Friends Like These ?

(Friends Like These ?)

When General Eisenhower was asked what won the Second World War, the Supreme Commander credited the atomic bomb, the two-ton truck, the bazooka and a few other things. What Eisenhower could not say though he was a definite beneficiary, was ULTRA intelligence, the most secret product derived from the Allied ability to "read" the German Enigma cypher. As some might remember, Enigma transmissions were generated by a typewriter type gadget that used a keyboard, rotors, and interconnecting circuits that could generate combinations in the quadrillions that made the Germans feel it was secure. The code brakers at Bletchley Park, however, had other ideas.

After Pearl Harbor, it became obvious that the Americans would need to be advised of ULTRA, especially President Roosevelt, select members of his Cabinet, and the American Combined Chief of Staff. But who could Prime Minister Churchill send to brief this expanded list of ULTRA recipients ? The one chosen is "The Man Called Intrepid," William Stevenson.

William Stevenson was a Canadian industrialist, a World War I flying ace and brief prisoner of war. He was sent to the United States to brief American officials and also to establish offices for the British Security Coordination on an upper floor of Rockefeller center. The Office was to act as a liaison with American authorities and also to develop "special operations."

Now, what would have happened had Churchill not sent Intrepid ? If Roosevelt was not advised about Enigma/ULTRA ? What course would the War take ? A more insidious question, what if Churchill did not divulge ULTRA because he was a Balfour Conservative and First Lord of the Admiralty. Roosevelt on the other hand was a New Deal Democrat and was only an Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

The Israeli investment of Rafah is on-going but, like Churchill possibly withholding ULTRA intelligence from Roosevelt, so President Biden, claiming to know precise locations of remaining Hamas personnel inside the confines of the Gaza town but because such action is not politically convenient for the President or his Party.

To say there has been a backlash is an understatement. Considering Biden's history, how he has been wrong on every major foreign policy issue, especially Afghanistan, and now he does not have the sense to aid the Jewish State but instead is hoping to curtail Israel's ability to complete its mission. Unfortunately, this time there is no man from Intrepid with which to set things straight, When Hamas is defeated, independent of any assistance from the White House, Israel will know its friends.