Final_Judgment

[528] Final Judgment 624
encapsulated the basic thrust of the theory laid forth in Final Judgment in
about ten paragraphs saying, essentially, that it was likely that the Israelis
had a hand in the JFK assassination because of JFK's problems with the
Israelis and that the so-called "Mafia"—which is often blamed for the
assassination—was in fact dominated by Israel's disciple, Meyer Lansky.
I told Dr. James K. Warner of the Christian Defense League about this
and told him that I had to give credit where credit was due. At the time
Warner had even forgotten that the article had even been published! But it's
interesting that this short article covered the subject quite well.
I also have to give credit to the late Ned Touchstone, also of Louisiana,
who was the publisher of a journal called The Councilor. Touchstone had
actually done some investigating into the JFK assassination and I have now
learned that it was Touchstone who was one of the first people to stumble
across CIA contract operative David Ferrie and this is discussed in some
detail in Appendix Three.
To Touchstone's credit, he did actually point out the high-level Israeli
lobby connections of the powerful Stern family of New Orleans who were
the owners of WDSU radio and television in New Orleans and close friends
of Clay Shaw. As I thoroughly document in Final Judgment it was the
Stern's WDSU outlets that were very much a part of the media effort that
laid the groundwork for Lee Harvey Oswald's pre-assassination profile as a
"pro-Castro agitator." It was Touchstone who suggested that somehow the
Sterns might have been a key to the JFK assassination puzzle, but,
obviously, he didn't have any firm evidence, perhaps again because no one
actually knew how much of a problem had developed between JFK and the
Israelis prior to the assassination.
Touchstone first discovered the picture of Clay Shaw at a party
sponsored by the Stern family's WDSU network in New Orleans. For many
years people believed Ferrie was also in the picture. Recently, serious
doubts have been raised as to whether Ferrie is actually the person shown in
the photo with Shaw, but there have been other sources who have said that
Shaw and Ferrie did know each other. So whether it was Ferrie in the
picture or not is largely irrelevant at this point in time.
There is much more to be told about JFK's relationship with Israel. It
wasn't until just recently, in 1995 in fact,—after the publication of Final
Judgment—that the State Department released a massive volume of
previously-unpublished documents relating to U.S. relations with Israel
during the Kennedy administration. And these are documents that verify
that JFK and Israeli Prime Minister Ben-Gurion were engaged in very bitter
behind-the-scenes conflict over Israel's drive to build a nuclear weapon.
The State Department volume, issued through the Government Printing
Office, is Foreign Relations of the United States (1961-1963) Volume XVII -
Near East (1961-1962). A sampling of the documents are cited in this
edition of Final Judgment and do provide solid evidence of the bitter
conflict between JFK and Ben-Gurion over Israel's nuclear bomb program.
In addition, of course, Avner Cohen's new book, Israel and the Bomb,
has provided a vast wealth of new information about JFK's behind-the-