The shark and the remora...the “neighborhood thug” and changing the Middle East!

By Muhammad Hussein Abu Al-Hassan

Israel resembles the remora fish, which attaches to the stomach of the shark and feeds on its waste and leftover food. It moves freely in the oceans, safe from monsters. Because she is in the company of the biggest predator.

The beginnings of the Hebrew state were with the Balfour Declaration when Great Britain, and by declaring the state in 1948, was recognized by the two superpowers at that time, the United States and the Soviet Union. Even today, Israel remains the pampered girl of the West, supported by America and Europe with money, weapons, and influence, in its brutal war on Gaza. And its quest to “change the Middle East”; Which threatens waves of anger in the Arab and Islamic worlds, and the return of extremist groups and terrorism everywhere. And severely destabilize the world, even though the solution is possible and available!

Thank you America!

When you follow the media coverage and the statements of American and European officials about what is happening in Gaza and its environs, you realize that they are talking about a “people returning from exile” to their land (Israel), and not about a people who were forcibly exiled from their land (the Palestinians). As for the Arabs, they are trying to prevent the people. The Israelis are unable to live in peace in a homeland they built from nothing, in a land that did not have a people... This “Western hump,” so to speak, is confusing and deplorable. Because it violates all values, ethics and international law.

Imagine the scale of the “war crimes” that Israel commits every minute against the people of Gaza, including genocide, starvation, and displacement, with Western blessing, support, and support that are a blessing to humanity. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “Thank you to America for standing with us today, tomorrow and always.” In response to US President Joe Biden’s statements in strong support of the aggression against Gaza, and his sending of the largest aircraft carrier, “Gerald Ford,” off the Israeli coast to show the “red eye” of any party that intervenes militarily to save the Palestinians, in contradiction to the values of freedom and human rights that Washington calls for in its foreign policies. In fact, it contradicts the supposed American interest with Arab and Islamic countries. Not surprisingly, Biden once described himself as a “Zionist,” and that if Israel did not exist, it would have to be invented; Therefore, it can be understood why Biden comes to the region supporting the Israeli plan - and Europe also supports him - to liquidate the issue forever and displace the Palestinians to Sinai and Jordan if possible.

The blatant American bias towards Israel is not new. Minutes after announcing the founding of Israel, on May 14, 1948, US President Harry Truman recognized the new state. There is a revealing quote by Yitzhak Rabin, the former Israeli Prime Minister: “American support for our country cannot be compared to any other support.” In modern history, we receive the largest American military and economic support at approximately $500 per Israeli annually.” Politicians and decision-makers in Washington disagree on almost all issues, but they often agree to support Tel Aviv.

A special relationship

The relationship between Israel and the West is a complex topic; The war of extermination waged by the Jewish state against the Palestinian people imitates the wars of annihilation of the indigenous peoples of the American Indians and others in North and South America. The underlying reasons for the West’s relationship with Israel vary between interest-based, material, and historical motives related to the legacy of the colonial era and the identity of the Protestant Christian American state influenced by Judaism, to the point of emergence of the term “Christian Zionism,” whose followers believe in the necessity of establishing a Jewish entity in Palestine. In preparation for the second return of Christ and his establishment of the thousand-year kingdom, in addition to other strategic, political and economic motives; As Dr. Abdel Wahab Al-Messiri explained in his book “The Jews, Judaism, and Zionism.”

The Americans, Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University, and John Mearsheimer, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, tried to search for the secret of the special relationship between the United States and Israel. Walt pointed out that the usual saying that Israel is a vital strategic asset for America, and that they share the same values, cannot explain all this unconditional support from the United States; Noting that this American support for Tel Aviv is one of the underlying causes of terrorism, and a strategic burden on America’s security and stability. With regard to values, Israel's racist treatment of its Arab and Palestinian citizens contradicts American values.

Walt attributes American support for Tel Aviv to the pro-Israel “lobby” in America, which is a loose coalition of individuals and groups that works to influence American policy in support of the Hebrew state, and includes American Jewish organizations, such as “AIPAC” and Christian Zionist groups, and this lobby works in two tracks: intervention In the various American elections, by supporting specific candidates and facilitating their access to government positions, also providing incentives for them to implement the required policies and enact legislation. So much so that most members of the House and Senate realize that any attempt to limit American support for Israel is “playing with fire.” It exposes its perpetrator to a serious accusation of "anti-Semitism." Indeed, US President Jimmy Carter, the sponsor of the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, was not satisfied with that. When he published his book “Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid,” which pointed out that any American politician criticizing Israel is like committing political suicide, warning against the continuation of the current Palestinian reality; Israeli pressure groups attacked him, demanding that he apologize for what he wrote.

Great anger

The influence of the pro-Israel lobby extends to all aspects of American cultural, media, military, scientific, economic, and political life. John Mearsheimer investigated the negative effects of that lobby’s pressure on American foreign policy and its interests. He gave, as an example, the repercussions of America’s support for Israeli brutal practices against the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, as they lead to great anger. In the Arab and Islamic worlds; Which fuels extremism and terrorism, explaining that supporting settlement in the Palestinian territories and protecting Israel from international condemnations by using the veto and other things, was one of the most prominent motives for the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks, and explaining that the lobby led Washington to invade Iraq, which is one of the biggest blunders in history. American.

Despite the strength of the Israeli lobby’s influence in Washington, it did not always succeed in seizing control of the White House, as happened when US President Barack Obama signed the nuclear agreement with Iran. Israel, with the help of the lobby supporting it, sought to stand in the way of the deal and sabotage the agreement, to the point that Netanyahu He went to Congress speaking and challenging the American president in his home, and when he was succeeded by Donald Trump, he actually took the initiative to freeze the agreement. Gerard Baker wrote an article in the British newspaper "The Times" in which he alluded to the dissatisfaction of some in Washington with the influence of the lobby, and its push by America and the West to stand behind the Israeli aggression against defenseless Palestinians. Baker referred to the protest songs of the 1960s by the American artist Bob Dylan, who won the Nobel Prize, and one of them describes... Israel as a “neighborhood thug,” pointing out that despite Washington’s understanding of the motives for Israeli positions, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party has become openly hostile, not only to specific Israeli actions, but, it seems, to Israel itself, indicating that the United States cannot It continues to give Netanyahu's right-wing government billions annually to commit crimes and atrocities against the Palestinians. For this reason, John Mearsheimer called for America to deal with Israel in a normal manner that takes into account American national interests, and does not deepen the imbalance in regional and international geopolitical balances.

The only guarantee for the stability of the region is that the Palestinian people obtain all their legitimate rights. As for Netanyahu’s boasting that he will change the “Middle East,” it is blind bullying, based on a feeling of power. Depending on the fact that Israel is sheltered in the corner of the American-European West; But it is a feeling full of false arrogance, because it ignores the will and vitality of the people. Even remora fish sometimes become food for predators while they are in the shark's embrace!