BY PEPE ESCOBAR

By now it’s fully established who is profiting from the ghastly Palestine tragedy.

As it stands we have 3 wins for the Hegemon and 1 win for its aircraft carrier nation in West Asia.

First winner is the War Party Inc., a massive bilateral scam. The White House’s $106 billion supplemental request to Congress for “assistance” especially to Ukraine and Israel is manna from Heaven to the weaponizing tentacles of the MICIMATT (military-industrial-congressional-intelligence-media-academia-think tank complex, in the legendary definition by Ray McGovern).

The laundromat will be on a roll, including $61.4 billion for Ukraine (more weapons and replenishing of U.S. stocks) and $14.3 for Israel (mostly air and missile defense “support”).

Second winner is The Democratic Party engineering the unavoidable change of narrative from the spectacularly failing Project Ukraine; yet that will only postpone the upcoming humiliation of NATO in 2024, which will reduce the Afghan humiliation to the status of sandbox child playing.

Third winner is setting West Asia on fire: the Straussian neocon psycho “strategy” conceived as a response to the upcoming BRICS 11, and everything in terms of Eurasia integration that was advanced at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing last week (including nearly $100 billion in new infrastructure/development projects).

Then there’s the vertiginous acceleration of the project sponsored by genocidal Zionist maniacs: a Final Solution to the Palestinian question, mixing razing Gaza to the ground; forcing an exodus to Egypt; the West Bank turned into a cage; and, at the most extreme, a “Judaification of Al-Aqsa” , complete with an eschatological destruction of the third holiest place in Islam, to be replaced by rebuilding the Third Jewish Temple.

The “aristocratic bromance” enters the fray 

Everything is of course interlinked. Vast swathes of the U.S. Deep State in tandem with the neocon-run “Biden” combo can ride the new bonanza side by side with the Israeli Deep State – their bubble protected by a massive propaganda barrage demonizing all forms of support for the Palestinian plight.

Yet there’s a problem. This “alliance” has just lost – perhaps irretrievably – the overwhelming majority of the Global South/Global Majority, which is viscerally Palestinian. Very well-educated Palestinians living in Gaza and suffering throughout the Unspeakable, fiercely denounce the ambiguous roles of Egypt, Jordan and the UAE while praising Russia, Iran and among Arab nations, Qatar, Algeria and Yemen.

All of the above spells out a stark continuity since the end of the USSR. Washington refused to dissolve NATO in 1990 to protect the immense profits of the weaponized tentacles of the MICIMATT. The logical consequence has been the Hegemon and NATO as a Global Robocop, in tandem, killing at least 4.5 million people in West Asia while displacing over 40 million, then killing, by proxy, at least half a million in Ukraine and displacing over 10 million. And counting.

In sharp contrast to the Empire of Chaos, Lies and Plunder, the Global South/Global Majority see the emergence of what a sophisticated Chinese scholar delightfully described as an “aristocratic bromance” at the center of the “present nexus of Universal History”.

Exhibit A is provided by Vladimir Putin commenting, “I cannot praise Xi Jinping because it would be as if I’m praising myself & that would be an embarrassing thing to do.”

Yes: Putin and Xi – those “evil autocrats” for Atlanticist totalitarian liberals – are bosom buddies and in fact soul mates. That leads our Chinese scholar to get deeper not only into their mutual understanding but also the increasingly complex links between arguably the last three Sovereign Civilization-States: China, Russia and Iran.

Our Chinese scholar shows that Putin and Xi “have practically the same reading of the geopolitical reality” apart from being the leaders of two out of three real Sovereigns”, and are “willing and capable to act rightly” in order to stop the Hegemon matrix:

“They have the understanding, the vision, the tools of power, the will and right now the favorable circumstances allowing them to put definite and definitive limits to the pretensions coming from the Anglo-Zio-American establishment.”

So it’s no wonder they are feared, despised and depicted as “existential threats” to “Western civilization”.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, with his eyes on realpolitik, allows himself a way more blunt assessment: “Led by the U.S., the world is steadily rolling into a deep abyss. The decisions made clearly point not only to irreversible mental deterioration, but also to loss of the remaining shreds of conscience. These decisions, both significant and minor, are glaring symptoms of the epidemic social disease.”

Israel’s serial binge to elevate the concept of “crimes against humanity” to a whole new level does fit the definition of an “epidemic social disease” – and worse. Tel Aviv has embarked on a path to erase any cultural, religious, civic footprint in northern Gaza; raze it to the ground; expel its residents; and annex it. All that fully legitimized by the “rules-based international order” and its lowly vassals.

Dragging West Asia into war 

It’s always instructive to compare the Israeli dream of a Final Solution with facts on the ground. So let’s call Lt Gen Andrey Gurulev, a member of the State Duma Commission for reviewing federal budget expenditures on national defense, national security and law enforcement, and a member of the Duma Committee on Defense.

Here are Gurulev’s key points:

“Israeli bombings have no effect militarily.”

“Armed people in Palestine are in shelters, civilians are dying in residential buildings. We went through this in Syria, when in Damascus, for example, they sit in underground tunnels and come out only when necessary. Hamas prepared 100%, it was not without reason that they did this, they have reserves of weapons and food. (…) The Israelis are shown in columns on tanks, on infantry fighting vehicles, what are they waiting for? Waiting for drones to fly over them? We went through this during the special military operation. Tanks in urban areas are practically ineffective.”

“The Americans are trying to drag the Middle East into war; apparently, they decided not to stand ceremoniously with Israel; in this case, the damage to Israel would be unacceptable.”

“On the two aircraft carrier groups in the Mediterranean. On board these ships, according to my calculations, there are approximately 750-800 Tomahawk missiles, which cover a decent amount of the territory of the Russian Federation (…) Our President immediately decided to put Mig-31s with Kinzhal missiles on combat duty. For some reason, everyone imagines that one plane with one Kinzhal will fly somewhere, will fly along the Black Sea, but everything is much more global. Firstly, this is the use of all reconnaissance systems linked into a single information system with the issuance of specific target instructions to control points. If an aircraft enters the airspace of the Black Sea, then it must have a support echelon protecting it from enemy air attacks, air defense systems, and everything else. This is a global set of measures to deter the American aggressor from thinking of attacking the territory of the Russian Federation. In front of us are two aircraft carrier groups, equipped to the teeth, capable of hitting targets on the territory of our country, should we just stand there and pick our noses? We must react normally.”

“If the entire Middle East is drawn into the war, aircraft carrier groups try to strike the territory of Iran, then Iran will not remain silent, they have targets ready, all critical objects, they will attack them in different ways, despite the Iron Dome and everything else.”

Pentagon analysts will certainly understand what Gurulev is saying. Not Straussian neocon psychos though.

As the “long black cloud is coming down”, to reference Bob Dylan, it’s enlightening to pay very close attention to sterling voices of experience.

So let’s turn to Dr Mahathir Mohamad: 98 years old (no, not Kissinger); spent his entire adult life in politics, most of it as the Prime Minister of a very important nation (Malaysia); knows every world leader very well, including the current ones in U.S. and Israel; and at this late stage in life, fears nothing and has nothing to lose.

Dr Mahathir does cut to the chase:

” …The crux of the matter is that all these atrocities committed by Israel on the Palestinians stems from the American support for Tel Aviv. If the American Government withdraws its support for Israel and stop all military aid to the regime, Israel would not have carried out the genocide and mass murders of Palestinians with impunity. The United States Government needs to come clean and tell the truth. Israel and its IDF are the terrorists. The United States is blatantly supporting terrorists. So what is the United States?”

No point asking those currently driving U.S. foreign policy. They would barely be able to contain the foaming in their mouths.

https://strategic-culture.su/news/2023/10/23/the-palestinian-tragedy-cui-bono/

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Australians have been assured by the Albanese government of greater transparency and accountability on defence. So soon after the 2022-23 parliamentary inquiry into how the country goes to war, that has already fallen over.

The promised parliamentary debate before a deployment to overseas conflict hasn’t been held. The dispatch of 270 ADF troops and three or more aircraft to a war zone, announced on 25 October, is the first by this government. If I’m right, it is the first by Labor since Hawke’s contribution to Gulf War I. It sets a bad precedent.

Australians have been told precious little about it: not if the ADF is to do more than evacuate Australians and rescue Australian hostages, or if they are to stay on longer, and if so, do what. They are ‘additional’ to those already there, about whom most Australians knew nothing either. The new deployment is a ‘precautionary measure’, Defence Minister Marles declared: but for what? A wider war?

Australian ministers who claim transparency could learn from Israel’s defence spokespeople about how to communicate a war story. The Israeli message, in all its nastiness, has been consistent during all the past wars against the Palestinians: always about the IDF’s right to self-defence inside and outside Israel, about the Jews’ God-given homeland being the only one they have, and about not giving in to terrorists. After decades of practice, it rolls out unrehearsed, as war follows war. Being liked or hated doesn’t matter, as long as they are feared – oderint dum metuant, as much earlier colonisers used to say.

Israel is different from Australia in that Tel Aviv always fights to protect what it has and to get more. It says so openly. Australia usually fights to protect its allies’ interests in the hope that they will protect what we have. Canberra reveals nothing that might put the Americans off side. Israel is certain of US support: Australia is not.

But there’s a similarity as well. Israel colonised Palestine, with British and later American support, and then shrank the Palestinian territories to a series of enclaves. Britain colonised Australia, and the settlers then pushed Indigenous people back and shrank their territories. It’s true, some native title has now been peaceably restored, and Australia isn’t the apartheid state that some have called Israel. But the statements we heard during the Voice campaign and since were about more than land. Some No voters sounded like Israeli settlers. The unclosed gap in living standards between First Nations people and other Australians has some reflection with the harsher inequality between Israelis and Palestinians.

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s latest statement broke new propaganda ground when he called Israel’s war a ‘holy mission’, and urged Israelis (among whom his popularity is low) to recall the biblical instruction to them to ‘remember what Amalek has done to you’ (Amalek being the descendants of Esau: I Samuel 15:3). The text tells the Israelites: ‘Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass’. That explains everything. Religious wars are the worst, because rationality does not apply.

Netanyahu’s basic concern, however is not a holy mission but his own survival. Hence, perhaps, the patriotic timing of the war on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur massacre.

That opens up questions about whether Israel was caught unawares, what they knew, and what they let happen. Lies are flying thick and fast, but speculation at present divides over two answers. First: that with its great intelligence capacity, Israel knew for perhaps two years what Hamas was planning, and let it go ahead, even at the expense of Israeli hostages and deaths. This would permit decisive retribution against Hamas, and expulsion of the whole population of Gaza. Second: that the Hamas outbreak was a genuine surprise, to which Israel, after a pause to retrieve hostages, and urging non-Hamas Palestinians to flee to the south, would kill all who didn’t, and destroy whatever was left. The result of both is the same: Gaza is Israel’s.

Our own government Ministers don’t help by keeping Australia uninformed.

We had to learn last week from Greens Senator David Shoebridge that 350 permits for defence exports to Israel were approved in the last five years, 50 of them in 2023. Greens Leader Adam Bandt said these exports must cease, warning that they make Australia complicit in Israel’s war crimes in Gaza.

This war poses Australia with the same three questions as every war:

What is it about? 
The latest Israel/Palestine conflict is about the 75 year-old contest over territory and religion, which international intervention and advocacy have never resolved. Australia, whether by falling to one side or the other of the political fence, or sitting on it, can make no difference to the outcome.

How does it affect Australian interests? 
The latest war affects Australia now that we are, apparently, involved in it by our existing and new ADF deployments and weapons exports. It will really impact on Australia if our further military support is called for, and if the war widens into Lebanon or Iran. Our position affects our international reputation, and our future reliance on international law in our own region.

What should we do about it?
Interests long vested in Israel’s war against ‘terrorists’ affect Australian politics, media, and civil society. Palestinian Australians have recently matched those with their own protests.

The Albanese government, having revived its tentative move towards endorsing Palestinian statehood, should call for an immediate ceasefire and not abandon its commitment to Palestine by joining Israel’s illegal war of collective punishment.

https://johnmenadue.com/have-australian-troops-secretly-deployed-to-an-illegal-war/

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