Jeffrey Sachs: The U.S. is Israel’s Warmongering Puppet

Jeffrey Sachs describes how the war plan told to General Wesley Clark was put into play:

Netanyahu has a different idea. His idea is: We captured the Palestinian lands in 1967 and we're never going to give them back, so we're just going to rule over the Palestinians. He says we're going to keep the land. There will be resistance, Hamas, Hezbollah, other militant resistance. What will we do about it? You can't really fight the terrorists, he says. You have to fight the states that back the terrorists. And Iran is the central one. But interestingly, for Netanyahu, he lays out one by one, yes, of course, Iran is the central one in his mind. But so too is Iraq under Saddam. He supported Hamas. So too is Bashar Al Assad in Syria, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Somalia, Sudan and Libya. And you know what the plan was? Seven wars in five years in the US, using Israel? No, no, this is Israel using the US as if our military is is in their hands, which in effect it is. You take Wolfowicz and you take Feith, and you take these Neocons and you take Netanyahu. They game planned the whole thing out. Well, I regard Netanyahu as having been our greatest, disastrous president of the 21st century, because he ran American foreign policy for 20 years, and he cost us trillions of dollars. And where is the Middle East today? War in Syria, war in Lebanon. War in Palestine. Unrest in Iraq. War in Yemen. Chaos in Sudan. Chaos in Somalia. Chaos in Libya. Great job, BiBi, you did a terrific job!

Here's General Wesley Clark describing this same plan:

The full conversation with Wesley Clark.

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Wikileaks: Israel Sabotaged US Negotiations for Release of American Gaza Hostages

This on X, posted by Wikileaks:

“We’re the United States. We’re not an agent of Israel.”

— Adam Boehler

How Israel’s Actions Derailed Trump’s Hostage Return Deal

In December 2024, President Donald Trump appointed Adam Boehler as Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs. His mission: bring American hostages home.

Boehler’s immediate goal was the release of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander and the return of four others’ remains. With White House approval, he entered direct talks with Hamas in early 2025.

To widespread surprise, those talks showed rapid progress. Hamas offered to release the hostages within weeks, disarm, exit politics, and pursue a full prisoner exchange. “We’re close,” Boehler tweeted.

Israel discovered the negotiations via Unit 8200, its signals intelligence unit, according to journalist Ronen Bergman citing a senior U.S diplomatic source. Prime Minister Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer then launched what Bergman’s source called a “crazy campaign” to sabotage the talks.

News of the negotiations soon leaked to U.S. media and Republican circles. The White House initially backed Boehler. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt affirmed that the President “fully backs and supports Boehler,” who “has the authority to talk to anyone.”

Boehler told reporters: “You could see something like a long-term truce—where we forgive prisoners, where Hamas lays down their arms, where they agree that they’re not part of the political party going forward. I think that’s a reality that’s real close.”

But by March 2025, Israel’s campaign to derail the talks escalated. Boehler became the target of coordinated attacks. One editorial called him Trump’s “complacent, confused, and dangerously naive hostage envoy.”

On March 15, Boehler withdrew as envoy. Secretary of State Marco Rubio dismissed the initiative, claiming the talks “bore no fruit.”

Three days later, Israel unilaterally ended the ceasefire with massive overnight bombings across Gaza, killing over 400 people. Former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas said the strikes had “zero military significance [and] no political end.”

A U.S. intelligence source told Bergman: “It became clear Netanyahu and Dermer are afraid it’ll suddenly be obvious who wants a deal and who doesn’t.”

“It’s a completely fucked up world if the administration has to fight off attempts by Netanyahu, Dermer, and the whole gang,” the official added. “Hard to believe, but we want to do more than the Israeli government to free the hostages.”

Boehler was reassigned to Afghanistan, where two U.S. hostages were freed on March 21 and 29. Meanwhile, the death toll in Gaza surpassed 52,000, and no further prisoner exchanges have taken place since Israel resumed bombing on March 18.

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Chris Hedges pulls back the curtain on AIPAC

At Truthdig, Chris Hedges pulls no punches in his new article on AIPAC, "AIPAC Works for the 1 Percent."  It's rare for me to read an article this intense, well-crafted and alligned with what I've come to understand.

What is being done in Gaza, the world’s largest open-air prison, is a pale reflection of what is slowly happening to the rest of us. It is a window into the rise of the global security state, our new governing system that the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls “inverted totalitarianism.” It is a reflection of a world where the powerful are not bound by law, either on Wall Street or in the shattered remains of the countries we invade and occupy, including Iraq with its hundreds of thousands of dead. And one of the greatest purveyors of this demented ideology of violence for the sake of violence, this flagrant disregard for the rule of domestic and international law, is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. I spent seven years in the Middle East. I was the Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times. I lived for two of those seven years in Jerusalem. AIPAC does not speak for Jews or for Israel. It is a mouthpiece for right-wing ideologues, some of whom hold power in Israel and some of whom hold power in Washington, who believe that because they have the capacity to war wage they have a right to wage war, whose loyalty, in the end, is not to the citizens of Israel or Palestine or the United States but the corporate elites, the defense contractors, those who make war a business, those who have turned ordinary Palestinians, Israelis and Americans, along with hundreds of millions of the world’s poor, into commodities to exploit, repress and control.
Hedges has written a long and intense article that address many of my most pressing concerns about the dicection in which the United States has been going. Note, especially, this description of nationalism (by Danilo Kis) set forth in Hedges' article:
"The nationalist is by definition an ignoramus,” the Yugoslav writer Danilo Kiš wrote. “Nationalism is the line of least resistance, the easy way. The nationalist is untroubled, he knows or thinks he knows what his values are, his, that’s to say national, that’s to say the values of the nation he belongs to, ethical and political; he is not interested in others, they are no concern of his, hell—it’s other people (other nations, another tribe). They don’t even need investigating. The nationalist sees other people in his own images—as nationalists."
As Chris Hedges so eloquently points out, we are a very sick society here in the U.S., and it’s time to start changing things in big ways and small ways. Here's a small way that could become a big way if we tap into the power of crowd sourcing. We need to speak out about these injustices, even in polite company--especially in polite company. I sometimes gently remind people of the travesty of the cancerous military-industrial complex that is running America, and when I do, most people looked at me like I am being inappropriate. So what that we burn $2B/week in Afghanistan? Let’s talk about the professional sports or something happier. Hedges' writing reminds me that I can’t think of anything happier than wresting control of the treasure from the ultra-nationalist warmongers and turning control of this country back to those who would seek sustainable health and meaningful information for the People. So that's my take-away. It's time to speak up more--to name the elephant in the room. This incessant spying, lying, censorship and warmongering are not consistent with a nation that supposedly treasures liberty.

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How the Israelis control news reporting regarding the Gaza aid flotilla

The Israelis don't trust other people to describe what really happened. Therefore, they seized the evidence. Amy Goodman reports:

Who frames the narrative? After the Israeli military raided the Gaza aid flotilla and killed nine of the activists onboard, they detained almost everyone else—700 activists and journalists—hauled them to the Israeli port of Ashdod, and kept them largely out of communication with family, press and lawyers for days. The Israeli government confiscated every recording and communication device it could find, devices containing almost all the recorded evidence of the raid. The Israelis selected, edited, released footage they wanted the world to see.
Here's more, including discussion by Paul McGeough, chief correspondent, Sydney Morning Herald and Kate Geraghty, photographer with the Sydney Morning Herald:
KATE GERAGHTY: Yes. I was photographing, standing right next to Paul. And I was looking over the side of the boat, as the commando came—an Israeli commando came up towards us. So I was photographing and basically got hit on the arm just above my elbow, which knocked me about a meter, about a meter and a half. And then, I was immediately sick. And then the commando came toward me and— AMY GOODMAN: Sick, you mean—you mean you were throwing up? KATE GERAGHTY: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then a commando wrestled my camera off me. And they had guns, so, you know, we just said basically, as Paul mentioned, that we’re Australian journalists, we’re with the Sydney Morning Herald. And that didn’t make any difference. [More . . . ]

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