Middle East: "Democracy" in Action TAKIS FOTOPOULOS

The year 2006 was particularly revealing of the transnational elite’s conception of ‘democracy’, in the name of which ―we should not forget― it launched its barbaric wars against Afghanistan and Iraq, which were followed by the bestial occupation of these countries ―an event that functioned as the catalyst for the present bloody civil war in Iraq. All this, despite the fact that neither the peoples who are the «subjects» of the transnational elite, nor the peoples who were the «objects» of its attention, showed any interest or desire for the ‘democratisation’ of the countries concerned!

The former, far from having expressed any kind of consensus to the export of their own “democracy”, showed their clear hostility to such a campaign well before it was even launched. This was made not only abundantly clear by their ―sometimes unprecedented― mass demonstrations, but it was also confirmed by numerous polls held since then. And yet, all these clear demonstrations of popular will have been summarily brushed-off by the elites, with the usual “argument” that they have the “electoral mandate”, in other words, a general and vague mandate that in no way included any kind of authorisation for taking a decision on launching wars ―a decision that would cost the very life of citizens.

The latter have also made it very clear how they saw their “liberation” by the armies of the transnational elite. This is shown not only by the titanic resistance which developed in both Iraq and Afghanistan but even by polls carried out by the transnational elite itself, like the one mentioned in Iraq Study Group Congress Report, according to which 61% of Iraqis (including the Kurds who are the only enthusiastic supporters of the occupation as their pseudo-autonomy vitally depends on it) adopt the actions of the resistance fighters ―whom the transnational elite calls “terrorists”.

It is also in the very name of “democracy” that we have seen in 2006 the playing of the ongoing tragic farce in Palestine and Lebanon where ―by coincidence!― the corresponding interventions by the transnational and Zionist elites have also created the objective conditions for the eruption of civil wars in the future.

In Palestine first, Zionists of all denominations (“progressive” or not) have never had any real intention to allow the creation of two viable states, as prescribed by the original 1948 UN resolution. This, despite the fact that even that resolution was seen at the time by the international radical Left (including the Jewish Left) ―and proved to be since― a criminal decision, as it imposed the “pure” Jewish state, demanded by Zionists, on a historically multi-cultural area, a fact which presupposed a massive ethnic cleansing of the dominant Arab majority[1]. However, the solution of a unitary state in the form of a multi-cultural federation of all peoples in the area has always been proposed as the only genuine and democratic solution to the Palestine problem. No wonder that Zionists today, following the huge expansion of their state as a result of its conquering wars and particularly the 1967 war, do not accept anymore the return of all occupied land, something that would imply the dismantling of all of their illegal settlements. Furthermore, they do not even discuss the right of return of the millions of Palestinian refugees who were uprooted as a result of the mass and systematic ethnic cleansing that has taken place since 1948 with the tacit support of the “international community”, which has never taken any effective measures against this crime, of the sort that led to the dismantlement of even the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Therefore, Arafat’s and Fattah’s “historic compromise” to recognise the right of existence of the Zionist regime was particularly significant and for many Palestinians constituted a betrayal of their cause. Not only because this involved the indirect legalisation of the Palestinian uprooting, but even more so because it was not reciprocal, as it was not based on any parallel Zionist recognition of a Palestinian state in the area allocated to the Palestinians by the UN decision of 1948, or even the pre-1967 area. The negotiations which followed this historic compromise made clear to everybody, even to Arafat who died from a mysterious ‘illness’ under siege by Zionist troops in Ramallah, that Zionists were only interested in the creation of a series of South African Bantustans rather than of a viable Palestinian state. This, despite the fact that even a viable state would still be utterly dependent on its much more powerful neighbour. In the meantime, Al Fattah has created a corrupt state mechanism, which nevertheless offered essentially the only outlet of stable employment (usually to Fattah members), given the systematic destruction of the Palestinian economy by Zionists.

In this context, the spectacular Hamas victory in the elections for a legislative body at the beginning of the year, which were organised by Arafat’s successor, Abbas,(who has always been more willing than Arafat to accept the instructions of the transnational elite) was hardly surprising. Particularly so when Hamas, despite its religious irrationalism, had shown not only an important social welfare work, but also an uncompromising line of non-recognition of Zionist Israel. A line, which is now supported by the majority of Palestinians, after their bitter realisation that the compromising tactics of Arafat and Abbas simply made Zionists bolder in their demands. Thus, Zionists continued the massive expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank during 2006 ―this time it was complemented by a huge wall, compared to which the Berlin wall, a symbol of Soviet ‘repression’, pales into insignificance— after they had evacuated the Gaza strip (an area unimportant to them) and turned it into a huge ghetto (similar to the Warsaw ghetto in which the Nazis imprisoned the parents of the present oppressors) in which two thirds of the people live under the poverty line. It was particularly significant that Hamas achieved this victory, not only strictly adhering to the election rules of representative “democracy”, but also having even to face a systematic indirect campaign against it by the transnational elite, which did not hesitate even to providing discreet financial support to the Palestinian Authority to strengthen it against Hamas ![2]

However, Hamas’ victory signalled the launching of a well-organised campaign of economic strangulation of the Palestinian people. The transnational and the Zionist elites demanded that Hamas had to recognise Israel totally and immediately, and until it did so, Palestinians would be "put on a diet" ―in the words of one Israeli government adviser— a diet which has already led to hospitals being shut down and shuttered across the West Bank.[3] At the same time, whilst Zionists illegally withhold millions of dollars of Palestinian tax revenues, condemning in the process 160,000 Palestinians (including doctors and teachers) to unpaid work since March 2006, the US elite officially has put up some $42m to bolster Hamas's political opponents ahead of the early Palestinian elections, which have just been imposed in a kind of “coup” by Abbas. This, amid reports in Israel suggesting that some at least of this money was being diverted to military training and to purchase weapons for forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, as it was becoming increasingly clear that Abbas’s Fattah party and Hamas were headed for a showdown.[4] Furthermore, just a few days before the end of 2006 it was revealed that Israel has allowed Egypt to deliver a large consignment of guns and ammunition to shore up the presidential guard of the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in his battle against Hamas. The delivery, which included 2,000 AK-47 rifles, 20,000 magazines and 2 million bullets, would have a street value in Gaza of about £6m.[5] The next act in this tragic farce has therefore been stage managed. Thus, either the compulsory diet in which the Palestinian people have been put on will prove successful and they will elect those liked by the transnational and Zionist elites, or, if they do not wish to conform, the objective conditions created in Palestine by the same elites will lead to a bloody civil war which, they rightly hope, will neutralise the Palestinian movement for many years to come. Preferably, until the Zionists have created all the necessary facts “on the ground” for the “final solution” of the Palestinian problem.

Finally, in Lebanon, at the very moment when millions of people, Muslims and Christians united, have been demonstrating in the centre of Beirut demanding a government of national unity in place of the present government which is being referred to, in the American press itself, as Lebanon's "US-backed government", and whilst an opinion poll by Beirut's Centre for Research and Information suggests that 73.1 per cent of the population support the creation of a national unity government ―the very demand made by Hezbollah―[6] the elites talk of an attempted “coup” and try, in every way available to them, to encourage a new catastrophic civil war in Lebanon.

This is the kind of “democracy” being established at the moment in the Middle East by a transnational elite, which sees no other way of imposing its rule but through the initiation of civil wars all over the place.