The Albanese government is directly aiding Israel’s war in Gaza through allowing the sharing of intelligence information from the spy base at Pine Gap.
The unique and unprecedented sharing of US intelligence with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is another way in which the US and Australia are directly contributed to Israel’s myriad war crimes.
The Washington Post has revealed that Israel’s 8 June raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp, which retrieved four hostages and killed 274 Palestinians, was made possible by US intelligence.
Prior to 7 October, the US had left it to Israel to monitor the Gaza Strip. But as Israel launched its war against Gaza, a secret memorandum was drafted between Israel and the US, expanding intelligence sharing between the two states to an unprecedented level.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari claimed in March that he had never experienced such a high level of intelligence cooperation between Israel and the US.
At the same time, the US has massively increased its gathering of intelligence on Hamas.
The US provides the IDF with highly detailed satellite imagery of a kind which Israel lacks.
US analysts mine electronic and physical records recovered in the field for clues and US-operated MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drones fly over Gaza, collecting aerial footage. The US has also increased surveillance of Hezbollah as the prospect of an Israeli invasion of Lebanon grows nearer.
According to US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, this intelligence is being offered to Israel unconditionally and unstintingly. “We are not holding anything back. We are providing every asset, every tool, every capability.”
While the US says it has specified that the intelligence should exclusively be used for hostage recovery and the targeting of Hamas leaders, there has been no attempt to enforce this policy.
Sarah Yager, the Washington director of Human Rights Watch, has argued that the memorandum “essentially opens up the entire US vault” and in practice there are no rules governing the disclosure of intelligence to Israel.
Israel is expected to monitor its own behaviour. Despite the numerous well-documented atrocities committed by the IDF, the US continues to offer them unlimited and unconditional intelligence.
Australia’s role
The Pine Gap US surveillance base, just 18 kilometres out of Alice Springs, has played a direct role in this process.
NSA veteran David Rosenberg, who worked inside Pine Gap for 18 years, says that the facility would be monitoring the Gaza Strip, “With all its resources, and gathering intelligence assessed to be useful to Israel.”
Since 2020, Pine Gap, which some describe as the US’s second most important surveillance base globally, has undergone its largest and most rapid expansion ever, Peter Cronau reported in The Saturday Paper.
Ten new satellite dishes have been added to the facility, giving it a total of 45 antennae. These new dishes can collect highly sophisticated information on missile and rocket launches, including the size, type, speed, trajectory, and target of a projectile.
They are perfectly equipped to locate and monitor the launch sites of Hamas rockets.
Raw data from Gaza is collected by three large geosynchronous satellites located over the Indian Ocean. This data is then sent down to Pine Gap, where US personnel provide analysis and reporting. Pine Gap also intercepts telecommunications signals from mobile and satellite phones, sharing any findings with the Israeli forces.
This is far from the first time that Pine Gap has gathered US intelligence for Israel. During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, intelligence collected by Pine Gap allowed the IDF to break through the Egyptian lines and encircle their forces.
More recently, Pine Gap has provided information on targets to US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Australian government actively supports American imperialism in the Middle East so that the US will protect Australian influence in the South Pacific from Chinese ascendancy.
To break our government’s complicity in the ongoing genocide, we must take on Australian imperialism directly, cutting the ties which bind the Western imperialist bloc.
By Jacob Starling
