{"id":37132,"date":"2020-11-17T19:14:19","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T23:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=37132"},"modified":"2020-11-17T22:16:06","modified_gmt":"2020-11-18T02:16:06","slug":"the-new-top-pentagon-advisor-speaks-truth-about-israel-warmongering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=37132","title":{"rendered":"The New Top Pentagon Advisor Speaks Truth About Israel Warmongering"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Top Pentagon adviser says \u2018Israeli lobby\u2019 funds officials who want war<\/h1>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>Douglas Macgregor blamed pro-Israel policy for driving the United States into the Iraq conflict after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,<\/h3>\n<p>By RON KAMPEAS\/JTA<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_37146\" style=\"width: 832px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37146\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37146\" src=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/462304.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"822\" height=\"537\" srcset=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/462304.jpeg 822w, http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/462304-300x196.jpeg 300w, http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/462304-768x502.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 822px) 100vw, 822px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-37146\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former US colonel Dr. Douglas MacGregor.<br \/>(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"body-first-part\">\n<div class=\"g-row\">\n<div class=\"article-image\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-image-credit\">\n<div>Former US colonel Dr. Douglas MacGregor.<\/div>\n<div>(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"g-row\">\n<div class=\"line-left-side-before-and-after-container\">\n<div class=\"body-banner\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"g-row\">\n<div class=\"margin-container-body-text\">\n<div id=\"startBannerSticky\" class=\"article-inner-content\">\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/opinion\/antisemitism-accusations-against-dr-douglas-macgregor-are-deeply-upsetting-639119\">Douglas Macgregor<\/a>, a top adviser to President Donald Trump\u2019s new acting defense secretary, routinely blames \u201cthe Israeli lobby\u201d and \u201cneocons\u201d for pushing the United States into wars.<\/div>\n<div class=\"hide-for-premium\">\n<div id=\"outbrain_widget_1\" class=\"OUTBRAIN\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/\/diaspora\/antisemitism\/top-pentagon-adviser-says-israeli-lobby-funds-officials-who-want-war-649228\" data-widget-id=\"AR_22\" data-ob-mark=\"true\" data-browser=\"chrome\" data-os=\"macintel\" data-dynload=\"\" data-idx=\"1\">\n<div class=\"ob-widget ob-classic-layout AR_22\">\n<div class=\"ob-pixels\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>Trump last week in the wake of his loss in the presidential election to Joe Biden purged senior staff at the departments of Defense, State, and Homeland Security and named loyalists to the jobs. Among the new hires was Macgregor, who is advising the new acting defense secretary, Christopher Hill.<\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>CNN\u2019s KFile\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2020\/11\/13\/politics\/kfile-douglas-macgregor-israel-lobby\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">uncovered interviews<\/a>\u00a0in which Macgregor, a decorated combat veteran who appears frequently on Fox News and other conservative media, says \u201cpro-Israel\u201d donors and the pro-Israel lobby are behind efforts to drive the United States into war.<\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>Last year in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=LeqYiROS5N4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">an interview with a Florida talk show<\/a>, Macgregor explained what was behind what he said was a push to war with Iran.<\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWe\u2019re dragged in because of our close relationship with Israel,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cYou have to look at the people that donate to those individuals,\u201d Macgregor said, referring to John Bolton, who was then the national security adviser, Michael Pompeo, the secretary of state, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. \u201cMr. Bolton has become very, very rich and is in the position he\u2019s in because of his unconditional support for the Israeli lobby. He is their man on the ground, in the White House. The same thing is largely true for Mr. Pompeo, he has aspirations to be president. He has his hands out for money from the Israeli lobby, the Saudis, and others.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"divConnatix\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>In the same interview, he blamed pro-Israel policy for driving the United States into the Iraq conflict after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a long-discredited theory popular among conspiracy theorists on the far Left and the far Right.<\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWhen the opportunity came with 9-11 to expand the horizons of conflict if you will and pursue the opportunity to develop in theory an Anglo Saxon democracy on Arab soil that would be friendly to Israel which was Paul Wolfowitz\u2019s argument, the group we call neocons jumped on it,\u201d he said. Paul Wolfowitz was then a deputy secretary of defense. He is Jewish. He was influential, but not determinative, in shaping the war effort, and Israel did not feature prominently if at all in his arguments.<\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe American people were adamantly opposed to being involved in World War II,\u201d he said in the same interview, which is false. Polls showed strong support for US involvement in the war after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack.<\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>Macgregor also blamed \u201cneocons\u201d for pushing the United States toward military conflict in Venezuela.<\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>CNN uncovered another interview with the Russian state-run TV station, RT, in 2012, where Macgregor named the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as pushing Congress to launch military strikes against Iran.<\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cI think the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee and its subordinate elements or affiliated elements that represent enormous quantities of money that over many years have cultivated an enormous influence in power in Congress,\u201d he said. \u201cI think you\u2019ve got a lot of people on the Hill who fall into two categories. One category that is interested in money and wants to be reelected, and they don\u2019t want to run the risk of the various lobbies that are pushing military action against Iran to contribute money to their opponents.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>Macgregor was Trump\u2019s nominee to be ambassador to Germany, but his nomination was stalled in August after KFile uncovered other controversial commentaries, including a call for martial law on the US-Mexico border, bigoted statements about Muslims, and saying Germany\u2019s efforts to grapple with the Holocaust era reflected a \u201csick mentality.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>Jewish groups in August called on Trump to withdraw the nomination. The American Jewish Committee repeated the call over the weekend. \u201cWe repeat that call now in light of Pentagon post and revelations about more vile comments,\u201d AJC CEO said on Twitter.<\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>AIPAC on Twitter said, \u201cOur bipartisan efforts are reflective of American values and interests. We will not be deterred in any way by ill-informed and illegitimate attacks on this important work.\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>Mark Dubowitz, the CEO of Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank with hawkish views on Iran which has been influential on Trump administration Iran policy, also weighed in.<\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>\u201cSo is this what a Trump second term would have looked like?\u201d Dubowitz said on Twitter. \u201cSad, as someone liked to say.\u201d One of Trump\u2019s favorite sarcastic expletives is \u201cSad!\u201d<\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>Republicans so far have been silent. Last year the party demanded that Congress censure a Minnesota Democrat, Rep. Ilhan Omar, for suggesting that money was behind pro-Israel policy in Congress. Trump and other Republicans have accused Democrats of nurturing antisemitism for failing to rout her. Omar has apologized for some, but not all, of her remarks.<\/div>\n<div class=\"fake-br-for-article-body\"><\/div>\n<div>It\u2019s not clear why Trump wants the loyalists in place with just over two months left in his presidency.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/diaspora\/antisemitism\/top-pentagon-adviser-says-israeli-lobby-funds-officials-who-want-war-649228\">https:\/\/www.jpost.com\/diaspora\/antisemitism\/top-pentagon-adviser-says-israeli-lobby-funds-officials-who-want-war-649228<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Top Pentagon adviser says \u2018Israeli lobby\u2019 funds officials who want war<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}