Israel's
"Spy" in the White House
MER - Washington - 29 January
1998
Take the word "spy" here in the
overall context of the background, role, connections and
allegiances of Rahm Emanuel.
He's been on TV quite a bit in the
past few days -- tasked with convincing the world that Bill
Clinton is to be believed in the latest "Zipper-Gate" scandal.
According to Emanuel, Bill just didn't do it!
Actually in this second Clinton
term Emanuel has gradually come out more and more into public view
after so much behind-the-scenes work going back to Clinton's first
Presidential campaign. When Clinton wants to tough-it-out he often
now turns to Rahm Emanuel and the many Emanuel can call on his
behalf.
These days Emanuel's title is
"Senior Political Adviser" and his office is close by to the Oval
Office where he can and does constantly monitor all that's going
on in the Clinton Presidency.
Emanuel's real role combines money
with politics with public relations -- he is a rather unique
figure in the Clinton "Kosher Kitchen" White House. Most unique of
all in fact is that Emanuel is a kind of out-front spy for Israel
while primarily serving as Bill Clinton's main money
man.
More so than ever before, money
and politics are the heads and the tails of the same coin in the
Clinton White House. Both the "show me the money" slogan from last
year's hit movie Jerry McGuire, and the current hit movie "Wag the
Dog", are take-offs on what contemporary Washington politics has
truly become in the Clinton era.
Emanuel has essentially made
himself indispensable to Clinton because he is the main link to
the money, especially the huge sums of American Jewish money that
have poured toward Bill Clinton ever since he became their man
anointed to take down George Bush.
Very little if anything goes on in
the Clinton White House that Emanuel doesn't know about. And while
his super close relations to the Israeli lobby are well known by
Democratic insiders, few want to speak on the record about this
most sensitive of subjects -- the extraordinary power and clout of
the Washington Israel/Jewish lobby that totally dominates the
Clinton/Gore Presidency.
DUAL U.S./ISRAELI
CITIZEN
Emanuel was a dual
Israeli-American citizen until he was 18, he's now 36. His father
was in the right-wing Israeli underground in the 40s, the same
group that is rumored to have had ties to the Deir Yassin massacre
and possibly to the assassination of U.N. negotiator Count
Bernadotte.
Emanuel may have given up his
second citizenship (quite possibly for tax reasons some indicate);
but he never gave up his dual allegiance. During the 1991 Gulf War
Rahm in fact volunteered for the Israeli Army (volunteers were not
sent to combat but rather to support jobs).
ISRAELI LOBBY
PROTEGE
Emanuel got his feet wet in
politics back in 1980, just a year after giving up his Israeli
citizenship, as an Israeli/Jewish lobby operative.
There was this mildly pro-PLO
Congressman from Springfield, Illinois -- Paul Findley -- whom the
Israeli/Jewish lobby wanted out of there. Emanuel's first major
political and money job was to become the Finance Director for
Democrat David Robinson, the man who unseated the long-serving
Findley.
Ever since Emanuel has been among
the insiders of the Israeli/Jewish lobby, though he has never
worked directly for it, unlike the new Assistant Secretary of
State for the Middle East, Martin Indyk, and the Special Middle
East negotiator, Dennis Ross, both among Emanuel's close friends,
as is CNN's Wolf Blitzer, also a former lobby official.
