Religion

Last Saturday was Nakba Day. It is no accident that there are more people in the world who do not know what that means, than there are people who do know what Holocaust Memorial Day is – the Zionist Project that is Israel has worked assiduously to make sure of that. Nakba Day is the day marking “Memory of the Catastrophe” for the Palestinian people – the day in 1948 when their society and homeland was destroyed and the majority of their population displaced. Those that remained have faced slow attrition – no let us call it what it is – Genocide and never less nakedly than right now when the stolen state of Israel is nakedly stealing more Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, invading their most holy place of worship with troops and tear gas during the holy month of Ramadan and then bombing the civilian population of Gaza in “self-defence” for their reaction to these provocative events. Meanwhile, state players around the world stand by and watch without condemning – HOW DID WE GET HERE?

How Did We Get Here?

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack

And you may find yourself in another part of the world

[…]

And you may ask yourself, “Well… how did I get here?”

Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime

During the recent A2Z Challenge, I encountered a fellow writer Iain Kelly who wrote about his State Trilogy. Iain lives near Glasgow which approximates to the northern capital of his future, dystopian State and in which the population live amongst other things, without alcohol. Glasgow is renowned for its drinkers of the beer known as “Heavy” if not for heavy drinking, and having bought Iain’s book, the question that constantly reverberates for me as I read it, and which he gradually answers, is how did things get there from here? How do you get people to accept what is fundamentally unpalatable?
There is an irony in the promotion of Holocaust Memorial Day by Israel as part of its justification for a Jewish homeland in Israel – several ironies. The state of Israel was avowedly secular yet it uses a religious/tribal identity to define its raison d’etre and within that irony is nestled another. Many Orthodox Jews believe that God expelled the Jews from Palestine 1500 years ago and they have no business being there until God gives them permission to return. The monstrous act which was the Holocaust (whose veracity must rightly be defended against Holocaust deniers), is another example of something so unpalatable that one must wonder, how were the German people led to that unspeakable place? Other Orthodox Jews, within Israel – the Religious Right, are calling for an ever closer equivalence to the holocaust to be perpetrated on the so-called Palestinian people and they are driving the Zionist project in a way it never intended to be driven even if the desired end result might be the same.
Why so-called?

Why the “so-called” Palestinian peoples – an exercise in Re-branding?

The state of Israel calls the Arab residents of the Occupied territories– Palestinians rather than Arab Israelis because this makes them seem like they don’t belong in the de facto state of Israel. They do! It is the mass of Jewish immigrants who have flooded into Israel that have a questionable claim to the land. The Arabs who live mixed in amongst Jewish people in the rest of Israel are referred to by Israel as Arab Israelis (or “Good” Arabs) but they prefer to refer to themselves as Palestinian Israelis in solidarity with their oppressed brothers and sisters but more of that later.
The establishment of Israel has never been ratified in International Law and was imposed on the land of Palestine by force. Before this, Palestinian Arabs and Palestinian Jews, both rich and poor, lived in harmony. Genetic testing could not tell the difference between the two groups because there is no difference – they are both classified as Semitic people and their different languages are nevertheless both classified as Semitic languages. These facts might come as a shock to most young Israeli citizens because the state lies not only to the rest of the world, but also to its own citizens, that, is Propaganda. Israeli children are taught to regard “Palestinians” as Arabs who do not belong, as terrorists who are trying to steal the country from those to whom it truly belongs – once again, this is the opposite of the truth. Palestinians are portrayed as terrorists who oppose the noble project of Israel – but those of us on the outside must never forget that one state’s terrorists are another people’s freedom fighters. This link to a film by a Palestinian filmmaker illustrates the degree of prejudice in a 15-year-old Israeli girl…

Just as the Nazis in Germany promoted the myth of the noble Aryan, so the Zionist project has cultivated the image of the sun-bronzed, hard-working, enterprising Kibbutznik striving to wrest modern farms from the dry land alongside their indolent Palestinian neighbours who are content to subsist on their backward farms consisting of olive groves and a few goats. The Jaffa orange, though developed originally by Palestinian Arabs, was developed by Zionists into a major export brand and similarly with the development of Avocado farming. Young people from around the world, and not just Jewish young people, volunteered on Israeli Kibbutz and became a party to this propaganda view. It is worth noting that wells dug by kibbutz often sucked dry the wells of Arab neighbours for their more intensive agriculture so stealing the water as well as the land…
Now, as resistance to Israel increases as evidenced by the support for the BDS movement (Boycott, Divest, Sanctions), Israeli origins of agricultural products may be concealed rather than trumpeted. I live just outside Bradford, UK which has a large Moslem Pakistani population who have vociferously embraced the Palestinian cause in recent years. Imagine my disgust then, when shopping in an Aldi supermarket, to discover that mangos which had no indication of their country of origin, were in fact from Israel. The lack of labelling made me suspicious so I examined the box – bearing in mind that fruit boxes usually celebrate their country and company of origin with colourful artwork – nothing! So I lifted the box up and on the underside, printed in very small letters, was the name of a company which when Googled, turned out to be Israeli. I complained to the store both about the lack of labelling and the origin of the mangos from occupied lands and they were swiftly withdrawn…

Truth is the first casualty of war.

The attribution of this well-known quotation is the subject of some controversy but I prefer the slightly more elaborate 1758 version by Samuel Johnson in “The Idler” – “Among the calamities of War may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.” There are two sides then to successful propaganda – interests that motivate the lies and credulous people to be deceived by the lies.

Truth is such a fundamental issue, if we do not have the correct facts about any given situation, then how can we make the correct decisions, the object of Israel’s lies about its Zionist project, is to obfuscate the facts so that, for example, if Israel cites the right to self-determination and a homeland, we think that it sounds reasonable without thinking that that is no good if it means that the Palestinians must lose their self-determination and their homeland. If Israel says rockets are being fired on innocent Israeli citizens by Hamas terrorists, we will not compare the proportionality of the response or the degree of provocation…

One central lie of the Zionist project has been to remake the very definition of Anti-Semitism. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of antisemitism extends the meaning to include any criticism of Israel. This definition has then been forced onto most countries in the world by means of bullying, threats and blackmail. Lest you think this an insignificant thing, well in Britain, this was used to assist in getting Jeremy Corbyn removed as the Labour Party’s Opposition Leader by constantly alleging that Labour Party members were making anti-semitic comments (mostly criticism of Israel) and that, under Corbyn, these were not being dealt with. This was an unwarranted interference in the democratic processes of the UK but so great was Israel’s fear of Corbyn – a supporter of Palestinian rights – being elected to the position of Prime Minister that Israel’s lobbying, propaganda and dirty tricks machine went into overdrive. Needless to say, the Centrist yes man Keir Starmer, who replaced Corbyn as leader, knows his place in relation to Israel and will not rock the boat…

In the US Joe Biden is equally hamstrung to prevent him from offering the kind of criticism one might reasonably expect from a man of his political persuasion because major Jewish donors are amongst the Democratic party’s main financial supports. Very few Americans have any idea how much money the US gives to Israel each year and would be shocked if they did although their government, no matter which party was in power, would justify it thus; Much of the “aid” to Israel is spent on American goods (for which read American arms). Israel deserves protection from its unfriendly neighbours in the Middle East and is America’s major ally in the Middle East. True that, though America’s other ally in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia reveals the true reason for US machinations in the region – oil! Saudi Arabia and America did a deal after World War 2 whereby America guaranteed not to interfere with Saudi Arabia’s religion in return for the guaranteed supply of Saudi Arabia’s oil. Saudi Arabia is an anomaly in the Islamic world since it is led by an oil-enriched royal family who has promoted a fundamentalist sect of its desert tribes to worldwide prominence whilst leading an opulent and perhaps decadent lifestyle behind closed doors. Saudi Arabia once supported Palestinian interests but as its own position in the region is increasingly threatened by Iran and more recently Turkey, and with America as a mutual ally, it should not be surprising that Israel and Saudi Arabia, whilst having no official Diplomatic relations, find their interests increasingly aligned…

Origins of an Illegitimate state…

Much is made by Israel, of The Balfour Declaration. It is the first, and one of the few unequivocal declarations of support for the idea of a Jewish homeland and was issued during World War 1, just after Britain had declared war on the Ottomans who were in league with Germany. Palestine was occupied by the Ottomans and German/Ottoman forces clashed with the (British) Egyptian Expeditionary Force in the Southern Palestine Offensive – a little known part of the First World War since the story of the Western Front has eclipsed the war in Palestine.
At the end of the war, with the Ottomans defeated, Britain was given a mandate to rule Palestine by the League of Nations and this, together with the Balfour Declaration, significantly led the way towards the creation of Israel. However, following the Second World War, with Britain anxious to please both Jewish and Arab interests, the newly formed United Nations, was unable to get its Partition Plan for Israel – Resolution 181 – across the line as although it was accepted by the Jewish population of Palestine it was rejected by the Arab population as well as neighbouring Arab countries. (See proposed Partition Map to right.)
Britain had handed control of Palestine to the UN who eventually withdrew precipitating a civil war in Palestine until the Zionists unilaterally declared the formation of the state of Israel. Surrounding Arab countries joined in the fighting – the 1948 Arab- Israeli War – but America immediately recognised Israel as a state and began lending support. It has been said that the US has regarded Britain as a static aircraft carrier at a convenient location for stopping to refuel on its way to act as putative world policeman and Israel fulfils the same role as Britain in the Middle East. When Israel purchases armaments from America, it does not have to wait for delivery – there are already massive arms stocks cached in Israel, sufficient for any imaginable war America – or Israel – might want to wage in the Middle East. Israel, firmly supported by America where the Jewish lobby had been carefully nurtured by the Zionist project, eventually achieved a secure position by means of a series of short sharp wars and by making a pragmatic peace with the Egyptians. The Palestinian Arabs who fled their homes to avoid being caught in the crossfire, were not allowed back and their land was “legitimately” seized by the new state whilst the diaspora of Palestinian Arabs were left to foment in reugee camps in neighbouring countries. Israel weathered the storms of world opinion and terrorist threat and I return to my original question – how did they do it?

Bully to Intimidate and Enforce…

If the last section implied that Britain was wholeheartedly behind the Zionist project and that Zionists gave her an easy ride of governing under the British Mandate – think again! In the run-up to the creation of Israel, many acts of terrorism were perpetrated by Zionist groups against the British administration and soldiers, against Arab Palestinians and even against other Zionist groups with different views on how to proceed towards the goal of creating Israel. One of the worst atrocities for Britain – was the bombing of The King David Hotel in which 92 lives were lost. These tactics were designed to put pressure on Britain to withdraw from Israel and so if one wants to ask from whom the later PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) and their ilk learnt that terrorism might get you what you want or at the very least, get your enemy’s attention, well then, they learned it from the Zionists…

There are three main groups of Palestinians in Israel – those imprisoned in Gaza , those who farm in the West Bank and those who live intermixed with Jewish neighbours in the towns and cities. The Gaza strip is often described as the world’s largest prison since residents are completely controlled by Israeli security as to how or even whether they may leave Gaza’s confines. Goods in and out are also controlled by Israel and it has been alledged that at times, Israel has calculated exactly how much food is required by the population of Gaza and then allowed just a little bit less in. The farmers of the West Bank are the ongoing victims of land theft by illegal settlers – a thorny optic for Israel since the rest of the world has become increasingly aware of the shrinking land belonging to Palestinians and the corresponding growth of Jewish settlements. This runs contrary to the long espoused idea (by outsiders like America and the EU), of a Two-State Solution to offer both Israelis and Palestinians permanent lands but the West Bank is so riddled with illegal Jewish Settlements that this is beginning to seem impossible. Israeli “activists wield slogans like “from the river to the sea,” or “no settlement is illegal.” Israel was considerably emboldened under Trump, whose son-in-law Jared Kushner pushed Israels cause – the US controversially moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – an act of provocation to the Palestinians given that Jerusalem is sacred to Jews, Moslems and Christians and is supposed to be a neutral zone.

I have already referred to the “Good Arabs” who live in the town and the evidence that this latest conflict is different because this time, the Good Arabs are siding with their much more put upon brothers and sisters in Gaza and the West Bank and threatening or indeed committing civil insurrection.

Bullying tactics, whether they are directed at the state level or at individuals who displease the state, are designed to intimidate and enforce what the state wants and Israel is equipped with one of the world’s most assiduous secret services -Mossad who can dig the dirt and put the squeeze on individuals, groups, politicians and whole state apparatus. Israel may be too small to develop its own aircraft industry but they make up for it in other ways… Israeli firms have developed the “best” in spyware such as “Pegasus” which they now sell to other rogue governments around the world to enable them to spy on their dissident citizens via everything they can do with their phones and to record sound and video without the phone’s owner being aware of it.
Another export of Israel to those who support it and to America in particular, is the hosting of training sessions for “Law” Enforcement officers which include the technique of neck kneeling employed in the murder of George Floyd which triggered the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement. Links back to the Israeli run training courses were highlighted and questioned – unwelcome attention from Israel’s point of view and which contributes to the slow sea change in opinion of Israel and other governments (lack of) response to Israel’s actions against the Palestinians… It is fair to say that Israel leads the world in techniques of bullying from straightforward violence against the person right up to the most sophisticated forms of social enforcement…

Control the Narrative…

The tricks used to establish and maintain control of Israeli politics both internally and externally are nothing new and they exemplify perfectly that maxim “History is written by the Winners!” Up to now, the Zionist project has been winning – but will it last?

One of the tricks of controlling the narrative is not to allow a hint that there even exists opposition on a political level. However, even Jewish groups who are dismayed at the atrocities being carried out in their name are starting to coalesce in opposition to Israel.
The Jewish Voice for Peace says about Zionism that “Through study and action, through deep relationship with Palestinians fighting for their own liberation, and through our own understanding of Jewish safety and self-determination, we have come to see that Zionism was a false and failed answer to the desperately real question many of our ancestors faced of how to protect Jewish lives from murderous antisemitism in Europe.”

International, ultra-orthodox Neturei Karta (NK), “views itself as the religious Jewish authority on Zionism and Israel and claims to “pray for the peaceful dismantlement of the state of Israel.” This group is so extreme in its belief that only God can authorise the return of Jews to “their” homeland, that it is often dismissed (by Israel) as itself being anti-semitic and sharing aims and standing alongside anti-semites. There are many more moderate groups within, for example, the UK Labour Party to counter the pro-Israel lobbyists, Jews for Justice for Palestine 0r Jewish Voice for Peace, but a predominantly right-wing press assist Israel in obscuring even the existence of such dissent.

In Italy, a group of dock-workers prevented a cargo ship laden with arms and bound for Israel, from leaving port. Grassroots activism succeeds!

Indigenous people around the world are finding their voices against each and every one of their own Settler Colonialist states – not least the Native Americans and the Australian Aboriginal peoples and they are turning the property laws by which these countries are governed back on those who stole their land and with that, comes solidarity with other oppressed groups.

Israel has strenuously attempted to counter the use of words such as Genocide and Apartheid from gaining currency in relation to its treatment of the Palestinians but they are fighting a losing battle – this article in Mondoweiss details the recent blows to Israel’s propaganda and posits that Israel is beginning to face an endgame… Let’s hope…

The history of Israel is a very complex topic and I know this piece only scratches the surface in an attempt to answer the question “How did we get here?2, but I hope it gives food for thought and that the links will take anyone wanting to know more further along a search for truth and understanding. I will leave you with one final quote…

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Edmund Burke (in a letter addressed to Thomas Mercer).