THE REALITY OF ISRAEL

A MILITARIZED OUTPOST SERVING IMPERIALIST INTERESTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Theodor Herzl was very clear when he stated that Der Judenstaat would form a colonial outpost in Palestine if the Great powers granted it to them and guaranteed their existence. “We would there form a portion of the rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism. We should, as a neutral State, remain in contact with all Europe, which would have to guarantee our existence”. (Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State: An Attempt at a Modern Solution to the Jewish Question. London: H. Pordes, Translated by Sylvie D'avigdor - 6th Edition, p. 30)

On 12 November 1914, Chaim Weizman wrote a letter to C. P. Scott, the editor of the Manchester Guardian, stating, “…should Palestine fall within the British sphere of influence, and should Britain encourage a Jewish settlement there, as a British dependency, we could have in twenty to thirty years a million Jews out there, perhaps more. They would develop the country, bring back civilization to it and form a very effective guard for the Suez Canal”.

Herbert Samuel, a Jewish British of the British civil sent a memorandum in early 1915 headed “The Future of Palestine” to H. Asquith, the British Prime Minister then. In his diary on January 28, 1915 Asquith wrote that Samuel had “argued at considerable length and with some vehemence in favor of the British annexation of Palestine… He thinks we might plant in this not very promising territory about three or four million European Jews… I confess I am not attracted to this proposed addition to our responsibilities…” Asquith later added, “Curiously enough, the only other partisan of this proposal is Lloyd George. And I need not say he does not care a damn for the Jews or their past or their future, but thinks it will be an outrage to let the Holy Places pass into the possession or under the protectorate of ‘agnostic and atheistic’ France”. (Chaim Weizmann, Trial and Error, London: Hamish Hamilton, 1949, pp. 148-151)

U.S. relationship with the Middle East began as a neutral power interested in the application of self-determination to all ethnic groups, including Armenians, Kurds, and Arabs who were under Turkish rule. This relationship developed into supporting British designs for control of the area following WWI. It was further developed into supporting Zionist plans in Palestine that gradually enhanced into a strategic alliance between the U.S. and Israel as part of the New World Order led by the U.S. following the disintegration of the USSR in 1991.

On 31 October 1998, a U.S. Memorandum of Agreement was signed by American President Bill Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu according to which the U.S. would work jointly for the attainment of the following objectives: enhancing Israel’s defensive and deterrent capabilities, and upgrading the framework of the U.S.-Israeli strategic and military relationships, as well as the technological cooperation between them.

This relationship with the Imperialist powers made it possible for the Zionists to create Israel in 1948. After six decades, Israelis began to wake up to reality. The Palestinian Arabs did not vanish into thin air.

In early 2001, Ariel Sharon won the elections in Israel. He came to power with a declared goal of ending the ‘War of Independence’ of which the war in 1948 was ‘just one chapter’. (“Interview with Sharon” by Ari Shavit, published in Ha’aretz on 12 April 2001)

The war against ‘terror’ gave Sharon a cover to press on with his agenda using brutality and war crimes. Through this brutality, Sharon was hoping to bring about a Palestinian surrender to the Zionist whims and wishes. Moreover, he began building a wall to imprison the Palestinians within ghettos making their life impossible. For five years, Sharon failed to realize his dream.

On 12 July 2006, Israel started an all out war against Lebanon using Hezbollah’s kidnapping of 2 Israeli soldiers as a pretext. The war was ended on 14 August 2006 in complete failure for Israel.

The ‘demographic threat’ came back to haunt the Zionists. A systemic effort to confront the ‘threat’ was introduced according to which annual conferences were held in the Institute of Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center – Herzliya to discuss and confront this basic and ‘strategic threat’ to the ‘Jewish State’. The first conference was held in December 2001.

Figures published by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics on 22 April 2007 indicate that current population of Israel number 7,150,000 of whom 5,725,000 (80%) are Jewish. Arabs living within the borders of Mandate Palestine are approximately 4.5 million. Within ten to fifteen years, Arabs living in Palestine would become the majority even if Palestinian Refugees were not allowed to return to the homes and lands that were usurped from them.

Making peace with the Arabs would mean an end to Israel’s role as a militarized outpost serving Imperialist interests in the Middle East, which would mean an end to the unlimited support Israel gets from the Western Imperialist powers.

The only way out of this vicious circle is for the Israeli Jews to realize the bankruptcy of political Zionism, admit the wrong done to the Arabs, accept the Right of Return and create one Palestinian State within which all citizens would live as equal human beings with equal human rights.


Nizar Sakhnini, 28 April 2007