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Trump must break with de facto US policy of ‘Israel first’: Academic

Friday, 13 September 2019 6:13 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 13 September 2019 6:18 PM ]

US President Donald Trump (L) bids farewell to Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu (R) after their meeting outside the West Wing of the White House on March 25, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

President Donald Trump must break with the de facto US policy of “Israel first” and pursue the “America first” policy he promised during the 2016 election campaign, an American writer and former professor has said.

E Michael Jones, the current editor of Culture Wars magazine, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Friday while commenting on reporters of Israeli spying on the White House.

The US government has concluded within the past two years that Israel has been placing surveillance devices near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington, DC, according to a US media outlet.

In contrast to other instances of foreign spying, however, the Trump administration has not rebuked Israel, and there were no consequences for the regime’s behavior, Politico reported on Thursday, citing three former senior US officials with knowledge of the matter.

The phone eavesdropping devices, called IMSI-catcher, or stingrays, are essentially a "fake" mobile towers used for intercepting mobile phone traffic and tracking location data of mobile phone users.

The devices were likely intended to spy on Trump, one of the former officials said, as well as his top aides and closest associates -- though it’s not clear whether the Israeli efforts were successful.

PressTV-Israel accused of placing spy devices near White House

The US government has concluded that Israel placed surveillance devices near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington, DC.

“Just a day ago it was discovered that Israelis had set up surveillance devices within the vicinity of the White House. The announcement was made and then followed by a deafening silence from the White House. The Trump administration is not going to do anything about this,” Jones said.

“What this points is the colossal double standards in American politics. For the first three years of his presidency, Donald Trump was accused of conspiring with the Russians. The Russians were accused of influencing our elections. All this proved to be completely baseless which is even more significant in light of the fact that the Israelis do this all the time,” he added.

“The Israelis spy on Americans. The Israelis influence the elections. The Israeli prime minister showed up twice before Congress last time completely uninvited by the president and Congress gave him 27 standing ovations,” he noted.

“All this shows is the hypocrisy of the current situation of the political situation in the United States. And it also shows that Donald Trump is not going to have any effective policy until he breaks with his de facto policy of Israel First, and brings it back to the campaign promises he made of making America First,” the analyst concluded.

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