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News & analysis from Proletarian Internationalist Notes—news, reviews and analysis from a global perspective
I$rael: the United States is still the #1 enemy, not “pro-Jewish” influence
February 28, 2017
There are signs in global media that important forces may not be on the same page about the United States’ being the number-one enemy. An English-language item appearing on a prominent Mideast outlet’s international website raises the idea that a “Jewish Zionist” lobby is “dominating” not just the United States, but even the White House itself. There is no accompanying criticism. The fluent English-speaking “analyst” cited in the article goes so far as to say Trump’s “Jewish Zionist son-in-law” is exerting “Jewish Zionist influence” to promote a “pro-Jewish Zionist agenda.” The so-called analyst is described as “a former congressional staffer based in Los Angeles.” Whether “pro-Jewish” means being pro- Jews lying in desecrated graves, pro- living American Jews – who support the Iran nuclear deal more than Americans as a whole do – pro- Jews who have investment interests in ending Iran sanctions, pro- secular Jews and supposedly Zionist religious right-wingers in Israel undermining Zionism by supporting annexation of more Palestinian territory and threatening to make Israel a non-Jewish-majority state, pro- lower-income unemployed haredim in Israel, pro- some other group of Jews, or somehow pro- all these Jews simultaneously, is anyone’s guess.
The analyst seems to mean what ey says, though. The article will regardless be read a certain way, as favoring non-Jewish Americans. It appears the analyst identifies as white elsewhere, but in KKKalifornia there are some Chican@s, First Nations people and New Afrikans who are susceptible to antisemitic influence. This is often because of a general infighting/selfish mentality, wanting to keep capitalism, a desire to be like the white master/colonizer, or difficulty with anti-Euro-Amerikan or anti-Amerikan struggle. Antisemitism is a capitalist and colonial ideology, a psychopathology and a pestilence that leads to division. It leads to a weakening of national liberation movements everywhere. Antisemitism must be combated wherever it is found and purged wherever it refuses to vanish. Opposing antisemitism is necessary to get and stay on a revolutionary path for liberation of the Chican@ nation, First Nations, and New Afrika. It is necessary, also, for supporting other nations’ struggles against the United States.
It is regrettable that certain people apparently couldn’t find an appropriate voice inside U.S. borders strongly opposing both the United States and antisemitism. There is room for the Chican@ nation in particular to make much more progress building national movements in the U.S. southwest. So there may not be a very large pro-Iran Chican@ movement for Iranians to notice, but rejecting antisemitism is a matter of mutual respect. No oppressed nation within U.S. borders is facing a missile attack, yet telling stories about Jews victimizing U.$. citizens and manipulating U.$. leaders is potential disregard for struggles of oppressed nations inside the United $tates.
This is also a matter of supporting the Palestinian nation specifically. Palestinian independence is undermined when influential people who criticize the two-state solution could be perceived, correctly or mistakenly, as appearing to support a “Greater Israel” with some equality. The perception may be because of a suggestion Chican@s and New Afrikans – distinct nationalities – should unite with Euro-Amerikans to oppose supposed Jewish control of the United States. One should avoid making ill-advised statements or editorial decisions that appear to promote the United $tates as a model for national relations and government.
Those who really believe the Palestinian Authority is just a puppet shouldn’t be flattering Amerikans when Amerikans still fund the Palestinian Authority and could be part of the problem. The Amerikans are reconsidering their funding at the moment(1) so anything that could look like ass-kissing on Palestinians’ behalf is concerning. Israel and the State of Palestine shouldn’t be competing for any kind of Amerikan aid. As costly as it may be, other countries should offer to replace Amerikan funding. It doesn’t help the world for either the Israeli entity or Palestine to be dependent on the United States.
It is important to be aware that, like other Amerikans, even many supposed opponents of white supremacy in the United States, white and non-white, hold both a favorable view of that country and antisemitic views. Many have severe problems with both Jews and Islam, sometimes hidden. That said, this writer found, within a matter of seconds, evidence that the “analyst” quoted in the mentioned piece has opposed integration but from an openly white-nationalist perspective viewing Chican@s and New Afrikans as a threat to whites. Chican@s and New Afrikans should support independence for their nations and breaking up the U.S. settler entity, but citing this persyn as an authority could suggest a lack of support for Chican@ and New Afrikan liberation. The individual has had a problem with “Americanism,” but favors Amerikans by focusing on Jews. As someone who claims to support national liberation movements and has in the past referred to the news network that has cited or interviewed the “analyst” repeatedly in the past several months, the present writer has a responsibility to address this.
Steve Bannon, who is not known to be a Jew, is mentioned as the originator of “more to come” against Iran, but no attempt is made to explain whether Bannon is a part of “Jewish Zionist influences” or less important than them, while Kushner is blatantly opposed as a Jew. There is simply “Jewish Zionist lobby” dominance. The substance, if any, on which that assumption is based is unclear unless the analyst means every U.S. or anti-Iran action is necessarily pro-Israel. Certainly, the analyst’s quoted words don’t inspire much critical thinking.
Another English-language article, published on another site today, highlights “Jewish Republicans.” Nevermind that there are virtually no Jewish Republicans in Congress, for example, and perhaps hundreds of times more Christian “Zionists” undermining the two-state solution than lonely Lee Zeldin. Nobody is denying that Jared Kushner is Jewish, but the idea that one individual could dictate policy toward a single country was always dubious. Different parts of U.S. foreign policy are too interconnected. More importantly, despite having some retirement or global investment -related interest in Middle East peace, various Amerikans – including Amerikan Christians and Amerikan atheists – also have strong strategic nationalist interests in undermining that peace, interests that most non-Amerikan Jews don’t have. That is why U.S. anti-Palestine policy and a worsening status quo endure throughout multiple U.S. presidencies with different parties and domestic policy agendas. Attributing responsibility for U.S. Israel policy to a Jew is a skillful move benefiting the Amerikkkans. It also benefits right-wing I$raelis, who benefit from antisemitism when it distracts from Amerikans’ extensive role and complicity.
The “Jewish Zionism” article is in response to media coverage of a possible coming U.S. anti-Iran action. Reuters reported that “European sources” said “momentum” for a U.S. designation of a major Iranian national institution as a “terrorist organization” has “slowed” partly due to concern about “opposition from key allies.”(2) The designation and the sanctions involved in that would have power only because of U.S. dominance. In that context, it would be hard to treat Israel as the higher-priority enemy unless one were to reconcile oneself with U.S. hegemony. The issue – a proposed U.S. designation – and how one approaches it can both reflect U.$. hegemony. There has been much discussion of a supposed actually existing new multipolar order or an emerging multipolarity – mostly by people who never supported an anti-Amerikan united front to begin with – but U.$. hegemony still exists and is relevant.
An article about “pro-Jewish Zionist agenda” that doesn’t contain even the word “Israel” or “Zionist entity” (making the article about generally pro-Jewish Jews supposedly dominating Amerikans and their leaders) could be an antisemitic CIA provocation. Or it could be a predictable result of State Department pro-Amerikan influence. It could be a wrong yet desperate way of addressing an urgent threat, which wouldn’t be so urgent if the United States weren’t hegemonic and reports of debate about the “terrorist organization” designation were to turn out to be more than for appearances’ sake. Most “Marxist” opponents of Iran are phony and are more likely to cooperate with the United States than oppose it, and for other reasons some may find a wacky non-Marxist Amerikan analyst more expedient or attractive as as means of quickly conveying a pro-Iran message to an Amerikan audience through quotes.
Amerikans often pretend to be philosemitic or at least anti-antisemitic, are willing to back or work with people whose cultures they don’t like, and may deceitfully couch their pro-Israel stances in philosemitic terms while singling out Iran among Muslim countries. So raising the topic of alleged Jewish influence, or a Jews-versus-Muslims comparison, could backfire with Amerikans. Maybe, though, Iranians see there is no proletariat in the United States and no non-antisemitic class in the United $nakes that is really changing u$ policy. Maybe they see there is no non-ethnic/multicultural class in the United $tates that can be relied on more than others. Perhaps they sense that, though “racial” attitudes in the United States changed because of international relations, U.S. anti-racism didn’t contribute to much change in U.S. foreign policy. It may have actually contributed to counterproductive domestic polarization.
Such perceptions would be understandable and reflect the actual dismal class situation in that country. Unfortunately, the “pro-Jewish Zionism” article has the potential to send the wrong message to the world and confuse even Iranians. The Israeli population as a whole – including even some bought-off Arabs supporting I$raeli annexation of the West Bank – are complicit in the lack of Palestinian independence and sovereignty, but even in opposing I$rael it is necessary to oppose the United States. The countries struggling against the United States, for the two-state solution and against Iran sanctions, are showing that. And people in the United States with strong populist tendencies or receptive to strong populist messages, including thinly concealed rhetoric about certain Wall Street “elites,” are showing they can still support huge military spending increases, be chauvinistic toward the Middle East in general, and engage in anti-Iran warmongering.
Non-antisemitic struggle, united fronts
There is hardly any real leftist movement in the United States. What there is, are exploiter movements pressuring the U.S. government for concessions on economic issues and cultural/social issues – potential bribes for military buildup and war support or compliance. Even to raise ISIS as a reason make progress on the Palestine two-state solution could produce undesired results with Amerikans. One can discuss Middle East peace with Amerikans in other ways, and Amerikans may just get in the way. Actually opposing U.S. foreign policy are other imperialist countries and capitalist countries, both supporting the two-state solution and opposing Iran sanctions. Huge European multinational corporations(3) and even some U.S.-based multinational companies are losing business because of sanctions and uncertainty. Much of the world can see who is blocking things in different contexts. They can see the American-Palestinian conflict, the American-Iranian conflict, and the impact of these conflicts on other countries.
Even the IMF, in which the United $tates has the largest number of votes, seemed to express concern about Iran’s economy in the context of sanctions and nuclear agreement uncertainty, in quotes published worldwide.(4) “Jafar Mojarrad, IMF executive director for Iran, noted that, “Regrettably, remaining US sanctions and related uncertainty have hindered the return of global banks to the Iranian market and continue to hamper large-scale investment and trade.”” The IMF said in its Iran Article IV Consultation report published the other day, “Growth would be negatively affected by the re-imposition of sanctions or counter-measures that would lower direct investment and capital inflows, and disconnect Iran from the global financial system.”(5) Sanctions are impacting Iran’s non-oil sector. “The lifting of nuclear sanctions under the [JCPOA] has spurred growth, but banking system weaknesses, structural bottlenecks, and hesitation by foreign banks to re-establish financial links have held back expansion of non-oil activity.” “Despite the lifting of nuclear sanctions by the JCPOA . . . non-U.S. global banks are reluctant to re-engage Iranian banks because of remaining sanctions as well as [Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism] concerns . . . “ (p. 4). “Iran is increasingly settling its trade in euros (notably for oil) and converting its reserves to currencies other than the US dollar” (p. 41).
Iran’s economy is important various countries because of investment, trade and growth prospects and Iran’s partial integration into the global financial system. What happens to Iran can contribute to crisis or affect investments. The IMF has its own problems, of course, but there are those who would criticize the IMF for appearing to support Iran and other alleged dictatorships or rights violators. Treating Iran as the globally important economy that it is elicits charges of “globalism,” elitism, corrupt financial interests, etc. Such sentiments should be opposed in the context of needing to target the United States. If saying that is more agreeable to some bankers in a position to do something against U.S. hegemony, than to many fascist phony “leftists” constantly agitating Westerners over jobs and wages, then so be it.
This writer has discussed the Jewish/Israel lobby dominance myth, the Amerikan-Palestinian conflict, the two-state solution and the U.S. hindrance of it, the global disagreements with the United States related to that, and global struggle with U.S. hegemony, extensively in previous articles. Right now, some imperialist countries, including both Russia and some NATO countries, appear in united fronts opposing the United States on certain Iran and Palestine issues. It is important to understand that and not allow phony “anti-imperialism” or pseudo-Marxist rhetoric about monopoly capitalism, or neo-colonialism or capitalism in general, to get in the way. That doesn’t mean transnational financial capital isn’t oppressing the Third World national bourgeoisie and exploiting the workers, that there is no conflict between them, that investors always prioritize their balance sheets the highest, or even that finance capital interest in global economic growth is always confluent with the interests of the national bourgeoisie or those of the proletariat (which may exhibit more interest in opposing U.S. hegemony than bourgeois classes do, but is also trying to overcome capitalism in the long term). In terms of this distinction within global bourgeois interests, and the distinction between U.S. interests and global bourgeois interests, though, it is the case that failure of some Mideast country’s journalists to support an anti-Amerikan united front could actually represent comprador interests.
The national bourgeoisie has an interest in having an international anti-Amerikan united front. So propaganda about Jews or the Israeli entity as the #1 enemy separately from the United States could be a way of selling out the nation to U.S. imperialism. Old-type colonialism needs to be opposed in the context of ongoing U.S. Iran sanctions, including newly imposed ones, and threats, but right now there are already some Amerikans doing business with Iran. There are relatively few, if any, Israelis openly doing so. Deflecting attention from the extent of the U.S. role in Middle East conflicts, and U.S. interference in the two-state solution, could reflect comprador interests with respect to the United States. The Great $atan makes threats and ramps up the pressure with a foot in the door already, and the response of some privileged urban people – perhaps opposing “hardline” anti-Amerikanism – seems to be to kiss the Amerikans’ ass and blame the yapping dog instead of the master.
Iran is dealing with current sanctions, sanction threats, U.S. missile threats, and existing U.S. “terrorist” designations, and is facing renewed pariah treatment that the United States deserves more than any country. Iran is dealing with a Jewish-majority state in the region that at this time seems bent on competing with the United States for rogue status while trying to make the Islamic Republic of Iran the outcast. But the example in unofficial Iranian media at the moment, in regards to Israel and Jews, isn’t one that people in other countries can be expected to imitate. Hopefully, Iranians understand that.
Ayatollah Khamenei suggested a week ago, on the 52nd anniversary of Malcolm X’s assassination, that the United States and some other Western countries are ultimately responsible for Middle East conflicts. “Those who created the Zionist regime in the region with the purpose of hampering the stability, solidity and progress of the region through imposing a long-term conflict are behind the seditions that exist in the present time as well. These are seditions that have culminated in the capabilities of regional nations being used to foil one another because of engagement in futile and meaningless conflicts.”(6)
The world must oppose the United States. It can’t wait for something to happen on the inside. Time is of the essence. Iran isn’t the only country that will have a presidential election soon. France will have a new president in less than three months; it should recognize the State of Palestine before then and support it as an independent state. Meanwhile, Palestine’s Mandela, Marwan Barghouti, is still in I$raeli prison. A month and a half from now is the fifteen anniversary of Barghouti’s abduction in Ramallah. The United States is already preparing for another war in the Middle East. ◊
Related news:
• “Kremlin says it disagrees with Trump’s assessment of Iran,” 2017 February 6. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-iran-idUSKBN15L15C
• “Hidden fears over Trump’s trade policies haunt Boeing,” 2017 February 6. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/robert-gottliebsen/hidden-fears-over-trumps-trade-policies-haunt-boeing/news-story/b95204a8a64aea7c546c82f6af3a10fc?nk=1a3d7678944641ea31f050ec123ecab1-1488353387
• “Iran reaches lease financing deal for 77 Boeing, Airbus planes,” 2017 February 17. https://www.forbes.com/sites/dominicdudley/2017/02/17/iran-lease-finance-boeing-airbus/2/#6457e000769f
• “Palestinian president calls on Israel to halt settlement activities,” 2017 February 9. http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/02/16/510740/palestine-abbas-us-israel-settlements
• “Palestinian-Israeli Pulse,” 2017 February 16. http://pcpsr.org/en/node/678
• “153 lawmakers urge France to recognize state of Palestine,” 2017 February 26. http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/02/26/512195/France-Palestine-statehood
See also:
• “Iranian-Palestinian relations develop in the midst of unexpected U.S. election result,” 2016 November. https://github.com/pinotes/pinotes.github.io/blob/master/_posts/2016-11-15-news-Palestine-Iran-Abbas.md
• “AmeriKKKa is still the dominant power in the world and needs to be opposed as such,” 2016 December. https://github.com/pinotes/pinotes.github.io/blob/master/_posts/2016-12-28-news-US-hegemony-UNSC-settlements-resolution.md
• “The global anti-American economic struggle: Iran and China address trade and investment obstacles,” 2017 January. https://github.com/pinotes/pinotes.github.io/blob/master/_posts/2017-01-22-news-2017-World-Economic-Forum-China-Iran.md
Notes:
1. “GOP lawmakers unveil measure to cut off U.S. aid to Palestinians,” 2017 February 28. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/gop-lawmakers-unveil-measure-to-cut-off-u-s-aid-to-palestinians/
“Why the US might cut Palestinian aid drastically,” 2017 February 6. http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/02/palestinian-authority-trump-us-aid-decline-israel-talks.html
2. “Trump proposal for terrorist listing of Iran Revolutionary Guard in limbo: sources,” 2017 February 24. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-iran-idUSKBN1632I8
See: “White House weighs designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group,” 2017 February 7. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-irgc-idUSKBN15N0AI
3. “BASF says Iran investment in limbo amid uncertainty over sanctions,” 2017 February 24. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-basf-results-iran-idUSKBN16319H
4. “IMF says sanctions on Iran dampening economic sentiment,” 2017 February 27. https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/imf-says-sanctions-iran-dampening-223443302.html
“US sanctions threatening Iran’s banking, IMF warns,” 2017 February 28. https://web.archive.org/web/20170228040500/http://presstv.ir/Detail/2017/02/28/512371/imf-iran-us-sanctions
See: “IMF members’ quotas and voting power, and IMF Board of Governors.” https://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/memdir/members.aspx
5. “IMF hails Iran’s post-sanctions economic performance,” 2017 February 28. http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2017/02/28/512426/IMF-hails-Irans-economic-performance
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/CR/Issues/2017/02/27/Islamic-Republic-of-Iran-2016-Article-IV-Consultation-Press-Release-Staff-Report-and-44707
6. “We are with every group that is steadfast on the path of Resistance: Ayatollah Khamenei,” 2017 February 21. http://english.khamenei.ir/news/4644/We-are-with-every-group-that-is-steadfast-on-the-path-of-Resistance
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