It’s apparent what kind of psyop the U.S. empire is going to use to try to maintain the Zionist settler state amid this last year’s acceleration of its demise. Now that “Israel” has decisively lost in the narrative war, and the majority of both the globe and U.S. citizens see that its actions in Gaza aren’t justified, Zionism’s best option is to portray Netanyahu as a unique problem. To replace Netanyahu with a “good” leader who will supposedly make sure that no genocides or other human rights abuses happen again.
This psyop is going to succeed to an extent, because plenty of the “left” within the core imperialist countries is willing to capitulate to even the most transparent of liberal narratives. There will be “progressive” politicians, NGOs, and commentators who join with the Democratic Party in celebrating this alleged success at reforming “Israel,” and in condemning Hamas for not accepting the ethnic cleansing of Gaza’s people. Yet this lie will prove to be limited in its effectiveness. Limited in a way that’s extraordinary for imperialist psyops, and that will prompt our ruling class to scramble even more than it is now.
If U.S. officials think that the fallout from their “Israeli” colonial project is bothersome today, they’ll be in for a still nastier surprise after they try to make this fallout disappear. They hope to “memory hole” the Gaza genocide, like they’ve been able to do with their destruction of Libya, Syria, and so many other places. But Gaza isn’t a kind of imperialist crime that can be shoved out of the discourse and the popular consciousness. It’s more like Vietnam or Iraq, except potentially more narratively damaging than those instances. Because with Gaza, we have a U.S. proxy regime that’s outwardly stated its intent to collectively punish an entire people, and that’s therefore exposed its own vile nature with remarkable speed. It took far longer for most Americans to realize that Iraq wasn’t a war worth supporting; Bush could still use the war to his advantage in the 2004 election, whereas Gaza has likely become Biden’s biggest liability in the 2024 race.
Now the narrative managers expect to be able to turn this entire situation around, and make Americans believe a new “Israeli” election has fixed things? The Zionist state, and its backers in Washington, have made sure that this will only be the start of the humanitarian crisis. The people of Gaza have had their infrastructure taken away, had their homes destroyed by numbers of now over one-third of a million, and can only be helped by aid workers who are needing to switch each other out as “Israel” systematically murders them. The countries complicit in the genocide, including Gaza’s neighbor Egypt, are refusing to accept the refugees. And our government intends to do all it can to prevent this cycle of suffering from ending. Blinken has said that if Palestine becomes a state, the U.S. will cut off funding for the United Nations, which as he made a point to emphasize will mean the Global South loses access to the World Food Program.
The goal of this threat is to let the Zionist state keep acting with impunity, yet the only thing that can come from Washington’s refusal to back down is a further escalation of the anti-Zionist struggle. And if this escalation doesn’t come in the form of a regional war, where Iran fills the role of bringing “Israel” to its knees, then Zionism’s fatal crisis will only manifest in another area. That “Israel” still hasn’t gone to war with Iran is itself another sign of Zionist weakness, as it shows Iran has gained too much of a strategic advantage for the Zionist state to want to provoke it in the most serious way. Unless “Israel” decides to act that recklessly, and Iran gets an opportunity to strike the decisive blow, it’s going to need to be us who provide that crucial outside help for the Palestinian cause.
By “us,” I broadly mean everyone around the globe who’s participating in BDS or other pro-Palestine activities. But the Palestine allies who I’m capable of directly fighting alongside are the ones in my own country. Being in the United States, these fellows of mine are also the Palestine supporters with the most amount of potential leverage over Washington. We know this because the CEO of the “Israeli” tech supplier Palantir has admitted as such, saying that if the student protesters win the “intellectual debate,” the U.S. won’t be able to keep waging its wars. Should we advance these protests to their next stages, we’ll realize this scenario.
One part of this task is educating the pro-Palestine struggle’s existing members about the need for a broader anti-imperialist practice, where we advance solidarity with not just Palestine but also China, Russia, Korea, and the other anti-imperialist countries. (Iran is a country that we especially can raise support for at the moment, because the demonization of Iran by Zionists is provoking a cultural debate over how to view the Islamic Republic.) Another part is expanding the struggle far beyond “the movement,” so that it comes to mobilize not just students and leftists but also the popular majority who oppose foreign wars.
The aspect of our mission that’s most urgent, though, is saving the cause from repression. I’m not just talking about the encroachment of our increasingly “Israelified” police state. I’m also talking about the thing our government is doing to give this police state the ability to raid all anti-imperialist organizations. This thing is the effort to convict the Uhuru org for “Russian interference.”
The Uhuru trial is on September 3, and though we shouldn’t act like a conviction is inevitable, it’s possible that this will be the day when the precedent gets set for criminalizing all international solidarity work. The state has more of a reason than ever to make this persecution campaign successful, because if Uhuru is found guilty of being Russia’s puppet, then all the people who Zionists call Hamas or Iranian puppets will be guilty too. Whether we can keep our organizations in operation following the trial, or better yet prevent a conviction, is going to decide whether we triumph against Zionism’s institutional power.
We’re getting closer to victory, our enemies recognize we are. The big question is if we’ll be able to overcome the next stage of the counterinsurgency beyond narrative warfare. This will be the stage where the state has shifted towards using its militarized police forces as the main means for attacking us. This transition has already happened in part, but if we lose the Uhuru case, these forces will be empowered to incarcerate people not just for protesting but for simply assembling. If we render this means of attack ineffective, we’ll bring the struggle to its next phase.
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