Zionism, US Imperialism, and the Occupation of Palestine
The Israeli military went again on a rampage against the ghettoized
people in the Gaza strip. The last time, they “visited” the walled-in
strip at the turn of the year 2008/09, they slaughtered 1400
Palestinians. In 2014, they killed
over 2100 Palestinians, 80 per cent civilians, injured over 10 000,
made over 300 000 homeless and ravaged the infrastructure. Israel’s
patron, the US Empire, did not lift a finger in 2008/09; neither did it
this time. This one-sided relationship is analyzed by James Petras, an
award-winning author and Professor Emeritus, in The Politics of Empire: The US, Israel and the Middle East, which provides a global geopolitical perspective.
In 2000, “the imperial military and ideological apparatus for direct
intervention was firmly in place.” 9/11 seemed godsend. The objectives
of the planned serial wars “were defined by their principal Zionist and
militarists architects” as the following: First, “destroying regimes and
states (that) have opposed Israel’s annexation of Palestine.” Secondly,
“deposing regimes which promoted independent nationalist policies,
opposing or threatening the Gulf puppet monarchist regimes and
supporting anti-imperialist, secular or nationalist-Islamic movements
around the world.”
Blinded
by their imperial hubris, neither the Zionists nor the civilian
militarists within the US administration anticipated prolonged national
resistance from the attacked countries, writes Petras. The destruction
of the entire political, administrative and military infrastructure by
the US invaders and their willful European executioners created a
“political vacuum”, which was never a problem for the embedded Zionists
in the US Administration, “since their ultimate goal was to devastate
Israel’s enemies”. According to the author, under the Obama presidency,
“a new ‘cast’ of embedded Zionists has emerged to target Iran and
prepare the US for a new war on Israel’s behalf”. After Benjamin
Netanyahu’s speech before the UN General Assembly in September and his
visit to the White House, 345 members of the US Congress signed a
letter, in which they demanded from President Obama to remain tough with
Iran. Netanyahu had raised the same demand from President Obama. It’s
the first time that US Members of Congress publicly oppose their own
president while supporting the demands of a foreign government!
The book is unique in providing an overall concept that links
empire-building and foreign interventions to the domestic emergence of a
police state, declining standards of living, advanced global spying on
allies and adversaries, large scale commitments to wars in the Middle
east to the detriment of major corporate interest, but for the benefit
of its client State of Israel, and the power of a foreign state over US
policy via its Zionist lobby. The question can be raised weather US
foreign policy is bad for US corporations. Didn’t Halliburton make a
fortune when George W. Bush and his neoconservative gang attacked Iraq?
According to Petras, the US is still inclined to advance its Empire,
but the Obama Empire builders “have relied on a wider variety of
interventions than their predecessor under George W. Bush”. The Obama
administration has shown more restraint in direct interventions and
relies more on its “imperial European allies”. For an aggressive
continuation of Empire building, the current administration lacks
domestic support, writes the author. The most serious obstacle, however,
to effectively adapting to the current international realities “is the
influential Israel-linked Zionist Power Configuration embedded in
Congress, the Administration and the mass media. Zionists are deeply
committed to pushing the US into more wars for Israel.” Despite the
“Zionist Power Configuration” (ZPC), Petras comes to the conclusion that
the Obama Administration is less inclined to start large-scale military
interventions and listens more to public opinion.
In this study, the author concentrates on US empire-building measures
in the Middle East. Here, the ZPC comes into play. In this specific
region, Zionist power has played an important role “in harnessing the US
Empire to serving the regional power projections of Israel”. According
to Petras, this fact is underlined by “the importance of the domestic
political power relations in shaping US imperial policy, the importance
of military ideology over economic interests; and the role of ‘dual
citizens’ with foreign allegiances in subverting a potentially
democratic foreign policy”.
The study shows also that US empire-building efforts are not confined
solely to the Middle East and to serve Israeli interests. It’s a global
US effort, but to advance its sphere of influence, for example, the US
relies on its European allies like France and Great Britain to secure
the realm in Africa. The overthrow of the Gaddafi regime in Libya and
the direct intervention of France in Mali or in the Central African
Republic are cases in point.
Petras regards the Zionist lobby as the most important factor in
shaping US foreign policy in the Middle East. This goes beyond the
influence of AIPAC because there exists a whole string of pro-Israeli
think tanks, a power configuration of 52 Jewish organizations,
influential individuals in the media and the military, plus leverage
over the US Congress. It seems as if the author overrates the influence
of the Zionist lobby, which influences and even determines US foreign
policy, downplaying US policies mainly affected by the military,
financial and industrial elites. Globally, Israel performs a useful role
for the US in the region. In case of emergency, Israel would safeguard
the Jordanian or the Saudi regimes from being overthrown either by
internal unrest or foreign intervention.
The author argues that the loss of trust between the power elite and
the majority of the American people is one of the leading factors
influencing US foreign policy. Together with the totally discredited US
Congress, only 9 per cent have a positive view of the Congress, and the
public’s rejection of President Obama’s militarist approach are
important factors that hindered the US empire’s determination for new
wars. Despite this war-weariness, the war-mongering US Congress in close
cooperation with the Zionist lobby pushes for a military confrontation
with Iran, even though the negotiations between Iran and the five UN
Security Council members plus Germany are heading in the right
direction.
Although the geopolitical analysis of James Petras’ newest book is
convincing in many aspects, his focus on the Zionist Power Configuration
and a subservient US Congress does not show the whole picture of US
imperial interests. The domestic power configurations are more complex.
For the political class of the United States, it would be a damning
indictment, if Israel or its stakeholders would be the sole power
brokers in terms of US foreign policy.
Whether the 21st century will be an American one, has to be seen,
although, according to Petras, “there is no alternative imperial or
modern anti-imperial tendency on the immediate horizon”. Right now, the
US makes more enemies than friends. Its new adventurism in Syria and
Iraq may turn out to be even more disastrous for the US than the war in
Afghanistan and Iraq. Petras’ book gives the readers an insight into the
making of US foreign policy, which appears multifarious and determined
by a power struggle between different elites.
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