By Jamal Kanj

As long as the meek Democratic establishment continues to ignore Israeli interference in American elections, Netanyahu will validate, once more, his flaunted notion that “America is a thing you can move very easily.”

The launching of the widespread terror campaign targeting civilians in Lebanon is an integral part of the Israeli war strategy to achieve tactical military objectives. The new Israeli strikes which started on September 17 with the exploding pagers have resulted so far in more than 5000 killed and injured Lebanese.

For the past 11 months, the Lebanese Resistance limited its attacks exclusively to Israeli military bases, in or near, the “Jewish-only” colonies along the Lebanese border. The current Israeli assault was likely planned to take place on September 16 ahead of the explosion of the pagers, but had to be postponed due to an unforeseen clash with the visit of Biden’s envoy Amos Hochstein. Consequently, Israel may have failed, either due to confusion or technical difficulties, to reprogram the pagers’ activation to another date.

Considering it has been close to a year since the start of the border skirmishes, it’s difficult not to recognize the timing of Benjamin Netanyahu’s expanded war and how he may use it to influence the US elections as part of an October Surprise aimed at helping Donald Trump. This becomes especially relevant considering the importance of the anti-genocide uncommitted Democratic and independent voters in key swing states.

The “October Surprise” in American elections is not new. The term became an American political vernacular when it was introduced by William Casey, the 1980 Ronald Reagan’s campaign manager. During that election, the Reagan campaign was accused of possibly collaborating with Iran to delay a deal for the release of American hostages, timing it in a way that would boost Reagan’s electoral prospects.

More recently, many may recall the 2016 October Surprise, which played a major role in Hillary Clinton’s defeat to Donald Trump. At the time, suspicions and accusations were directed toward Russia as the source for emails leaked from the Clinton campaign headquarters.

Much of the conversation was centered on the relationship between Russia and the Trump campaign. The evidence of alleged collaboration, however, remained elusive, circumstantial, and ultimately failed to bring any charges against Trump directly. Meanwhile, a proven actor with concrete evidence of interference—yet largely ignored by the US media for obvious reasons—was America’s largest foreign welfare beneficiary: Israel.

The foreign meddling in the 2016 American elections was the subject of an eight-month investigation by a large number of journalists from 30 international news outlets in a major collaborative project including Haaretz, the UK’s Guardian and Observer, France’s Le Monde, Germany’s Der Spiegel, and Spain’s El Pais. According to the Guardian, the project exposed an Israeli “global private market in disinformation aimed at elections,” run by Tal Hanan, a former Israeli special forces operative.

The “project” discovered that while US politicians and security agencies focused on Russia’s role in election interference, they conveniently ignored Israel’s documented collusion. Moreover, Israel’s extensive involvement in the October Surprise was heavily redacted in the Mueller Report, and not mentioned in the Senate Intelligence Committee Report.

In addition, FBI affidavits related to the Roger Stone investigation revealed an Israeli handler telling Stone in an August 09, 2016 message: “Roger—As per PM (Netanyahu), we have one last shot … TRUMP IN FREE FALL. OCTOBER SURPRISE COMING!”

Then on August 12, the Israeli handler wrote, “Roger, hello from Jerusalem … He (Trump) is going to be defeated unless we intervene.”

We may never know the full extent of the Israeli scheme with Russia, or if Israel had a mole inside the Clinton’s campaign who assisted in the hack. Despite evidence suggesting otherwise, Russia was a perfect scapegoat to divert attention from Israel.

The Israeli role in the elections became so critical, that on September 25, 2016, Trump alongside his Zionist son-in-law, Jared Kushner met with Netanyahu in the Trump Tower penthouse. Following the meeting, which now appears to have involved a possible quid pro quo, Trump announced that if elected, he would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Unsurprisingly, 12 days following the meeting, WikiLeaks released more than 2,000 private emails from the Democratic campaign headquarters—a move that led, according to most observers, to upending Clinton’s hopes of winning the White House.

Reminiscent of the September 25, 2016 meeting, last Julyhuddled again with Trump, this time in Mar-a-Lago to reconnect and, probably, offer Trump Act II for the 2024 October Surprise. It is essential to note that basis proven past history, Israeli meddling in US elections is not mere conjecture, but incessant determined efforts to corrupt the American voting system at all levels.

In the most recent elections and for this purpose, an Israeli government entity created at least 600 fake social media accounts that sent around 2,000 weekly disinformation messages to 128 US elected officials. Furthermore, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spent millions of dollars in the last Democratic primaries successfully buying the congressional seats of Jamaal Bowman in New York, and Cori Bush in St. Louis.

As long as the meek Democratic establishment continues to ignore Israeli interference in American elections, Netanyahu will validate, once more, his flaunted notion that “America is a thing you can move very easily.” To that end and for 11 months, Netanyahu has played Secretary of State Antony Blinken and President Biden for fools. No one is to blame for Netanyahu’s chutzpah but a submissive Biden who willed at every opportunity to repeat Netanyahu’s lies and disinformation.

Therefore, it shouldn’t be surprising if Netanyahu’s rejection of the Biden-mediated ceasefire overtures and exchange of prisoners is being carried out in coordination with the Trump campaign to portray Biden as ineffective and irrelevant. Israel helped elect Trump in 2016 not because Hillary Clinton wasn’t a loyal Israeli servant, but because Trump’s largess outdid her promised deliveries. Now in 2024, we’re witnessing another Netanyahu-led October Surprise—not for fearing a change in Kamala Harris’ policy from Biden, the self-proclaimed first Zionist president, but rather because Netanyahu values his proven transactional relationship with Trump.

This week’s unprecedented escalation of Israeli strikes on Lebanon could be part of an Israeli invasion leading to Netanyahu’s broader plan to drag the US into another made-for-Israel regional war. By doing this, Netanyahu aims to pivot the political discourse in the US election, forcing Vice President Harris into one of two bitter choices: either lose support from uncommitted voters opposing the Israeli genocide in Gaza if she maintains her timid position, or alienate the single issue pro genocide Israel’s supporters if she dares to question Netanyahu’s never-ending wars.

Either way, Netanyahu is geared to deliver, with impunity, a new October Surprise designed to save Trump, over again, from the free fall. At the same time, Netanyahu hopes to sway what Trump referred to as “the Jewish people … from voting for the enemy,” and double down on his prowess to “very easily” move America to pick the next US president.

– Jamal Kanj is the author of “Children of Catastrophe,” Journey from a Palestinian Refugee Camp to America, and other books. He writes frequently on Arab world issues for various national and international commentaries. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle