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GCHQ called Israel a ‘real threat’ to regional stability

December 16, 2016 at 11:19 am

Image of GCHQ, one the three UK Intelligence Agencies [Defence Images/Flickr]

New documents released from the National Security Agency trove leaked by whistle-blower Edward Snowden give insights into the intelligence relationship between Israel and Britain. According to French newspaper Le Monde, one top secret GCHQ document from 2008 stated that “the Israelis remain a real threat to the stability of the region, in particular because of the position of this country with respect to the Iranian dossier.”

Three new documents published on the newspaper’s website show that the British spy agency targeted the phone calls and emails of Israeli and Palestinian Authority figures and institutions. The Israeli targets included embassies, drone feeds, the prime minister, the Hebrew University (which is involved in arms research) and military targeting firm Ophir Optronics.

Israel is treated as a close ally of the UK, so at first glance, for Britain to be spying on it like this may be perplexing. However, it actually makes perfect sense, if we consider a little history.

Although the pre-state Zionist militias which formed the basis of the modern Israeli military were at one stage at war with Britain during the British Mandate occupation of Palestine — their terror gangs killed many British citizens — after the founding of Israel on the ashes of historic Palestine it did not take long for the UK to become a steadfast ally.

In the wake of the failed Israeli-French-British invasion of Egypt in 1956 (the so-called Suez Crisis), British foreign policy lost its independence, and became fully subservient to the US. Where the US leads, Britain almost inevitably follows. Hence, since the US became a slavish ally to Israel in the 1960s, it is no surprise that the British followed suit.

Despite the billions of US tax dollars in military aid to Israel every year, it never seems to be quite enough and Israel has maintained a massive spying operation against America over the years. Previous documents revealed by Snowden show that Israel is one of the top targets for US counter-intelligence operations which are “strategically focused against [the] priority targets of China, Russia, Iran, Cuba and Israel.” This means that Israel is also spying on America – its biggest and main ally and sponsor — more than most other states in the world.

Remember Jonathan Pollard? The Israeli spy was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 for selling top US secrets to Israel, but he was released by the Obama administration in November last year. As my colleague Ali Abunimah wrote at the time: “While Pollard is treated by Israel as a hero, he is reviled by the US military-intelligence establishment as one of the most damaging spies ever. After the Pollard affair, Israel apologised and promised to stop spying on the US. It broke that promise many times and was apparently doing so with the knowledge of Obama when he decided not to oppose Pollard’s parole.”

So it is no surprise then, to find the NSA keeping tabs on what Israel does. Moreover, it is no great revelation that GCHQ, Britain’s equivalent of the NSA, has also spied on Israeli targets.

The new documents show that GCHQ also spied on Palestinians, including Palestinian Authority embassies, the mobile phones of PA leader Mahmoud Abbas and his sons, and Ahmad Tibi, the Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament.

According to Le Monde, “One can actually read that the British have spied on email addresses and telephone numbers at the request of the Israelis: ‘They thanked us on many occasions.'”

This is apparently a reference to the Palestinian targets: it seems that Britain has been spying on Palestinian figures at the request of Israel. It would be most interesting to find out more from the documents; who else has Britain been spying on at the behest of the Zionist state?

These three newly-leaked documents are dated 2008 and 2009, when Israel was more focused on Iran as its main “existential threat”. Since the P5+1 nuclear energy deal with Tehran, Israel has been finding that flame harder to fan. Instead, its ministry of strategic affairs is now focused primarily on combating the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign as the main “threat”.

Could it be that Britain is still spying on Israel’s enemies at Tel Aviv’s request? We can’t know for certain one way or the other. It does seem certain from these documents, though, that the way that Israel is portrayed publicly as an unambiguous ally of Britain is neither the full nor entirely accurate picture, with British spies conceding privately that Israel is a real threat to the entire Middle East.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.