On Feb. 18, Israel's Prime Minister along with his Foreign and Defence Ministers hatched a plot to keep Libyan strongmen Muamar Ghaddafi in power and his opponents dead or wounded. The big three would use Israeli taxpayers' money to hire mercenaries to slaughter any Libyan who wanted a new leader.

(ANSAmed) - ROME, MARCH 1 - With approval from the government in Tel Aviv, an Israeli security firm is responsible for sending groups of African mercenaries to Libya to fight the protestors who have been calling for the fall of the Gaddafi regime for the last two weeks, reports Al Jazeera's website, citing a source in the Israeli press. The journalist from Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot, who prefers to remain anonymous, said that according to speculation in the security sector, Israel looks at Libya from a strategic perspective and in terms of security. The fall of Gaddafi would open the door for an Islamic regime in Libya, according to speculation. In a meeting on February 18, Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defence Minister Barak and Foreign Minister Lieberman decided to recruit African mercenaries to fight alongside Gaddafi, according to the journalist. During the meeting, they decided to let General Israel Zef, the director of security firm
Global CST, which is active in many African countries, to make a group of
paramilitary mercenaries from Guinea, Nigeria, Central Africa, Mali, Senegal,
Darfur and Southern Sudan available to Abdullah Assinousi, one of the heads of
Libya's intelligence agency.


In just a few weeks, Libya was crawling with guns for hire, many without knowledge that their paychecks originated at the Bank of Israel. How could Israel justify the ongoing massacre of Libyan civilians by its hired guns? Because Ghaddafi's defeat would mean an Islamist government, though it's anybody's guess if that is even the case. Meanwhile in Israel, the police shot 15 Jews at Havat Gilad with experimental crowd-control bullets, while most of the population was too shell-shocked by never-ending poverty and debt to even care. Would they care if they knew their taxes were paying hundreds of mercenaries $300 to $2000 bucks a day to shoot Libyans?

Nah, not when there's the mortgage to be paid and children to feed. Israelis are too worn down and out to care that their government is risking huge international censure for prolonging the Libyan civil war.

Gaddafi is said to have lured some 25,000 mercenaries to quash a popular revolt against his regime.

The head of the Libyan Human Rights League Ali Zeidan says Chad is leading this group of foreign fighters including citizens from Niger, Mali, Zimbabwe and
Liberia who are being paid between $300 and $2,000 a day.

While most of these governments have denied their nationals are fighting as
mercenaries in Libya, Mali officials have confirmed hundreds of young Tuaregs
from Mali and Niger have been recruited by Gaddafi.
(http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/03/03/140004.html)

There may be more to Israel's support than just the fear of radical Islam taking control of Libya. Fifteen years ago, I interviewed a family of Libyan Jews living in southern Israel, who claimed that Ghaddafi's mother was Jewish and he was their cousin. Since the protests of Libya turned into a civil war, thanks in part to Israel, interest in Ghaddafi's Jewish cousins has been revived by the local media:

As Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi fights desperately to cling to power, killing thousands of his countrymen in the process, more and more bizarre stories about his connections to Israel are coming to light. According to a Tel Aviv-based organization of Jews of Libyan descent, in 2007 the Gaddafi regime offered a large sum of money for the formation of a "Libyan political party" to run in Israel's 2009 Knesset elections. Last week we reported on Gaddafi's suspected Jewish heritage, citing an Israeli television interview last year with an Israeli Jew of Libyan descent who claims to be Gaddafi's cousin. (http://www.israeltoday.co.il/tabid/178/nid/22686/Default.aspx)

Is it possible that the expensive and insane risks Israel is taking over Ghaddafi is, at least partly, just a family affair?