Large site logo

To Open The Sky

The Front Pages of Christopher P. Winter
Work in progress
.
Benjamin Netanyahu facing trial in Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu Is Indicted on Criminal Charges, and His Defiance Puts Israel's Democracy at Risk.
Israel: America's Ally?

The relationship of nations that are allies generally displays two primary features:

  1. Their leaders deal with each other in good faith;
  2. Their contributions to each other generally balance out; one does not gain at the expense of the other.

I will show here that neither feature is present in the relationship between America and Israel.

The Present Day

In the present, with Benjamin Netanyahu at the helm, Israel's relationship with America looks more like that between bully and victim. We give Israel weapons which it has used to slaughter tens of thousands of Palestinians and reduce most of the buildings in Gaza to rubble. Only 19 of Gaza's 36 hospitals remain operational, and all struggle with lack of supplies, shortages of workers, and arduous working conditions. Israel has also been starving the population there, which is on the brink of famine. Israel routinely prevents vital supplies from entering Gaza; during last winter's rainstorms it blocked replacement tents, leaving many exposed to cold and wet conditions.

Some units of the IDF have been shown to commit gross human rights violations, both in Gaza and in the West Bank. America's Leahy Laws require that aid to such units be stopped; but both the Biden and Trump administrations have waived these requirements.

Israel's Gaza Campaign

Israel's campaign against Gaza began immediately following the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023. It began in the north, where Hamas was thought to be concentrated, but quickly expanded to all of the territory — even to so-called safe zones where Palestinians were supposed to shelter. It was mostly a bombing campaign using 2,000-pound bombs generally considered too powerful for urban environments, and Israel often explained using them on schools and hospitals because a single member of Hamas was thought to be there. The death toll rose rapidly. Israel steadfastly claimed the IDF was "the most moral army in the world," and that it was doing everything possible to minimize civilian casualties. Video coming from Gaza told a different story. Foreign doctors who volunteer in Gaza have told after returning of large numbers of young Palestinian men shot in the head. What they haven't reported is evidence of Hamas activity in the hospitals where they served. There is evidence that Palestinian and foreign aid workers were targeted even when they had cleared their movements with COGAT and should have been safe. Palestinian journalists working in Gaza, and their families, were also targeted. To date at least 235 Palestinian journalists have been killed by the IDF in Gaza, and Israel has lately begun to brag about this. Foreign journalists are not allowed in Gaza without an IDF "minder." Observation flights over Gaza are also prohibited by Israel. Foreign observers on its recent air drops of food were not allowed to film from the windows; Israel claimed this would "jeopardize" the flights. On 31 August 2025, US Senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley were denied permission to enter Gaza by land or to ride on flights over the enclave on Jordanian planes. We now know that the thefts of food aid in Gaza, which Israel blamed on Hamas, were done by rival gangs with Israel's support.

The total death toll in Gaza has reached at least 73,000. This figure is likely an underestimate because many bodies lie under the rubble of collapsed buildings. During phase 1 of the latest ceasefire, which officially began on 10 October 2025, Israel has continued bombing and shelling in Gaza, often with no obvious provocation. It has killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza since that date, and continues to block tents and other supplies as winter storms batter the region. As of 25 May 2026, the death toll in Gaza stands at 73,944, including at least 1,000 killed since the ceasefire was declared.

Sources:

Health system in Gaza

Israeli Settlers in the Occupied West Bank

The West Bank, a territory on the west bank of the Jordan River, has been occupied by Israel since 1967. This occupation is illegal under international law — and under US policy, until 2017. Israelis have been expanding their settlements in the West Bank for decades, often displacing Palestinians. This displacement frequently has involved violence, even before 7 October 2023, and violence has escalated since then. American visitors have died in this violence: at least two before 7 October, and at least five since then. Violence in general against Palestinians has ramped up greatly and grown more blatant. Violence against Christians has also escalated.

For decades, private individuals in the United States have donated substantial sums to advance the settlement cause. Non-profit organizations — as many as 50 per a 2015 study by Ha'aretz — have collected tax-refundable donations for the same cause. The Israeli organization known as "Women in Green" once had chapters inside the US, but those connections were broken circa 2013. Direct donations are still accepted. The Jewish National Fund raises money from thousands of synagogues acros the US. A portion of this goes to support settlements, including the training of "youth activists" who, Jasper Nathaniel reports, "are leading attacks on Palestinian villages. And this has been reported in the Israeli media more than it's been reported in the United States." The study found that more than $220 million was sent over to fund construction of schools, parks and other infrastructure for settlers in the West Bank between 2009 and 2013.

Trump revoked the US policy holding Israel's occupation illegal when he took office in 2017. He also moved the US embassy to Jerusalem against another long-standing US policy. President Biden put sanctions on certain West Bank settlers known for violence; Trump revoked them in January 2025. During press conferences in both the Biden and Trump administrations, State Department spokespeople typically defer questions about those killed to Israel.

In May 2025, a delegation of 25 diplomats from various countries was subjected to "warning shots" by IDF soldiers. According to the Jerusalem Post, "'The delegation deviated from the approved route and entered an area where they were not authorized to be in,' so soldiers fired 'warning shots to distance them from that zone,' the IDF said."

On 23 July, Israel's Knesset approved a resolution to annex the West Bank. Such annexation is something Trump has claimed he would prevent. And in March 2026 the Knesset passed a law that, per Al Jazeera, "will instruct military courts to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis in acts of 'terror', but will not impose the same penalty on Jewish Israelis convicted of killing Palestinians."

Since the 10 October 2025 nominal ceasefire, attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have escalated, with some US journalists being targeted as well. Video exists of settlers destroying olive groves and of one clubbing an old woman.

US Congressman Ro Khanna was detained for over an hour in July 2026 while on a three-day trip through the West Bank. In the town of Khirbet Zanuta, abandoned due to violence against Palestinians, his party was stopped by masked settlers armed with rifles. The IDF soldiers called to the scene sided with the settlers and blocked the road with a car. Intervention by the US embassy got the party, which included a New York Times photographer, released after more than an hour. A Republican congressman called the incident a publicity stunt. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson had visited the West Bank settlement of Ariel in August 2025. The Jerusalem Post quoted Johnson as saying, "Judea and Samaria are the front lines of the state of Israel and must remain an integral part of it."

Sources:

Pro-Palestinian Protests

Given the well-documented crimes committed by Israel, it is no surprise that students in America and around the world — many of them Jews — began to protest the slaughter they witnessed in Gaza. No matter how peaceful these protests, they were met with charges of antisemitism. Netanyahu came to the US and denounced all student protests as antisemitism.1 (Note how he describes Hamas as genocidal, but insists Israel is falsely accused of genocide, starving Gaza, and "sundry war crimes.") He demanded that the protests be stopped, and certain members of Congress piled on, punishing the leaders of universities where protests had taken place. Many universities cooperated, changing their rules to make protesting more difficult — generally singling out pro-Palestinian protest. Students taking up the Palestinian cause also faced vilification on social media. American media typically downplayed pro-Israel violence, such as the attack on the protest encampment at UCLA. The net result was that the protests died out.

Student Protests in the US:

The BDS Movement

Related to the student protests, and long predating them, is the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction any company that does business with Israel: the BDS movement. This was patterned after the boycotts that helped to overturn apartheid in South Africa, and its 20-year duration is a reminder that Israel's mistreatment of the Palestinians has a long history. A number of universities had divested their funding from companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Now they are losing federal funding as punishment. Recently the federal government announced that it would withhold disaster relief funds from anyone who boycotts an Israeli company or a company that does business with Israel. Specifically, the prohibited behavior is: "Discriminatory prohibited boycott means refusing to deal, cutting commercial relations, or otherwise limiting commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies or with companies doing business in or with Israel or authorized by, licensed by, or organized under the laws of Israel to do business."

Furthermore, a Homeland Security Department statement reads:

"There is NO FEMA requirement tied to Israel in any current NOFO. No states have lost funding and no new conditions have been imposed.

"FEMA grants remain governed by existing law and policy and not political litmus tests. DHS will enforce all anti-discriminatory laws and policies, including as it relates to the BDS movement, which is expressly grounded in antisemitism. Those who engage in racial discrimination should not receive a single dollar of federal funding."

My translation: "We're not engaging in racial discrimination. We're just protecting the nation of Israel,
which does engage in racial discrimination."

The Israel Anti-Boycott Act was introduced in the House of Reprersentatives in 2017. If passed, it would require the Export-Import Bank of the United States to oppose boycotts against Israel. The Act has 292 co-sponsors, but has not become law. In 2019, Senator Marco Rubio introduced the Combatting BDS Act, meant to enable the states to pass anti-boycott laws with federal blessing. This bill passed the Senate but died in the House. There seems little chance of it becoming law.

However, thirty-nine states now have anti-BDS laws or executive orders on the books. These restrictions were enacted between 2015 and 2023. Currently, the only states free of such restrictions are Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming. As Israel's Minister of Public Security and Strategic Affairs, Gilad Erdan led Israel's fight against the BDS movement. At a 2019 conference in New York, Mondoweiss reported, he bragged about the Israeli effort to combat the BDS movement and took credit for inspiring U.S. states to adopt their own anti-BDS laws. As critics increasingly target such restrictions for violating the right to free speech, a growing coalition of activists, civil rights groups, and concerned citizens in the Midwest is pushing back.

Sources:

Weaponizing Antisemitism

Antisemitism, bigotry against Jews, has always existed, and it is vile. But the Anti-Defamation League, once dedicated to fighting genuine cases of antisemitism in the US, has lately turned to treating criticism of Netanyahu's policies as antisemitism. The America-Israel Political Action Committee, AIPAC, now dedicates millions of dollars to defeating candidates who oppose Israel's actions in the Middle East. Its recent victories include Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. Many American media also contribute to this trend.

The Trump Regime has begun to use bogus charges of antisemitism as weapons against critics of Netanyahu, or against those who support Palestinians generally. Certain members of Congress have enthusiastically taken up the cudgels. Militant groups such as Betar US and Canary Mission have also arisen or been revived; they track, expose, and harass political candidates likely to vote against Israel, and individuals with pro-Palestinian views. Betar US is said to have ties to Israel's Likud Party. Reportedly, the Trump Regime has lately begun to act on the information these groups provide, in some cases deporting immigrants with green cards they have identified. Deporting immigrants who have a legal right to be here solely because of their political views is another violation of their First Amendment right to speak freely.

AIPAC:

Sources:

US Middle East Policy

US policy in the Middle East has often coincided with Israel's, and in many cases contrary to US interests. Nowhere is this more true than for US policy toward the Islamic Republic of Iran. Israel's leaders, and most markedly Netanyahu, have long regarded Iran as their chief adversary. There is some basis for this: Following the overthrow of the brutal Shah Reza Pahlavi in the Islamic Revolution of 1979, Iran has been a theocracy led by the Shia sect of Islam. It sponsors terrorist proxy groups in various nations, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen. These groups have regularly attacked Israel. Since 2003, Iran has undertaken to develop nuclear power, and it is this that Netanyahu dreads the most. He has consistently overstated Iran's ability and intent to develop nuclear weapons, on several occasions fabricating evidence of this — sometimes with US help. In 2015, he tried unsuccessfully to derail the Obama administration's negotiation (along with European nations) of an agreement with Iran which monitored and limited Iran's enrichment of uranium. After Trump took power in 2016, he was able to persuade the new US leader to unilaterally pull out of this multinational agreement, known as the JCPOA. The Biden administration tried to restore it, but Iran understandably held back. It threw out the monitors and soon had uranium enriched to 60%: near weapons grade. Netanyahu, characteristically, tried to claim Iran was weeks away from having nuclear weapons. In June 2025, as US talks with Iran to resume negotiations were under way, Netanyahu ordered air strikes on Iran's nuclear sites and persuaded Trump to join in with massive US "bunker busters." Despite Trump's insistence, these strikes did not obliterate Iran's nuclear program. They did push the Middle East closer to general war.

On 28 February 2026 — once again during peace talks — Israel and the US attacked Iran. Depite killing the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and 49 of Iran's leaders, these attacks did not topple the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In fact, its leadership turned more hardline against the West than it had been. And despite suffering widespread bombardment, including of schools, hospitals, and vital infrastructure such as water plants, Iran was able to strike multiple US military and commercial facilities in its neighboring countries. It caused massive damage which the US government tried to conceal. Iran also closed the Strait of Hormuz, a move predicted before this round of hostilities began. World commerce was impacted as a result, since roughly one-third of all oil and gas, and other vital commodities, flow through the Strait. These difficulties persist, largely because Israel insists on continuing its offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, wrote in an op-ed for Time magazine that: "Despite his aggressive talk and military posturing, Trump cannot afford another major war in the Middle East. He has long been a candidate who promises to bring U.S. troops home — not entangle them in a new war."

This is an area where print references are especially useful in understanding the background of this conflict.

My Reviews of Relevant Print References

Other Print References:

Online Sources:

The JCPOA:

Star of David

Addendum:

A Forty-Year Fealty to Fantasy


The US is now fulfilling Netanyahu's 40-year fantasy for Iran.

This fraught fiasco needs its own page.
Effing Fool DJT		 Star of David

US Aid To Israel

Amidst all this, money kept flowing to Israel. The US has no formal defense pact with Israel, as it does with Japan and the NATO nations. But Israel is considered a "major non-NATO ally" and it has privileged access to the most advanced U.S. military platforms and technologies. From 1946 through 2024, it received a total of $310 billion from the US. Three ten-year agreements dominated the past several decades: in 1998 ($21.3 billion), 2008 ($32 billion), and 2016 ($38 billion). In recent years most of this has been military aid, and since 2007 economic aid has stopped entirely while military aid kept rising. The conflict in Gaza prompted additional funding for Israel. For 2024, the figures are $12.5 billion total and $5.7 billion for missile defense ("Iron Dome"). Previously, Israel sought to negotiate a 20-year deal with a somewhat higher yearly rate, and to sweeten the deal for the Trump Regime by earmarking a portion of those funds for joint US-Israel research and development. However, Netanyahu began to understand that in 2026 the political winds were shifting against unlimited US support for Israel. Acting humble and contrite in an interview on 60 Minutes, he said it was time to stop relying on American financial support. He therefore undertook to insert into US law two provisions that would lock in cooperation between the two nations on matters of defense and intelligence. These are Section 224 (now 219) of the National Defense Authorization Act and Section 622 of the Intelligence Sharing Act.

Section 224 would make the US and Israel permanent partners on research, development and production of military technology. Its advocates foresee Israel building factories in the United States; these would then gain political support through the jobs they provide. Section 622 has gotten less attention. Put forward by Tom Cotton, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, it would prohibit any suspension, reduction, or limitation of such sharing "except on the basis of a specific and identifiable national security concern determined by the President." If passed, these provisions would be harder to overturn than traditional military and intelligence support for Israel, and would be less visible to the public. Netanyahu is smart; he knows the massive sums Israel supporters are spending to foster his narrative will not stop the rejection of US support his war crimes have engendered. He will therefore try to hide that support from public view.

The US also provides diplomatic support to Israel. From 1967 through 1989, the United Nations Security Council has adopted 131 resolutions addressing the Arab-Israeli conflict. The UN General Assembly has adopted resolutions challenging Israel's strategic relationship with the United States, arguing that this relationship enables Israel to act aggressively in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Examples include Resolution 2443 (1968) establishing the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People, Resolution 3379 (1975) equating Zionism with racism, and Resolution 37/123: "Condemnation of Israel's alleged responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila massacre by Kataeb Party in Beirut, Lebanon; resolves that the massacre was an act of genocide; condemns acts of plundering Palestinian cultural heritage; condemns the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights; and condemns the annexation of Jerusalem." (Many were reaffirmations of previous demands, like the five resolutions for "a full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories.") And as of 2013, the UN Human Rights Commission has condemned Israel in 45 resolutions.

The United States, having veto power as a permanent member of the UNSC, vetoed most of these. In all, it has vetoed 49 UN resolutions concerning Israel. The rare exception took place in late 2016 when the Obama administration abstained from a vote on UNSC Resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories — the first time in four decades that a UN resolution condemning Israel had passed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "shameful" move by the US.

Israel has also routinely enjoyed cover in US domestic politics. This is largely due to AIPAC (the American-Israel Political Action Committee) and other lobbying groups. In recent years it has grown more pronounced as wealthy Jewish and Evangelical Christian interests donate large sums of dark money to the cause. The unsurprising result is that politicians of both parties tend to rubber-stamp measures favoring Israel, even when those measures are not in America's best interest.

Aid to Israel:

Sections 224 & 622:

War Crimes, Genocide, and Illegal Occupations

The things Israel has been doing throughout its 25-month campaign in Gaza — attacking hospitals with no military justification; bombing civilians indiscriminately; destroying infrastructure, croplands, and livestock; withholding food, water, and medical supplies from the population — are war crimes and may rise to the level of genocide. In addition, purposely targeting journalists also violates the laws of war that have developed since the end of World War II. Israel has done this repeatedly, often after warning them to keep silent or suffer harm. This was the case with Anas al-Sharif, an Al Jazeera journalist whom Israel admitted targeting on 10 August 2025. Five others were killed with Al-Sharif when the IDF bombed his tent outside al-Shifa Hospital. At least 235 journalists have been killed by the IDF in Gaza since the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023. And Israel's very occupation of Gaza, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank violates international law.

In addition, Israel's ongoing campaign in Gaza, its effective annexation of the West Bank and mistreatment of Palestinians there and in East Jerusalem, violate the US Leahy Laws.

Israel has now occupied parts of Lebanon and Syria — further violations of international law. It threatens Turkey, claiming that NATO ally is an imminent threat to Israel. The bellicose rhetoric from Israel's far-right leaders makes it clear that Israel means to keep the region in turmoil, to expand its territory by a series of conquests, and to bamboozle or coerce Western nations into going along, or at least not stopping it.

Journalists killed in war
More journalists have been killed by Israel in Gaza than in any conflict since the US Civil War.
Israel BRAGS After Assassinating ENTIRE Al Jazeera Crew
(Breaking Points, 11 August 2025)

On 29 December 2023, South Africa brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) charges that Israel was committing the ongoing crime of genocide. Israel, of course, claimed the charges were baseless and said South Africa had become "the legal arm of Hamas." The case has moved forward slowly but deliberately; over time, twelve other nations have joined South Africa's case.

Separately, the International Criminal Court (ICC) on 24 November 2024 brought charges against Israel's PM Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of "crimes against humanity" in Gaza. It brought similar charges against three leaders of Hamas: Yahwa Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed Deif. (Sinwar and Haniyeh were subsequently killed by the IDF.) Israel, not a member of the ICC, rejected these charges. Lead prosecutor Karim Khan has had to step aside under accusations of sexual misconduct, but the case is still proceeding.

Under the Trump Regime, the US has sanctioned judges and other staff of the ICC. This began in February 2025 with sanctions against Karim Khan, lead prosecutor in the case against Netanyahu and Gallant. He is at the top of a list expanded in June and August to include his two deputies, Nazhat Shameem Khan (Fiji) and Mame Mandiaye Niang (Senegal), and six Honourable Judges of the Court, its Vice-President Reine Alapini-Gansou (Benin) and Judges Solomy Balungi Bossa (Uganda), Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza (Peru), Kimberly Prost (Canada), Nicolas Guillou (France), and Beti Hohler (Slovenia). Many nations have condemned its actions against the court, however, calling the ICC "a vital pillar of the international justice system."

The US, by the way, is not a signatory to the treaty that established the ICC. This did not prevent the Biden administration from welcoming the ICC warrant against Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. But it called the arrest warrant for Netanyahu "outrageous." The Trump Regime has not condemned the warrant for Putin, nor has it objected to ICC warrants against three Hamas leaders. The fact of the US not being a signatory to the ICC treaty gave it an excuse to avoid arresting Putin during his visit to Elmendorf Air Force base in August 2025.

War Crimes, Genocide, and Illegal Occupations:

The Leahy Laws:

Sanctions Against the ICC:

Israel's Warmongering in the Middle East

The history is complicated, and Israel has responded to genuine threats. But it has also been belligerent. In 1956, Egypt's president Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, blocking shipping by Israel and other nations. Israel invaded and occupied the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. It withdrew after strong warnings by US President Eisenhower and the United Nations.

Recently it has arguably been belligerent by: striking Iran's consulate in Damascus, Syria (4/01/2024); killing Hamas chief negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran (7/31/2024); detonating thousands of boobytrapped handheld devices in Lebanon and Syria (9/17/2024); conducting air strikes on cities in Lebanon (9/20/2024); invading southern Lebanon (10/01/2024); occupying parts of Syria after the fall of Assad (12/08/2024); conducting a 12-day campaign of air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities (6/13/2025); inducing the US to join that operation against Iran while US negotiations with Iran were planned2 (6/24/2025); killing Yemen's president and cabinet (8/28/2025), and bombing the building in Doha, Qatar housing Hamas negotiators (9/09/2025).

Warmongering, Turmoil and Possible Conquest

Israelis Committing Crimes In USA

There are numerous examples. The most recent happened in Las Vegas. Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, executive director of Israel's National Cyber Directorate, was arrested along with seven others for soliciting sex with a minor in an FBI sting. The others are being prosecuted, while Alexandrovich was allowed to fly back to Israel. It appears no judge was involved. The acting US attorney for Nevada, Sigal Chattah, let him post bond and return to Israel. His hearing was set for 27 August 2025. It was unclear whether Israel would extradite him for trial; that doubt has been removed in the usual way. Sigal Chattah, born in Israel, is a Trump appointee with a history of online bigotry against Palestinians.

As mentioned below, Israel campaigned persistently for the release of Jonathan Pollard, and eventually got him back. Other spies convicted in the US have also been released to Israel.

Sources:

Independence of US politicians

It has long been the case that plentiful funding is available to help elect federal and state-level politicians in the United States who are friendly to Israel. Conversely, those who oppose or even question pro-Israel policies such as shipping them weapons find themselves facing well-funded opponents, and often dishonest attack ads. Recognizing its growing unpopularity, AIPAC has lately begun using front groups such as the United Democracy Project and Affordable Chicago Now. US journalist Matthew Eadie found in 2025 that donations were also being routed through individuals tied to AIPAC. These changes give the politicians plausible deniability.

Another technique used by AIPAC is sending members of Congress, and even of state governments, on all-expenses-paid trips to Israel. Matt Gaetz described returning early to his room in the King David Hotel and finding a man inside who pretended to be taking inventory. Gaetz reported that this was viewed as normal, and that members of committees affecting foreign policy are expected to take such trips in a kind of "congressional hajj." In December 2025, the US established a base in Israel near the Gaza border to monitor the "ceasefire" and coordinate with Israel the development of the "peace plan." Israeli participants were covertly recording meetings and actions of US troops at the base. Finally, a US general told his counterpart that the recording had to stop. Americans present were warned to guard their words. Israel, of course, denies doing anything wrong, and the US government has done nothing about the spying.

Sources:

Independence of US Media

As noted, US mainstream media typically report harm to Palestinians, and Muslims generally, less thoroughly and in less emotional terms than they do for harm to Israelis. Several US organizations, including the ADL, now support Israel's interests, calling out pro-Palestinian viewpoints as antisemitism. Recently Netanyahu, with the help of wealthy American Zionists, has openly announced plans to coopt social media sites like TikTok with the aim of influencing Americans toward a more favorable view of Israel.

Recently it was revealed that Brad Parscale, Trump's digital media campaign manager in 2016, is being paid $1.5 million per month to advance Israel's interests. Breaking Points reports that, per the agreement, "Parscale would produce 100 original pieces of content each month which he aimed at least 80% at Gen-Z audiences across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and podcasts. In the services agreement, Parscale pledged to amplify the campaign across social media, and through integration of narrative messaging into the Salem Media Network property and aligned distribution channels, which refers to the Christian conservative broadcasting and publishing company where he is the chief strategy officer. He vowed that the effort would produce at least 50 million digital impressions per month as well as influence how AI tools such as OpenAI, ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude and Google Gemini characterize Israel and the war." Parscale is a registered foreign agent for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Israel has reportedly allocated $700 million total for such propaganda. And a new report from The Quincy Institute finds that Israel's total spending on trying to convince American voters that it's on their side adds up to more than $1 billion.

Even a PR firm aligned with the Democratic Party was implicated in accepting contracts to promote Israel.

The pending merger of Skydance Media with Paramount Global meant that CBS, owned by Paramount, settled a baseless Trump lawsuit against its news division to gain approval for the merger, which closed in August 2025. Paramount Skydance (PSKY) is headed by David Ellison, son of Oracle Chair Larry Ellison. Both men ardently support Israel, and Ellison pere is the largest private donor to the IDF. David Ellison installed Bari Weiss, known for pro-Israel reporting at The Free Press, as editor-in-chief of CBS News. Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) is also an acquisition target of PSKY. The WBD board prefers a deal with Netflix, and Paramount has mounted a hostile takeover attempt backed by personal money from Larry Ellison and foreign sources. If PSKY wins, it would also have control of CNN. Trump's DOJ approved the merger on 12 June 2026, but the attorneys general of at least four states are in court opposing it.

These efforts to acquire social media and turn them into propaganda channels for Israel have been under way more quietly for years. Mark Zuckerberg's META Platforms hired former Likud Party strategist Jordana Cutler as director of public policy for Israel and the Jewish Diaspora. Erica Mindel, a former Israeli Army instructor, will lead TikTok's hate speech policy, focusing on antisemitic content. YouTube has been accused of removing pro-Palestinian content, and recently removed 700 videos produced by three organizations advocating for Palestine after those organizations had been sanctioned by the Trump Regime.

Sources:

A Look into History

Now, let's take a look back into Israel's historical actions as an ally of the United States. I'll just summarize these developments here. See the reference links to fully investigate.

1954 In 1954, Israel military intelligence recruited Egyptian Jews to plant bombs inside American, British, and Egyptian cinemas, libraries and other civilian targets. The goal was to blame the Muslim Brotherhoods and communists in Egypt. The plan was foiled and the conspirators were caught. The operation ("Operation Susannah") became known as the Lavon Affair, after Israeli PM Pinhas Lavon. He was forced to resign as a result. Israel's government officially denied responsibility until March 2005, when it owned up and honored the surviving spies. (Nick Hanna, 22:30)
1965 From 1965 to 1980, the FBI investigated Zalman Shapiro, the president of Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC), over the loss of 206 pounds (93 kg) of highly enriched uranium from the NUMEC plant near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Shapiro, a long-time Zionist, had contacts among high government officials in Israel. The CIA also investigated, and has stated in 1976 that it believes the uranium went to Israel. But no charges were ever filed, and many US officials defended Shapiro, who died in 2016.
1967 The USS Liberty, plainly marked and flying the American flag, was repeatedly attacked in international waters during the Six Day War. The combined attack by Israeli fighter jets and torpedo patrol boats killed 34 and wounded 171.
1979 A CIA report published 1979 details a history of Israeli spying on the US. Incidents include: A hidden microphone planted by Israeli agents in the office of the US ambassador in Tel Aviv (1954); taps on two telephones in the residence of the US military attache (1956); and ???.
1983 Following the massacres of Lebanese refugees at the Sabra and Shatila camps, which Israel facilitated, a multinational peacekeeping force including US Marines was deployed to Lebanon. Through early 1983, IDF units harassed this force, trying on 2 February to break through the US Marine/Lebanese Army line with three tanks. General Robert Barrow, Marine Corps Commandant, wrote in March 1983 to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger protesting these incidents. Israel flatly denied they had happened, but after high-level meetings were held the harassment stopped.

But in September 1983 Israel pulled the IDF out of the disputed area despite US requests to wait until the Lebanese Army could fill the gap. Israel refused. Predictably, Lebanese Christian forces and pro-Syria Druse militias immediately began fighting to take over the newly vacated land. On 23 October 1983, a truck bomb destroyed the Marine barracks at Beirut International Airport and President Reagan withdrew US troops from the coalition.

Victor Ostrovsky, a former Mossad agent, claimed in a 1990 book that Mossad knew of plans to blow up the barracks of the American Marine peacekeeping detachment in Beirut, Lebanon with a truck bomb but did not tell the US. This book, and Ostrovsky's other claims, are disputed by Israel and generally regarded as controversial.3
1984 US Intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard sold Israel numerous state secrets, including the National Security Agency's ten-volume manual on how the U.S. gathers its signal intelligence, and disclosed the names of thousands of people who had .cooperated with U.S. intelligence agencies. Captured in 1985, he was sentenced to life in prison in 1987. Attempting to justify his crimes, Pollard claimed to be motivated by the fact that the US intelligence community in general endangered Israel's security by withholding essential information. Israeli officials, U.S.-Israeli activist groups and some American politicians continually lobbied for a reduction or commutation of his sentence. Israel granted him citizenship in 1995. He was released from prison in 2015, and after his parole expired in 2020 he moved to Israel, where he was greeted by Benjamin Netanyahu. Since relocating to Israel, Pollard has endorsed Kahanist Party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir and advocated relocating Gaza's Palestinians to Ireland.
1986 Three Israeli Air Force officers were caught stealing 50,000 pages of proprietary information from the Illinois firm Recon/Optical Corporation, a maker of surveillance equipment.
1996 A GAO report published 1996 noted: "According to a U.S. intelligence agency, the government of Country A [Israel] conducts the most aggressive espionage operation against the United States of any U.S. ally. Classified military information and sensitive military technologies are high-priority targets for the intelligence agencies of this country."
1997 As president, Bill Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern. Netanyahu met with Clinton twice, in February and April of 1997, reportedly telling him that Israel had recordings of phone sex between Clinton and Lewinsky. Netanyahu sought the release of Jonathan Pollard. The second meeting took place during negotiations with Yassir Arafat over a Palestinian state. CIA chief George Tenet told Clinton he would resign if Clinton freed Pollard. Clinton agreed to "review" Pollard's case, but did not release him.
2004 A 2004 story in the Los Angeles Times, "Israel Has Long Spied on U.S., Say Officials," noted: "Despite its fervent denials, Israel secretly maintains a large and active intelligence-gathering operation in the United States that has long attempted to recruit U.S. officials as spies and to procure classified documents, U.S. government officials said."
2005 On 3 May 2005, the FBI charged Lawrence Anthony Franklin, a defense analyst working in the office of Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, with disclosing national defense information to two unauthorized individuals. A federal grand jury indicted Franklin on five counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917. He pled guilty and was sentenced on 20 January 2006 to 12 years and 7 months in prison; the sentence was later reduced. It was revealed that the investigation had begun in 1999 and the two individuals were Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, both employees of AIPAC at the time. AIPAC fired them, but charges against them were dropped. Franklin had also met with Naor Gilon, head of the political department at the Israeli Embassy in Washington and a specialist on Iran's nuclear programs, but Israel said this was appropriate given their overlapping responsibilities. Both Israel and AIPAC denied the charges of espionage.
2014-2015 Yahav Lichner, an official with the United Nations Population Fund, sent emails to Israli officials describing various UN activities as well as meetings between UN and US officials. One came at a time when Israel faced an inquiry by the UN Human Rights Council over its conduct during the 2014 "Operation Protective Edge" offensive against Gaza. This email, sent on 20 February 2015, contained a confidential report about a meeting between Zaid Ra'ad Al-Hussein and officials in Washington, AIPAC, J Street, and human rights NGOs. Another disclosure by Lichner was an internal daily report from the UN Operations and Crisis Centre (UNOCC) providing security and political updates from various regions of the world. This highly sensitive report was forwarded to six Israeli diplomats who evidently used it to help Israel resist pressure from the international community over its 2014 actions in Gaza and the ongoing occupation of the West Bank. Lichner also apparently doctored information going to Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to favor Israel. This evidence has just come to light; the full extent of Lichner's interference has yet to become clear. However, there is evidence of widespread infiltration at the UN. Yahav Lichner is now posted to the Washington, DC office of UNICEF.
2019 Devices known informally as "StingRays" are used routinely by law enforcement organizations in the US. They can intercept calls from cell phones, recovering the locations and identities of the phones' users. Reports of Israel placing such devices near the White House in the first two years of the Trump administration have surfaced. Unlike his predecessor, Trump took no action against this practice. An Israeli Embassy spokesperson, Elad Strohmayer, said, of course, that "These allegations are absolute nonsense." US intelligence professionals observed, of course, that this was an absolute lie.
2023 On 13 October 2023, seven journalists -- American, European and Middle Eastern -- observed Israeli military activity in southern Lebanon. They were in plain sight atop a hill, and visibly labeled as press on their helmets, their flak jackets, and a vehicle. The situation was tense, but there was no active battle at that time. Yet after minutes of being monitored by drones, they were fired at twice by a tank. The two shells, 37 seconds apart, killed one journalist, maimed another, and injured the other five, including American Dylan Collins. They were then fired at for two minutes by a 50-caliber machine gun. Two years later, all efforts to hold Israel accountable have been stonewalled. And a total of 249 journalists have been killed by the IDF since 7 October 2023. It gets worse: Since 2001, Israel has killed 269 journalists.
2025 US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met with Jonathan Pollard in July 2025 at the US embassy in Jerusalem. The White House said it had not known of the meeting in advance but approved it. Huckabee, a self-described Christian Zionist, was one of several US politicians who had advocated for the convicted spy's release from detention.

History:

Attack on the Liberty:

The Beirut Marine Barracks:

Jonathan Pollard and Israeli spying:

Israel's Mole at the United Nations:

Where do all these documented facts lead? In my view, they lead to the conclusion that Israel, as it is presently governed and as it has been governed through most of its history, is no true ally of the United States. Rather, it is a nation out to obtain advantages for itself and its Jewish population by any means necessary — including falsifying information to deceive nations that regard it as an ally, spying on those nations to obtain the means of blackmailing their leaders, and oppressing vulnerable populations in order to expand its own territory.

It has been difficult for the world to accept that the nation once dedicated to "Never again" could behave in this way. But Israel's leaders were open about their intentions. By their declared intent and by their documented actions, they have left no doubt; they are committing genocide. Israeli scholars have admitted it. A former Prime Minister has admitted it. The International Criminal Court has charged Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant with war crimes. Separately, responding to charges made by South Africa, the International Court of Justice has ruled there is probable cause to suspect Israel of genocide. In July 2025, 28 nations joined in a statement to demand that the war in Gaza be ended. The world is slowly waking up to the gravity of Israel's misconduct.

If you've followed the news about the Gaza conflict, you will have heard at least some of the reports of IDF snipers killing unarmed civilians, journalists, and aid workers. You will know that Israel doesn't allow foreign journalists into Gaza except with IDF "minders." You may have heard that a building housing offices of Al Jazeera and the Associated Press was bombed with just one hour's warning. You've certainly heard of the famine that's beginning to grip the population.4 These actions, and others, are contrary to American ideals and interests. They also put Israel's long-term interests at risk, for, as it loses the world's support, it becomes less safe. It may have the strongest military in the Middle East, but military power is not the only sort of power that matters. International law matters too. Israel disregards this at its peril.

Now it remains only for the United States, Israel's main supporter, to likewise wake up and stop giving Israel offensive weapons and running interference for it at the UN. You can help make that happen by letting your representatives know you want it to happen. Tell them Israel's actions are harming Israel too — which is perfectly true.

For more details on what Israel has been doing in Gaza, and how the US supports it, see this link:

1 Netanyahu feels entitled to ban criticism of Israel anywhere in the world. The documentary "The Bibi Files" covers Netanyahu's prolonging the war in Gaza in order to stave off his trial on corruption charges in Israel. He tried to block screenings of the film in Canada.
2 The justification for these 2025 strikes on Iran was that it was weeks away from developing nuclear weapons. But Netanyahu has claimed Iran was on the brink of developing nuclear weapons since at least 2003. During the JCPOA negotiation process, the US cooperated with him in fabricating what's called "additional documents" that falsely claimed to prove Iran's malign intentions.
3 For more details, see Victor Ostrovsky (Wikipedia).
4 Keeping Gaza's economy at a subsistence level was Israeli government policy before Netanyahu took over. This was confirmed in 2011 by documents dating to 2008.
Valid CSS! Valid HTML 4.01 Strict To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.
Copyright © 2025-2026 Christopher P. Winter. All rights reserved.
This page was last modified on 12 August 2026.