Loharano: Truthout
Successive Israeli governments have been trying for years to push Palestinians out of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and the latest round of Israeliana fanafihana latsaka in line with that goal. But mahatakatra ny roots of the current escalation — and the azo atao threat of all-out war — one must handinika the U.S.-backed, foundational Israeli government policy of mampiasa strategies of “terror and expulsion” in an effort to expand its territory by killing and displacing Palestinians, says Noam Chomsky, in this dinidinika manokana ho an'ny Truthout.
Chomsky - a Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona and Institute Professor amim-boninahitra ao amin'ny MIT - is ekena iraisam-pirenena as one of the most astute analysts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Middle East politics in general, ary is a leading voice in the struggle to liberate Palestine. Among his many asa soratra on the topic are The Fateful Alliance: The United States, Israel and Palestinians; Gaza ao anaty krizy: Reflections on Israel’s War Against the Palestinians; ary Ao Palestina.
CJ Polychroniou: Noam, I want to start by asking you to put into context the Israeli attack against Palestinians at al-Aqsa Mosque amid eviction protests, and then the latest air raid attacks in Gaza. What’s new, what’s old, and to what extent is this latest round of neo-colonial Israeli violence related to Trump’s move of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem?
Noam Chomski: There are always new twists, but in essentials it is an old story, tracing back a century, taking new forms after Israel’s 1967 conquests and ny fanapahan-kevitra 50 taona lasa izay, by both major political groupings, to choose expansion over security and diplomatic settlement - anticipating (and receiving) crucial U.S. material and diplomatic support all the way.
For what became the dominant tendency in the Zionist movement, there efa a raikitra maharitra tanjona. Put crudely, the goal is to rid the country of Palestinians and replace miaraka amin'izy ireo Jewish settlers cast as ny "rightful owners of the land" returning home after millennia of exile.
Amin'ny voalohany, the British, then in charge, generally regarded this tetikasa as just. Lord Balfour, author of the Declaration granting Jews a “national home” in Palestine, captured Western elite fitsarana etika fairly well by manambara that “Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long tradition, in present needs, in future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land.”
The sentiments are not unfamiliar.
Zionist policies since have been opportunistic. When possible, the Israeli government — and indeed the entire Zionist movement — adopts strategies of terror and expulsion. Rehefa circumstances don’t allow that, it uses softer means. A century ago, the device was to quietly set up a watchtower and a fence, and soon it will mivadika ho a settlement, facts on the ground. The counterpart today is the Israeli state handroakaLing na dia Bebe kokoa Palestiniana families from the homes where they manana been living for generations — amin'ny gesture toward legality to salve the conscience of those derided tany Israely as “beautiful souls." Mazava ho azy, the mostly absurd legalistic pretenses for expelling Palestinians (Ottoman land laws and the like) are 100 isan-jato racist. There is no thought of fanomezana Palestiniana rights to return to homes from which they’ve been expelled, even zo to build on what’s left to them.
Israely 1967 conquests made it possible to extend similar measures to the conquered territories, in this case in lehibe violation of international law, as Israeli leaders were informed tsy misy hatak'andro by their highest legal authorities. The new projects were facilitated by the radical change in U.S.-Israeli relations. Pre-1967 relations had been generally warm but ambiguous. taorian'ny ady they reached mbola tsy nisy toy heights of support for a client state.
The Israeli victory was a great gift to the U.S. governemanta. A proxy war had been underway between radical Islam (monina ao Saudi Arabia) and secular nationalism (Nasser’s Egypt). Like Britain before it, the U.S. nirona prefer radical Islam, izay izany considered less threatening to US imperial domination. Israel smashed Arab secular nationalism.
Israel’s military prowess had already impressed the U.S. military command in 1948, and the ’67 victory made it very clear that a militarized Israeli state could be a mafy base for U.S. power in the region - also providing important secondary services in support of U.S. imperial goals beyond. U.S. regional dominance came to rest on three pillars: Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran (then under the Shah). Technically, they were all at war, but in reality the alliance was very close, particularly between Israel and the murderous Iranian tyranny.
Ao anatin'ny that international framework, Israel was free to pursue the policies that persist today, always with massive U.S. support despite occasional clucks of discontent. The Israeli government’s avy hatrany policy goal is to hanorina a "Greater Israel," Including a vastly expanded “Jerusalem” encompassing surrounding Arab villages; the Jordan valley, a large part of the West Bank with much of ICT tany azo volena; ary major towns deep inside the West Bank, along with Jews-only infrastructure projects integrating them into Israel. Ny tetikasa Bypasses Palestinian population concentrations, like Nablus, so as to fend off what Israeli leaders describe as the dread “demographic olana": too many non-Jews in the projected “democratic Jewish state” of "Greater Israel" - an oxymoron more difficult to vava with each passing year. Palestinianas ao anatin'ny "Israely Lehibe" are confined to 165 enclaves, separated from their lands and olive groves by a hostile military, subjected to constant attack by violent Jewish gangs (“hilltop youths”) protected by the Israeli army.
Meanwhile Israel settled and annexed the Golan Heights in violation of UN Security Council orders (as it nanao in Jerusalem). The Gaza horror story is too complex to recount here. ny one of the worst of contemporary crimes, shrouded in a dense network of deceit and apologetics for atrocities.
Trump went beyond his predecessors in Provma- free rein for Israeli crimes. One major contribution was orchestrating the Abraham Accords, which formalized long-standing tacit agreements between Israel and maro Arab dictatorships. That relieved limited Arab voahazona on Israeli violence and expansion.
The Accords were fanalahidy iray singa fototra ny Trump geostrategic vision: to construct a reactionary alliance of brutal and repressive states, run from Washington, including [Jair] Bolsonaro’s Brazil, [Narendra] Modi’s India, [Viktor] Orbán's Hungary, and eventually others like them. The Middle East-North Africa component is based on al-Sisi’s hideous Egyptian tyranny, ary ankehitriny under the Accords, koa family dictatorships from Morocco to the UAE and Bahrain. Israel provides the military muscle, with the U.S. in the immediate background.
The Abraham Accords fulfill another Trump tanjona: bringing under Washington’s umbrella the major resource areas needed to accelerate the race toward environmental cataclysm, the cause to which Trump and associates dedicated themselves with impressive fervor. That includes Morocco, which has a near monopoly of the phosphates needed for the industrialized agriculture that is destroying soils and poisoning the atmosphere. To enhance the Moroccan near-monopoly, Trump ofisialy fantatra and affirmed Morocco’s brutal and illegal occupation of Western Sahara, which also has phosphate deposits.
It is of some interest that the formalization of the alliance of some of the world’s most violent, repressive and reactionary states has been greatly applauded across a broad spectrum of opinion.
So far, Biden has taken over these programs. He has rescinded the gratuitous herisetra of Trumpism, such as withdrawing the fragile lifeline for Gaza because, as Trump explained, Palestinians had not been grateful enough for his demolition of their just aspirations. Raha tsy izany ny Trump-Kushner criminal edifice remains intact, though some specialists on the region think it might totter with repeated Israeli attacks on Palestiniana worshippers in the al-Aqsa mosque and other exercises of Israel’s effective monopoly of violence.
Israel’s settlements have no legal validity, so why is the U.S. continuing to provide aid to Israel in violation of U.S. lalàna, and why isn’t the progressive community focusing on this illegality?
Efa nisy Israely a very valued client since ny demonstration of its mastery of violence in 1967. Law is no impediment. U.S. governments have always had a cavalier attitude to U.S. lalàna, adhering to standard imperial practice. Take what is arguably the major ohatra: The U.S. maharatsy ny mifampiresakatitution declares fa treaties entered into by the U.S. fitondram-panjakana dia the “supreme law of the land.” The major postwar treaty is the UN Charter, which bars “the threat or use of force” in international affairs (with exceptions that are not relevant in real cases). Can you think of a president who hasn’t voahitsakitsaka this provision of the supreme law of the land with abandon? For example, by proclaiming that all options are open if Iran disobeys U.S. orders — let alone such textbook examples of the “supreme international crime” (the Nuremberg judgment) as the invasion of Iraq.
The substantial Israeli nuclear arsenal should, under U.S. law, raise serious questions about ny ara-dalàna of military and economic aid to Israel. That difficulty is overcome by not recognizing ICT nisy, an unconcealed farce, and a highly consequential one, as we’ve discussed elsewhere. U.S. military aid to Israel koa violates the Leahy Law, which bans military aid to units engaged in systematic human rights violations. The Israeli armed forces provide many kandidàs.
Congresswoman Betty McCollum has taken the lead in pursuing this initiative. mitondra it bebe kokoa should be a prime commitment ho an'ny those concerned with U.S. fanohanana the terrible Israeli crimes against Palestinians. Even a threat to the huge flow of aid could have a dramatic impact.
Ny ZNetwork dia mamatsy vola amin'ny alalan'ny fahalalahan'ny mpamaky azy fotsiny.
hanome