In our previous article at multiracialunity.org,, US and Israel Ironclad, we briefly discussed US ties to Israel, but it has become clear that many wish to explore this matter in greater depth. Indeed, we must understand that the US ruling class is dependent on Israel’s military power and political loyalty in order to maintain its hold on the entire Middle East, its resources and trade routes, and to continue to hold sway as a major imperialist power. Without this understanding, we might think that a moral argument against genocide would suffice. It will not.
A Few Historical Facts
Although founded in the late 1800s, Zionism only gained the support of Western Imperialism in the early 20th century because oil had become the main fuel of industry and military machinery and all of this resource was in the Middle East. Britain, then the West’s major imperialist, also wanted to assure that the Suez Canal and Egypt remained under its influence. Thus, Britain promised to sponsor a Zionist homeland in the area, knowing that the Zionists’ European background would make them a regional ally, and the Balfour Declaration of 1917 was signed. After their WW1 victory, Britain and France divided the Ottoman Empire into six new countries – Palestine, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Kuwait – and Zionist immigration to Palestine accelerated.
As of 1895, there were about 400,000 Arabs living in what is now Palestine, but the Zionist plan was to expel them all. This sentiment was expressed by Zionism’s founder, Theodor Herzl – “I am for compulsory transfer; I do not see anything immoral in it.“1 – and every leader of Israel since. Jewish immigration vastly accelerated as Nazism grew in Europe, and after WW2 the United Nations established the state of Israel. The Jews were given 55% of the land, including the best water supplies, although they owned only 6% at the time and comprised about 30% of the population. Needless to say, the Arab population was unhappy, and so were the Zionists, who wanted it all.
The Zionist blueprint for the ouster of Palestinians, which had been in development since 1940, was put into effect in 1948. Hundreds were killed, as in the mass murder in the village of Deir Yassin, over 750,000 (6/7 of all Palestinians in Israel) fled in terror and 500 villages were destroyed. The refugees ended up in what are now the Occupied Territories (OT), nearby countries or farther afield. Any who tried to return to their homes were killed. To Palestinians this ethnic cleansing is known as the Nakba, or catastrophe, while most Israelis are still led to believe that Palestinians left voluntarily because they hated Jews.
In1967 Israel launched a victorious war, with US support, to defeat the pan-Arab movement being built by Nasser in Egypt. Egypt was driven out of Gaza, Jordan out of the West Bank and Jerusalem, Syria out of the Golan Heights, and the longest military occupation in modern history began. By 1969, the last British troops had left the Middle East, and the US became the greatest supporter of Israel with a policy called Qualitative Military Edge to guarantee Israel’s permanent military and technological superiority. As of 1980, US aid to Israel had become greater than that to the rest of the world combined.2 As Nixon’s Secretary of State Alexander Haig said: “Israel is the largest American aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be sunk, does not carry even one American soldier, and is located in a critical region for American national security.”3 Or as Biden said more recently, “If Israel didn’t exist, we would have to invent it.”4
After WW2, when the US had become the main western imperialist, Israel was part of its triple base of support of in the Middle East, which also included Saudi Arabia and Iran. With the fall of the US-installed Shah of Iran in 1979, the US lost one critical ally in the region. Saudi Arabia has recently been waffling in its loyalties between the West and China. They now sell oil to China, receive weapons and technical aid from China and signed a pact with Iran in March, 2023 at China’s behest. As of yet, they have refused to sign the U.S. sponsored Abraham Accords with Israel and, like Jordan, the UAE, and Qatar have said they do not want their military infrastructure or air space used by the US.5 Only Israel remains as a politically reliable and militarily strong US ally in the Middle East.
Can the US Divorce Israel?
The short answer is no. The US would much prefer that Israel did not act in such a murderous way toward Palestinians, infuriating millions in the US and around the world, but it still must enable Israeli policy. If the US withdrew weapons, Israel would be weakened, defeated or possibly even destroyed. And why can’t the US allow this?
Climate change notwithstanding, fossil fuels still account for 80% of the world’s energy use and remain the crucial fuel for the militaries and industries of all capitalist economies, and 79% of this resource is in the Middle East. After the US, five of the six biggest oil producers in the world are in the Middle East – Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE, Qatar and Oman. There are thought to be huge undeveloped oil reserves in Yemen, the West Bank, and there are known to be large gas fields in the sea west of Gaza and Israel.3
Trade routes in the area are also of critical importance. Twenty percent of the world’s petroleum passes through the Persian Gulf. 30% of all container ships, 40% of all Asia to Europe trade and 15% of all international trade passes through the Suez Canal. Just the Houthi attacks on shipping at the southern end of the Red Sea caused a 50% decrease in the volume of trade through the Suez Canal in the first two months of 2024 and a 74% increase in shipping around the Horn of Africa, at a great cost in time and money.6 As of July, $200 billion worth of goods had to be diverted away from the Canal.
Since the 1980s, the US has constructed deals offering various carrots with neighboring Arab states so as to mitigate their enmity and actions against Israel. Egypt and Jordan were labeled Qualifying Industrial Zones, receiving duty free access to the US, as long as their exports were partially made in Israel. Free Trade pacts were signed with Bahrain, Morocco, Jordan and Oman, which forbade them from boycotting Israel. Most recent and most important are the Abraham Accords of 2021, which demand normalization of relations with Israel in exchange for losing the designation of terrorist state or receiving other trade benefits with the US. So far, the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco have signed. Saudi Arabia was to be the biggest prize, but has so far refused to sign on.3
Other Functions of Israel
It has also been possible for the US to carry out unpopular foreign policies by conducting business in Israel. During apartheid in South Africa, the US funneled its support to the white government through Israel. While supporting the rightwing Contras in Nicaragua, US aid also went via Israel.
Israel is also a developer, producer and exporter of military weapons and surveillance equipment such as drones, especially those designed to quell revolt in an urban environment. To this end they have trained thousands of police around the world, including those from most US cities.
Competition with China
At the moment, China has many and growing interests in the Middle East, which amplifies the US interest in maintaining its own foothold there. By 2020, Chinese oil consumption had risen to 14% of the world’s oil, up from 6% in 2000. The Gulf states are now providing almost half of China’s imports, and 70% of Gulf oil is headed to Asia. In 2022, the five leading Western oil companies had a combined $200 billion in profits. However, Aramco of Saudi Arabia earned $161 billion, making it the largest profit ever recorded ever by a single company. Other companies in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait have also taken over much oil extraction and exporting in the Gulf. Oil refining, once a totally Western enterprise, is also increasingly shifting eastward, with only one third remaining in North America and Europe. 7
Meanwhile Saudi Arabia is receiving technology and weapons from China. China is the Saudis largest trading partner and has received $10 billion in technological investments.8 Although the Saudis still receive 78% of their weapons from the US, Chinese arms exports have increased fourfold over the past 5 years.9
China is also massively extending its worldwide influence through the Belt and Road initiative to boost trade, diplomatic relations and exports. There are now cooperation agreements with over 150 countries, including Egypt, and 18 other countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Maritime trade routes connect China with south east and south Asia, the South Pacific, the Middle East and Eastern Africa, and Europe.
Whereas US dollars once dominated international trade, the BRICS banking alliance of Brazil, Russia, India and China now includes six new countries – Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – and a growing list of partner countries. Altogether their economies account for 37.3% of world GDP.11
What Happens Next?
We face a continuation of genocide in Gaza and land seizures and killing in the West Bank, with no good end in sight. There is no possibility of two states as we consider a state to have the right and possibility to defend itself and Israel would never allow this. Nor is there enough territory left under Palestinian control to make up a contiguous state. Israel cannot bear the current situation in which Palestinians in the overall territory outnumber Jews. In Gaza the population will be decimated and maybe forced into exile or confined to a much smaller area under some form of Israel-friendly control. Or maybe massive general conflict will ensue. Without a unified class-conscious movement among Palestinians and unity with such movements in other countries, I see no chance their lot will be improved,
Overall, the main dynamic that will determine the world’s fate over the next decades is the competition between the two main imperialist rival camps, China and its Russian and Iranian allies and the US with its NATO allies. It is impossible to predict just when or how, by accident of design, this rivalry will erupt into major conflict. But we can be sure that it will happen at some time, as has been the pattern of inter-imperialist rivalry for the last century. Certainly the current conflict, now involving Lebanon and Iran, may expand, or perhaps wider war will grow from fighting over Taiwan or the South China Sea or some other unknown quarter. And when this war occurs, there is a good chance that the conflict will ultimately be nuclear, few nations holding back their strongest weapon if desperate.
The question is what can we do? I would say that our duty is to weaken the power of US and European imperialism as much as we can. That does not mean relying on influencing or changing politicians but building ever wider movements on campuses and in industries and communities that strike at the heart of capitalist power and indoctrination. We must organize our fellow students, workers and soldiers to fight against imperialist wars, against racism, against deficiencies in social services. That could mean fighting racism and police brutality, demanding better wages and social services, passing professional society resolutions, bans on investments or military support by universities, organizing soldiers to resist orders to fight fellow workers – in whatever way we can unite, build leadership from below, expose the nature of capitalism and ready ourselves to lead the eventual struggle to end capitalism, with our fellow students and workers around the world. We have many ongoing and recent struggles to inspire us and a world that needs to be won.
Ellen Isaacs is a physician, anti-racist and anti-capitalist activist and co-editor of multiracialunity.org. She can be reached at [email protected]
References
1. Pappe, Ilan, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Oneworld Publications,2006, p.xi
2. https://www.theleftberlin.com/israel-the-us-and-imperialism/
3. https://www.tni.org/en/article/framing-palestine
8. https://www.spa.gov.sa/en/N2163494
9. https://gulfif.org/the-saudi-sino-military-partnership-ambitious-or-overhyped/
10.(https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/11/china-belt-road-initiative-trade-bri-silk-road/
11.https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/11/brics-summit-geopolitics-bloc-international/