Dual Loyalist Unmasked In Mideast Scandal
Backstage at Israeli Ambassador Martin Indyk's unhappy ending,
Clinton's Mideast meddling sets the scene for a script full of dirty
deals.
Exclusive to The SPOTLIGHT
By Martin Mann
Behind the scenes, the recent official announcement that the
security clearance of Martin Indyk, the U.S. ambassador to Israel,
has been "suspended" while his alleged security violations are
being investigated, marks a turning point in U.S. intervention in
the Middle East—years of meddling involving not just regional
power brokers but the powerful organized-crime syndicates that
are the peculiar hallmark of Israeli society.
Israel is on the verge of civil war," warned Ovadia Yosef, the
orthodox chief rabbi, last month. His followers de nounced the
Barak regime as "traitors," ending in sharp confrontation with
leading secular politicians who were less hostile to the
Barak-Clinton axis.
In this inflamed atmosphere, leaders of the orthodox Jewish
fundamentalists (known as the haredim) and Israeli
crime-syndicate bosses decided that Indyk—now serving as the U.S.
ambassador to Israel and blamed by the orthodox for the Clinton
administration's crude manipulation of Middle Eastern
affairs—must go.
Early last month, retired Gen. Ariel Sharon, the tough godfather of
hardline Zionism, known as the "The Butcher" for his killer forays
against dissident Arab settlements, arrived in Washington
accompanied by several orthodox aides.
They confronted U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright with an
explosive report charging that Indyk had resorted to bribery,
threats, coercion, false promises and frequent unauthorized use of
classified State Department files in a crude campaign to bend
Middle Eastern leaders and their policy decisions to his will.
The report, compiled in part by orthodox gangland operators who
bugged some of Indyk's back-room meetings, was "painfully
detailed," said a veteran UN political analyst, who, like other
sources, asked for anonymity when discussing such "ultra-sensitive"
matters.
Under the circumstances, Albright could not ignore what is a ticking
time-bomb of an international scandal.
She suspended Indyk, with the understanding that by the time this
affair could reach any sort of resolution, both she and the
embattled envoy will be looking for new jobs.
ORTHODOX OUTLAWS
In Israel, under what is probably the world's most permissive legal
system and no written constitution, rackets that are strictly banned
in most civilized na tions—money laundering, drug-profit banking,
weapons smuggling, white slavery, the trade in illicit "blood"
diamonds, international assassination and kidnap contracts
executed by Israeli government agents for hire—are considered
perfectly legal.
Such outlaw operations now account for a major segment of the
Israeli economy, contributing tens of billions of dollars yearly to
Israel's revenues—and to the finances of the political parties who
have divided control of these "black" business empires among
themselves, explained Dr. Tamir Harcourt al-Maroun, the noted
Middle Eastern economist.
The orthodox haredim, who make up between 10 and 15 percent of
Israel's population, run the underworld diamond trade, from the
killing fields of the Congo to midtown Manhattan.
Orthodox fundamentalists also control the white slave traffic that,
according to recent UN reports, has turned into a global growth
industry, luring tens of thousands of unlettered, dirt-poor young
women from Third World villages and Eastern European cities into
enforced sexual serfdom in "rich" countries.
Recently, haredim wearing Judaic ritual garb have also taken over
street-level smuggling of what is known as "designer dope," such
as the new drug, "ecstasy," which has invaded major U.S. cities in
the past decade.
Secular factions, on the other hand, own the franchise for money
laundering, involving Israel's major banks in sanitizing billions of
dollars in international drug profits and other criminal loot.
Secular politicians control the "direct-action" teams of government
agents who hire out to perform "black-bag" jobs, terror strikes,
murders and abductions abroad for a price, such as the attempted
kidnapping of former Nigerian Finance Minister Umaru Dikko in
London.
TOUGH PLANS FOR MIDEAST
President Bill Clinton, determined to impose a "peace settlement"
on the strife-torn Middle East from the moment of his
inauguration, realized that to exert influence over the
brass-knuckle Israelis he would need a special sort of go-between.
He picked Martin Indyk.
Indyk was born in 1951 in London, England, to devoutly Judaic Czech
re fugee parents. The family subsequently moved to Australia.
After two years in Israel Indyk began his career as an Israeli
operative reportedly with close ties to Australian intelligence.
In 1985, Indyk was sent to the U.S. to set up a research and lobbying
center known as the Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Studies. In 1991, Clin ton waived the immigration law, gave him U.S.
citizenship and put him in charge of Middle Eastern affairs at the
White House national-security council—a powerful, pivotal policy
post.
Already a veteran Israeli agent of influence and a seasoned
international in triguer, Indyk went to work using American
resources, funds and armed power to impose a new order on the
Mid dle East.
In the process, Indyk helped to replace hardline Israeli Prime
Minister Ben yamin Netanyahu, detested by the White House, with
a new premier, Gen. Ehud Barak, known for his willingness to play
by Clinton's rules.
But Barak's subservience to Wash ington's tutelage—and his
inability to coax a deal from Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat,
even with concessions re sented by many Israelis—created deep
divisions within Israel itself.
