US funds and Israel kill Palestinians en masse before swallowing Gaza

People queue for bread in front of a bakery that was partially destroyed in an Israeli strike, in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, on 2 November, as battles continue between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement – AFP 

According to official figures, as of November 2020 Israel had received a total of $146 billion American taxpayer funds without any strings attached. Following his visit to Israel, Joe Biden had sought another $105 billion from Congress, to assist Ukraine and Israel to strengthen their security. Already, a US aircraft carrier strike group had been moved closer to Israel and it hopes to supply munitions and other military supplies to strengthen Israel’s arsenal. Compare this assistance with the $100 million, a mere pittance, the president had asked Congress to approve, for easing the pain of a catastrophic humanitarian crisis engulfing Gaza now

“Chomsky: Without US aid Israel wouldn’t be killing Palestinians en masse” (C. J. Polychroniou, TRUTHOUT, 12 May 2021)

The soon to be ordered ground invasion of Gaza by Zionist Israel, the remorseless massacre of Gazans including children and women, Israel’s future “terrorists” and their producers, the pulverisation of hospitals, places of worship and other infrastructures, in short, the GENOCIDE which is already under way is proceeding to the letter of the script written long before the rocket attack by Hamas, a couple of weeks ago.  The US political leadership is aiding and abetting the realisation of a grand Zionist dream.  Gaza now and West bank later would become new municipalities or provinces with new names under Greater Israel. To Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, “there are no innocents in the Gaza strip”; to its Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Gazans are “human animals”; and to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, they are “savages”.  This determined denigration and dehumanisation of Palestinians and the Zionist hatred of them stem from the original myth about Palestine as “a land without people”.

When in 1915, Arthur Ruppin, a German Zionist proponent of pseudoscientific race theory and one of the founders of the city of Tel Aviv asked Chaim Weizmann who was to become the first President of Israel, about indigenous Palestinians, Weizmann quoted the British and said there were about some “hundred thousand niggers (Kushim for Negroes in Hebrew) of no value”.  Later, when Lord Balfour, the author of that infamous Balfour Declaration, which in the words of Edward Said, is “made by a European power, about a non-European territory … in a flat disregard for both the presence and wishes of the native majority residents in that territory”, was asked to comment on Zionism, Balfour said, “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”. Thus, the idea that Palestinian rights and claims do not matter and they could easily be dismissed in any negotiation is ingrained in the hearts and minds of every Zionist Israeli. Like the British then, the US now is fully backing with funds, advice, and military aid the ultimate realisation of the Zionist dream.  The Western media over which the Israeli lobby commands disproportionate influence and control continues to manufacture public consent to the Zionist project. 

 American assistance and support to Israel 

 With nearly 40 % of the world Jewry living as citizens in the US and with their overwhelming influence not only over US national politics but also over the commanding heights of the US polity, American assistance and support to Israel is assured.  In fact, no US president could even dream of staying in power without supporting Israel and its military incursions into Arab territories. According to official figures, as of November 2020 Israel had received a total of $146 billion American taxpayer funds without any strings attached. Following his visit to Israel, Joe Biden had sought another $105 billion from Congress, to assist Ukraine and Israel to strengthen their security. Already, a US aircraft carrier strike group had been moved closer to Israel and it hopes to supply munitions and other military supplies to strengthen Israel’s arsenal. Compare this assistance with the $100 million, a mere pittance, the president had asked Congress to approve, for easing the pain of a catastrophic humanitarian crisis engulfing Gaza now.

The plight of the Palestinians is worsened by the poverty of leadership among the Arabs. The PLO is corrupt, Hamas knows no other tactic than to fire rockets, Hezbollah is the same and the Arab states are disunited and manipulated by superpowers. Arab countries are a bunch of disunited sheikdoms, kingdoms and dictatorships ruled by leaders with no popular mandate to govern. None of these countries could be called a democracy even though one or two of them like Egypt conduct periodic elections that are always manipulated by vested interests

Having won PLO’s consent to create a “Bantustan” under the Oslo Accords in 1993 and 1995, the US and its allies started parroting the so-called two-state solution to the Palestinian issue without defining the territorial boundaries of the respective states. Every so-called negotiation for demarcating territories undertaken by the so-called neutral deal makers was based on maps drawn by the Israelis and not by the Palestinians.  

Zionist dream for a single state

In other words, even cartography was called upon to serve the interest of the aggressor and not the victim. Yet, Israel had shown no interest in the accords and continued to extend its territory whenever a conflict occurred with the Palestinians. The Zionist dream is not for a two-state but for a single state solution that would entrench Zionist suzerainty over the whole of Palestine.  The US, in its own interest of imperial dominance over the Arab Middle East, has no choice but to watch and support the Zionist design for a Greater Israel.  All that the US may want in return from Israel would be to operate as US’ partner to protect the superpower’s interests in that region.  The so-called US diplomatic manoeuvre to bring the oily Arab nations closer to Israel is part of this strategic game.  That game obviously sacrifices the interests of the Palestinians. 

Poverty of leadership among Arabs

The plight of the Palestinians is worsened by the poverty of leadership among the Arabs. The PLO is corrupt, Hamas knows no other tactic than to fire rockets, Hezbollah is the same and the Arab states are disunited and manipulated by superpowers. Arab countries are a bunch of disunited sheikdoms, kingdoms and dictatorships ruled by leaders with no popular mandate to govern. None of these countries could be called a democracy even though one or two of them like Egypt conduct periodic elections that are always manipulated by vested interests. Their leaders therefore depend on external support to maintain internal control.  The US and its Western allies are aware of this and would do everything under their sleeves to maintain the status quo. However, as long as disunity prevails and authoritarianism rules, there is no hope for the Palestinians to expect Arab world’s meaningful support to their cause except through empty verbiage and extended prayers. The 19 Arab countries represented in the UN do not have a united voice. In a sense, it is this weakness that prompted groups such as, Hamas and Hezbollah to resort to violence to win their cause.  But their non-state violence is no match for Israel’s state violence backed by the US.

Every so-called negotiation for demarcating territories undertaken by the so-called neutral deal makers was based on maps drawn by the Israelis and not by the Palestinians.  In other words, even cartography was called upon to serve the interest of the aggressor and not the victim. Yet, Israel had shown no interest in the accords and continued to extend its territory whenever a conflict occurred with the Palestinians. The Zionist dream is not for a two-state but for a single state solution that would entrench Zionist suzerainty over the whole of Palestine

Thus, Gazans have no choice but to transmigrate to the West bank, and with that exodus the centre of Palestinian resistance would also shift. But whether the West bank would become the last and permanent remnant of the four millennial Palestine or just the final piece before that too crumbles before the might of Israel and become part of Greater Israel only history could tell.

(The writer is attached to the Murdoch Business School, Murdoch University, W. Australia)