Forum Post: The Zionist Scenario: Now and in the Future – an Analysis
Posted 14 years ago on May 16, 2012, 6:01 p.m. EST by LeoYo
(5909)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
The Zionist Scenario: Now and in the Future – an Analysis
Wednesday, 16 May 2012 11:21 By Lawrence Davidson, To the Point Analysis | News Analysis
Part I – The Death Knell of the Two State Solution
Over the past month Palestinian leaders have begun to publicly acknowledge that continuing actions by the Israeli government, and corresponding inaction by the “international community,” have destroyed any reasonable hope of a viable and independent Palestinian state. Listen to Ahmed Qurei, who held high office in the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat: “It is probably no longer possible to create the kind of state that we want. Now we must choose between two stark choices: either we settle for a worthless state made of hapless ghettoes and miserable slums…or struggle for one unitary and democratic state where Jews and Arabs can live equally in all of Mandate Palestine…” Among many Palestinian Islamic leaders, hope for the future now exists only in the form of a Quranic prophecy, which tells of Islam’s divinely inspired victory over the Jews in Palestine as punishment for the unholy behavior of the Israeli state. This might be compared to the Christian Zionist’s prophecy of the triumph of Israel presaging the second coming of Christ. Either way it goes, a unitary secular and democratic state or God’s intervention, Israel as a “Jewish State” is seen as terminal. Of course, that is not how the politically minded Zionists, led by Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party, see it. Netanyahu has recently formed a “unity” government with the major opposition party, Kadima, and by doing so appears to have secured his political leadership for some time to come. So, what sort of scenario do these Zionists seek to realize now and in the future?
Part II – The Zionist Scenario:
How do Zionist leaders see the future? As far as I understand the situation, here is their projected scenario:
The Zionist leadership sees victory (Israel’s sovereign possession of all the land of Palestine from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River – some even covet Jordan) as inevitable. It is just a matter of time. This assessment is based on power relations. On the one hand, the Israelis have vast military superiority over the Palestinians and have defeated all the Arab forces sent against them. On the other, they have the United States and a good portion of Europe in their political pockets. So how can they lose?
Victory means ethnically cleansing the land of most of the Palestinians–a process that is on-going. Every effort is being made to force as many as possible into exile. This is being done by an on-going policy of making life as miserable as possible for all non-Jewish natives of Israeli controlled territory. For instance, it is public knowledge in Israel (if not the U.S.) that “police brutality against Palestinians has been routine for decades.” Those who, despite all, refuse to leave, are being territorially restricted and economically marginalized. It is often speculated that the model for the latter situation is the Indian reservations in the U.S. as they existed circa 1870. And indeed, for Zionists this model can be more easily rationalized than the ghettos of old Europe.
2a. In the process of this ethnic cleansing, the number of Palestinians who die is irrelevant to the Zionist leadership. The Palestinians, like the American Indians, are seen as hardly human. If the Zionists could make them all disappear without serious international repercussions they would do so.
- All this having been accomplished, Zionist leaders plan to simply maintain the status quo and wait. They believe that, just as was the case of the American Indians, the world will eventually forget the fate of the Palestinians, and this forgetting will seal Israel’s dominion over the land. At least from the Zionist point of view, that is the end of the story. By the way, Zionists are not the only ones betting on this sort of scenario. The Chinese in Tibet, and the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka, are also counting on the world forgetting their victims. And, in each case they might be right. However, it is the Zionists who are running the greatest risks pursuing this strategy of conquest. Why is that the case?
Part III – Problems For The Zionist Scenario
Israel is not a great power like China, and does not occupy a half-forgotten spot on the globe like Sri Lanka. It is very much on the map as far as vast numbers of people are concerned, both supporters and opponents. Of course, Israel continues to enjoy the patronage and protection of a great power, the U.S. But, as unlikely as it might seem at present, this can change.
It is not the 18th and 19th centuries anymore and outright colonial domination is no longer in favor. The only way Israel can commit crimes with impunity is by: (a) playing the holocaust card and (b) sustaining the political clout of its lobbies. The first practice is rapidly wearing thin almost everywhere one looks. The second, on the other hand, is the key to their patronage and protection. Yet counter lobbies are even now evolving, and an increasingly vocal international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is on-going. The past 95 years of solid Western backing of Zionist political goals (counting from the Balfour Declaration) does not make the future a sure thing for the Israelis and their ideological supporters.
As they conquer Palestine they destroy Judaism. Here is the greatest irony: ultimate success of the Zionist strategy marks the ultimate corruption of official, organized Judaism. This is so because such success seals the devil’s bargain that ties the organized aspect of this religion to the racist and anti-human goals of Zionist ideology. With the death knell of the Palestinian state comes the death knell of official Judaism.
3a. Do you want to know why anti-Semitism appears to be on the rise? Because the Zionists have changed the definition of the term. The traditional definition tells us that anti-Semitism is hatred for Jews as Jews. The new, Zionist inspired definition, includes opposition to anything the “Jewish state” of Israel does. Oppose the political goals of Zionism and you allegedly oppose Jews and Judaism. Ergo, you’re an anti-Semite.
3b. This assertion on the part of Zionists is, of course, a modern innovation. Yet it gains popularity based on the premise laid down by Joseph Goebbels that “if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Nonetheless, the truth is that Zionism and Israel have never been synonymous with Judaism. All Jews are not and never have been Zionists and all Zionists have never been just Jews. That being the case, the claim by Zionists that Israel and its government represent Jewry en masse is false. Yet the lie is stated over and again. The Jews who object to this false claim are now labeled “self-hating Jews.” This too is nonsense.
Part IV – What of Palestinian Resistance?
The most striking thing about the list of obstacles given above is that Palestinian resistance in places like the West Bank, Gaza and Israel proper, is not on it. Why? Again, it has to do with power relations. When, during the Second World War, resistance manifested itself against Nazi occupation, the cost was remarkably high. Partisans might shoot a German soldier, but then the German Army would shoot 50 civilians as punishment. Nonetheless, the Germans lost the war and most of the Nazis from that time have been hunted down and given their own punishment. The Israelis have employed the Nazi strategy of disproportionate revenge and collective punishment from the very inception of the Israeli state. If anything, the kill ratio they exact from the Palestinians is even higher than the Nazi average. But the same powers that once brought low the Nazis now either support or turn a blind eye to the savagery of the Israelis. Under these circumstances the Palestinians have indeed been worn down. In Gaza they are confined to the world’s largest open air prison and in the West Bank most of their leaders are either in prison or have been turned into collaborators. It has gotten to the point where the most effective act of resistance they can muster is the threat that over a thousand of them, locked away in Israeli prisons without charge or trial, will starve themselves to death.
Part V – Conclusion
The death knell of the two state solution and its corresponding corruption of official Judaism is not the end of the story. But, the final chapter can no longer be written by the Palestinians alone. The West began the present horror in the “Holy Land” when it sought to pay for the sin of European anti-Semitism by allowing the destruction of the Palestinian people. Ultimately, it is only with help from the West that the situation can be put right. However, as long as they are under the corrupting influence of Zionism, most governments will not seek to do so. So this corrective effort has to be undertaken by a movement of civil society – Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. And the Jews of the world better hope and pray for its success. For it is not just the fate of the Palestinians that rides on the outcome. It is the fate of the Jews as well.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license.
Abu Ghraib and Hiroshima by PowerPoint and Lectern
Wednesday, 16 May 2012 13:44 By Michael L Weinstein, AlterNet | News Analysis
A grossly exaggerated and noxious brand of faux-patriotism has had the United States in its grips since at least September 11, 2001. The nefarious engine of this jingoistic phenomenon is uber-patriotic, religion-infused exceptionalism. Nowhere is this unconstitutional sickness clearer than on the grounds of the once-prestigious institutes of higher learning under the command of the United States Department of Defense.
It is on these campuses that an insidious blend of abject racism and fundamentalist Christian supremacy, sometimes subtle and sometimes explicit, warps the minds of the servicemen and women who are being groomed to lead present and future generations of American war fighters. Indeed, by PowerPoint and by lectern, the future leaders of the U.S. military are being inculcated in a deranged martial spirit which sees the nuclear bombing of civilian populations as not only justified, but consecrated by a grotesquely distorted, weaponized version of Jesus Christ. The course material similarly commands the unquestioning application of internationally infamous Abu Ghraib-like interrogation tactics more befitting an aggressive, marauding military dictatorship than a Constitutionally-grounded democracy.
“This barbaric ideology will no longer be tolerated. Islam must change or we will facilitate its self-destruction.” These vile and genocidal words were taught at the venerable Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC) in Norfolk, VA by faculty member and instructor Army Lt. Col. Matthew Dooley in a course entitled “Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism.” Dooley also taught officers from all four branches of the military that the U.S. should take “war to a civilian population wherever necessary,” applying the precedents of “Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, [and] Nagasaki” to the two foremost holy cities in the Muslim world, Mecca and Medina. Such statements from this United States military officer, under the colorable authority and aegis of the prestigious JFSC, are beyond the pale of acceptability and their consequences will be extraordinarily severe. Ominously, slide 15 of Dooley’s “Counter-Jihad Op Design Model” called for the eventual “elimination” of any influence that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) may have within the United States. CAIR, an NGO headquartered in Washington, D.C., have almost single-handedly advocated on behalf of the Muslim community in the face of widespread Islamophobic hysteria and incitement. The fact that such words as “elimination” are being spoken in regards to domestic civil liberties groups by the most lethal killing machine devised by mankind, i.e. the U.S. military, brings to mind Pastor Martin Niemöller’s prescient warning which may perhaps be updated to reflect the present climate: “First they came for the Muslims…”
The course materials truly depict a sinister picture. An anonymous whistle-blowing soldier, who provided one of the two presentations to Al Jazeera, truthfully remarked that it was the work of “this bigoted conspiracy cabal [which] is both disgusting and so deeply un-American.” What comprises this bigoted conspiracy cabal? An unholy alliance of fundamentalist evangelicals, neoconservatives, and sectarian bigots imported from the Middle East.
Reports indicate that the anti-Muslim curriculum at JFSC was prepared by the Arlington, Va.-based non-profit Strategic Engagement Group, Inc. (SEG), a virtual one-stop shop for modern-day “Crusaders” among the highest echelons of our military, intelligence, and civilian law enforcement bodies. SEG was formed in 2010 for what it claims is “the purpose of exposing and defeating efforts to subvert the United States Constitution and subjugate the American People,” referring to what they claim is “Shariah Law.” John Guandolo, a disgraced former FBI agent and current Vice President with SEG, has spoken at Christian Fundamentalist conferences in Murfreesboro, TN, in support of local Christian extremists’ efforts to halt Muslim-Americans’ efforts to practice their constitutionally assured right to construct a mosque. Guandolo had previously told an anti-“Sharia” gathering in Nashville that “Muslims do not have a First Amendment right to do anything,” and that regional mosques are front organizations for the Muslim Brotherhood. Another VP with SEG, Major Stephen Coughlin (US Army Reserve), is described on the group’s website as “the leading expert in the United States on Islamic Doctrine.” He has also personally spoken before the JFSC in his capacity as a one-time intelligence analyst for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Coughlin’s “expertise” boils down to a wildly conspiratorial world outlook wherein Muslims are hell-bent on a quest to “destroy western civilization from within.” In 2008, Coughlin was let go from his position when the Pentagon caught wind of the pathologically Islamophobic paranoia evident throughout the entirety of his work. The Washington Times, the right-wing newspaper owned by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, described Coughlin as “one of the first casualties in the war of ideas with Islamism.”
SEG’s President, Edward Kimball, previously served as Foreign Policy Counsel to US Congresswoman Sue Myrick (R-NC), a member of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Myrick has in the past acted as Stephen Coughlin’s personal guardian angel following calls for the Pentagon to relieve him of his duties. Myrick gained nationwide notoriety after making the ridiculous claim that Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps agents were learning Spanish in Venezuela for the purpose of infiltrating the United States while disguised as undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Latin America (see video here). Myrick has also signed documents supporting allegations that CAIR is an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood and Palestinian Hamas.
According to correspondence obtained by WikiLeaks and the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, Myrick has recently joined forces with James F. Smith, former director of the notorious dominionist mercenary outfit Blackwater, and Walid Phares, a shady character with a history of collaboration alongside the fascistic Israeli-backed Christian militias of the Lebanese Civil War. Phares, who frequently appeared on Fox News and the Christian Broadcasting Network as a “terrorism expert,” currently co-chairs Mitt Romney’s Middle East advisory group.
“Bigoted conspiracy cabal” indeed. These characters’ bizarre concoctions make the wildest Cold War-era “Reds Under the Beds” tales seem almost like Bible truth.
While Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dempsey feigns shock regarding this “news” of rabid Islamophobia emanating from the Pentagon, we at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) don’t buy it. Gen. Dempsey could merely have switched on his television set five years ago to see the bigoted filth issued forth from the JFSC instructors’ podiums. In June 2007, Brigitte Gabriel spoke at JFSC as a guest “expert” on Islam in a lecture broadcast by C-SPAN. Gabriel, a Lebanese Maronite Christian and career sectarian, stated that the average “practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America.” She also disgustingly stated, as C-SPAN cameras rolled, that the Muslim-American community is “good at nothing but complaining about every single thing instead of standing up and working with us in fighting the enemy in our country.” Like her compatriot Mr. Phares, Gabriel is a professional mountebank. As such, she is a member of the Hasbara Fellowships, an Israeli propaganda and apologist front with ties to Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party. The Hasbara Fellowships, who specialize in training street-level PR cadres on behalf of the most aggressive sections of the Israeli establishment, played a crucial role in the mass distribution of the virulently anti-Muslim DVD, Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West. “Who pays the piper, calls the tune.”
Throughout the media, blogosphere, and security conference circuits these figures buttress one another’s narratives, cover each other’s flanks, and add pieces of fabric to a carefully woven patchwork quilt depicting a vast Islamic plot of violent insurgency and overthrow. And so, as details emerge in this “Bigoted conspiracy cabal,” the plot of unadulterated shame grows thicker still.
While 2004’s hellish photos from Abu Ghraib seem almost like ancient history, eight years later the extrajudicial detentions and incidents of torture and abuse still remain a matter of course for those held at Guantanamo Bay and at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. These outrages, among countless others, are the direct outcome of dehumanizing curricula which are produced by the Islamophobia industry and eagerly lapped up by both the military and civilian bureaucracy.
This latest revelation from JFSC constitutes an open call for the genocide of over a billion and a half men, women, and children. An “elect nation” arrogance, wrought from the insuperable alloy of fundamentalist Christian extremism and American exceptionalism, systemically bathes the halls of the Pentagon, military academia, and our approximately 1,000 military installations scattered around the world in about 150 countries. Let us call it what it is: a racist, bigoted repugnance. It catalyzes a ubiquitous doctrine within the U.S. military which dictates that Muslims around the globe, be they combatant or civilian, should be viewed as simply less than human. We have been here before. Many times. We have seen the oceans of blood that flow from this abyss of base prejudice. Who or what is the source for this pernicious and criminal posture towards one of the world’s largest religions and its mosaic of men, women, and children practitioners? The answer is clear: the enormous, sinister force which is fundamentalist Christianity.
What can be done to make amends? Besides the actual aggressive and expeditious trial by courts martial of Lt. Col. Dooley and all others who knew or should have known of the blood libel he was “teaching,” DoD Secretary Leon Panetta can do two more things. He must immediately issue formal written apologies to all U.S. service personnel who were forced, as students at the JFSC, to listen to Lt. Col. Dooley’s vile, Islamophobic rantings. Lastly, it is his clear duty to invite them back to JFSC to be “retrained” on American-Islamic issues, absent the blood-drenched calls for genocide via PowerPoint and lectern.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license.