The Merging of US and Israeli National Security States is Accelerating Amid
COVID-19
A new pro-Israel policy framework proposed by the US Chamber of Commerce is
bolstering the ongoing merger between the US and Israeli national security
states.
by Raul Diego
July 07th, 2020
By Raul Diego
Atwo-pronged initiative by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Department
of Homeland Security is set to substantially increase Israel’s already
significant role in America’s digital health, artificial intelligence (AI),
critical health infrastructure, as well as law enforcement, public and
border protection and other key sectors.
Citing “health challenges” posed by COVID-19, the U.S.-Israel Business
Initiative (USIBI), a venture of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is advancing
a new eight-point policy framework to facilitate a “more robust bilateral
collaboration” between Israeli and American companies to realize the
“potential” of technologies emerging out of Israel relating to telehealth,
robotic diagnostics and AI-powered applications in healthcare.
In a recent article, investigative reporter Whitney Webb uncovered the deep
Israeli military roots of virtually every “health” tech startup to emerge in
the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and their extensive relationships with the
U.S. government at both the federal and state level. Regarding the policy
framework, Webb stated that it was likely “part of a broader effort aimed at
using the coronavirus crisis to facilitate the integration of Israeli tech
companies, particularly in the “digital health” sector, into the U.S.
technology ecosystem. Many, if not the vast majority, of these companies”,
she continued, “were either founded by ex-members of Israeli intelligence or
military intelligence, but also serve as contractors to Israel’s government
or its military.”
The policy paper issued by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was developed by a
“working group” of unnamed “leading global companies, investors, scientists,
academics, and medical experts”. While the USIBI no longer lists their
members on their website, archived pages from 2017 show large multinationals
like Procter & Gamble, GE, and Caterpillar on the membership rolls, along
with the Las Vega Sands Corporation, owned by Sheldon Adelson – the single
biggest donor in all of U.S. politics, and TEVA Pharmaceutical Industries,
Ltd.; an American-Israeli generic drug manufacturer that was sued last year
by 44 U.S. states for orchestrating a price-fixing scheme with 19 other
companies. TEVA recently pulled out of settlement talks with the Department
of Justice, betting that the Trump administration will not pursue further
charges against them in the midst of the pandemic given that TEVA is among
the companies making the President’s most hyped COVID-19 remedy,
hydroxychloroquine.
Cui Bono?
The mystery behind their currently unpublished member list might be
explained by what Webb described as “a policy that has been acknowledged by
Israel’s government where intelligence operations are spun off into private
entities and merged into large multinational corporations, specifically in
the U.S., with the ultimate goal of ensuring cyber supremacy for Israel’s
high-tech startups and mitigating the successes and popularity of the
non-violent Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement in the United
States.”
First on the list of USIBI’s policy recommendations is the creation of a
fund to support research and development for “technologies with commercial
application in the health sector” modeled on the U.S.-Israel Energy Center
of Excellence, which foments similar public-private partnerships in the
energy sector.
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Second on the list is strengthening the relationship between Israel’s
Ministry of Health and its U.S. counterpart, HHS, and satellite
organizations, such as the NIH, CDC and BARDA. Three of the eight points
focus on intellectual property protections for Israeli biologics, artificial
intelligence and their implementation in a new “U.S.-Israel Digital Trade
Agreement” which will “foster open access to government-generated public
data” and “promote government-to-government collaboration on cybersecurity
issues.”
The proposed framework also calls for the establishment of a “Health
Attaché” at Israel’s U.S. embassy and vice versa to “ensure continuity in
government efforts” surrounding the policy recommendations.
The Department of Homeland Security has likewise issued its own
“solicitation” for collaboration between the U.S. and Israel. In a press
release from June 23, 2020, the Under Secretary for Science and Technology
William N. Bryan, officially renewed the five-year-old program with a
special focus on “the toughest challenges facing our missions today.” These
include: combating cybercrime, securing critical infrastructure and public
facilities, safe and secure cities, and unmanned aerial systems among
others.
Diversification
The call for proposals was outlined in a joint initiative between the U.S.
Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation and
Israel’s Ministry of Public Security (MOPS), funded by DHS to “fulfill
critical homeland security needs in both countries.” MOPS oversees Israel’s
border police and prison system, while the BIRD foundation has been
promoting” cooperation between U.S. and Israeli companies” since 1977 and
receives 50 percent of its funding from DHS’ Science and Technology program.
Proposals are due in September and will be awarded in December of this year.
The implications for the average American citizen are far-reaching. As Webb
explains, “these health “solutions” offered by these Israeli companies use
AI or “digital solutions” require the accumulation of vast amounts of
private medical and demographic data; data which is then shared with these
foreign companies and their partners and clients, representing a clear
threat to privacy.”
But, privacy is hardly the only concern. “Many of these companies that are
now marketing these “healthcare” solutions,” says Webb, “were previously
contractors for the IDF and used surveillance and predictive policing on
Palestinians in occupied Palestine.”
“Those same algorithms,” she continues, “have been rebranded as health
surveillance and as helping to predict future outbreaks of coronavirus,
despite there being no data or case studies to show that such technological
solutions have been effective. in fact, some of these programs, when piloted
in Israel, were found to actually hamper the ability of Israeli physicians
to respond to the pandemic.”
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The dovetailing interests between the U.S. national security state and
Israel are nothing new. Since its founding in 1948 to the present, American
support of the Middle East’s apartheid state has been virtually unwavering
and has served an Atlanticist agenda in the region and beyond.
But the level of interdependence in areas of technology and security has
grown exponentially over the last two decades, in particular. The burgeoning
presence of Israeli security firms in the U.S. should be of special concern
given the murderous treatment it extends to Palestinians in the Gaza and the
West Bank, not to mention the draconian policies embedded in its own
domestic policies.
Artificial intelligence, in particular, is being peppered over practically
Israeli tech startup initiatives as “several institutions, including the
U.S.-Israel organization known as Start-up Nation Central, have partnered
with Israel’s government to specifically market Israeli AI-based
“healthcare” companies to foreign countries,” according to Webb. “Israel,”
she states, “promotes itself as a world leader in AI, and part of this has
to do with the extreme patronage of Israel’s government, intelligence-linked
VC firms, and wealthy Zionists into this field. However, the greatest
contributor of all has been the blurring of the line between the aspects of
Israel’s national security state that produce AI algorithms, either for the
military and intelligence, that are then repurposed and commercialized
through these start-ups and start-up accelerators.
“Many of those algorithms,” she elaborated, “such as those produced by the
IDF’s Unit 8200, are heavily subsidized by the $3.8 billion a year that
Israel’s military receives in aid from the United States. Using the
coronavirus crisis is a major selling point and has helped launch a major
push towards worldwide integration of AI more deeply into our lives, with
the field of healthcare being just one example.”
