Everybody and his dog is writing about Palestine. The dogs are probably doing it more intelligently, but I can’t change my phylum, or even species. We columnists do what we can and suffer what we must.
OK, Israel. The current war is an ordinary case of colonialism. In the late Forties the Jews grabbed Palestine militarily. When you do that, the people displaced hate you and want to kill you. The only way to control them is brutally. Which the Jews did, and do. Eventually the colonized revolt. They just did. When this happens, the occupying power responds without measure or mercy. It is as predictable as the value of pi.
There is nothing particularly Jewish about it. Colonialism was all the rage for centuries among Eurowhites. The Jews just had poor timing, getting into colonialism when everybody else was getting out. European peoples, certainly to include Americans, acquired most of the world at gunpoint, exactly as the Jews are absorbing parts they like in the Middle East. America got half of Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Philippines. The Philippinos, who did not want to be colonials, fought. The Americans crushed them with stomach-turning savagery. If interested in this, read Little Brown Brother, by Leon Wolff.
Europeans got all of Latin America, India, most of Southeast Asia, Africa, much of China, the Muslim world, and Gaza. The philosophy was that if you see something you like, and have better weapons, just say, “Mine!,” and snatch it.
What the Jews are doing is sickening, but usual. The Europowers (today often called in the Global South, Anglo-Saxons) routinely did things at least as bad as what the Jews now do in Palestine. These atrocities were hideous, but now largely unknown as they are not permitted in history books. The mass killings, torture, starvation, poisoning and so on were nauseating.
You may think that the British were above such barbarity, being noble and quoting Shakespeare and such. No. They were quite ordinary. Try this: Ten Atrocities That the British Don’t Want You To Know. French (Algeria), Belgians (the Belgian Congo), Spanish (Mexico et al), and America (the Philippines). The treatment of slaves in the sugar plantations of the British West Indies was ghastly. Go to Zacatecas in Mexico and see the torture instruments in the museum. You may blow your lunch.
To understand American foreign policy, remember that it has three, and only three, goals: Money, power, and empire. This may sound like high- school cynicism. It isn’t, or if it is, high-schoolers are more perceptive than they used to be. Governments, certainly Washington and Tel Aviv, don’t give a wan etiolated damn about democracy, human rights, values, war crimes, truth, justice, or the American way (as, anciently, the announcer droned of the latter three as Superman jumped out of the window). They don’t care about dead children or bombed hospitals, though they have to make mooing noises about these things while doing nothing.
In Gaza, the essential fact is that Israel can do anything it wants because Washington will support it without limit. This is because Jewish influence in America is immense and unshakable. If this were not so Israel probably would not last since it has nothing America needs or wants and the Arabs have oil, lots of it. Conservatives grouse about AIPAC’s power, but with no effect. One might as well complain of sunrise or gravitation.
Since the US wields a veto in the United Nations, this august box of pointless chatter can do nothing but wave its hands and say, “the children, the children.” Money, power, empire.
Washington will urge a ceasefire and orate about humanitarian aid while sending arms and aircraft carriers to Israel. It will also stall until Israel has accomplished whatever it intends to accomplish. Huge demonstrations against the killing will probably have no effect as Western countries have learned to be democracies without the populaces having power.
No point exists in honking about international law. Law exists only when there are means of enforcing it. Who is going to make the United States follow laws?
Much breath is wasted in lamenting the killing of civilians. It would make more sense to drink beer and watch Star Trek reruns. This would have as much effect and be more agreeable. As long as America supports the killing, it will continue.
Besides, killing civilians has a long and celebrated past in the West. The firebombing of Tokyo, Dresden, and other cities, the obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki eliminated hundreds of thousands, often by burning. These were not military targets. The German siege of Leningrad did yeoman work in the starvation line. The Americans killed God knows how many Viet civilians in that war and often treated them bestially. The Germans, now called “Nazis” to disguise what Germans are and did, killed lots of Jews.
When Americas pilots bombed Baghdad, perhaps they didn’t know that civilians lived in cities. Things can slip one’s mind.
When it comes to killing civilians, the Jews have been barely more than wannabes, though maybe only because they didn’t have the opportunity. In this century and the last, the heavy hitters in such matters as burning children alive have been chiefly the Americans, British, and Germans, with the Turks making a good showing in the early years of the last century. The Japanese did pretty well too. The Brits starved additional millions to death in India, but I don’t think they should be allowed to count these since it wasn’t intentional but just a result of using India’s food to support WW II or deny it to the Japanese.
Apparently some Israeli has mentioned the possibility of nuking Gaza. Whether this was casual blather or calculated intimidation, I don’t know. The Jews have also said that they could do to Beirut what they are doing to Gaza. Tel Aviv’s nuclear warheads presumably reduce the ardor of Hezbola and Iran for joining the fray.
But Iran is Israel’s bugaboo, as Iraq formerly was. An interesting question is what would happen if Israel nuked Iran. The Israeli approach is just do it, brazen it out, rely on American protection, and wait a few years for indignation to die down. What would, or could, any country do? Washington would be shocked, horrified, concerned, make disapproving noises, and do nothing. The “world community” would gnash its hair, pull its teeth, turn purple, and do nothing. That is, nothing effective. Countries would summon ambassadors, sever relations, stop trading with Israel for a few years, and maybe wave their hands in the air. Washington would Say Stern Tings, but do nothing, and make sure nobody else did either.
Onward and upward.Or think beer and Star Trek reruns.