The US has a prodigious shipwreck on its hands: The very principles that underpin Zionism were shattered on October 7, 2023. The result has been a massively forming psychosis in Israel of fear, anger and even bloodlust.
Many writers, but especially James Hillman in his book “A Terrible Love of War, have attempted to address bloodlust: an impulse so terrible, but one that ignites a Mars-like fury that unites men in battle. “I felt like a god,” says General Patton (in the film of the same name). The general walks through the field after a battle. Earth moved, tanks burned, men dead. He picks up a dying officer, kisses him, observes the havoc and says : “I love it. God help me, I love it. I love him more than my life.” In short, societies have found – and continue to find – the meaning of Life through war.
Israel is doing this; somehow searching for a “Meaning” to its biblical roots in the hectic desolation it has unleashed in Gaza; a passion fueled further by the regional walls that loom over his Zion “Project.”
At the same time, a historic civilization – the “civilization of Islam”, which infused the European Renaissance with its science, medicine, astronomy, philosophy and mysticism – awakens with half-forgotten memories of a thousand-year history, and spies the loose pillars of the world. (‘weltanschauung’) prevailing.
Even postmodern Arab states can feel the winds of History stirring, wondering which way History will ultimately fall. In fact, we occupy the shifting sands of Time.
Two currents of History are colliding, and the reason is clear: the Western world is fading; falling deeply into a phase of slow and decadent exhaustion.
This fact is evident to everyone except the denizens of power in Washington. For the White House team, there is no collision; no fundamental challenge facing Israel; nor, indeed, to the internal power structures of the US, whose Beltway Reach depends on the survival of a particular mode of Zionist power projection (as bequeathed by Jabotinsky).
So what does Biden do?
The Team plays dumb. Team Biden pretends that the great challenge is not really what it “is,” but something that can be “stroked” through absurd palliative theatrics, if we remain steadfast in our American narrative.
Tom Friedman of the ‘New York Times’ (which, apparently, has a direct line to the White House), tells us the snort: One way would be a firm and decisive stance on Iran…” (hmm, that one didn’t fly far away.) “The second path would be an unprecedented American diplomatic initiative to promote a Palestinian state, NOW. It would entail some form of US recognition of a demilitarized Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that would only come to light once the Palestinians had developed a defined and credible set of security institutions and capabilities to ensure that this state would be viable and could never threaten Israel“. (Emphasis added)
And the third leg would hang on the perpetual American chimera of Saudi normalization with Netanyahu, which the Beltway has come to believe would change “everything.” (In 2002, with the Arab Initiative, it might have had some effect; but now the Islamic world is not what it was.)
Martin Indyk said the “thinking” behind the “Palestinian deal” approach is the old mob maxim: “Biden wants to make Bibi swallow the frog (and make the deal), or choke on the frog.” (and make way for another government). Either way, the US hopes the deadlock will be broken.” That is, make an offer (as the mafia says) that cannot be rejected… except, awkwardly, Netanyahu can and does reject it, because he has behind him an overwhelming majority of his public that remains skeptical of any state. Palestinian.
And it gets worse: David Ignatius, in ‘The Washington Post’, tells us that the great obstacle to the idea of the great Palestinian state is stopping settler violence and relocating 200,000 Israelis out of a future Palestinian state. Really?
This is fooling around. There are not 200,000 supremacist settlers in the West Bank, but about 700,000. Who exactly will “relocate” these fans? (Certainly not the Israeli Occupation Forces (IFO); many of them are the settlers themselves)
Will Netanyahu swallow the toad of a Palestinian state established in the West Bank and Gaza? Ignatius posits “If [el primer ministro] If he refuses, his government could be overthrown by rivals who adopt the American formula for ending the war.” It would probably also be the beginning of the end of Zionism.
And would Mohammad bin Salmán (MbS) swallow “the frog” of the Kingdom, legitimizing a “Bantustan” of parceled fragments that pose as “a State”? As Ignatius points out
U.S. officials hope Israel will eventually recognize that the only solid plan is a U.S.-backed mission to train the security forces of a “revitalized” Palestinian Authority, which officials are beginning to describe as the “PRA.”
Oh yeah… that formula of training a collaborationist security force worked so well in Afghanistan, didn’t it?
So, in the end, what remains of this initiative? An “information campaign” by Qatar and Egypt to push Hamas to accept US proposals for a hostage deal, when they know that 96% of Israelis oppose a deal that includes the release of all captives in exchange of the cessation of fighting, the withdrawal of the Israeli Occupation Forces from the Gaza Strip and guarantees of immunity for Hamas leaders. (“34% of the Israeli public does not agree with any “deal” – Matan Wasserman in ‘Ma’ariv’, 1 Feb 2024, Hebrew):
Israeli public opinion is torn between the desire for the hostages to return home and the recognition that the prices that will have to be paid are very high. If the Achilles heel of the agreement is a non-negotiable Hamas condition requiring immunity for its leaders, it will be very difficult for the government to accept… The survey leaves no room for doubt: the fact is that there is almost no one in the opinion Israeli public that is willing to grant immunity to Hamas leaders, even at the price of an agreement to release the hostages…
Washington can’t seem to get over the unique repetitive rhythm of the narrative music. The ‘status quo ante’ is always available…if only we could make the metanarrative stick. Continue with the monotony of the rhythm. There is no creativity here; there is no novelty around which the music can revolve.
Stupidity (and ignorance) reigns. This might be the subject of passing curiosity as to its precise psychological causes, if it were not so consequential. Is it not visible that, to a large extent, the way events unfold today will be the pole around which the global future will revolve?
Al Mayadeen English / observatoriodetrabajadores.wordpress.com
2024-02-10 18:36:11
#theater #absurd #performed #Washington
