The Epstein-Israel link nobody wants you to take seriously

When I first moved to New York, I walked into my new dentist’s office and genuinely wondered whether I’d accidentally wandered into a Victoria’s Secret audition.

The waiting room was full of stunning young women. Eventually I learned the dentist shared space with a modeling agency. You couldn’t tell who was getting veneers and who was getting a contract until you were halfway down the hallway.

Jeffrey Epstein’s life operated on the same architectural principle: two businesses shoved into one building, one involving underaged girls, the other involving powerful political figures, including some tied to the Israeli government. Not exactly whitening trays and catwalks, but equally disorienting.

Epstein’s whole operation was like a perverted crossover episode of “Law & Order” meets “House of Cards.” The salacious half got all the airtime, but the geopolitical part seems to have largely ended up on the cutting room floor.

Jeremy Scahill’s Dropsite News recently published inbox receipts showing that in 2006 Epstein teamed up with lawyer Alan Dershowitz to smack down “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy,” by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. Dershowitz wrote the rebuttal, “Debunking the Newest – and Oldest – Jewish Conspiracy,” and Epstein blasted it out to his rich and powerful pals. Perhaps a little light reading en route to Epstein island or while being rubbed down by a member of Epstein’s harem.

The moment anyone points out that a certain foreign government might be exercising influence, there’s always someone who starts shouting about bigotry. Because apparently some nations think that criticism of their foreign policy is like a trap door in one of those Indiana Jones movies, capable of sparking a chain reaction that can bring the whole thing crashing down.

Epstein’s connections to Israel have been whispered about for years. His right-hand woman Ghislaine Maxwell, currently a guest at Uncle Sam’s big house, is the daughter of Robert Maxwell, a Brit whose résumé included business tycoon, media mogul, and all-around establishment leechlord with enough Israeli intelligence ties to qualify for a final permanent nap there. His mysterious death at sea came with a Jerusalem memorial service and a burial on the Mount of Olives. Was London fully booked that weekend?

Then there was Epstein’s friendship with former Israeli prime minister and defense minister Ehud Barak. The two worked together to export Israeli cyberwarfare tools disguised as tech and security startups, including to Washington – which is either in on the notion of having Israeli tech spy on Americans for them, or too stupid to realize the difference between being sold an aromatherapy diffuser or a flamethrower.

Recently released emails show that Epstein also arranged meetings between Israel and Russian officials during the war in Syria. But officially, there’s absolutely nothing suspicious in any of this. Unless it’s Russian interference that you’re criticizing in that case, then you’re probably just a bigot.

But Epstein-style offensive and defensive influence efforts, investments in which have recently been promoted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are hardly exclusive to America.

The Eurovision Song Contest is the latest institution to enter an Israeli-sponsored Twilight Zone episode. Euronews recently asked: “What are Eurovision’s new voting rules following allegations of Israeli government ‘interference’?” Because apparently even Europe’s annual tune and tranny extravaganza now needs election observers.

Meanwhile, more concrete political influence is happening offstage. NBC News has highlighted the “close relationship” between Israeli secret services and the Iranian opposition in exile in Europe, also known as the MEK. The MEK’s biggest Western fans include Israel’s pep squad: Rudy Giuliani, John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo. Thanks to their efforts, the MEK is now off the US and EU terrorist list, allowing them to be queued up for the first string tug in any future Iranian regime change efforts.

Here’s what an actual attempt at independence looks like these days for Europe. Back in September, the EU announced that it was finally getting tough on Israel over Gaza. “Queen” Ursula von der Leyen strutted out acting like she’d just personally unplugged the Iron Dome. But then you check the numbers: six million euros cut here, fourteen million paused there. Brussels spends more than that on pastries and lanyards for conferences.

European officials acted like it was a seismic economic event. In reality, it was more like a breeze, with sanctions barely making a ripple. The major EU-Israel trade deal is still in place, but “under review,” which in bureaucrat-speak just means that they hope everyone’s forgotten it by now.

Israel’s response was to accuse the EU of falling for Hamas propaganda and overlooking Israeli humanitarian efforts in Gaza. That’s the diplomatic equivalent of saying, “Yes, I knocked down your house with a bulldozer, but I also watered your plants, so let’s not be too dramatic.”

A big song and dance worthy of a Eurovision entry. All a distraction from the fact that the EU’s main connection to Israel is weapons. Half of Israel’s total defense exports. Israeli defense giants like Elbit and Rafael even run factories inside Europe and recently won a contract to supply electronic warfare systems for new NATO frigates.

So while EU officials brag about trimming a few symbolic programs, protesters across Europe have been targeting the real levers of foreign power at home: the weapons industry. Elbit in Germany has been vandalized and its subsidiaries picketed while officials blow off activists’ concerns like teenagers being told to clean their room.

Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz even recently announced a visit to Israel while lifting an arms embargo altogether. Nothing says moral outrage quite like trading in missiles.

So Queen Ursula can keep declaring that the EU is “pressuring” Israel. But as long as they keep signing weapons contracts, the pressure campaign has about the same impact as stapling a strongly worded memo to a tank.

While Epstein was trafficking young girls, he was part of an effort to export Israeli-linked military-grade systems to governments around the world – a once-submerged iceberg that’s now coming into fuller view. He actively worked to undermine anyone who dared suggest any such insidiousness, portraying them as conspiratorial crackpots worthy of cancellation and marginalization from polite society.

So who gets to actually ask the hard questions about all this, then? No one?

If everyone who does is written off as prejudiced, and the establishment and its corrupt self-interests get to decide what questions can be asked, then the only freedom and sovereignty left – from America to the EU and beyond – risks being the kind that’s reduced to a quaint museum display case.