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Comment by age_bronze | Hacker News Reader

Blood libel. I've yet to see one real evidence for real spying, not some black cube (who are greedy pieces of shit, but are not part of Israel government), or some boogeyman story of possible suspicion.

Truth is, Israel barely has anything to gain while it has so much to lose from such espionage. It's not worth it. US is just so damn paranoid, that it will never believe that. These allegations are the new jewish blood libels, the "jews control everything and are omnipotent".

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Do you really doubt the guilt of Jonathan Pollard? That's a new one...

No, I think the lesson was learned. Why would you risk such a backlash again?

With all due respect, that's terribly naive (or, you think we're terribly naive enough to believe it.) Pollard wasn't the first, and he certainly wasn't the last.

Naive would be thinking you can conduct espionage without ever getting caught. Getting caught spying a huge risk, and unless you have an even bigger risk, why would you ever do that? What can possibly justify risking getting caught spying on the US? Israel isn't dumb, it's a simple risk analysis. Unless Israel has a bigger risk to protect against, than the US cutting off ties as a result of another polard, Israel would never do that.

Given past performance, I don't think there is any rational reason to believe that Israel risks America severing ties with it over incidents of espionage.

In any event, Israel has a nuclear deterrent, even if they like to coyly lie about it. In the fantasy scenario where America no longer supports Israel, they'd manage just fine on their own. But again, that's not going to happen. Too many Americans think it a matter of religious imperative that they and their politicians continue to support Israel, no matter what.

"Blood libel" has a specific meaning, and this isn't it. Not even close.

> Truth is, Israel barely has anything to gain

Without support from the USA, Israel would LOSE everything.

I dunno, they have Jericho missiles with nukes capable of reaching Los Angeles; I think they'll be fine without US financial support. Which, BTW, is against the NPT because they have nukes.

https://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2018/09/16/american...

Exactly, why would you ever risk that? Would hearing trump talk to whatever on the phone, worth the huge risk? You can talk to him yourself, why would you ever risk pissing the US off for just that?

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