Western political elite‘s war in the Holy Land

Tragic events and unfolding genocide in the Holy Land should not be viewed as a surprise. Rather, it is another step in an orchestrated plan designed to inflict unimaginable damage in the pursuit of genocidal dreams. According to the New York Times (Oct. 25) the Israel plan to pacify and cleanse the Palestinian territory represents “one of the most intense [bombing campaign] of the 21st century.” Furthermore, the plan is coordinated closely with Washington.  The Wall Street Journal (Oct. 26) reported that  officials in Washington acknowledged that  Israel's war planning took into consideration the U.S. plan “ to get its air defenses in place to protect U.S. troops in the region ahead of an expected ground invasion of Gaza.”

Furthermore, the White House national security spokesperson John Kirby asserted that "We're not drawing red lines for Israel." While this might be viewed as a greenlight for Israel to take any action, Middle East and international affairs experts assert that Washington is an accomplice in the unfolding catastrophe. Katherine Gallagher, senior attorney with Center for Constitutional Rights argued “U.S. officials can be held responsible for their failure to prevent Israel’s unfolding genocide, as well as for their complicity, by encouraging it and materially supporting it.”

The Jerusalem Post reported that as of October 25, more than 6000 Palestinians were killed and that one third of them were children. However, President Biden dismissed the death toll stating , “I have no notion that Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. . . I’m sure innocents have been killed. And that’s the price of waging a war.”  The President appears to underscore two principles that govern the actions of Western political elites: the lives of nonwestern people are expandable  and deserve no regrets, and death of non-Israel innocent people in the Holy Land is tolerable.  

In his assertion that the current war in the region is a moral conflict, good vs evil, President Biden purposely stifles any search for a viable solution to end the war and save lives. His muted call for return to the two-state solution rings hallow in the face of funding request of $14.3 billion of additional aid to Israel.  The  unfolding human and environmental catastrophes  in Gaza are unimaginable horrors that are impossible to foreswear. As both Jews and Palestinians mourn the death of their loved ones, the carnage in the Holy Land is massive, remorseless , and celebrated.

For Biden and most of the Western elites, and very importantly the new Evangelical Speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Johnson, the ongoing destructions in the Holy Land not only resonate with the Biblical prophecies but is undisputed evidence of God’s design. The Jewish Forward (October 24) underscores this stating, “Western culture is steeped in Christianity, and even for those who are not devout, it’s hard to escape the way that unconscious religious assumptions shape conversations.”  The Forward further states that projecting the current conflict as a war between “God and Satan, politicians boil it down into what is ultimately the same black-and-white schema: Israel must be supported, and Hamas wiped out — whatever the cost.”

Biblical instructions, especially Joshua (11: 11-12) which recorded the first genocide ever in the history of mankind state “And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them; there was not any left to breath: and he burnt Ha’zor with fire. And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and he utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded.”

These Biblical instructions have shaped the thinking and attitudes of Western elites, and their Evangelical Christian allies, especially those in Washington.  From Winston Churchill to Hitler, and from Francisco Franco to Trump, the Bible plays a central role in their mind map of the world.  Churchill viewed Palestinians in their homeland as a threat for moving Jews to the Holy Land and he described Palestinians as dogs and barbaric because they demanded freedom during the British mandate of Palestine.   

While Israeli liberal commentators  assert that Western powers seek a destabilized Middle East as an instrument for domination, the conservative and religiously motivated Israelis view it strictly in the context of religion that has shaped the thinking of successive administrations. For example, Amir Oren argues that Washington is the global cop who orders its regional cop to enforce its will. In contrast, the right-wing Israeli strategist, Michael Oren,  observes that almost all U.S. Presidents were and have been driven by religious teachings in their solid commitment to Isarel.

Condoleezza Rice captured this reality when she stated , “I first visited Israel in 2000. I already then felt that I was returning home despite the fact that this was a place I never visited. ... I am also the daughter of a Presbyterian minister and was brought up on the very moving stories of the Holy Land. They meant a lot to me.” 

One , however, should not discount the fact that Western elites harbor, paradoxically,  anti-Jewish sentiments and almost all of them dislike the Arabs. For these elite the establishment of Israel in 1948 enabled them to have access to natural resources and to control vital trade routes. More importantly, it allows them to legitimately cleanse European Jews and resettle them in Palestine. Hitler initially encouraged Jews to relocate in Palestine. In fact, the Haavara Agreement with the Zionist German Jews in 1933 was envisioned to do just that and had resulted in moving about 60,000 German Jews to Palestine between 1933 and 1939.

Hitler was driven by a supremacist religious ideology and was determined to eliminate European Jews.  This ideology is still alive and appears in various forms. For Western political elites nurturing conflicts in the region is a noble act if Jews and Arabs are its victims. This marks an end to civility in international relations, a celebration of barbarianism, and  a manifestation of a deep-rooted hatred.

Abbas J. Ali is distinguished University Professor.