Guest essay by Robert Inlakesh, The Multiplural World, June 23, 2024
The Palestinian resistance has turned Gaza into a graveyard for its invaders, while in Lebanon, the self-defense forces of Hezbollah pummel Israel’s northern military sites and burn its northern settlements
(Robert Inlakesh is a columnist at Al Mayadeen English, where this essay first appeared on June 23, 2024.)
Introduction by the editors of The Multiplural World:
U.S. imperialism is wounded and discredited due to its constant, destructive warmaking and now due to its brazen support to the Judeo-fascist state of Israel and its genocide being waged against the Palestinian people. But imperialism is far from throwing in the towel. It is dragging the world into more wars, more environmental destruction, and fascist political rule. Just look at what it has done so far in imposing fascist rule in Ukraine and further encouraging Judeo-fascism in Israel. Meanwhile, fascism is on the march in the United States, France and Germany, to name only the leading imperialist countries where this is taking place. The working classes in the imperialist countries and in the entire world are being told by imperialist spokespeople that they should support the war against Russia taking place today in Ukraine and tomorrow against China. Thye are also told to ignore the alarming and continuously rising greenhouse gas emissions spewed out by expansionist capitalism. The political left in the West has no effective reply to all this. It is rejecting the ‘degrowth’ imperative to combat global warming and, shockingly, it is going along for the ride in backing the anti-Russia and anti-China crusades or wavering and keeping silent.
Many sincere opponents of Western imperialism’s war drive look to the rise of the ‘BRICS’ countries alliance as the salvation for humanity. But this is naive. BRICS is not an anti-imperialist alliance, neither in composition nor intent. It is an economic alliance of convenience intended to lessen the dominance of the Western imperialist countries over the world economy. So much the better, but BRICS is an alliance of capitalist countries and economies (socialist China being the exception) and is therefore incapable of vanquishing the three, great existential crises facing humanity–rising imperialist militarism and war, global warming as caused by expansionist capitalism, and rising social and national inequalities. To vanquish these three evils, deep and profound social revolution in the world is required. The large world events of late–the demonstrated political strength of the Palestinian Resistance, Russia’s resistance to NATO’s war in Ukraine, China’s resistance to economic threats and pressures by the West–are laying the groundwork for profound and lasting global changes. Anti-imperialist resistance opens a path to a world of social justice and ecological harmony. But to achieve that, new, novel and unprecedented class alliances are needed to blaze the path to change. The world is still only at the beginning of such a process. [end introduction]
It’s time to be serious about the reasons behind the U.S. government’s inability to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. This comes down to unrealistic expectations, a refusal to concede a loss, incompetence, and a pro-Israeli lobby that controls many levers of power.
Weeks have passed since U.S. President Joe Biden spoke out in favor of a ceasefire and presented an Israeli proposal as “a road map to an enduring ceasefire and the release of all hostages”. Not long after that, the American military provided a supporting role to the Zionist military operation in Gaza’s Nuseirat settlement on June 8 [news report here], which allegedly resulted in three Israeli captives being killed and four re-captured, but most notably inflicted a civilian massacre that killed at least 274 Palestinians, injuring around 800 others.
The U.S. temporary pier project, which was supposed to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, has been removed for a third time from the besieged coastal enclave, following allegations that immediately after its previous re-attachment it was used during the Nuseirat massacre. This project cost the American taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars and has barely facilitated a trickle of the much-needed aid, calling into question its true intended application.
On top of all of this, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled once again to West Asia on a trip that was publicly announced to be geared towards concluding the ceasefire proposal that was voted through by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Blinken immediately decided to put himself in front of the cameras and tell the media that the Israelis had accepted the proposal and that Hamas was hindering its implementation due to an unwillingness to say ‘yes or no’ to it. However, Hamas, unlike the Zionist entity, was the only side to actually issue a legitimate response to the UNSC’s resolution on the ceasefire proposal.
At this point when the U.S. Secretary of State began brazenly lying and making excuses for the Zionist regime, it was clear that his administration had given up on the proposal and was preparing to continue protecting the Israelis publicly. The Zionist regime never accepted the ceasefire, which was allegedly its own proposal. Not a single one of its leaders issued a statement uttering an acceptance; in fact, the very opposite has been the case. Meanwhile, Hamas has welcomed the ceasefire push and responded positively.
The Zionists have repeatedly asserted their intention to continue the genocide in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly made it clear that his intention is to pursue the ‘destruction of Hamas’; his only statements are demands to release the Israeli settler captives and promises to continue the genocide by his fascist governing regime.
All of this was so predictable because Netanyahu has no incentive at all to end the war in Gaza other than concerns over a wider regional war. The U.S. government supports him no matter what he does. So he need only shrug off any pressure coming from a rather weak and pathetic U.S. administration that unconditionally supports the Zionist regime at any cost.
There are, however, layers to this catastrophe from the U.S. government’s side. This starts with the fact that Washington cannot accept the impending strategic defeat it faces; it is seeking to extract a win by any means necessary. The United States is now experiencing the shrinking of its influence in the region, as a new multi-polar order emerges wherein alternatives may emerge to the tyranny of the so-called ‘rules-based international order’ as headed by the USA. This decaying seeks to maintain the cultural and physical supremacy of the collective West whereby Washington commands the world as the dominant liberal democracy imposing how everyone else must behave.
Washington is clinging to the idea that the world continues to resemble the period immediately following the Cold War. It clearly believes that popular support to the Palestinian cause will die down and the world will return to a situation similar to that which prevailed prior to the ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ prison break from Gaza on October 7, 2023.
In line with this way of thinking, to which Arab client regimes are also desperately clinging, the U.S. continues to pursue ‘normalization’ of some Arab regimes with the Zionist entity. This way of thinking is predicated on the idea that Hezbollah, the Ansarallah movement in Yemen, and the Palestinian resistance will suddenly disappear. This is out of touch with reality.
The Palestinian resistance has turned Gaza into a graveyard for its invaders. The Hezbollah movement in Lebanese continues to pummel Apartheid Israel’s military sites and burn its northern settlements. The resistance in Yemen has consistently embarrassed U.S. naval forces and by imposing a naval blockade on the Zionist entity.
While the U.S. could end this war any time it chooses, it is filled with incompetent and money-driven careerists who are incapable of long-term strategic thinking. If the Americans had shut this war down earlier on, there was a window of opportunity to save their own power, image, and, at least temporarily, the future of the Zionist entity. Now they have undermined both their own future and the existence of the Israeli regime in ways that are irreversible.
Joe Biden is essentially a human vegetable, who is clearly not physically capable of commanding such an important international issue at a time when other major geopolitical challenges are ongoing. Perhaps if the self-professed Zionist was mentally sound and not simply a shell of his former self, he could have had more of an impact compared to placing himself in front of television cameras and delivering pro-Israeli propaganda.
Then we have Antony Blinken, who is tasked with standing up to Benjamin Netanyahu and is failing abysmally, assuming he is even employing the courage to try at all. The Israeli PM is a man that is well connected in the United States, not only with the billionaire class there but also with the intelligence services. Netanyahu is many things: a liar, a war criminal and a certified narcissist. But he isn’t stupid. He knows how to operate from his position of power in a way that no other Israeli politician can. Blinken is clearly in no way cut out for the task in front of him. He appears as a weak, incompetent, secretary of state.
Although there may be people in the Biden administration who see the predicament in which they currently find themselves and are seeking to maneuver strategically, they are clearly incapable of leading their government to a position that would save its own interests.
If we look at the elected officials, the vast majority of the U.S. Congress and Senate are bought and paid for; by the military-industrial complex, or by AIPAC, or by both. These officials are therefore useless, serving only their special-interest donors and/or seeking to climb the ladder of political power as the parasitic social climbers they are. Then we have both major parties, which are heading towards a national election and need every billionaire and special-interest group to donate.
What the U.S. current state of politics does is ensure that pockets are lined on all sides. However, you cannot run a successful country on the whims of mega-corporations and billionaires with special loyalties. It appears that a combination of factors has caused the U.S. administration to bow down to the demands of the Israeli PM–weak politicians, incompetency, cognitive decline in the case of the president, the work of the Israeli lobby, and delusional misconceptions about their own capabilities, all combined with a racist lack of regard for Palestinian life.
Unfortunately, the approach that the U.S. government adopted after October 7 of permitting a genocidal assault in order to try and save the image of the defeated U.S.-Israeli regional alliance continues. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is slowly sinking to the bottom of the ocean and is dragging down the Zionist entity with him. He is simultaneously reaching out for the hand of the U.S., pulling both down with him. Washington, meanwhile, holds on and chooses to believe that air bubbles exist at the bottom of the ocean that will permit it to sustain its rule.
Related reading:
Each day, the ‘World news’ page of The Multiplural World website is loaded with news and analysis of the dynamic and changing world political situation. Here are recent headlines and comments:
* The collapse of Zionism, essay by Ilan Pappé, published in the ‘Sidear’ blog of New Left Review, June 21, 2024 …We are witnessing a historical process – or, more accurately, the beginnings of one – that is likely to culminate in the downfall of Zionism. If my diagnosis is correct, we are also entering a particularly dangerous conjuncture because once Israel realizes the magnitude of the crisis, it will unleash ferocious and uninhibited force to try to contain it. Witness the genocide in Palestine, and witness the attempts by the apartheid regime in South African during its final days to salvage its existence …
* Israel’s grim genocide in Palestine rages on, armed by the Western powers and backed by their media, report by Palestine Chhronicle, June 22, 2024 [Western media, private and state-controlled alike, has for weeks been feigning concern for the victims of Israel genocide. Its reporting aims to create the impression of concern. But this same media seeks to ‘disappear’ the genocide by multiple means, including, ay its most basic, describing Israel’s genocidal war as a ‘war between Israel and Hamas’.]
* The moribund imperialist world order and the nascent multipolar world, essay in Al Mayadeen English, June 23, 204 [This is an aspirational essay of the type mentioned in the introduction above. The essay welcomes the decline of the imperialist ‘rules-based international order’, but it fails to describe how the rising tide of anti-imperialist resistance documented in the very essay may give rise to a new world founded on principles of social justice and ecological harmony. No, the capitalist countries grouped in BRICS (which includes socialist China) cannot be expected to lead the world-shaking changes needed to save humanity from the rising tide of imperialist war and an existential, global warming emergency. For that, a renewed working class with a renewed socialist program is required. That program must promote the closest possible alliances with all the other social classes having no stake in the wretched and decaying capitalist world order. Example: a global movement is urgently needed, demanding an end to the imperialist (NATO) military intervention against Russia taking place in Ukraine.]
