Whenever one thinks about the genocide perpetrated against the occupied Palestinians by Israel, its successful mission of overthrowing Assad in Syria and taming Hezbollah albeit temporarily, one wonders is it a matter of time before Israel will be the only force left in the Middle East determining its fate and future?
The silence and numbness of the world on the cold bloodied massacre of the Palestinians allude to the alienation described by Marx. Though he describes its four aspects but in this case the last two are more relevant, though consistent with the other two. Human’s alienation from one’s own specific humanity, and from others, meaning from society. Bound by the capitalist relations of production, human beings are caught up in the vicious cycle of self-preservation, becoming completely indifferent to the plight of others. The entire Muslim world except for Yemen is suffering from this paralysis.
Israel “the unsinkable aircraft carrier of the US” is kept afloat for the necessity of maintaining the hegemony of the US in the Middle East for a negligible cost of $ 4 billion annually. It helped the US to destroy Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, and now Syria. The latter is run by Golani the chief of the ISIS who like Modi was a declared terrorist by the West, and responsible for using sarin in Ghouta district of Damascus and now the same person is warmly welcomed in Elsey Palace by Macron, so much for terrorism or western hypocrisy or both.
In the Western vocabulary, the term of “terrorism” is not applied to the actions of the police, army and the aggression of the oppressor but to the actions of rebels and the nonconformists regardless of their motives or goals. The genocide perpetrated by the Israelis is justified as “self-defence” and the struggle to survive against this horrible oppression by the most oppressed community of Palestinians is labelled as “terrorism”. One can see the contradiction between ends and means. The means do not justify the end for two reasons, means used by the oppressor demand total annihilation of the Palestinians, second; the means-the force also belongs to the established reality which judges the ends on its own terms. For Palestinians, the end is liberation, which invalidates the oppressor’s means and oppressor includes the US and the entire western world.
The existential question is why does Israel being one of the most powerful military forces in the world equipped with the latest technology and fully backed by the US need “to defend itself”? The answer Bob Dylan sang “is blowing in the wind”. The uprising of Hamas, supported by Hezbollah and Ansarullah, has exposed all the mythological bulwarks of invincibility woven around the apartheid entity as “spider’s web”. Its lust for Lebensraum, the expansionism leaves no room for outlining an international boundary; hence it cannot be called a state.
The helpless Palestinians are enduring the genocide all alone.
Israeli dream to destroy Iran which it cannot materialize alone has been ditched recently when its favourite US president Donald Trump in a joint televised press conference gave Netanyahu’s a rude shock by announcing the holding of indirect talks with Iran, which the latter had no inkling. Second and important shock was the US- Yemeni accord of not attacking each other without mentioning Israel, especially when the latter was attacked by the Yemeni anti-ballistic missile on Ben Gurion Airport cleaving at least four layers of iron-dome. For the first time, Israel is left out in the cold to defend itself.
Before announcing the US capitulation after sustaining losses of at least three F18 Super Hornet Jets costing 60 million each, Trump, a chronic liar, presented the picture otherwise. Yet he praised the leadership of Ansarullah for taking severe “punishment” beyond his imagination. The pact was signed with the mediation of Sultanate of Oman, where indirect talks with Iran are already being held, a venue suggested by Iran. According to the Times of Israel “Houthis: US deal ’embarrasses’ Israel”. Once again, it proves that the US Israeli interests don’t always align with each other. It’s interesting to note the Jerusalem Post expressing its surprise when ” the US President-elect Donald Trump shared a video of Jewish-American economist Jeffrey Sachs on his social media platform, Truth Social ,on Wednesday wherein Sachs accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of dragging the US into wars in the Middle East and Trump has reposted the rant”.
It’s no secret that the US is a declining empire. The process of de-dollarizing of the international economy, the emergence of BRICS Plus, an alternate to the Bandung conference of 1955 in which 29 Afro-Asian countries including Sino-India paved the way for another bloc where the “third World” term was coined, is a significant step to get rid of American domination. This time China has almost closed the gap with the US and beyond doubt has become the economically most powerful country of the world.
Trump, desperate to enhance the anaemic economy of the US, is visiting the Gulf States, especially Saudi Arabia. There are reports suggesting that it has delinked Israeli recognition by the Saudis as a precondition to supply the latter with nuclear program, which in the longer run benefit the US to the tune of 1trillion $. It may keep the Saudis away from the BRICS Plus, albeit temporarily. Trump falling to stop Russia Ukraine war, allowing Netanyahu to continue Palestinians genocide, arresting and deporting students supporting Palestine in the US, cutting the jobs, health care and reducing the food stamps program has already become the most disliked president with in hindered days of his accession to power, is looking to redeem itself, an impossible task.
Despite international communities, numbness to the Palestinians’ genocide most countries, including Saudi Arabia don’t want to identify themselves with the apartheid entity. According to Professor Mohammad Merandi, an Iranian government’s unofficial spokesperson the Saudi foreign minister visited Iran in recent times and he criticized the Israeli regime relentlessly because in his opinion “no one wants to identify himself with a rogue apartheid entity completely reliant on the US for its survival”.
Israel is going through a phase of economic crisis; the massive migration is the one. The effluent intelligentsia that can afford is leaving the country with its assets. Courtesy Anasullah, the port of Eilat, has gone bankrupt. Ever since Ansarullah has started its attacks on Israeli cargoes, it has become redundant. Despite an agreement with Hezbollah, the people dwelling in the north are not willing to resettle in their previous homes because of safety concerns and the state has to accommodate them in hotels, a monumental pressure on the exchequer. The recent attack by Ansarullah on Ben Gurion Airport has led to the cancellation of all international flights until the middle of June. The hostage crisis is brewing and the Qatari scandal has added fuel to the fire against Netanyahu. The ultraorthodox Haredis have refused to join the Israeli army (IDF). In one of his interviews, Gideon Levy has raised a pertinent question. He says, “Leaving aside the fate of Palestinians, the question is what kind of Israel will remain once the genocide is over? Who would like to live in this country ruled by extremists? I have advised my grandchildren to migrate from here”. Helmet’s gravedigger scene fits the current situation prevailing in Israel.
The helpless Palestinians are enduring the genocide all alone. Their desperate situation and cynical defiance is unmasking the deeds of Zionism and the West. The rule-based -[dis]order imposed by the US is being torn to shreds not by Russians but by its poodle, Israel. Zionism, a gravedigger, is digging its grave. “How long a man lie in the earth its take before it rots” Hamlet asks. “If he be not rotten before-which usually is the case-he will last some eight or nine years,” replies the Gravedigger. Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben Gavir are already rotten, so is the Israeli public. The stench of their cadavers is polluting the entire world. While the graves of more than 3 hundred thousand babies and the innocent civilian killed by the Israelis (Lancet) “shall have a living monument” and from their” fair and unpolluted flesh violet will spring A ministerial angel” they will be while Zionist “liest howling”. The critical theory of society remains negative”. Marcuse says, “thus it wants to remain loyal to those who, without hope, have given and give their life to the Great Refusal”. Palestinians are writing both critical theory and history afresh.
The writer is an Australian-based academic and has authored books on socialism and history. He can be reached at saulatnagi @hotmail.com