israel

How you know Israel is doomed

by damagecollateral

You know it by the renewed reminders of Israel’s origins. Every time the Palestinian strife is in the news, a lot of the online educational content among Palestine supporters (which is most people around the world and most social media influencers) is about what happened in 1948 and about how Zionism began in the 1800s.

That is to say, the historical examination does not stop at how Israel has been illegally occupying the West Bank and Gaza since 1967. No, it almost unfailingly goes back to Israel’s establishing. In other words, the very legality of the existence of Israel is always being subjected to scrutiny.

This is profound. Consider over 7 decades of complete Western acceptance of Israel, journalistic complicity and endorsement, billions spent to prop up and maintain Israel, countless tours for Westerners hosted by Israel, military and intelligence complete integration with the West, thorough corporate endorsement.. All of that, and yet Israel’s very right to exist keeps being reevaluated.

By now, it’s safe to say that this reevaluation will never go away so long as Israel is in existence.

If I were a philosopher, I would be fascinated by this. It is a strong example of the universality and permanence of certain moral values. Despite all efforts, time lapsed, and all attempts at revising history by erasing all mention of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1947-1948, the establishment of Israel never became right, Israel remains an uneasy anomaly and the truth about Israel’s founding could never be concealed. The validity of Israel’s founding is always being questioned and even lamented among large swaths of intellectuals in the West.

To be fair, though, there are factors without which this renewed examination of Israel’s establishing may not take place. If, for hypothetical example, there were no Palestinian resistance, if said resistance were too meager to be of much significance, if Palestinians were not as numerous, if Palestinians were not relatively homogenous culturally, if Palestinians were not relatively universally oppressed, the balance may have tipped in favor of Israel being an easy fit into the collective conscience of the world.

Regardless of the causes and factors, the end result is the same. Israel’s right to exist is always in question despite all efforts, and that’s astonishing and damning at the same time.

American foreign policy strategists should start to envision a future without Israel

by damagecollateral

It should have never made sense. A country created by importing foreigners to steal the lands of the locals and ethnically cleanse them, and in the heart of the Muslim world? On one of Muslims’ main holy places?

Just thinking about the idea feels exhaustingly anti laws of nature. Whoever thought it would work for long cannot have been thinking clearly. If I had to guess, I’d say it was power drunkenness. What we’ve been seeing since 10/7 (and for most of the year in the West Bank) is not some glitch in the code. It’s not an anomalous breakaway event that needs to be corrected so we can go back to the same old program. Rather, what we’re witnessing is the only possible natural consequence for this unnatural project called Israel.

Israel is the way we chose to treat Muslims in the East Mediterranean. The question I keep asking myself is: why did we in America choose to treat Muslims based on a European narrative? Why did we have to transfer Europe’s Crusader baggage into our mindset? After all, it was Muslims in Morocco who were the first to recognize the US after its independence. In fact, Muslim sentiments were in favor of the US since Americans revolted against, and gained independence from, an enemy of Muslims called Britain. Muslims loved the American ideal of freedom from oppression and, after our independence, welcomed our convoys and embassies with open arms.

So why, then, did we decide that we need to stick this thing called Israel as our colonial outpost in the heart of the Muslim world to keep Muslims under our boots? Which brilliant think tank came up with that one?

It could have been much different. We could have chosen to have the whole Muslim world be our friends. Things could have been much more peaceful even without us losing our power or influence in the world. But instead we chose to create an entity that would upend world peace for decades, spend billions to preserve it, and have the planet witness so many wars and conflicts because of it.

Why?

To what end? That is the question that needs to be on the minds of American foreign policy makers. How did the idea that Israel is good for us come to be and how is it actually good for us? It’s ok to rethink basic questions like that every now and then, and for us, it’s about time we do so.

Palestinians may be the most oppressed, but the most manipulated and mislead are Jews

by damagecollateral

In July, President Biden said in a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog: “If there wasn’t an Israel, we’d have to invent one“, and Jews around the world need to understand the implications of this revealing statement.

Jews have long been manipulated into thinking that it is they and their lobbies that have a strong influence on Washington; that Washington is, to some degree, under their control. Many non-Jews around the world have also been manipulated to believe the same. The narrative of a “powerful Jewish lobby” that “controls Western powers” is quite pervasive in many societies. While there is some truth to that narrative, it is only because Israel’s presence is seen as a strategic benefit for Western powers. What Jews need to understand is that Israel benefits Western powers much more than it benefits Jews. In fact, those who pay the highest price for the West’s insistence on the preservation of Israel are Palestinians and Jews.

The billions of American taxpayer dollars that go to Israel each year aren’t some sort of charity or gift that is given out of an emotional commitment. That money is actually a lucrative investment by the US that brings hefty returns. If there were no Israel, America would have to pay billions of dollars more for maintaining several aircraft carriers that would be needed in the region, only without the intelligence, weapons, and technology benefits that Israel provides in return.

Meanwhile, nearly all of the damage incurred upon Israeli Jews from having to contend with Palestinian and other regional enemies is suffered by those Israelis alone. America and its allies cheer on Israel and send all kinds of aid (as an investment, as they benefit greatly from Israeli services) but suffer almost none of the human and security losses suffered by Israeli Jews. At some point Jews need to start wondering if America would ever send its own soldiers to fight Palestinians on the ground instead of using Jews as canon fodder to preserve its interests. At some point, Jews need to ask themselves what it is exactly they are gaining from all of this.

Any insinuation that Hamas’ recent attack is unprovoked or disproportionate is either hopelessly ignorant or extremely supremacist

by damagecollateral

So yeah, Hamas’ ongoing attack is shockingly massive even to Palestinians themselves. But if you’ve been following the Palestinian struggle from the inception of Israel to the ongoing attacks on Gaza and the West Bank to the home and land confiscations to the daily humiliation and subjugation of Palestinians to the constant encroachments on Muslim holy grounds, Hamas’ ongoing attack compared to what Israel does is like a drop of ink in a tank of blood.

You can compare however you wish. Civilian casualties? Let’s not even go there. Frivolous imprisonment without charge? Even for minors? Hamas keeps a few captives for exchange negotiations while Israel has a whole prison system for Palestinian resistors. Deliberate targeting of schools, shelters, hospitals, and places of worship? Israel has done all of that while Hamas hasn’t (they’ve leveled seven mosques in Gaza in the last 48 hours). Daily humiliation and subjugation of an entire population and reducing them to dwellers of an open air prison? That’s Israel’s line of work, not Hamas’. Use of white phosphorus and cluster bombs on civilians? Israel did it. Hamas did not. Economic and agricultural sabotage? Israel did it. Hamas didn’t.

If you’ve been following things, you know that the list goes on. And if you’ve been following things, you know that the damage Hamas has incurred is literally nothing compared to Israel.

Now, if someone has indeed been informed of Israel’s actions but still chooses to be outraged by Hamas’ ongoing attack then excuse my French, but that’s an extreme case of supremacism. I don’t have to explain why this is the case but I will exercise my right to judge that person’s world view and to treat it accordingly.

I just ask that such people acknowledge and embrace their own supremacism. I hope they can reach the courage to be open about it. After all, being supremacist and honest is better than being supremacist and dishonest. I wish they would just say that Palestinian/Muslim lives are worth less than Israeli/Jewish ones. The world can see their supremacy pretty clearly, so their dishonesty is only making them look worse. Being honest might be a minor upgrade.