146 “Hello, Roger, From Jerusalem.” Did Netanyahu Have Prior Knowledge of Russian Interference Circa 2016?
UPDATE: The Iran chapters in the final part perhaps belong here.
It’s often been-very accurately said-that every accusation from Trump and his GOP co-conspirators is projection ie an ironic confession. One of the many zombi ideas Trump introduced into the American political lexicon starting in 2015 was that he wants to “get along better with Russia” to avoid “WW III.”
Let’s be clear-this was always bs. The election of Hillary Clinton or Kamala Harris in 2024 would not have led to WWIII but quite the opposite. And so it is now Trump himself has led us to a frightful international conflict that certainly could prove to be WWIII.
Again for years Trump was asserting the opposite-remember all the talk that if he had been President Russia would “never have attacked” Ukraine? Or that October 7 would never have happened.?
Elsewhere I’ve discussed 2016 Israeli interference along with Russian interference-I also argued in chapter Israel 2024 that Israel-specifically Netanyahu-had a deal with Trump in 2024-he also had a deal with Russia.
One thing I’ve long suspected was that not only did Trump campaign collude with Russia-in 2016, 2024 and 2020 for that matter-and collude with Israel in 2016 and 2024 but I’ve wondered if there’s another hidden track of Russian collusion with Israel-ie Bibi and Netanyahu. This was a hypothesis of mine-it was a pretty reasonable one I’d argue based on the known facts but there was not a lot of empirical evidence just the-very reasonable-suspicion. Indeed tankie extraordinaire and “MAGA Communist” Jackson Hinkle was undoubtedly RIGHT in 2023-though it was later a source of embarassment for him as he professed to be a fervent advocate for the Palestinians-when he had listed Putin AND Netanyahu on the side of the Tankie wet dream of an anti American multipolarity-that unfortunately in 2025 is now all too real ie their wet dream walking.
While Seth Abramson’s Proof of Conspiracy remains a crucial book for those who want to understand what really happened in 2016-and so what’s really happening today in a time when every single day Trump breaks new ground in terms of turning us into an authoratarian hellscape making understanding what happened in 2016 even more important, the one thing he didn’t touch on was any plausible idea of an alliance between Russia and Israel. His Red Sea Conspiracy included Russia and Israel, of course, along with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt but what he didn’t consider was the idea of Russia and Israel working directly together.
Because when you think about it, Russia and Israel have a great deal in common. One very common argument for Israel apologists a la Alan Dershowitz is that the United States HAS TO help Israel-indeed give them everything they want-because they’re “the only democracy in the Middle East.”
I mean-really? ISRAEL is a democracy?! Let’s make a comparison: In Russia-a self evident authoritarian hellscape-Putin has run the country effectively the last 25 years. But Netanyahu has effectively run Israel for most of the time since he first won election in 1996. And we’ve seen Netanyahu over the last few years make a concerted effort to destroy democracy in Israel-it’s easy to forget now that prior to October 7-which as discussed in Chapter Netanyahu Collusion actaully served to save Bibi’s political skin-Netanyahu was under great fire for his attempt to destroy the independent judiciary in Israel.
Since October 7 this has served as his catch all rationalization for continuing to crackdown on the free press and the judiciary. Of course, Bibi had to destroy the independent judiciary after he was indicted and faced the credible threat of prison time. Indeed the link between Netanyahu and Trump couldn’t be more clear-both have to stay in office to avoid going to prison. This is also what the two have in common with Putin the classic example of a corrupt, abusive leader who has to die in office to avoid accountability. As for Netanyahu and Putin they have so much in common despite superficial differences on Iran, et al.
Both dictators share the same crucial need: that democracy be permanently kept at bay in the US. A democratic United States would be great trouble for both the Russian and Israeli authoritarian leaders. For Putin simply reading the headlines for any day of the week ending with “Y” to appreciate how awesome an investment it was for Vlad to engage in US political interference. As for Israel simply reading the recent book on the Israel lobby makes it very clear how much Israel depeneds on democracy in the US-and UK-being continually thwarted.
FN: Chapter Ilan Pappe
End FN
So certainly there was motive and means and with the rise of Trump great opportunity for both the Israeli Putin and the Russian Netanyahu to collude with him. But it would also make sense that they would work directly together. Again this is just obvious though there was no proof just logic. But then there was the piece James Bamford wrote in The Nation in 2023. And suddenly some more pieces fell into place.
The Trump Campaign’s Collusion With Israel
While US media fixated on Russian interference in the 2016 election, an Israeli secret agent’s campaign to influence the outcome went unreported.”
This headline displays the kind of snark that the Nation has had towards the idea of Russian collusion for many years but to be clear it’s not that Russian interference was discussed too much -indeed as we discussed elsewhere post Bill Barr’s fake exoneration latter Russian interference itself has been marginalized as a narrative-but that Israeli interreference has been discussed nary at all.
But perhaps that’s how the Nation’s editor took it-‘Ok no Russian interference just Israel inteference!’ For much of the Left there was always a certian discomfiture with the idea of Russian interference-perhaps a relic of the Cold War years when Russia is seen as one of the good guys for the Left? Perhaps the editor who gave that article its title had something of this sensibility?
But the real story is Russian and Israel inteference as both need to undermine US democracy for their own anti democratic and imperialistic agenda-Russia wants a free hand in Ukraine and potentially points west in his dream of taking back some of the more of Eastern Europe aka the former Soviet Union. For Israel it’s a free hand in Gaza as well as potentially Lebanon, Syria, and now Iran.
Indeed, Trump’s now gone from allegedly wanting to redo the very Iran nuclear deal he destroyed in his first term to speaking of not just US involvement in Iran but of using tactical nuclear weapons there. And this brings me back to my piont abouve about the necessity of understanding what happened in the 2016 election-and since-to make sense of what’s going on here in 2025. Because many-“even” those you’d lilke to belileve know better really seemed to believe until now that Trump really is the “no more foreign wars guy. YEP EVEN Chris Hayes just a little over a week ago expressed confidence Israel would not attack Iran because Trump wouldn’t allow it.
I mean I like Chris Hayes, but seriously he believed that. You can only make this serious not to say embarassing mistake-what makes it less embarrassing for many is that so many make this mistake-if you don’t understand Isreal’s role in the 2016 and 2024 efforts to elect Trump. But again there’s shelter in the pack mentality-most people for some strange reason-even those like Hayes who are fairly passionate opponents-tend to take Trump at his word. He says his goal of being elected is world peace and they actually think he means it or appear to based on what they say.
So for months there’s been all this reporting on trouble in paradise between Trump and Bibi and I never took it very seriously. True there have been some interesting permutations between the two fascist leaders. There was that presser a few months ago where Trump barely allowed Netanyahu to speak. There was all the talk about another Iran nuclear deal-again after Trump threw the first one in the garbage. I did find these permutations interesting and would love to be a fly in the wall to figure out what exactly is going on with much of it but I never bought for one moment it meant that Trump had suddenly become “Pro Palestinian” as some leftists actually argued with a straight face.
The talk of Trump bringing back the nuclear deal he himself ripped up was certainly fascinating but I never for one moment took him as sincere. FWIW here is some reporting from the time that tried to explain why Trump had allegedly had a change of heart-from the Times of India long a Trump friendly outlet
James Bamford:
The key for the Israeli agent was finding a back door—a covert channel—to Trump. Roger Stone, long a key Trump aide, fit the bill. Although Stone had formally left the campaign, he and Trump spoke frequently and confidentially. For these calls, Trump would often use the phone of his security director, Keith Schiller, “because he did not want his advisers to know they were talking,” according to Sam Nunberg, a political adviser who served on Trump’s 2016 election campaign. Stone energetically supported Israel’s harsh occupation of the Palestinian territories and its bellicose stance toward Iran; following Trump’s speech at an American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in March 2016, Stone noted approvingly that “Donald Trump is a radical Zionist.”
It’s important to understand as many are not at this moment that Trump remains a “radical Zionist”-for example, I became aware of this article through Charles Johnson’s recent post but in this post Johnson seriously argues that Trump should endorse the two state solution-it’s IMO a good policy but it’s very unlikely something Trump will do.
The Trump Campaign’s Collusion With Israel | The Nation
UPDATE:
Trump Knew of Israel’s Planned Attack on Iran All Along
So this was all bs
See this is Exhibit A of how the media fudges things-it’s not unclear they are not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. We’re literally doing Iraq WMDs 2.0 with someone who was elected in 2016 by claiming Jeb’s brother lied us into that war
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/06/22/world/israel-iran-us-trump
Very important piece by @sethabramson.bsky.social So many have accepted the false premise that Trump is anti war; even decent well meaning people like Chris Hayes completely fell for the laughable idea that Trump would prevent Israel invading Iran.
EW piece on how Trump is dismantling many but not all of the pieces of US hegemony
When Hegemons Backslide – emptywheel
Even if you don’t like the Iranian regime it’s clear this has the inconvenience of being true
Iran’s Leader Claims U.S. Strikes Were Just ‘Showmanship’ By Trump (Live Updates)
https://sethabramson.substack.com/p/exclusive-donald-trump-is-indisputably
Trump has committed more impeachable offenses in his first few months than all previous Presidents combined and it’s not close
Opinion | Could the Third Time Be the Charm on Impeachment and Removal? – The New York Times
This belongs in Impeachment Chapter