Will there be fallout from the NSA sharing intel with Israel?

It’s easy to make hyperbolic statements about the thorough infiltration of American policy-making by agents of Israel. It’s easy to claim things like: Capitol Hill is Israeli-occupied territory. Or, Zionists qualify or disqualify Americans from holding high office or public positions of power in America.

Over time however, the very agents whose existence is assumed to be rendered only in the minds of conspiracy theorists, anti-Semites, kooks and wackos have validated at least some of those hyperbolic, overwrought theses. The pipeline American war on Syria illustrates the point. John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt claimed that an Israel lobby functions to impact American foreign policy in ways that other lobbies like the NRA do. They were smeared by an array of Zionists from either end of the (admittedly narrow) “Go Israel!” spectrum.

Then Barack Obama walked himself down a damp, fetid hole. When he turned to look he found the rest of the country camped on higher ground. So he called Benjamin Netanyahu to ask for help in whipping Congress – into a martial frenzy. Lobbyists descended by the hundreds to push everyone else into the mire… But still, the Israel lobby is a construct erected in the minds of the feeble by a pair of wonky anti-Semites.

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A week ago, it would have been wildly inappropriate to claim that the American spy (and “Stasi“) agency, the NSA, was treasonously spying on Americans on behalf of Israel. Besides being inappropriate, it would have been unbelievable. Literally unbelievable.

Yet, the Guardian claims that the NSA collects information on the American people and American politicians and that it provides that information – uncurated, untreated and unviewed – to the Israelis. And with no meaningful controls on how that information is used:

The memorandum of understanding, which the Guardian is publishing in full, allows Israel to retain “any files containing the identities of US persons” for up to a year. The agreement requests only that the Israelis should consult the NSA’s special liaison adviser when such data is found.

Notably, a much stricter rule was set for US government communications found in the raw intelligence. The Israelis were required to “destroy upon recognition” any communication “that is either to or from an official of the US government”. Such communications included those of “officials of the executive branch (including the White House, cabinet departments, and independent agencies), the US House of Representatives and Senate (member and staff) and the US federal court system (including, but not limited to, the supreme court)”.

It should be noted at this point that Israelis are not Americans. They are Israelis. Which is to say they are not Americans.

So now important questions need to be asked. Nixon was impeached for spying on politicians and lying about it. Obama appears to have spied on other politicians (and regular people – but that’s nothing to be outraged over) – for another country’s politicians! So what? Does it mean anything?

It’s not hyperbolic to claim that the Israelis control a great deal of information and are capable of whipping Congress. It’s a settled fact. But so what? Do Americans care? Does it mean anything? Will ordinary Americans rise up? Will Representatives Justin Amash and Rand Paul be the only elected officials to speak out? Will things change?

They might. But they might not. Open secrets sometimes suppurate and fester in the heat. Weeds thrive in the sunlight.