The legal and ethical earthquake from Israel’s carnage in Gaza was never going to be contained there. As the Aston Villa row shows, the shockwaves for Britain will keep growing louder
Last week the US news show 60 Minutes interviewed Trump’s two pointmen on Gaza: his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and his special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Kushner was keen to highlight how much destruction Israel had unleashed there, explaining that it looked like a nuclear bomb had been dropped.
This appeared to be his clumsy way of underscoring what an achievement Trump had secured in bringing to a halt the orgy of violence – a campaign of destruction, of course, that was made possible only because the US endlessly supplied Israel with armaments.
But with rising panic etched on his face, Kushner could only look on as Witkoff revealed that the pair had been working on a “masterplan” for Gaza’s reconstruction for two years – long before Gaza was levelled by the Israeli military. “Jared has been pushing this,” Witkoff explained.
Analysts have preferred to characterise Trump’s earlier, stated ambition to “clear out” the people of Gaza and build a playground for the rich – a Gaza Riviera – as some kind of hare-brained, improvised response to the scale of the enclave’s devastation.
But Witkoff indicated something even more sinister. That the Trump team had been informed from the outset of Israel’s bombing campaign that the intention was to eradicate Gaza, not Hamas. And so the Trump entourage began working on a business plan to cash in on the carnage.
Gaza, long the western military-industrial complex’s laboratory for field-testing weapons and surveillance technology, would now be repurposed as the world’s biggest redevelopment site.
As 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl approvingly observed of businessmen Kushner and Witkoff: “Part of the plan is the reconstruction, the building, rebuilding of Gaza. And you’re builders. You’ve been in real estate.”
The implication from Witkoff’s slip was clear: that what looked like a genocidal ethnic cleansing operation from the start was indeed just that. Trump’s team knew of Israel’s intentions and began putting together deals – both with the oil-rich Gulf states and, according to Witkoff, with Europe too."
Thank you for this, Mr. Cook. I recognize that your essay is focused on Keir Starmer, but this bombshell really deserves an essay of its own.
When Witkoff and Kushner admit that they have been planning the Gaza Riviera real estate project for more than two years, they are also letting a second cat out of the bag, which is that Israel must have been planning the razing of Gaza and construction of a Mediterranean Beach Resort for years and years before October of 2023. Suggesting to me that Hamas saw that coming, along with recognizing how Palestinians would be sidelined by an Israel-Saudi Arabia agreement. Making the Hamas break-out from Prison Gaza on 7 October 2025 that much more urgent and desperate.
As for Lesley Stahl, I keep a picture of her inside my medicine cabinet, in case I eat something bad and need to throw up quickly.
The problem is: if sacrificing children to Moloch is “Jewish” then one shouldn’t be surprised if anti-Semitism increases. People hate evil monsters, which is exactly what most Israelis and all who support Israel are. IT IS TIME FOR ALL JEWS to say STOP THE NAZI GENOCIDE!!!
I get the sense that Starmer is morally compromised and being blackmailed - Epstein style - by Israel. How else can we see a former human rights lawyer go from lead advocate at the ICJ to running interference for a genocide?
Mossad have some dirty little secrets on him. The Ukrainian rent boys setting fire to his car is an indication of his sexual proclivities.
George Wallace in Alabama started off as an advocate for the civil rights of black Americans. When he discovered that the political winds blew in the opposite direction, he changed tack and harnessed the energy of the pro-segregationists.
What I see in Keir Starmer's behavior is reminiscent of what I saw in George Wallace's behavior.
This man leaves me feeling betrayed and disgusted. His obvious support of Israel is a betrayal to all of us in the UK. Thank for this piece which I will circulate far and wide.
And let's not forget the role of the Vicar, who's been receiving massive infusions of funds from Zionist billionaires and institutions through his own Tony Blair Institute. His section of the trough may be lined with porcelain, but he snuffles in the same muck as Trump, Witkoff and Kushner. The Irish have a term- gombeen man- to describe just such a shady fixer, middleman, skimmer and trimmer. Nobody ever had to show Tony Blair the way to the sewer.
My Husband is Jewish and so are a lot of our friends. They all, without exception, support Palestine and hate Starmer. They think him and his government and the country, which some of them moved to because they thought the British had standards and supported freedom of speech and the rights of people to live without racism and in peace, and now they’ve been proved wrong.
Starmer, whatever way you look at him, is such a spineless leader, in thrall to status, devoid of thoughts of his own. He has allowed his wife’s ideology to influence him, and in his support of Israel he has parked any ‘humanitarian’ beliefs he may have had.
Politicians in the West seem impotent in stopping this genocide, and he will go down in history as an enabler. We can see him and his cohort becoming increasingly desperate as the Maccabi and Palestine Action debacle has highlighted. Where this will end is anyone’s guess.
It will probably end with Starmer being thrown under the bus by his US handlers. They won't have a second thought, that's why he looks worried.
When the US economy implodes the UK may be able to climb back out from under the rubble and ruins and, probably with the help of China, rebuild herself.
However, this doesn't take into account the accelerating climate crisis, when agricultural failures, starvations and mass migrations causing every nation for themselves will mean that all bets are off.
I am still amazed at how quickly tried and tested values and principles have been inverted. The absurdity of Stamerism (and Trumpism) has now become the logic of the elite.
I dunno that anything has been inverted. Starmer and Trump are just continuity of agenda of wars, regime changes and conflicts continued by the Bushes, Obama, Biden and Clinton (with some occasional 'freezes' and Minsk agreements to regroup).
The style may be different but those controlling the West- the US based interests in fossil fuels, arms and finance remain the same.
Can you please explain WHY Starver and so many other Western "leaders" have committed themselves to this murderous regime? There has to be something in it for them but nobody seems able to explain it.
I have tried to understand the why, but the more I read history, and the myriad opinions of 'why' across the board the less it makes sense. So, I propose at the heart of the matter is laziness, corruption, greed, cruelty, fear and a criminal/immoral enterprise that has existed for centuries. The west’s age-old habitual reliance on monetizing theft, suffering and slaughter for profit, power and standing has, to date, had impunity through force, racketeering, terror tactics and blackmail in all forms - 'why stop, when no one is actually stopping us' they seem to say.
Colonialism is hard-wired into western 'civilization' it is glorified, cast in marble, honored, admired, praised in literature and films; self-ennobling myths are taught by rote, perpetuated and regurgitated; indigenous lives, knowledge, expertise and history stolen, appropriated, concealed, hidden or erased… Some of the loudest supporters of Israel's genocide are other settler colonist states who dehumanized and slaughtered millions of indigenous people, stole their land and future; others are the original colonists and supporters of these colonist settler states. Western ‘civilization’ is on trial.
There’s lots in it for them. Primarily money.The whole cabinet have received ‘donations’ from Labour Friends of Israel.But also power.Labour Friends of Israel got rid of Corbyn, who inconveniently stood up for the rights of the Palestinians by pushing the ‘anti-Semitic’ agenda and refused to be bought, and rallied round Starmer with his pro-Israeli views.He owes his leadership to them so cannot afford to ignore them even if he wanted to
I dunno, here goes, ancient texts, (Judeo-Christian belief systems), dogma, Hasbara, white supremacy ideologies, (racism) military industrial complex, oil, probably even capitalism itself. You could also ask Mossad the same question.
Mossad will say "God gave it to us and we want to kill all the vermin who have stolen it from us." They're in the same class as all the other racist fanatics but I'm not concerned with them, without Western support, they're nothing, they would have been pushed into the sea 100yrs ago. No, I want to know what motivates Starmer and Biden and Merz and all the rest to close their eyes to this monstrous crime and say to me "You must support Israel." Is it that the entire western power elite has become a single gigantic criminal enterprise,? Maybe, but what do they get out of it? Starmer must know that his Zionist support is sinking him, he can't be so stupid as not see it. OK, why continue with it? Why not just say "Well, Israel will have to look after itself, it's not our problem." He doesn't. Instead, he proscribes Palestine Action, who are about as dangerous as the local cat society. There is some collective madness abroad, I don't think mere racism is enough to explain it. It's not money, they would have made more from a prosperous West Asia. I dont' know but somebody does.
Are you serious Niall? I’m assuming you haven’t just stumbled across Jonathan’s writing by accident. Whatever brought you here surely you must have some feeling for what has made an ongoing genocide seemingly acceptable to the West’s political leadership?
I've folllowed his work for years. I have asked many people: "Explain to me why I should support Israel and not Palestine." I never get an answer. Israel itself is driven by the delirious joy of crushing a defenceless people and stealing their land but the UK? What do they get out of it? Indeed, what does the US get? Just an aircraft carrier in the Levant? If there were no fighting, all the countries that have now been reduced to smoking ruins would be as prosperous as Italy or Spain and buying heaps of Western products and food, how is the US better off for spending untold billions to keep this madness going? The only answer I ever got was from a devout Zionist who said: "Maybe there isn't a reason." If you know, tell me because nobody else can.
You ask a good question and I'm not sure I can answer better than others but here's my take on why the US and Europe support Israel over Palestine:
1. A big piece is the shame that Americans and Europeans feel over the slaughter of Jews by the Nazis and their Eastern Europeans allies in the 1930s and 1940s. Israel uses that shame as an instrument of control; whenever a country deviates from total pro-Israel support, the Israel chorus cries out, "But we are the victims! We have always been the victims! And we will always be the victims! How can you be so heartless and cruel toward the victims?" That emotional manipulation is really very effective, especially as the West has moved toward political idealism and human rights as political policy banners (even as the political reality puts the lie to any such concern, beyond the most superficial level).
2. Another big piece is the importance of Middle Eastern petroleum and natural gas as a fuel for the global economy. For the past 100 years, petroleum has been a primary fuel for transportation and industry (gradually replacing coal). Britain gained control of Iraq and Palestine as mandates after WW1 and granted Palestine to the Zionists via the Balfour Declaration. That declaration is usually viewed as (1) a tool to secure Jewish support in the Middle East during WW1 and (2) a destination for Jews to emigrate into and away from Britain after WW1. It seems possible, if not likely, that a third application was to increase instability in the Middle East, as part of an intentional strategy to keep the Muslim countries of the Middle East divided and at odds with each other. That may be a hindsight view but things have certainly worked out that way and now Israel is used very intentionally as a bully to keep the surrounding countries weak. The post-WW1 partitioning of the Ottoman Empire is consistent with this strategy. The US-instigated war between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s was consistent with an American desire to regain control of Iran's petroleum after the 1979 revolution; that effort continues now using Israel as a proxy against Iran.
3. The American view of itself as a 'Shining City on the Hill' and an example for the rest of the world resonates strongly with the Judaic view that Yahweh sees the Jews as His Chosen People and that Jerusalem (and Judaism) will be a 'Shining City on the Hill' for the World's people to admire and emulate. So much of modern Christianity in America has reverted back toward Judaic belief in an Abrahamic God who demands obediance and delivers stern justice that it is rather easy for Americans to empathize with Israel and to view Israelis as plucky pioneeers similar to the much-mythologized American frontier settlers of the 19th century.
4. As an extension of #3 above, it is acceptable to view Palestinians as uncivilized savages comparable to the Native American tribes. In that view, the savages must be either converted and assimilated, which requires destruction of their culture, or the people themselves must be driven off the land (or killed in place if they resist). Note that, unlike Christianity and Islam, modern Judaism does not encourage proselytizing and conversion of non-believers, leaving only the option of expulsion or slaughter of the Muslim 'heathens' in Palestine.
I totally agree with all you say.The only thing I think you have missed out is that the US is packed with influential and wealthy pro-Zionist Jews.Probably descendants of refugees from Europe during WWII. They have so much power in the American establishment and politics that they feel invincible, and anyone who opposes them is likely to be arrested
Yes, absolutely. A lot of Jews immigrated to America from Europe during the 19th century, and then a number of refugees from Europe after WW2. Prejudice against Jews softened in the 20th century and their attendance at good universities then rose, leading many into careers in law, politics, medicine, and science, as well as in the arts and humanities. The culture of Judaism lends itself to high achievement in education and careers, so that Jews are now highly over-represented in higher education and in the fields toward which that leads, and in the positions of power that result. And I don't believe any educated Jew in America would contest that statement or consider it anti-Semitic.
Yes, they wanted to take back Jerusalem from the Arabs that occupied it in what, the 9th century? The perfect recipie for a never ending conflict. Three religions with the same holy city.
I know all this but it doesn't answer my question. Why do the "power elite" in the West support Israel when everybody with half a brain can see they are monsters? What motivates them, what do they get out of it?
Anyway, under the Ottomans, all the great cities of West Asia had their Muslim and Jewish and Christian quarters and they all got along peacefully. Listen to Avi Shlaim on his life in Baghdad before they were forced by Mossad bombs to move to Israel.
The UK supports Israel, ie white supremacist settler colonialism in oil rich West Asia, because the UK is a vassal of US interests in fossil fuels, animal ag, pharma, tech, finance, media and arms. Leaders don't and can't do any thing on obvious moral grounds or from national interest. They do it because they're invested in said US (or 'Israeli') companies (like Merz) and ideologically aligned with maintaining white western hegemony at any cost.
If that's the case, and I'm not arguing against it, then the "white supremacist settler colonialists" who now run the West need to be dealt with the same as the German white supremacist settler colonialists were dealt with at Nuremberg. But this seems too, too simple, there has to be more.
? the white western colonists are the US based interests in fossil fuels, animal ag, pharma, tech, media, AI, porn, gambling, alcohol, finance, tobacco, entertainment and arms- we are completely dependent on them for the energy, food and distraction supply. Until we quit or find alternatives we continue to support them everyday. We can’t just put kill them or put them on trial. The have enormous power, because we keep giving it to them.
The US and other western states could have all of those things, Big Finance, Big Ag, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Big Porn, Gambling, booze, the lot and more WITHOUT supporting Israel. Israel is an optional extra, a rider on those things which would still exist if Israel disappeared overnight. Zionism is a cult, that's clear, but why would any half sensible person join it? What does Starmer get out of it? How is his life improved? His bank balance may be but he can make heaps without running the risk of being booted out of office for supporting Zionism.
As the account explains, Starmer has complicity with genocide written all over his head. Each time he provides more words, his complicity deepens. Where is this leading?
Incredible, Johnathan! Thank you for all your work, research and analysis.
"Trump’s ‘masterplan’
Last week the US news show 60 Minutes interviewed Trump’s two pointmen on Gaza: his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and his special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Kushner was keen to highlight how much destruction Israel had unleashed there, explaining that it looked like a nuclear bomb had been dropped.
This appeared to be his clumsy way of underscoring what an achievement Trump had secured in bringing to a halt the orgy of violence – a campaign of destruction, of course, that was made possible only because the US endlessly supplied Israel with armaments.
But with rising panic etched on his face, Kushner could only look on as Witkoff revealed that the pair had been working on a “masterplan” for Gaza’s reconstruction for two years – long before Gaza was levelled by the Israeli military. “Jared has been pushing this,” Witkoff explained.
Analysts have preferred to characterise Trump’s earlier, stated ambition to “clear out” the people of Gaza and build a playground for the rich – a Gaza Riviera – as some kind of hare-brained, improvised response to the scale of the enclave’s devastation.
But Witkoff indicated something even more sinister. That the Trump team had been informed from the outset of Israel’s bombing campaign that the intention was to eradicate Gaza, not Hamas. And so the Trump entourage began working on a business plan to cash in on the carnage.
Gaza, long the western military-industrial complex’s laboratory for field-testing weapons and surveillance technology, would now be repurposed as the world’s biggest redevelopment site.
As 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl approvingly observed of businessmen Kushner and Witkoff: “Part of the plan is the reconstruction, the building, rebuilding of Gaza. And you’re builders. You’ve been in real estate.”
The implication from Witkoff’s slip was clear: that what looked like a genocidal ethnic cleansing operation from the start was indeed just that. Trump’s team knew of Israel’s intentions and began putting together deals – both with the oil-rich Gulf states and, according to Witkoff, with Europe too."
Thank you for this, Mr. Cook. I recognize that your essay is focused on Keir Starmer, but this bombshell really deserves an essay of its own.
When Witkoff and Kushner admit that they have been planning the Gaza Riviera real estate project for more than two years, they are also letting a second cat out of the bag, which is that Israel must have been planning the razing of Gaza and construction of a Mediterranean Beach Resort for years and years before October of 2023. Suggesting to me that Hamas saw that coming, along with recognizing how Palestinians would be sidelined by an Israel-Saudi Arabia agreement. Making the Hamas break-out from Prison Gaza on 7 October 2025 that much more urgent and desperate.
As for Lesley Stahl, I keep a picture of her inside my medicine cabinet, in case I eat something bad and need to throw up quickly.
Free Palestine, from the River to the Sea!
The problem is: if sacrificing children to Moloch is “Jewish” then one shouldn’t be surprised if anti-Semitism increases. People hate evil monsters, which is exactly what most Israelis and all who support Israel are. IT IS TIME FOR ALL JEWS to say STOP THE NAZI GENOCIDE!!!
Thank you Jonathan
I get the sense that Starmer is morally compromised and being blackmailed - Epstein style - by Israel. How else can we see a former human rights lawyer go from lead advocate at the ICJ to running interference for a genocide?
Mossad have some dirty little secrets on him. The Ukrainian rent boys setting fire to his car is an indication of his sexual proclivities.
George Wallace in Alabama started off as an advocate for the civil rights of black Americans. When he discovered that the political winds blew in the opposite direction, he changed tack and harnessed the energy of the pro-segregationists.
What I see in Keir Starmer's behavior is reminiscent of what I saw in George Wallace's behavior.
This man leaves me feeling betrayed and disgusted. His obvious support of Israel is a betrayal to all of us in the UK. Thank for this piece which I will circulate far and wide.
It should leave you feeling sick, the British PM is an agent for Israel, which makes him a traitor to Britain.
I have been a lifelong Labour voter, but I don't feel I can ever vote for them again while this hypocrite is in charge.
An important and informative article. Thank you.
And let's not forget the role of the Vicar, who's been receiving massive infusions of funds from Zionist billionaires and institutions through his own Tony Blair Institute. His section of the trough may be lined with porcelain, but he snuffles in the same muck as Trump, Witkoff and Kushner. The Irish have a term- gombeen man- to describe just such a shady fixer, middleman, skimmer and trimmer. Nobody ever had to show Tony Blair the way to the sewer.
My Husband is Jewish and so are a lot of our friends. They all, without exception, support Palestine and hate Starmer. They think him and his government and the country, which some of them moved to because they thought the British had standards and supported freedom of speech and the rights of people to live without racism and in peace, and now they’ve been proved wrong.
You are so right.So ashamed of being British
Starmer, whatever way you look at him, is such a spineless leader, in thrall to status, devoid of thoughts of his own. He has allowed his wife’s ideology to influence him, and in his support of Israel he has parked any ‘humanitarian’ beliefs he may have had.
Politicians in the West seem impotent in stopping this genocide, and he will go down in history as an enabler. We can see him and his cohort becoming increasingly desperate as the Maccabi and Palestine Action debacle has highlighted. Where this will end is anyone’s guess.
Kier Starmer, the man, is a hypocrite and a criminal, he has been exposed his real.
You seem pretty sure of your thesis Jo, a paradigm shift from some other source may suffice, at this point nobody really knows.
It will probably end with Starmer being thrown under the bus by his US handlers. They won't have a second thought, that's why he looks worried.
When the US economy implodes the UK may be able to climb back out from under the rubble and ruins and, probably with the help of China, rebuild herself.
However, this doesn't take into account the accelerating climate crisis, when agricultural failures, starvations and mass migrations causing every nation for themselves will mean that all bets are off.
This two events will come in the next decades.
Brilliant article, thank you.
I am still amazed at how quickly tried and tested values and principles have been inverted. The absurdity of Stamerism (and Trumpism) has now become the logic of the elite.
I dunno that anything has been inverted. Starmer and Trump are just continuity of agenda of wars, regime changes and conflicts continued by the Bushes, Obama, Biden and Clinton (with some occasional 'freezes' and Minsk agreements to regroup).
The style may be different but those controlling the West- the US based interests in fossil fuels, arms and finance remain the same.
Can you please explain WHY Starver and so many other Western "leaders" have committed themselves to this murderous regime? There has to be something in it for them but nobody seems able to explain it.
I have tried to understand the why, but the more I read history, and the myriad opinions of 'why' across the board the less it makes sense. So, I propose at the heart of the matter is laziness, corruption, greed, cruelty, fear and a criminal/immoral enterprise that has existed for centuries. The west’s age-old habitual reliance on monetizing theft, suffering and slaughter for profit, power and standing has, to date, had impunity through force, racketeering, terror tactics and blackmail in all forms - 'why stop, when no one is actually stopping us' they seem to say.
Colonialism is hard-wired into western 'civilization' it is glorified, cast in marble, honored, admired, praised in literature and films; self-ennobling myths are taught by rote, perpetuated and regurgitated; indigenous lives, knowledge, expertise and history stolen, appropriated, concealed, hidden or erased… Some of the loudest supporters of Israel's genocide are other settler colonist states who dehumanized and slaughtered millions of indigenous people, stole their land and future; others are the original colonists and supporters of these colonist settler states. Western ‘civilization’ is on trial.
There’s lots in it for them. Primarily money.The whole cabinet have received ‘donations’ from Labour Friends of Israel.But also power.Labour Friends of Israel got rid of Corbyn, who inconveniently stood up for the rights of the Palestinians by pushing the ‘anti-Semitic’ agenda and refused to be bought, and rallied round Starmer with his pro-Israeli views.He owes his leadership to them so cannot afford to ignore them even if he wanted to
I dunno, here goes, ancient texts, (Judeo-Christian belief systems), dogma, Hasbara, white supremacy ideologies, (racism) military industrial complex, oil, probably even capitalism itself. You could also ask Mossad the same question.
Mossad will say "God gave it to us and we want to kill all the vermin who have stolen it from us." They're in the same class as all the other racist fanatics but I'm not concerned with them, without Western support, they're nothing, they would have been pushed into the sea 100yrs ago. No, I want to know what motivates Starmer and Biden and Merz and all the rest to close their eyes to this monstrous crime and say to me "You must support Israel." Is it that the entire western power elite has become a single gigantic criminal enterprise,? Maybe, but what do they get out of it? Starmer must know that his Zionist support is sinking him, he can't be so stupid as not see it. OK, why continue with it? Why not just say "Well, Israel will have to look after itself, it's not our problem." He doesn't. Instead, he proscribes Palestine Action, who are about as dangerous as the local cat society. There is some collective madness abroad, I don't think mere racism is enough to explain it. It's not money, they would have made more from a prosperous West Asia. I dont' know but somebody does.
I think it’s a multiplex weave of all of the above ⬆️
Are you serious Niall? I’m assuming you haven’t just stumbled across Jonathan’s writing by accident. Whatever brought you here surely you must have some feeling for what has made an ongoing genocide seemingly acceptable to the West’s political leadership?
I've folllowed his work for years. I have asked many people: "Explain to me why I should support Israel and not Palestine." I never get an answer. Israel itself is driven by the delirious joy of crushing a defenceless people and stealing their land but the UK? What do they get out of it? Indeed, what does the US get? Just an aircraft carrier in the Levant? If there were no fighting, all the countries that have now been reduced to smoking ruins would be as prosperous as Italy or Spain and buying heaps of Western products and food, how is the US better off for spending untold billions to keep this madness going? The only answer I ever got was from a devout Zionist who said: "Maybe there isn't a reason." If you know, tell me because nobody else can.
You ask a good question and I'm not sure I can answer better than others but here's my take on why the US and Europe support Israel over Palestine:
1. A big piece is the shame that Americans and Europeans feel over the slaughter of Jews by the Nazis and their Eastern Europeans allies in the 1930s and 1940s. Israel uses that shame as an instrument of control; whenever a country deviates from total pro-Israel support, the Israel chorus cries out, "But we are the victims! We have always been the victims! And we will always be the victims! How can you be so heartless and cruel toward the victims?" That emotional manipulation is really very effective, especially as the West has moved toward political idealism and human rights as political policy banners (even as the political reality puts the lie to any such concern, beyond the most superficial level).
2. Another big piece is the importance of Middle Eastern petroleum and natural gas as a fuel for the global economy. For the past 100 years, petroleum has been a primary fuel for transportation and industry (gradually replacing coal). Britain gained control of Iraq and Palestine as mandates after WW1 and granted Palestine to the Zionists via the Balfour Declaration. That declaration is usually viewed as (1) a tool to secure Jewish support in the Middle East during WW1 and (2) a destination for Jews to emigrate into and away from Britain after WW1. It seems possible, if not likely, that a third application was to increase instability in the Middle East, as part of an intentional strategy to keep the Muslim countries of the Middle East divided and at odds with each other. That may be a hindsight view but things have certainly worked out that way and now Israel is used very intentionally as a bully to keep the surrounding countries weak. The post-WW1 partitioning of the Ottoman Empire is consistent with this strategy. The US-instigated war between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s was consistent with an American desire to regain control of Iran's petroleum after the 1979 revolution; that effort continues now using Israel as a proxy against Iran.
3. The American view of itself as a 'Shining City on the Hill' and an example for the rest of the world resonates strongly with the Judaic view that Yahweh sees the Jews as His Chosen People and that Jerusalem (and Judaism) will be a 'Shining City on the Hill' for the World's people to admire and emulate. So much of modern Christianity in America has reverted back toward Judaic belief in an Abrahamic God who demands obediance and delivers stern justice that it is rather easy for Americans to empathize with Israel and to view Israelis as plucky pioneeers similar to the much-mythologized American frontier settlers of the 19th century.
4. As an extension of #3 above, it is acceptable to view Palestinians as uncivilized savages comparable to the Native American tribes. In that view, the savages must be either converted and assimilated, which requires destruction of their culture, or the people themselves must be driven off the land (or killed in place if they resist). Note that, unlike Christianity and Islam, modern Judaism does not encourage proselytizing and conversion of non-believers, leaving only the option of expulsion or slaughter of the Muslim 'heathens' in Palestine.
I totally agree with all you say.The only thing I think you have missed out is that the US is packed with influential and wealthy pro-Zionist Jews.Probably descendants of refugees from Europe during WWII. They have so much power in the American establishment and politics that they feel invincible, and anyone who opposes them is likely to be arrested
Yes, absolutely. A lot of Jews immigrated to America from Europe during the 19th century, and then a number of refugees from Europe after WW2. Prejudice against Jews softened in the 20th century and their attendance at good universities then rose, leading many into careers in law, politics, medicine, and science, as well as in the arts and humanities. The culture of Judaism lends itself to high achievement in education and careers, so that Jews are now highly over-represented in higher education and in the fields toward which that leads, and in the positions of power that result. And I don't believe any educated Jew in America would contest that statement or consider it anti-Semitic.
The way I see it Starmer and his ilks mindset is older than the crusades, and is directly connected to them.
The crusaders hated Jews. And Muslims, of course.
They hated anyone who was not Christian!
Yes, they wanted to take back Jerusalem from the Arabs that occupied it in what, the 9th century? The perfect recipie for a never ending conflict. Three religions with the same holy city.
I know all this but it doesn't answer my question. Why do the "power elite" in the West support Israel when everybody with half a brain can see they are monsters? What motivates them, what do they get out of it?
Anyway, under the Ottomans, all the great cities of West Asia had their Muslim and Jewish and Christian quarters and they all got along peacefully. Listen to Avi Shlaim on his life in Baghdad before they were forced by Mossad bombs to move to Israel.
The UK supports Israel, ie white supremacist settler colonialism in oil rich West Asia, because the UK is a vassal of US interests in fossil fuels, animal ag, pharma, tech, finance, media and arms. Leaders don't and can't do any thing on obvious moral grounds or from national interest. They do it because they're invested in said US (or 'Israeli') companies (like Merz) and ideologically aligned with maintaining white western hegemony at any cost.
If that's the case, and I'm not arguing against it, then the "white supremacist settler colonialists" who now run the West need to be dealt with the same as the German white supremacist settler colonialists were dealt with at Nuremberg. But this seems too, too simple, there has to be more.
? the white western colonists are the US based interests in fossil fuels, animal ag, pharma, tech, media, AI, porn, gambling, alcohol, finance, tobacco, entertainment and arms- we are completely dependent on them for the energy, food and distraction supply. Until we quit or find alternatives we continue to support them everyday. We can’t just put kill them or put them on trial. The have enormous power, because we keep giving it to them.
The US and other western states could have all of those things, Big Finance, Big Ag, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Big Porn, Gambling, booze, the lot and more WITHOUT supporting Israel. Israel is an optional extra, a rider on those things which would still exist if Israel disappeared overnight. Zionism is a cult, that's clear, but why would any half sensible person join it? What does Starmer get out of it? How is his life improved? His bank balance may be but he can make heaps without running the risk of being booted out of office for supporting Zionism.
Masterfully written Jonathan. Thank you.
Thank You Jonathan
As the account explains, Starmer has complicity with genocide written all over his head. Each time he provides more words, his complicity deepens. Where is this leading?