My grandparents were Communists as were my parents. They grew up in a world that most of my generation think is long gone and most likely forgotten. The events of the past decade or more have most decidedly revised that assessment, for the world of my ancestors has come back to haunt us with a deadly vengeance.

Were they alive today I wonder what they would make of the resurgence of a world-destroying imperialism that no doubt they thought had had its fangs if not removed then at least blunted. No such luck.

No doubt they’d say that it’s because the Soviet Union is no longer around to curb the predations of Capital and there is no doubt that the demise of the USSR has a lot to do with the current state of affairs.

Growing up in a world of Mutually Assured Destruction did, at least with a kind of insane logic, create something akin to stability but all the while, underneath, the MADness was gnawing away at what was our utterly false sense of security. There was no way that such a world was sustainable, sooner or later something had to give.

And in fact, the world of MADness is directly responsible for the current situation, especially the situation in the Middle East. The Arab world has been the focus of Western interests for well over a century, in the beginning because it was the gateway to Europe’s colonial possessions as well as a prime piece of real estate over which the imperialists fought each other endlessly and of course because of oil, that necessary component without which it could not fight its wars nor maintain its economic superiority.

The creation of Israel was central to the strategic objectives of the leading imperialist states, most notably the UK and then the US once it took over the role of the UK in the region.

Well, as the bible says ‘ye reap what ye sow’ and the events currently unfolding in the Occupied Territories constitute a real turning point. The Zionist state has created a situation for which there are only two options open to it. Either it follows through with its decades-long objective of totally erasing what’s left of the Palestinian state and its people or it has to come to terms with the reality it has created.

“As far as I’m concerned, the people of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya can start packing.” – Israeli Cabinet member Zeev Boim

Without a doubt Zeev Boim would like nothing better than to see the Palestinian people disappear in a puff of smoke but short of either exterminating them or physically driving them out, his options are somewhat limited. In the meantime, Boim and his gangster pals in Tel Aviv, Washington DC and London have no qualms about making life a living hell for the Palestinian people. One can only assume that Bush, Blair and co are as short-sighted as the rabid Zionists of Tel Aviv, yet of course, what other choices are left open to them?

Ultimately, the actions of the Olmert government have revealed the total bankruptcy not only of the ‘two-state solution’ but of a state based on the notion of the ‘Jewish race’, itself a complete fiction.

In reality the ‘two-state solution’ was never a possibility even if the Zionist state actually intended to honour its agreements, there is simply no basis for a viable Palestinian state, the Zionists have made sure of that. And in any case, they never intended that a viable Palestinian state would be created, every action since 1948 confirms this.

• What of the 350,000 illegal settlers in the fragment left of the former intended ‘state’ of Palestine?
• What of the so-called fence?
• What of the theft of Palestinian water resources?
• What of the deliberate destruction of the entire economic basis of the Occupied Territories?
• What of the destruction of the entire administrative infrastructure?
• And perhaps worst of all, what of the ganging up of the major Western powers and deliberately starving the Palestinian people into submission?

What all of the above reveals is the fact that without the direct collusion of the major media of the Western countries in not only covering up the staggering crime against humanity that is the destruction of Palestine and its people but that it stems from the simple fact that those who rule Israel and those rule the US and the EU are of a kind.

None of this could happen, if there were not racial imperialism, in which the Jews of Israel were considered “white” – and, therefore, had inherent rights. White Americans also think they have rights that nobody else possesses. There is a connection between the extremist Zionist scheme and the umbilical cord of imperialism. Here is the result, that places the Zionist perspective and the “American” worldview in proper place. – ‘Imperial Racism’ by Glen Ford and Peter Gamble, Black Commentator, July 6, 2006

How else does one explain the media’s treatment of the Palestinians except by the fact that institutionally, it is racist to its core.

Take for example, the short piece in today’s Independent (6/7/06), the story relegated to page 22, which has absolutely nothing to say about the situation of the Palestinian people. It doesn’t mention the fact that thousands of artillery rounds have been fired into Gaza, nor does it mention the comments by Zeev Boim quoted above.

Aside from quoting a Hamas official, the Palestinians are entirely missing from the story, it’s as if they don’t exist except as a threat to Israel. The story’s title “Israel intensifies Gaza offensive after second rocket attack” says it all. The Palestinians fire a couple of totally ineffectual Qassam rockets which land harmlessly somewhere; the Israeli response is tanks, helicopter gunship attacks and threats to destroy yet more “institutions and infrastructure facilitating terrorism”, as if there’s anything left to destroy.

The BBC, in what it laughingly calls an “analysis” has this to say of Palestinian resistance to occupation

The most important lesson for the Palestinians is that force does not work.’ — ‘Why dreams must die if peace is to come’ news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5151718.stm

No mention of any lessons that the Israelis could learn from the use of (overwhelming) force. Indeed, the entire ‘analysis’ presupposes two equal forces ranged up against each other.

In a bizarre twist of language the BBC continues

It can deliver some tactical advantages. Resistance to occupation, at the moment, is popular. But has it ever threatened the existence of the Jewish state? Not for a second. And is it bringing the creation of an independent Palestinian state any closer? Not by an inch.

So the BBC advocates that the Palestinians shouldn’t resist the illegal occupation, under international law, their right. Instead the BBC advocates that the democratically elected government of the Occupied Territories should talk to a state that refuses to recognize their existence let alone talk to them! A state that kidnapped almost the entire Palestinian legislature!

Thus the BBC nails its colours to the mast when it tells its readers

The Gaza crisis is doomed to run its course, in the same way that Palestinians and Israelis are doomed to live alongside each other.

Doomed? I should say so but not for the reasons the BBC states. The piece continues

But eventually, their only chance of creating a decent future for their children is to make a political agreement about sharing the land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean that is acceptable to both sides.

Where is the ‘analysis’ which shows that the Israelis have no intention of sharing anything with the Palestinians? This is the lesson the Palestinians have learned over the past 56 years.

So insidious is the nature of the propaganda put out by the MSM that the real message is buried inside what passes for news and analysis. Thus the BBC ignores entirely the simple fact that the world’s fourth largest army, equipped by the United States with the latest weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons is placed on par with an entirely defenceless population.

The BBC’s ideological position is to present to an audience denied the real facts, a ‘plague on both your houses’ argument, that’s the reason the BBC uses the “doomed” message and reinforces it endlessly with a ‘tit-for-tat’ alleged analysis which ignores the simple reality that the Palestinians were driven from their land in 1948 and have been kept in virutal slavery and exile ever since.

The propaganda works because it exists within a culture of racism which views the Palestinians as less than human, so when a Palestinian ‘suicide bomber’ blows up a restaurant or a bus, they are immediately labeled as “beasts” and “fanatics”.

When the Israelis wiped out an entire family of Palestinians relaxing on the beach, did you read that those who did it described as beasts or terrorists? No, in fact the initial reports talked of an “alleged” attack, even the reality of the murder is questioned.

The BBC talks of the only power station in Gaza being “attacked”, neglecting to remind the reader that it is the only source of power for 750,000 people, for hospitals, for clean water, for sewage treatment. The Independent described the destruction of the power plant as “cutting off Gaza’s power plant” (editorial, 3/7/06).

It is simply not permitted to talk of Israelis as terrorists or psychopaths, this would be ‘anti-semitic’, let alone that they are practicing genocide on par with the Nazis, just as systematic and carefully planned as the ‘Final Solution’.

Most of all, what is simply not allowed to be raised as a real issue is a single state solution, which given that the Israelis have made sure the ‘two-state solution’ is a non-starter, is the only way to resolve what the BBC describes as

… another generation of bloodshed, and who wants that?

Yet, a single state is now the only solution open as impossible as it may appear at the moment. The problem with a single state solution for the BBC and the other mouthpieces for the West is that it calls into question the entire rationale for the state of Israel’s existence, a state based on fanatical, religious and racial fundamentalism (sound familiar?).

A fanatical state but one run by white, Europeans that echoes Hitler’s ‘uber mensch’. Indeed, much of the fundamental ideology is lifted directly from the Nazi doctrines of the 1930s. So it seems Muslims (or Arabs) have no monopoly on fanatical fundamentalism.

To challenge the nature of Israel is to open a can of worms that inevitably calls into question the entire rationale for the ‘war on terror’, the ‘clash of civilisations’ and all the other propaganda being shoveled out 24/7. It would expose the fundamentally racist nature of the entire Western enterprise they like to call ‘civilisation’.

So as far as the US and the UK are concerned,

The elites understand that the struggle to end the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would require (and will require) the defeat, the overthrow, the demolition, of the Zionist regime that is based on racism, militarism, and ethnic cleansing. For the imperialists, that overthrow is to be prevented at all costs. – Gideon Samet: “this is no longer a crisis about the return of a prisoner” www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/734682.html

See also: "Arabs Out!" Ynet News 6/7/06

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