While this may not be new - for all we know, the Clinton administration probably did the same - it's still very astonishing.
Here's a rundown of what's been gleaned:
The WikiLeaks website last week leaked a secret State Department cable from October 31, 2008, directing United States officials to spy on Israel. The cable, dated only days before the 2008 American presidential elections, was signed by then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The recently leaked cable reveals former U.S. President George W. Bush’s foreign policy czar instructing American diplomats in Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as the Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA, to conduct a massive espionage operation against the Jewish state. The sought-for information covered all aspects of Israel’s political system, society, communications infrastructures and the Israel Defense Forces.
Regarding the IDF, US diplomats and spies were instructed to gather intelligence on planned Israeli military operations against the American-backed Palestinian Authority, Syria and Lebanon.
American agents were also asked to probe the attitudes of Israeli military commanders and to gather information on “IDF units, equipment, maintenance levels, training, morale, and operational readiness[;] IDF tactics, techniques and procedures for conducting conventional and unconventional counterinsurgency and counterterrorist operations[; and] Israeli assessment of the impact of reserve duty in the territories on IDF readiness.”
As for political leaders, Rice instructed diplomats and spies to provide detailed information about government plans, potential ways Washington can influence politicians, how politicians decide to launch military strikes, the attitudes of Israeli leaders towards the U.S. and more.
Rice also sought information about various aspects of Israeli society. She instructed diplomats and spies to gather details on everything from “Information on and motivations for any increased Israeli population emigration from Israel” to detailed information on Israeli residents of Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights.
Regarding residents of the Golan, Samaria and Judea, collectively labeled by Rice as “settlers,” the cable requested information on “Divisions among various settlement groups[;] details on settlement-related budgets and subsidies[;] settlers’ relationships with the Israeli political and military establishment including their lobbying and settlement methods.”
Bush’s secretary of state expressed deep interest in all details related to Israel’s military and nonmilitary communications infrastructure. For instance, she directed American officials to gather information on “Current specifications, vulnerabilities, capabilities, and planned upgrades to national telecommunications infrastructure, networks, and technologies used by government and military authorities, intelligence and security services, and the public sector.”
Perhaps most interesting, Rice requested personal data on Israeli leaders, asking for “official and personal phone numbers, fax numbers, and e-mail addresses of principal civilian and military leaders.”
Rice's secret orders also included espionage against the American-backed PA and its rival Hamas. The cable requested "biographical, financial and biometric information on key PA and Hamas leaders and representatives, to include the young guard inside Gaza, the West Bank and outside."
It is not presently known whether or how the information gathered on Rice's orders was put to use by the U.S. or if the espionage efforts against Israel put in place by the Bush administration are still in effect under President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Can there be any real difference then between Dubya's government and the senior Bush, or between Condi Rice and her predecessor James Baker? I don't think so. This is absolutely ludicrous.
Caroline Glick writes more about this as well as the false charges that were leveled against 2 AIPAC officials:
Two documents reported on this week shed a troubling light on the US government's attitude toward Israel. The first is a 27-page FBI search warrant affidavit from 2004 targeting then senior AIPAC lobbyist Steve Rosen, published Wednesday in the Washington Times. The second is WikiLeaks leaked secret State Department cable from October 2008 signed by then secretary of state Condoleezza Rice directing US officials to spy on Israel. Both indicate that in certain quarters of the American government Israel is viewed as at best a banana republic and at worst an enemy of the US.
The text of the FBI affidavit directed against Rosen makes clear that the FBI had no particular reason to suspect that he was an Israeli agent or was harming US national security. Rosen's activities during his tenure as AIPAC's senior lobbyist as described in the affidavit -- meeting with government officials, journalists and Israeli diplomats -- were precisely the type of activities that lobbyists in Washington routinely engage in. Despite this the FBI followed Rosen for five years and indicted him and his AIPAC colleague Keith Weissman on felony charges under the all but forgotten 1917 Espionage Act. The FBI probe and subsequent trial harmed AIPAC's reputation, destroyed both men's careers, and did untold damage to the reputation of both the State of Israel and its American Jewish supporters. That it took five years for the Justice Department to drop these outrageous charges is a testament to the strength of the FBI's commitment to criminalizing American Jewish advocates of a strong US-Israel alliance.
And then there is Rice's secret cable. Just days before the 2008 presidential elections, the Secretary of State instructed US diplomats in Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia as well as the DIA and the CIA to conduct a massive espionage operation against Israel. The sought for information covered all aspects of Israel's political system, society, communications infrastructures and the IDF.
[...]
Taken side by side, the first striking aspect of the US's fabricated Israeli spy scandal on the one hand and its massive espionage operation against Israel on the other hand is the shocking hypocrisy of it all.
But hypocrisy isn't the real issue. The real issue exposed by the documents is that the US is carrying out a deeply hostile policy against Israel in the face of massive public support for Israel in the US. That is, whereas two thirds of Americans support Israel, a minority constituency in the US government treats Israel with scorn and hatred. And the question that arises from this is how is this minority able to get away with it? Part of the answer was exposed this week in the aftermath of Defense Minister Ehud Barak's move on Monday morning to break ranks with the Labor Party. To understand how the two issues are related it is important to understand the plight of Labor since the demise of the peace process with the PLO in 2000.
You can read the whole article, which tells how Tzipi Livni has replaced Barak as the American government's favorite politician, but for now, what can be said is that this does considerable damage to the reputation of some so-called conservatives, and tells why even the tea parties are going to have to campaign for better governmental policy.
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