Zionism and the transnational elite TAKIS FOTOPOULOS The International Journal of INCLUSIVE DEMOCRACY, vol. 2, no.4 (November 2006)

How can one explain the degradation of an entire people who, yesterday, were persecuted and yet who, today, approve almost unanimously (90% according to the polls) of the murder of many times the number of civilians killed by the ‘terrorist’ Hezbollah? This is the question currently torturing people all over the world , as they watch Zionists every day behaving like neo-Nazis, who do not hesitate to inflict collective punishment to thousands of civilians, who see their homes being systematically destroyed and themselves being buried alive under the ruins, simply because they have had the misfortune to live in cities and towns from which the Hezbollah missiles were launched:[1] A similar question being asked is: how does one account for the fact that the various peace organizations and ‘Left-wing’ intellectuals of the Amos-Oz and David-Grossman variety consider this criminal war to be ‘moral’, if they do not actually participate themselves (e.g. Isaac Herzog) in the blood-thirsty government? On the other hand, some analysts of the reformist Left and some Greens still pretend that they do not understand that it is not just Bush (‘who lives in a world of his own’[2]) and his toy-poodle in the UK who are behind this bestial ‘war’, but the entire transnational elite, under the leadership of the US/UK elites and the tacit support of the rest of its members. It is, in other words, a ‘war’ (if this is the appropriate word for a completely asymmetrical conflict between one of the most powerful and technologically advanced armies in the world and a regular guerrilla force with no planes, no helicopters, no ships, no tanks etc) aiming at the absolute control of the area’s energy resources by the transnational elite and its allies in Russia and China. This is a goal which cannot possibly be achieved without the prior stabilisation of the client regimes in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, as well as those of the protectorates in the area (old —the Gulf states— and new, i.e. Iraq and Afghanistan). In turn, this implies the crushing of the resistance organisations and their supporters in the ‘rogue-states’ (Syria and Iran).

The answers to the above questions cannot, of course, be given in terms of Goebbelian Zionist propaganda referring to the ‘right of self-defence’ that is being exercised by a peaceful people who “suddenly” came under attack by the Hezbollah ‘terrorists’ from Lebanon. Particularly so when this ‘suddenly’ forgets the previous occupation of parts of Lebanon for many years, the continuing bestial occupation of the West Bank and of the supposedly-liberated Gaza, the gradual ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem, the occupation of the Golan Heights etc. Nor, of course, is an adequate explanation offered by the recent study by two American professors[3], adopted by the entire reformist Left, according to which US foreign policy has been driven by a powerful 'Israel Lobby’ whose influence is incompatible with the national interests of the US. Although this research methodically reveals the mechanisms used by this lobby in the determination of US foreign policy, through its control of Congress and the US administration, in fact, it simply explains the functioning of an instrument of the US-based Zionist elite. The described mechanisms themselves would not be able to function without the control of key positions in the economic and cultural (mass media etc) sectors by the same elite –a fact which radically differentiates this lobby from a regular lobby like, for instance, the Greek- American one, which is powerless to exercise any real influence on US foreign policy. On these grounds, the view of Noam Chomsky (who, despite his powerful critique of Zionist policies against Palestinians, has never questioned the Zionist state itself —as the radical Jewish Left has done in the past) that the pro-Israel Lobby is just like any other lobby with no special influence or place in US politics, was disorienting, justly attracting severe criticism from parts of the US radical Left.[4] Furthermore, the authors of the above-mentioned study, indirectly adopting the post-modern theory that there are no class divisions[5] today, are unable to realise that a state’s foreign policy is not determined by an abstract ‘national interest’ but by the interests of the ruling elite and its supporters. And it could easily be shown that the US elite’s interests in the Middle East are not only absolutely compatible with the interests of the US-based Zionist elite, but they are also best served by the State Department’s policies; let us only consider for a moment what the present position of US transnational corporations —particularly those related to the oil industry— would have been had the area been ruled by Nasserite or Baathist regimes!

The explanation, therefore, for both the present degradation of the Israeli people and their Left should be sought, instead, in their adoption of the criminal Zionist ideology, which is not simply a nationalist ideology, as Zionists and pro-Zionist analysts present it, but a purely racist ideology which presupposes the ethnic cleansing of historical Palestine through the mass uprooting of Palestinians, and the massive migration of millions of supporters of this ideology from all over the world. On the basis of this ideology, the area was colonised and –with the huge help of the British and US elites and the well-known UN resolution in the aftermath of the Second World War —the Zionist state was created, which kept expanding after every victory against neighbouring Arab states. These victories were not, of course, due to superior Israeli knowledge of the “art of war”, but to massive financial and military US aid which amounts to a total of well over $140bn, in 2003 dollars. Thus, Israel receives about $3bn in direct foreign assistance each year and has been the largest annual recipient of direct US economic and military assistance since 1976, and the largest total recipient since the Second World War.[6]

As Oren Ben-Dor[7], an ex-Israeli political philosopher puts it, the violence to which Israel has resorted since its creation has not been used to defend Israeli citizens, but the nature of the Israeli state:

What is particularly interesting is Ben-Dor’s stand on the Zionist and pro-Zionist Left which adopts the two-state “solution”: ‘Many who wish to hide the immorality of the Israeli state do so by restricting attention to the horrors of the post-1967 occupation and talking about a two-state solution, since endorsing a Palestinian state implicitly endorses the ideology behind a Jewish one’[8]. This, despite the fact that, as I have repeatedly tried to show in the past[9], a Palestinian state would have been nothing more than a Zionist protectorate in the form of Bantustan, given the present balance of power in the Middle East …

* The above text is an extended version of an article which was first published in the fortnightly column of Takis Fotopoulos in the mass circulation Athens daily Eleftherotypia on 5/8/2006

[1] Both absolutely and relatively. According to official data, 508 Lebanese civilians, 46 Hizbullah guerrillas, 26 Lebanese soldiers, 36 Israeli soldiers and 19 Israeli civilians were killed up to the beginning of August [see Robert Fisk, “Entire Lebanese family killed in Israeli attack on hospital” Independent (3/8/06)]. These data imply that the victims of Israeli bombings are 87% civilians, whereas the victims of Hezbollah missiles are 33% civilians.
[2] G. Monbiot, ‘The king of fairyland will never grasp the realities of the Middle East’, The Guardian (1/8/2006).
[3] J. Mearsheimer & S. Walt, “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy”, London Review of Books (March 2006).
[4] βλ. James Petras, “Noam Chomsky and the Pro-Israel Lobby: Fourteen Erroneous Theses”, Canadian Dimension (April 2006).
[5] see ‘Class divisions today’, Democracy & Nature, Vol. 6, No. 2 (July 2000).
[6] J. Mearsheimer & S. Walt, ibid.
[7] Oren Ben-Dor, “Who are the real terrorists in the Middle East?”, The Independent (26/7/2006).
[8] ibid.
[9] see ‘Palestine: the hour of truth’, International Journal of Inclusive Democracy, Vol. 2, No 2 (Jan. 2006).

Zionism and the transnational elite*