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September 06, 2004
On the Pentagon-Israeli spy drama.
I have been following this item with some interest.
A few initial comments.
First, I strongly suspect that there was something of ... well for lack of a better term, an Israeli cell inside the Pentagon. Not so much on the formal basis, but among a team of Pentagon analysts who genuinely saw a complete correspondence of interest between Israel and the United States in the Middle East.
Second, I do not particularly see this as... well scandalous at a certian level, however I do think that there is an important item here. No matter how close an ally, no state is the same as your own, and state interest should trump 'friendly feelings.' Now the Israeli side seems to understand this quite well - indeed perhaps too well if we take into account the Israeli history of arms cooperation with states that are frankly enemies of US interests (but do not directly threaten Israel). Cold calculation and I can hardly fault that.
However, what I can fault is a lack of equal calculation on the part of the American side. Israel is an ally. It is not a bosum friend, it is a calculating realist state, and one that frankly has norms that render it, in terms of policy rather more dangerous to deal with than say Great Britian, whose substantial interests in terms of dealing with other state actors rather more closely resemble those of the United States than Israel's.
As such, close cooperation in say intelligence, on topics where Israel has a clear and manifest tendancy to manipulate for its own interests (and as a realist actor, I can in no way fault them, should their larger oafish 'friend' be manipulable and gullible then why not?), strikes me as something best approached with caution, and that staff on this should be screened to minimize those who confuse a personal level of friendship and warmth for the state involved for the real cold state interests.
In statecraft as in business, the maxim holds, if you want a (real) friend, get a dog.
(I note that I always took this to be from my mentor, but it appears it may be as well from a movie which I have never seen. Pity.)
Posted by The Lounsbury at September 6, 2004 02:23 PM
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Aug-Dec 2004
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