The emergence of the Zionist project owes much to the legacy of European imperialism, but Israel’s conduct now threatens to bring a dying Western hegemony crashing down.
The claim was made by commentators Robert Fantina and Niko House, who appeared on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program Thursday to respond to Israel’s intensifying attacks across its border with Lebanon.
Tel Aviv has launched a highly provocative military campaign against the neighboring country even as Western media has focused on Iran’s retaliatory strikes against Israel Tuesday, which have resulted in no Israeli fatalities. Israel has undertaken a number of strikes from the air on Lebanon while also initiating a ground invasion across the country’s southern border.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the campaign in response to Hezbollah’s periodic rocket attacks into northern Israel, which have primarily been aimed at military targets. The group has claimed it will continue its attacks until Tel Aviv ends its military campaign in the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 42,000.
But Israel has repeatedly struck civilian targets in and around the Lebanese capital of Beirut, claiming it is attempting to neutralize Hezbollah fighters. Some 37 people were reportedly killed in attacks on apartment highrises and other residential buildings Thursday, a number typical of Tel Aviv’s recent strikes in the country. Lebanon’s health ministry claims 1,974 have died in Israeli attacks on the country since October 8 last year.
Recently it emerged that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had agreed to a ceasefire with Israel before he was killed by an Israeli strike last week. His death represents the latest Israeli killing of a series of leaders across the Arab world tasked with heading up peace talks with Tel Aviv.
“Netanyahu actually said the component that forced him to to disagree with the ceasefire was the component about the ceasefire in Gaza,” said House. “[Netanyahu] just gave the US and France – not to mention Lebanon, obviously – the middle finger after they had told everybody that it was all good, there is going to be a ceasefire. So I just find it bizarre that the US rewarded this blatant disregard for diplomacy by giving [Israel] $8.7 billion. That’s insane.”
Fantina compared the death of Nasrallah to Israel’s killing of Hamas lead negotiator Ismail Haniyeh in July.
“This was the person who was working with the various parties trying to bring about a ceasefire and Israel assassinated him,” Fantina noted. “Then Nasrallah was working from the Lebanon side for a ceasefire to end the carnage that Israel is committing against the people of Lebanon, and so, Israel killed him. So how are they serious about any kind of a ceasefire if they keep killing the negotiators? … Rather than discuss the issue, [Netanyahu] simply killed Nasrallah, setting any negotiations back.”
“Remember, Israel is the monster of the US's creation and it's one that it's lost control of,” he claimed. “Who knows what's going to happen next, but the possibility of Israel pulling the United States into a war in the Middle East grows every day, and it would be a disaster for everyone.”
The modern movement towards the creation of Israel began during the late 19th century, when Austro-Hungarian activist Theodor Herzl proposed the establishment of a Jewish state in the Levant on the model of historical European colonialism. Herzl conceived of the project in explicitly racial terms, attempting to sell European dignitaries on the concept of an “outpost of [Western] civilization against barbarism” in the Arab world.
The UK spearheaded Israel’s creation in land it had colonized in historic Palestine but the United States quickly became the country’s most powerful backer, with former President Harry Truman seeking to satisfy “hundreds of thousands” of constituents “anxious for the success of Zionism.” President Lyndon Johnson became a strong backer of Israeli interests after his predecessor John F. Kennedy had tried to prevent the country from developing a nuclear bomb; Johnson even hid Israeli responsibility for the death of 34 American servicemen from the public after the country fired on the USS Liberty in 1967.
Pro-Israel interests have since become highly influential in US foreign policy circles as the Zionist lobby aggressively wields its financial influence in political campaigns. The defense of Israel has become a primary driver of Western policy in the Middle East even as some question the ramifications for US national security and American interests more broadly.
“The thing that US government officials do not understand when… the US assassinates one or two or 50 of their leaders: it doesn't break the resistance,” said Fantina. “They regroup. For every resistance fighter that the US or Israel, or the US or any of its proxies kills, then 10 new resistance fighters join.”
“I do believe, honestly, that the United States did want a ceasefire agreement because they have interests in Lebanon,” said House. “[Israel] can't handle that war by themselves. So that means we're going to have to get involved and that is a very unpopular position here in the US.”
“Israel is putting us in a position where they're trying to force our hand,” he added, noting that the US is struggling amid its proxy war in Ukraine as Netanyahu raises the prospect of US support for Israel’s multi-front war. “They don't want a situation where they have to be forced to answer the question, can we even handle a war with Iran? We can't even hold onto the few countries that we were supposed to be holding onto recently.”