We often speak about the unique relationship the United States of America has with Israel. No where has this been as beautifully expressed as John Winthrop’s City Upon the Hill speech, made nearly 350 years ago in new England, which saw America’s future as being bound with ancient Israel.
Yet, with all of the fanfare this special relationship has, the two countries share something antithetical to the foundation of freedom. Israel was founded in 1948 from the outgrowth of the partition plan of the British mandate. There were three main groups fighting for the control of the nascent State of Israel: The Haganah, the Irgun, and Lehi. With British backing and the need for unity in face of five Arab armies, the latter two groups agreed to work under the leadership of Mapai and the Haganah. Essentially they ceded power to Ben Gurion and his political apparatus.
The Mapai party was not a Western style political movement, but rather the most moderate of the socialist Zionist political movements. From the very beginning Ben Gurion and those around him went out to assert their control over the State of Israel at all levels. They created a bureaucracy so penetrative to the normal Israeli, the State could barely breathe. In 1977, Menachem Begin surprised the establishment and became the Prime Minister of Israel. He was the feared leader of the Irgun, demonized by Ben Gurion and the Mapai, but unlike his Mapai counterparts Begin believed in an open economy and the freedom of ideas.
With Begin’s victory and the changing demographics of Israel, the Left realized it could not overtly control the country anymore. It had to rely on the bureaucracy created in the beginning of the state. The Left embedded itself within Israel’s Justice system, media, and education system. Despite Begin’s victory and Shamir’s continuance of his legacy, the Left drove the narrative of the country until Bibi became the Finance Minister. Netanyahu realized the battle is far more deep than appears and went out to unleash the economic potential of Israel thus circumventing the Left’s ability to control events unchecked. The Deep State continues in Israel through the courts and the media. It coordinates with its counterparts around the world and seeks only one thing, control of Israel’s future. Economic freedom has pushed back on the Left, but if cannot have contol, the Left is willing to bring the country down.
Trump is Battling an Israeli Style Deep State in America
Obama realized early on that he could be America’s shadow president through the injection of loyalists into the expanding bureaucracy his team was setting out to create. Regulation after regulation and federal job after federal job, Obama’s influence became ever lasting within the confines of Washington DC. Like the Arabists in the State Department who have controlled Foggy Bottom from the shadows of their offices since World War 2, Obama remade the Federal bureaucracy to follow his orders whether he is in office or not.
This Deep State is real and has no loyalty to the constitution or nationalism. The Deep State in Israel and the USA is concerned only with its own self-preservation. It is this Deep State that both Donald Trump and Bibi Netanyahu are fighting. The shadows are strong and they change location and tactics, but they must be removed for freedom to truly reign.