member of the administration who came to Israel to help prepare for next week’s presidential visit.
Tuesday, Israel’s Channel 2 identified the individual allegedly involved in the confrontation as David Berns, the political counselor at the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem. According to the television report, Berns was joined by embassy economic adviser Jonathan Shrier, who also was allegedly involved in the episode.
Berns is a career officer at the State Department who has been working at the U.S. Consulate since August 2015. In other words, he received his position there during the Obama administration. According to his LinkedIn profile, Berns served from January 2002 until present as a foreign service officer with the State Department.
Shrier is also a career officer, who arrived at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv in August 2015 – during the Obama administration – as the counselor for Economic Affairs.
Jackie Mason: Abbas Just As Guilty As Hamas
During a radio interview on Sunday, legendary comedian and staunch Israel supporter Jackie Mason took strong issue with the repeated characterization of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as Israel’s partner for peace.
During a White House press conference with Abbas earlier this month, President Trump stated that he “believes” Abbas is a willing peace partner.
“Mahmoud Abbas is a peace partner like the mafia is a peace partner,” Mason quipped, speaking during his regular segment on this reporter’s talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio,” broadcast on New York’s AM 970 The Answer and NewsTalk 990 AM.
Continued Mason on the topic of Abbas: “He is partners with Hamas and he is just as guilty as Hamas. The only difference between him and Hamas is that he wears a suit like a regular person and he takes a bath. That’s all. The only difference is that you can catch him taking a shower and they never did.
“In terms of his behavior he approves of every vicious, filthy thing that Hamas ever did and he never disagrees with them. He just poses as a different kind of a person because he puts on a new suit and he always comes out from a bathtub.
“He is just as filthy and disgusting as they are and he never once disagreed with them. And he’s always their partner in everything that they ever did and he wants east Jerusalem. … Hamas takes the same position they do but he [Abbas] hides from behind. While they are throwing bombs, he’s holding a clean shirt and a change of a suit.”