The Journey 137. Ari Ben-Menashe: Israel, Problems and Solutions (It’s Not a Jewish/Muslim Thing)

Publisher R. A. “Kris” Millegan speaks with Ari Ben-Menashe about what’s happening between Israel and Hamas (“It was inevitable.” America should intervene for peace.), the Oslo Accords (and Egypt’s and Jordan’s lack of concern for the Palestinians) in the 1990s, how, in the 1800s and early 1900s, Jews in Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, and Jerusalem were doing very well, living well with Arabs, and how the problems started with the arrival of uneducated East European (Ashkenazi) Jews. Antisemitism was in Russia and Eastern Europe. It started in the Middle East with the creation of Israel. Zionism was “basically an East European socialist movement that the East Europeans wanted to get rid of, so they sent them to Palestine.”

Ari Ben-Menashe is the author of PROFITS OF WAR: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network. He spent more than a decade in the innermost circles of Israeli intelligence, was privy to the secret negotiations with the Iranians to delay the release of the American hostages until after the election of Ronald Reagan, and he is the man who paid off the Iranians for the American hostages.

Ari: The Oslo Accords were supposed to lead to either a two-state solution or some sort of country for all its residents. It didn’t work out. Two very different people living next to each other.

Sadat, when he made peace with Israel, wanted his land back. But he said, “You guys can keep Gaza.” It used to be part of Egypt. The Jordanians signed a peace deal with Israel and said, “You can keep the West Bank. Good luck to you guys.” So, the Arabs really did not care about the fate of the Palestinians or the Jews living in that part of the world.

The Jews living in the Middle East, in the 1800s and early 1900s, in Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, and Jerusalem were doing very well, and living well with Arabs, with no issues. The issues started when the East European peasants started showing up in Palestine.

Kris. The Kazars. The Ashkenazi.

Ari: Not all Ashkenazi. I’m talking about the uneducated peasants from Eastern Europe and so on. The two sides weren’t willing to live together. It’s not really Jews against Muslims. No. The Jews living in the Middle East before these people showed up were fine. There was really no antisemitism. Antisemitism was in Russia and Eastern Europe, not in the Middle East. It started in the Middle East with the creation of the state of Israel or the Zionist idea, which was basically an East European socialist movement that the East Europeans wanted to get rid of, so they sent them to Palestine.

My parents and grandparents and everybody else lived okay in the Middle East. It wasn’t a Jewish-Muslim issue. It really was not. The newcomers created the problem. Then, on top of it all, the so-called Jews who came to Israel from the Soviet Union, when the Soviet Union started collapsing, became very right-wing and anti-Muslim. [So,] what happened now was inevitable.

Kris. What do you say about accusations that some people are stoking this for their own reasons?

Ari: Sure. See, after the Oslo agreements, Israeli society was divided in half, the ones that wanted the peace deal, and the ones that wanted the West Bank to be part of Israel and [wanted] the settlements. So, Israeli society was broken in two. And a person like Netanyahu, the prime minister right now, is really fighting for his political life by doing this instead of trying to work out some kind of deal with the Palestinians.

And Hamas, on the other hand, is also struggling for their political life, because they don’t want a peace deal with Israel as well. The Palestinians need new leadership. So do the Israelis.

And by the way, now it’s up to America, up to America, (to intervene for peace).