As the United States has once again cast itself as the global arbiter of democracy and human rights in another sovereign country – this time Venezuela – its closest ally in the Middle East has assassinated two world leaders on foreign soil while top political figures declare the right to rape and torture prisoners of war.
“The United States has revealed itself to the world that it is a barbaric and genocidal regime,” said Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi of the University of Tehran this week, observing the country’s ironclad defense of Israel even as Tel Aviv stokes a dangerous escalation of hostilities in the region. “The United States is destroying itself. This is a choice that they've made.”
Marandi joined host Rachel Bevins on Sputnik’s The Backstory program to discuss the rapid deterioration of Israel’s political and diplomatic position and its implications for the global standing of the US as the Biden administration continues to back the “ethno-supremacist” regime.
“I was expecting escalation,” said Marandi in response to Tel Aviv’s targeting of Palestinian leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon within the space of a few hours earlier this week. “I've been of the belief for the last two weeks that the Israeli regime can't continue the war as it is, and they're not willing to have a ceasefire. So, the only thing left would be escalation.”
“The attack on Beirut, where they bombed a residential complex, and the assassination in Tehran, as well as the bombing of a civilian target in Yemen in Hodeidah were all carried out in order to bring about escalation. And now here we are. There has been escalation.”
“I think it's very clear that just as the Israeli regime has already lost the war, they've lost on the border with Lebanon, they've lost in Gaza and they've lost in the Red Sea, where the Americans have been fighting on their behalf, but to no avail,” the academic added. “They've lost on all fronts.”
Commentators within Israel have increasingly acknowledged the failure of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated goals in Gaza recently, ten months after he vowed to “destroy” Hamas. Almost one year later the Israeli military is still struggling to contain the group militarily and politically, with polls showing a majority of Palestinians support its armed resistance to Israeli occupation.
A pervasive smear campaign has accused the armed group of an antisemitic campaign against Jews, with netizens taking to social media to mock Western media’s attempts at social conditioning. Meanwhile Russia and China have hosted leaders of Hamas and other groups to attempt to reconcile Palestinian political factions and form a united front against Zionist settler colonialism.
“Netanyahu is not acting in the interests of the regime,” said Marandi of the controversial prime minister, who faces renewed prosecution on corruption charges if he loses his grip on power. “He's acting for his own interests, and that's why he's brought about this escalation. Netanyahu is doing it to preserve his own power, and he's sacrificing the Israeli regime for his own sake, for his own selfish interests.”
“Israel is being pushed towards destruction. I don't mean that it will collapse tomorrow or next week, or six months from now. But after losing the war and after being discredited across the world because the world sees Israeli regime as genocidal, it sees how they're raping prisoners and how they are massacring children and women day and night,” he claimed, referring to Israeli politicians and activists who have defended the rape of Palestinian captives on the grounds of “self defense.”
“If the Americans do the stupid thing and they get involved, they will lose everything in the region. They will be expelled from Iraq, their bases in the Persian Gulf will be destroyed. And those regimes that gave those bases to the United States, they will be destroyed, too, because they'll be seen as hostile.”
Recent polling shows some “notable” US allies now view the United States less favorably than in years past. “Ratings of the U.S. are… down among several key NATO allies,” revealed a study by the Pew Research Center in June, which noted favorability ratings for the country have cratered in countries across the Arab world such as Turkiye and Tunisia.
A loss of economic power has accompanied the disintegration in prestige as countries across the world increasingly abandon the use of the US dollar as the de facto global reserve currency. The end of financial dominance signals that US imperialism will collapse like the British colonialism it was inspired by, and for similar reasons – consigned to the dustbin of history by its own arrogance and moral depravity.