Chapter 9: Final Judgment by Michael Collins Piper: How the World Really Works by Alan B. Jones from Third World Traveler

 

 

Chapter 9: Final Judgment by  Michael Collins Piper: How the World Really Works by Alan B. Jones from Third World Traveler

 

 

 

 

from the book                                                  
Final Judgment
by Michael Collins Piper
1995

p230
John Kennedy [had] policy differences with Israel and its Mossad. There were perhaps three significant issues: Algeria, nuclear weapon development, and Palestinian resettlement... Israeli leaders felt that a new Arab state of Algeria would represent an added threat to the security of Israel, and since both Kennedy and France's DeGaulle were supportive of Algerian independence, those two men were to be regarded as enemies of the Israeli state. The feeling toward Kennedy, however, went much deeper. The Israelis felt that Kennedy had betrayed them. JFK's father, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., as Ambassador to Great Britain in the late 30's, had been supportive of Neville Chamberlain and of his policy of appeasing Hitler. Later in his life, he renounced his former views and pledged his support for the Jewish community. That community remained suspicious of him, however, and was even more so following John Kennedy's Senate speech proclaiming his support for an independent Algeria.

Kennedy, however, recognizing in 1960 that he needed both money and votes from the Jewish community, made moves to appease the pro-Israel lobby, very successfully, it turned out. His contact with the lobby was Abraham Feinberg, president of the Israel Bond Organization, who later acknowledged, "My path to power was cooperation in terms of what they needed - campaign money." Kennedy met with Feinberg "and a host of other wealthy Jewish Americans" in Feinberg's New York apartment. The group agreed to support Kennedy to the tune of $500,000. Kennedy, said Feinberg, "got emotional" with gratitude. To his own intimates, however, Kennedy was outraged. He said that he was told, "We're willing to pay your bills if you'll let us have control of your Middle East policy," and he vowed that if he did get to be President, he was going to do something about eliminating the influence of special interest lobbies - especially foreign pressure groups - in American election campaigns. After his election, he did introduce such campaign reform legislation, and he did proclaim an even-handed Middle Eastern policy - that the United States "will act promptly and decisively against any nation in the Middle East which attacks its neighbor," a policy clearly directed at both the Israelis and the Arabs. Israel, says Piper, "was not happy."

Of much greater import, however, was Kennedy's stance on nuclear weaponry. Upon becoming President, he was informed by the Eisenhower administration that Israel was secretly developing nuclear weapons at a desert site known as Dimona. Kennedy was determined to support a non-proliferation policy, however, and set about, as one of his primary concerns, to derail the Dimona development. Therefore, says Piper, "from the very beginning of his presidency, John F. Kennedy found himself at severe odds with the government of Israel."

Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion publicly announced that the Dimona project was for the purpose of studying "desert flora and fauna." Charles DeGaulle, who had helped Israel design the Dimona nuclear reactor as a power plant, was not amused. Nor was John Kennedy. According to Israeli historians Raviv and Melman, writing in 1990, Kennedy met with Ben-Gurion, stated his position, and demanded periodic international inspection of the site. Ben-Gurion resisted, and there thus began what amounted to a "secret war" between Kennedy and Israel, which was not resolved until Kennedy was killed and replaced by Lyndon Johnson. Author Seymour Hersh, writing in 1991, said: "Israel's bomb, and what to do about it, became a White House fixation, part of the secret presidential agenda that would remain hidden for the next thirty years." Hersh, further noting that this secret war had never been noted by any of Kennedy's biographers, evoked the following comment from Piper: "If indeed it had been, ... the mystery behind the JFK assassination might have been unraveled long, long ago."

For here, found in 1990, was the missing motivation. The relations between Ben-Gurion and Kennedy deteriorated down to the level of personal hatred. Ben-Gurion, who, according to Abraham Feinberg, hated old Joe Kennedy as an "anti-Semite," harbored a contempt for the younger Kennedy, says Piper, that "was growing by leaps and bounds - almost pathologically." Hersh writes that on Kennedy's part, he was getting fed up with the fact that the Israeli "sons of bitches lie to me constantly about their nuclear capability." Hersh then wrote, "Kennedy's relationship with Ben-Gurion remained at an impasse over Dimona, and the correspondence between the two became increasingly sour. None of those letters has been made public." Given the fact of Piper's present book, those letters today would be of very great interest.

Kennedy further proposed, said Piper, that Palestinian refugees "either be permitted to return to their homes in Israel or be compensated by Israel and resettled in the Arab countries or elsewhere. Former Undersecretary. of State George Ball writing in 1992, quoted as follows from a Ben-Gurion letter commenting on the Kennedy proposal, sent to the Israeli Ambassador in Washington for him to convey to Jewish leaders in America: "Israel will regard this plan as a more serious danger to her existence than all the threats of the Arab dictators and kings, than all the Arab armies, than all of Nasser's missiles and his Soviet MIGs .... Israel will fight against this implementation down to the last man."

Author Seymour Hersh reported that in one of Ben-Gurion's last communications with Kennedy he wrote: "Mr. President, my people have a right to exist and this existence is in danger." He then demanded that Kennedy sign a security treaty with Israel. Kennedy refused, whereupon David Ben-Gurion, on June 16, 1963, resigned from office. Piper suggests that it was at this time, just before his resignation, that Ben-Gurion gave the order to the Mossad's assassinations chief, Yitzhak Shamir, to proceed with plans for Kennedy's assassination.

p234
JFK would not countenance a nuclear Israel, and Israel perceived Kennedy's Palestinian resolution and nuclear non-proliferation policies as threats to Israel's very existence.

p235
Joe Kennedy went to [Chicago Mafia boss] Sam Giancana to ask for his help in getting his son John elected President. Giancana ... asked what the quid pro quo would be, and Kennedy responded, "You help me now, Sam, and I'll see to it that Chicago - that you - can sit in the goddamned Oval Office if you want .... He'll be your man. I swear to that. My son - the President of the United States - will owe you his father's life. He won't refuse you, ever. You have my word.