The Middle East’s only real weapons of mass destruction are Zionism, U.S. imperialism, and Israel’s nuclear arsenal—a toxic trifecta fueling endless war.
Last week, in response to Israel’s latest aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) issued a statement with a title that adroitly articulates the current situation, The Middle East is on Fire Because U.S. and Israeli Imperialism Lit the Match. Therein, BAP, in part, declares, “The idea of Israel, the zionist occupation, claiming a moral position is absurd. And the fact that the international community continues to give Israel any credibility is a dereliction of duty and forms a vacuum of morality…” To this end, any prosecution of the zionist ethnostate’s continued aggression against Arab and Persian people in the region requires an analysis of the variables that prevent even a semblance of interdiction for Israel’s impunity that’s bringing the Middle East region and the entire world to the brink of a new season of armed conflicts with the potential to draw in multiple nations directly and indirectly. Some would argue that this is already happening.
The zionist ethnostate has been spoiling for a war with Iran for decades. Who can forget the comedic, cartoonish, yet dark presentation of Benjamin Netanyahu to the United Nations in 2012 when he suggested that Iran was on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon. Netanyahu and other neocons have been peddling the false narrative about Iran’s nuclear timeline for decades, but this time is much different because it was acted upon, which has resulted in more death, more illegal acts that are egregious violations of international law and more global instability at the hands of the zionist ethnostate and its willing collaborators in the U.S. and the West. Even a recent report by the bourgeois media outlet, CNN, indicated that according to U.S. intel, Iran was not only years away from possessing nuclear capabilities, but was also not in the process of doing so.
Nonetheless, Israel is in the process of attacking Iran, taking out its military leaders and scientists, targeting its main source of income – oil refineries and infrastructure – and signaling a desire for regime change against this sovereign nation. And Israel is doing so with the full blessing of the U.S. and Donald Trump, who declared that he was fully aware and supportive of the first round of Israeli strikes against Iran. This vindicates BAP’s statement, which also asserted, “BAP rejects the notion that the U.S. was unaware of this attack. The U.S. had the ability to stop this attack if it was serious about containing Israel’s perpetual war crimes and disregard for international law, which is a major threat to any form of true peace.”
But if you’re looking for righteous consternation against the zionist ethnostate’s bellicose machine of occupation, apartheid, genocide, and warmongering, don’t look to the Democrat Party, nor many Republicans, who continue to offer the same soporphic rhetoric about Israel’s right to defend itself as well as proclamations that Iran must not “be permitted” to become a nuclear power, and that they are the largest state sponsors of “terrorism.” - or they have remained profoundly silent. Even so called “progressive firebrands” like Bernie Sanders miss the mark by continuously attempting to hoodwink the U.S public by focussing on a symptom of the conflict – Benjamin Netanyahu and his administration – rather than the disease – zionism, U.S,/western imperialism, and settler colonialism. It’s akin to prescribing an aspirin for a migraine headache caused by brain cancer.
In fact, the most stern consternation directed towards Israel and the Trump administration has been offered by the likes of Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, and even MAGAcolyte member of congress, Marorie Taylor Green who concluded, “And foreign wars/intervention/regime change put America last, kill innocent people, are making us broke, and will ultimately lead to our destruction. That’s not kooky. That’s what millions of Americans voted for.” What does it say about the neoliberals, who are also neocons, operating in both major political parties that form the derelict duopoly, when they are to the right of Carlson, Bannon, and Green on the issue of Israel’s aggression against Iran and who are more ardent about not letting the U.S. get dragged into Israel’s war of zionist aggression against the Arab and Persian populations in the region?
Even if preventing nuclear proliferation provided a veracious impetus for Israel’s latest actions, it would still be rooted in abject hypocrisy. For years, the U.S., western nations and bodies like the anemic United Nations and unscrupulous International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have instituted a policy of deliberate ambiguity when it comes to Israel’s nuclear weapons. For instance, in 2009 when asked about Israel’s nuclear capabilities, President Obama indicated that he was not going to speculate. This posture, according to writers Victor Gilinsky and Leonard Weiss, has massive implications for U.S. policy towards Israel’s nuclear program. As they noted, “The inability to have honest public discussion allows for the pretense by Israel and its supporters that it faces an existential threat from Iran, which is ready to drop a nuclear bomb on Tel Aviv as soon as it gets one. Various aspects of the Iran issue are hidden by an inability to weigh all the elements of policy needed to arrive at an intelligent US policy.”
The West’s policy of deliberate ambiguity is a prime example of its complacency and complicity with the zionist ethnostate’s indiscriminate war machine, just as the West continues to act as arbitrators of Israel’s impunity. In fact, as reported by New Yorker’s Adam Entous, the U.S. has known about Israel’s nuclear arsenal as far back as the Nixon administration – and the promise to never interfere with Israel’s nuclear proliferation was honored by Presidents Clinton, Obama, Biden and, now, Trump. It’s no wonder the Israelis cannot only continue to deny the existence of its nuclear program, but can also circumvent any pressure from the IAEA and the global community to sign the nuclear non proliferation treaty. Moreover, as BAP notes, “The notion that a rogue ethnostate that is currently carrying out a genocide believes that it possesses the right to determine which countries can and cannot develop a nuclear weapon is both bizarre and egregious as well as brazenly hypocritical…”
It’s less a question, rhetorical nonetheless, about whether Israel possesses weapons of mass destruction as much as the irrefutable elucidation that Israel is a weapon of mass destruction. The zionist ethnostate has shown itself to be a monster created and sustained by western colonial powers - no different than Dr. Frankenstein.
That said, of all the weapons available to zionism and its settler colony Israel, its most powerful may be that of war propaganda and narrative manipulation. Among the best examples of this is zionism’s continued ability to conflate itself with Judaism. This act in itself forms a seductive tempest that delivers lawmakers, philanthropists, academic institutions, and both liberal and conservative bodies to heel through the threat of being labeled “antisemitic.” Part of any people-centered human rights initiative that demands and successfully facilitates the nadir of Israel’s militarism, genocide, illegal occupation and aparthied must also successfully articulate the fact that zionism has as much to do with Judaism as Barack Obama does with Glen Ford. The relationship between zionism and Judaism is not homeostatic, it’s parasitic.
The power of propaganda and narrative manipulation has also established a platform for Netanyahu, as well as Trump, to suggest regime change in Iran in an attempt to install another Middle East puppet government as was previously executed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and most recently, Syria. The fact that a war criminal and hyper maniacal actor like Neatanyahu can even propose assassinating the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Supreme Leader is only made possible by a toxic cocktail of U.S,/Western complicitness, U.S./Western complacency, and U.S/Western commitment to the continuation and expansion of anglo-empire, maintenance of white “supremacy” ideology, and an alabaster hegemony in perpetuity. This much was made clear as President Trump indicated that he knows where the Supreme Leader of Iran is hiding and that the U.S. and Israel, “are not going to take him out, for now.”
The zionist ethnostate is no longer an extension of U.S empire and western colonialism, it’s now a catalyst, similar to the key element of a chemical reaction. Only a truly moral, principled, and unrelenting global people’s centered human rights initiative that isolates and sanctions the zionist ethnostate, deracinates it global influence and participation in the business of the international community, and institutes comeuppance for all actors responsible for its indiscriminate use of force, murder, and existence as a purveyor of oppression can mollify Israel’s triple weapons of mass destruction threat to global peace and stability.
No Compromise
No Retreat
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright is an international climate and environmental liberation advocate, a racial justice practitioner, and a writer and policy expert residing in the United States with his family and their mischievous cat, “Evil” Ernie. He is a proud and active member of the Black Alliance for Peace and the Movement for Black Lives. His radio program, “Full Spectrum with Anthony Rogers-Wright,” airs on the Mighty WPFW network every Tuesday at 6:00 PM EST.
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