Since the end of the Cold War, more than 25 years ago, the United States has undermined the prospects for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians argues Rashid Khalidi in his book Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. has Undermined Peace in the Middle East (2013). Dahlia Scheindlin interviewed him in New York this week for the Tel Aviv Review. Successive American administrations, says Khalidi, have been unable and unwilling to force Israel to make the concessions necessary to implement the peace proposal on the table: a two state solution.
Menachem Begin laid down the template for Israeli resistance during the Camp David negotiations with Egypt, says Khalidi. He figured out that the formula for not being forced to make concessions is to defer action forever. The ’79 peace treaty with Egypt permitted Israel to continue settlement in the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli Sovereignty over the West Bank was not touched.
How much does the Israel lobby, both Jewish and fundamentalist Christian, explain why negotiations have failed to bear fruit for the past 25 years, asked Scheindlin. “It’s beyond the Lobby,” said Khalidi. Israeli and American politicians get funding from the same people. Important industries, like high tech and defense, are integrated in the U.S. and in Israel at the highest levels. As a result the U.S. and Israeli political systems are on the same page, to the point that it is more accurate to think of them as one integrated political system than in terms of allies, says Khalidi.
And when he says the U.S. and Israel should be thought of as an integrated political system, he means Zionist Israel. Zionist Israel is the idea of Israel as the state of the Jews for the Jews of the world. It is the idea that the state belongs to a Jew born in Argentina, or Bolivia, or the United States who has never set foot in Israel; and it belongs to this Jew who has never set foot in Israel somehow more than it does to an Arab Palestinian who was born in Jerusalem but forced out by war in 1948 or 1967; that, in a fundamental way, it belongs to this Argentinian, Bolivian, or U.S. Jew more than it does to a Palestinian citizen of Israel.
Zionism grew organically out of Western culture, says Khalidi. He points to the affinity of Zionists with the West. Zionism was a movement born in Basel and at the Biltmore Hotel. These people were at home in the West. Chaim Waizmann and David Ben-Gurion, were Europeans. Ben-Gurion lived in the United States for two years, organizing. He spoke English fluently and naturally. Golda Meir grew up in the United States, as did Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu, Michael Oren (ambassador to U.S. 2009-13), and Ron Dermer (the current ambassador) all had American citizenship.
Since 1967, the American Jewish community (~7 million strong) has embraced Zionist Israel. And this community has been established for five generations in the U.S. It is hugely influential in politics, law, business, and entertainment. There is a deep affinity between Zionism and the United States through its frontier culture, the idea of exceptionalism, and through the bible, says Khalidi. This affinity, and the Holocaust, have enabled the establishment of a pro-Zionist narrative that has whitewashed what is fundamentally a colonialist enterprise of dispossession. And it has enabled this narrative to be portrayed in an entirely positive context.
In this contest of ideas, suggests Khalidi, Palestinians have been hopelessly outmatched. They are monoglot. They speak Arabic. They have no connections to the West. They are not at home with English or French. There is no affinity between Palestinians and the West. The Arab community in the United States (~1.7 million) is much smaller and consists of more recent arrivals. They are discriminated against in the U.S. today. Meanwhile, their potential patrons, the leaders of the Arab Gulf States, are autocratic powers of reaction. They are repressive, they are exporters of extreme forms of Islam. They have no natural affinity with Western values.
Today, the white nationalist political narratives in the West are aligned with the Zionist idea. Fighting white nationalism in the West, and fighting Jewish nationalism (as opposed to Israeli nationalism), are related. To the extent that Khalidi is right and the U.S. and the Israeli polity are an integrated political system, fighting White nationalism and fighting Zionism are part of the same fight.
Listen to the program HERE.
This post first appeared on Roland Nikles’s website here.
I certainly agree with what Rashid Khalidi has correctly identified: the military-industrial complex is a major factor that influences or prevents peace in modern day Israel/historic Palestine because they profit handsomely from war and conflict.
ROLAND NIKLES- “As a result the U.S. and American political systems are on the same page, to the point that it is more accurate to think of them as one integrated political system than in terms of allies, says Khalidi.”
Assuming you meant to say the U.S. and Israeli political systems, I agree and them some. I would maintain that Israeli political economy is integrated within the American led, imperial global political economy. Jewish Zionist elites, particularly American Jewish Zionists, are firmly imbedded within the global 1% which calls the shots.
ROLAND NIKLES- “Since 1967, the American Jewish community (~7 million strong) has embraced Zionist Israel.”
This is why I have come to believe that Zionism, originally a form of blood and soil nationalism, has changed into Judeo-Zionism, a merger of Judaism and Zionism which unites secular Jews with religious Jews in common cause.
ROLAND NIKLES- “To the extent that Khalidi is right and the U.S. and the Israeli polity are an integrated political system, fighting White nationalism and fighting Zionism are part of the same fight.”
Rubbish, and sneaky at that! “White nationalism” is the label which folks like you try to pin on those of the 99% who oppose neoliberal globalization. Folks like me. Jewish Zionists are an integral part of the global elites who are pushing for neoliberal globalization, the Wall Street wrecking crew smashing national sovereignty to permit total financial control. So, no Roland, fighting against those fighting against neoliberal globalization is not the same as fighting Zionism. Actually, just the opposite. Those who oppose neoliberal globalization generally oppose foreign interventions, including support for Israel. Those who support empire support Zionist Israel. Israel wouldn’t exist in its present form without massive imperial support. So, the reality is that fighting empire and neoliberal globalization and fighting Zionism are part of the same fight.
‘“It’s beyond the Lobby,” said Khalidi. Israeli and American politicians get funding from the same people. Important industries, like high tech and defense, are integrated in the U.S. and in Israel at the highest levels. As a result the U.S. and American political systems are on the same page, to the point that it is more accurate to think of them as one integrated political system than in terms of allies, says Khalidi.’
Yes. That is more intractable than Congress’s support for Israel, though could also be seen as one and the same.
Excellent piece — but is the author sure Netanyahu was an American citizen? The others I knew.
Israeli Military and Intelligence has become progressively intertwined with the US MIC through decades of diligent shaping of Congressional legislation by the Israel Lobby and by monitoring and unauthorized obtaining US weapons and industry technology and assets by Israeli intelligence. For years, Israel has been one of the top foreign countries that have spied on American industries. Netanyahu helped pilfer nuclear triggers in the 80s. Congress has passed exceptions for Israeli companies to allow them to produce components for US military hardware that is supposed to be produced only by US companies. Israel has marketed itself as the “start-up nation” and lobbied states, like California, to sign technology deals. Just because the Lobby does not have to try as hard to maintain this state of affairs does not mean that they have not been instrumental in our country’s having gotten to this point.
“To the extent that Khalidi is right and the U.S. and the Israeli polity are an integrated political system, – See more at: https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2017/05/israel-integrated-political/#comment-177113”
Are they not part of the same fight insofar but are supremacist belief systems which are equally vile? Is integration necessary to make it the same fight?