The Structural Origins of AIPAC & The History of Israeli Espionage in the U.S. (with Grant Smith)

Send us Fan MailUnderstanding Israel Palestine: A Beyond the Walls EditionEpisode: The Structural Origins of AIPAC & The History of Israeli Espionage in the U.S.Guest: Grant Smith, Research Director at the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep)Host: Jeremy Rothe-KushelEpisode OverviewIn this deep political analysis of US-Israel relations, we examine the foundational architecture and historical continuity of the modern Israel lobby within the United States. Grant Smith, a leading investigative researcher and author of America's Defense Line, Foreign Agents, and Divert, joins the program to unpack the counterintelligence history and covert networks that have shaped American foreign policy in the Middle East.This conversation moves beyond standard political discourse to conduct a forensic examination of the structural immunity surrounding historical espionage and unregistered foreign lobbying in America. From suitcases of campaign cash on presidential whistle-stop tours to the covert smuggling of highly enriched uranium and nuclear triggers, Smith details the intricate, multi-decade efforts to subvert U.S. regulatory and defense frameworks.Key Historical & Structural Topics ExploredThe Origins of AIPAC & FARA Subversion: How Isaiah Kenen and the American Zionist Council (AZC) navigated the Justice Department's efforts to force them to register as foreign agents under the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), ultimately restructuring into the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to bypass compliance.Truman & Whistle-Stop Campaign Financing: The pivotal role of Abraham Feinberg in securing a $2 million suitcase of cash to save Harry S. Truman's floundering 1948 presidential campaign, effectively cementing early executive support for the Israeli state.NUMEC & Nuclear Espionage in the U.S.: The diversion of highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium from the NUMEC facility in Apollo, Pennsylvania, under Zalman Shapiro, which was covertly funneled to the early Israeli nuclear weapons program.Project Pinto & The MILCO Smuggling Ring: The covert procurement network that successfully smuggled 810 nuclear-triggering krytrons out of the United States, utilizing operatives like Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and involving current political figures like Benjamin Netanyahu.Political Immunity & Quashed DOJ Investigations: The systemic political pressure that successfully shut down Department of Justice and FBI investigations into these smuggling networks, resulting in a distinct lack of prosecutions and quiet pardons for the few operatives who were caught.Resources & LinksInstitute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep): irmep.orgThe Israel Lobby Archive: israellobby.orgKKFI Show Page (archives): Understanding Israel PalestineBeyond the Walls (full length audio): https://beyondthewalls.substack.com/

Send us Fan MailJews, especially American Jews, have never been of one mind about Israel and the United States’ support for it. Eric Alterman, Distinguished Professor of English, Brooklyn College, CUNY, joins the show to discuss his 2022 book We Are Not One: A History of America’s Fight Over Israel. He documents the ebbs and flows of American Jews’ relationship to Israel, from the more muted embrace following Israel’s establishment in 1948, to the tight embrace that followed the war in 1967 and the hegemony of the David and Goliath myth it spawned. After Israel’s destructive and disastrous war of choice in Lebanon that began in 1982, the gap between the myth of Israel as underdog and its reality as a settler-colonial regional hegemon began to disintegrate. In our discussion he traces this relationship up until the present, post-October 7 reality in which Israel is losing support across all fronts. 

Send us Fan MailSonya Meyerson-Knox spent 16 years in Beirut, Lebanon working as a journalist and for U.N. agencies. She discusses the new war in Lebanon that began after the United States and Israel attacked Iran February 28, 2026, describing the war within the context of previous Israeli wars on Lebanon. She views Israel's current scorched-earth campaign as not only an attack on Hezbollah but also an attempt to destroy Lebanon's pluralistic social fabric. She says Israel has long coveted Lebanon's land and resources and seen Lebanon as part of a vision of a Greater Israel that goes back to the early founders of Zionism.

Send us Fan MailBeyond the Walls: The Israel-Silicon Valley Nexus and the Penetration of U.S. Critical Infrastructure (with Mary Silva)Episode Overview: While public discourse naturally gravitates toward the physical realities of the occupation and destruction in Palestine, a parallel, largely invisible architecture of control operates far beyond the checkpoints of Gaza and the West Bank. This digital infrastructure has actively penetrated our personal devices, corporate networks, and municipal utilities.In this episode of Understanding Israel Palestine: Beyond the Walls, host Jeremy Rothe-Kushel investigates the technological front lines of geopolitics and cyber warfare. Joining the broadcast is independent researcher and former Congressional candidate in Washington State, Mary Silva, who helps map the massive concentration of U.S. technology research and development within Israel and analyzes the deep penetration of foreign espionage networks into American sovereignty.Bridging the gap between the surveillance systems deployed on Palestinians and the espionage vulnerabilities faced by American citizens, this conversation examines the geopolitical outsourcing of U.S. national security.Silva details how major tech conglomerates—including Microsoft, Google, and Intel—have functionally outsourced core development to veterans of elite Israeli military intelligence cohorts, such as Unit 8200 and the IDF's Talpiotprogram. The analysis moves past surface-level electoral politics to expose the strategic dangers of embedded hardware backdoors, the proliferation of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, and how algorithmic suppression operates as a tool for narrative control in the current "information war."Crucially, this technological penetration is not restricted to federal intelligence networks. Silva highlights how local U.S. infrastructure—from smart-meter utility grids to public transit systems—is actively being compromised, often subsidized and locked in by legislative frameworks buried within the NDAA.Key Episode Insights:The Intelligence-to-Corporate Pipeline: How elite IDF veterans shape the core architecture and penetrate the supply chains of American government and civilian technology.Legislating Dependency: The federal frameworks mandating the integration of foreign surveillance tech into local U.S. municipal grids.The Export of "Combat-Proven" Systems: Unpacking how biometric and cyber-control tools, initially field-tested under military occupation, are repackaged as essential global security products.The Information Battleground: A critical look at algorithmic suppression on platforms like X, and the mechanisms used to manage public perception during global multipolar realignments.Upcoming Event: Field Testing Israeli Occupation Tech This broadcast serves as a vital primer for the upcoming online salon, Field Testing Israeli Occupation Tech: The Palestine Lab. Co-sponsored by Voices From the Holy Land and Nonviolence International, this panel features experts examining how Israel exports drones, cyber-weapons, and biometric systems to over 130 countries worldwide.When: Sunday, April 19, 2026 | 3 PM ET • 12 PM PT • 10 PM JerusalemRSVP: Register on the front page at VoicesFromTheHolyLand.orgListen & Subscribe:Radio Archives: Listen to past broadcasts of Understanding Israel Palestine on demand at KKFI.org.Extended Cuts & Deep Dives: For the longer form audio of this interview subscribe to the Beyond the Walls Substack.

Send us Fan MailPalestinians have long faced difficulties accessing education, and these only intensified in the West Bank following Oct. 7, 2023. Aisha Al-Khatib, a principal in Nablus and a peace activist with Combatants for Peace, joined the show to discuss the state of education in the West Bank. Since the outbreak of the war on Iran, most schools have been shuttered and only limited online learning is taking place. We discuss the role of education in peacebuilding and Aisha's activism over the years with Combatants for Peace.

Send us Fan MailJournalist, author, academic and editor of the news site The Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud discusses the connections between the Israeli-U.S. war on Iran, Israel's war in Lebanon and Israeli actions in the Occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. 

Send us Fan MailAs the devastation in Gaza threatens to be spilled over into a full-scale annihilation of Beirut, the Middle East crossed a Rubicon the morning this episode was recorded. With Israel’s sudden announcement of high-level assassinations targeting the upper echelons of Iranian leadership, the region faces an unprecedented era of engineered chaos. Is this a sudden escalation, or the culmination of a decades-old geopolitical strategy?This week on Understanding Israel Palestine: Beyond the Walls, Jeremy Rothe-Kushel is joined by independent journalist and Tikun Olam publisher Richard Silverstein to unpack the terrifying realities of this active multi-front war. We dive deep into Richard's latest reporting, beginning with the delusional Trump-Netanyahu attempts to decapitate Iranian leadership. We analyze the harrowing collateral realities of this "War of Annihilation," including the deliberate ecocide of burning oil raining down on the Iranian populace and the calculated destruction of ancient Islamic historical sites.Pivoting to the Levant, we examine the IDF's psychological and physical warfare in Lebanon, breaking down the chilling leaflets dropped on Beirut that explicitly threaten the city with a Gaza-style "Genocide 2.0." Finally, we begin to address the underlying psychological framework of Israeli state terror—a calculated mechanism designed not only to frighten the West into compliance, but to deliberately terrorize the global Jewish community into a state of reactive Zionism.Please note: Due to terrestrial broadcast time constraints, this radio edit omits our extended deep-dive into the 1996 neoconservative "Clean Break" strategy, the deeper history of the Israeli state, and the beginning of an urgent conversation about critical disentanglement of and reckoning with Jewish religion and identity in direct relationship to Israeli state violence. For that complete, raw analysis, listeners are encouraged to seek out the Full Raw Cut of this interview here: https://beyondthewalls.substack.com/p/breaking-the-realm-the-iran-assassinationsResources & Links mentioned in this episode:Tikun Olam Blog: richardsilverstein.comArticle: Beirut: 1,000 Dead as Israel Threatens Gaza-Style GenocideArticle: Iran: Trump’s War of AnnihilationArticle: Israeli Cultural and Environmental Genocide in IranArticle: Zionism, Genocide and Jews: Which Side Are You On?

Send us Fan MailCivilian casualties continue to climb in the region, especially in Iran and Lebanon, as the US and Israel intensify their assault on Iran. Iran retaliates by using its array of drones and missiles to hit US and Israeli military targets in the region, oil infrastructure, and other civilian targets. Hundreds of ships continue to be unable to transit the Strait of Hormuz, raising global energy prices. Dr. Annelle Sheline of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft joins the show to discuss these developments.

Send us Fan MailMai Shaheen is a Palestinian peace activist and therapist who uses nonviolent communication in her work with victims of trauma.  In a conversation both frank and inspirational, she talks  about how nonviolent dialogue brings Israelis, Palestinians and internationals together for healing, solidarity and nonviolent action.  A founder of the Satyam Homeland Peace Center in the Occupied West Bank, she discusses the growing number of Palestinians and Israelis taking action together even as conditions in the West Bank worsen for Palestinians. 

Send us Fan MailIn light of the recent passage of a bill in Missouri codifying the IHRA definition of antisemitism for K-12 schools and college campuses, in addition to similar efforts in several other stage legislatures, we are reposting an interview conducted in April 2025 with Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. She discusses the threat to free speech posed by the International Holocaust Rembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of antisemitism being adopted by many institutions, communities and states in the United States and around the world. The definition associates criticism of Israel with antisemitism. While opposed by a broad range of groups, including human rights organizations, civil liberties groups, Palestinian rights defenders, peace activists, progressive Jewish and Christian groups, and even some strong pro-Israel supporters, the IHRA is increasingly being used as a legal standard. Friedman says the IHRA Working Definition of antisemitism is part of a long-standing effort to chill free speech on Israel and Palestine and to limit what can be said about Israeli policies and practices.