The announcement last week by the United
States of the largest military aid
package in its history – to Israel – was
a win for both sides.
Israeli prime
minister Benjamin Netanyahu could boast
that his lobbying had boosted aid from
$3.1 billion a year to $3.8bn – a 22 per
cent increase – for a decade starting in
2019.
Mr Netanyahu has presented this as a
rebuff to those who accuse him of
jeopardising Israeli security interests
with his government’s repeated affronts
to the White House.
In the past weeks alone, defence
minister Avigdor Lieberman has compared
last year’s nuclear deal between
Washington and Iran with the 1938 Munich
pact, which bolstered Hitler; and Mr
Netanyahu has implied that US opposition
to settlement expansion is the same as
support for the “ethnic cleansing” of
Jews.
American president Barack Obama,
meanwhile, hopes to stifle his own
critics who insinuate that he is
anti-Israel. The deal should serve as a
fillip too for Hillary Clinton, the
Democratic party’s candidate to succeed
Mr Obama in November’s election.
In reality, however, the Obama
administration has quietly punished Mr
Netanyahu for his misbehaviour. Israeli
expectations of a $4.5bn-a-year deal
were whittled down after Mr Netanyahu
stalled negotiations last year as he
sought to recruit Congress to his battle
against the Iran deal.
In fact, Israel already receives
roughly $3.8bn – if Congress’s
assistance on developing missile defence
programmes is factored in. Notably,
Israel has been forced to promise not to
approach Congress for extra funds.
The deal takes into account neither
inflation nor the dollar’s depreciation
against the shekel.
A bigger blow still is the White
House’s demand to phase out a special
exemption that allowed Israel to spend
nearly 40 per cent of aid locally on
weapon and fuel purchases. Israel will
soon have to buy all its armaments from
the US, ending what amounted to a
subsidy to its own arms industry.
Nonetheless, Washington’s renewed
military largesse – in the face of
almost continual insults – inevitably
fuels claims that the Israeli tail is
wagging the US dog. Even The New York
Times has described the aid package as
“too big”.
Since the 1973 war, Israel has
received at least $100bn in military
aid, with more assistance hidden from
view. Back in the 1970s, Washington paid
half of Israel’s military budget. Today
it still foots a fifth of the bill,
despite Israel’s economic success.
But the US expects a return on its
massive investment. As the late Israeli
politician-general Ariel Sharon once
observed, Israel has been a US
“aircraft carrier” in the Middle East,
acting as the regional bully and
carrying out operations that benefit
Washington.
Almost no one blames the US for
Israeli attacks that wiped out Iraq’s
and Syria’s nuclear programmes. A
nuclear-armed Iraq or Syria would have
deterred later US-backed moves at regime
overthrow, as well as countering the
strategic advantage Israel derives from
its own nuclear arsenal.
In addition, Israel’s US-sponsored
military prowess is a triple boon to the
US weapons industry, the country’s most
powerful lobby. Public funds are
siphoned off to let Israel buy goodies
from American arms makers. That, in
turn, serves as a shop window for other
customers and spurs an endless and
lucrative game of catch-up in the rest
of the Middle East.
The first F-35 fighter jets to arrive
in Israel in December – their various
components produced in 46 US states –
will increase the clamour for the
cutting-edge warplane.
Israel is also a “front-line
laboratory”, as former Israeli army
negotiator Eival Gilady admitted at the
weekend, that develops and field-tests
new technology Washington can later use
itself.
The US is planning to buy back the
missile interception system Iron Dome –
which neutralises battlefield threats of
retaliation – it largely paid for.
Israel works closely too with the US in
developing cyberwarfare, such as the
Stuxnet worm that damaged Iran’s
civilian nuclear programme.
But the clearest message from
Israel’s new aid package is one
delivered to the Palestinians:
Washington sees no pressing strategic
interest in ending the occupation. It
stood up to Mr Netanyahu over the Iran
deal but will not risk a damaging clash
over Palestinian statehood.
Some believe that Mr Obama signed the
aid package to win the credibility
necessary to overcome his domestic
Israel lobby and pull a rabbit from the
hat: an initiative, unveiled shortly
before he leaves office, that corners Mr
Netanyahu into making peace.
Hopes have been raised by an expected
meeting at the United Nations in New
York on Wednesday. But their first talks
in 10 months are planned only to
demonstrate unity to confound critics of
the aid deal.
If Mr Obama really wanted to pressure
Mr Netanyahu, he would have used the aid
agreement as leverage. Now Mr Netanyahu
need not fear US financial retaliation,
even as he intensifies effective
annexation of the West Bank.
Mr Netanyahu has drawn the right
lesson from the aid deal – he can act
against the Palestinians with continuing
US impunity.
- See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2016-09-19/palestinians-lose-in-us-military-aid-deal-with-israel/#sthash.fL4Eq28N.dpuf
In
this paper we will discuss the most
common recent techniques used to support
ongoing imperial wars.
Propaganda Techniques of Empire.
Role Reversal
A
common technique, practiced by the
imperial publicists, is to accuse the
victims of the same crimes, which had
been committed against them. The well
documented, deliberate and sustained US-EU
aerial bombardment of Syrian government
soldiers, engaged in operations against
ISIS-terrorist, resulted in the deaths
and maiming of almost 200 Syrian troops
and allowed ISIS-mercenaries to overrun
their camp. In an attempt to deflect the
Pentagon’s role in providing air cover
for the very terrorists it claims to
oppose, the propaganda organs cranked
out lurid, but unsubstantiated, stories
of an aerial attack on a UN humanitarian
aid convoy, first blamed on the Syrian
government and then on the Russians. The
evidence that the attack was most likely
a ground-based rocket attack by ISIS
terrorists did not deter the propaganda
mills. This technique would turn US and
European attention away from the
documented criminal attack by the
imperial bombers and present the
victimized Syrian troops and pilots as
international human rights criminals.
Hysterical Rants
Faced with world opprobrium for its
wanton violation of an international
ceasefire agreement in Syria, the
imperial public spokespeople frequently
resort to irrational outbursts at
international meetings in order to
intimidate wavering allies into silence
and shut down any chance for reasonable
debate resolving concrete issues among
adversaries.
The current ‘US Ranter-in-Chief’ in the
United Nations, is Ambassador Samantha
Power, who launched a vitriolic diatribe
against the Russians in order to
sabotage a proposed General Assembly
debate on the US deliberate violation
(its criminal attack on Syrian troops)
of the recent Syrian ceasefire. Instead
of a reasonable debate among serious
diplomats, the rant served to derail the
proceedings.
Identity Politics to Neutralize
Anti-Imperialist Movements
Empire is commonly identified with the
race, gender, religion and ethnicity of
its practioners. Imperial propagandists
have frequently resorted to disarming
and weakening anti-imperialist movements
by co-opting and corrupting black,
ethnic minority and women leaders and
spokespeople. The use of such ’symbolic’
tokens is based on the assumption that
these are ‘representatives’ reflecting
the true interests of so-called
‘marginalized minorities’ and can
therefore presume to ’speak for the
oppressed peoples of the world’. The
promotion of such compliant and
respectable ‘minority members’ to the
elite is then propagandized as a
‘revolutionary’, world liberating
historical event - witness the
‘election’ of US President Barack Obama.
The rise of Obama to the presidency in
2008 illustrates how the imperial
propagandists have used identity
politics to undermine class and
anti-imperialist struggles.
Under Obama’s historical black
presidency, the US pursued seven wars
against ‘people of color’ in South Asia,
the Middle East and North Africa. Over a
million men and women of sub-Saharan
black origin, whether Libyan citizens or
contract workers for neighboring
countries, were killed, dispossessed and
driven into exile by US allies after the
US-EU destroyed the Libyan state - in
the name of humanitarian intervention.
Hundreds of thousands of Arabs have been
bombed in Yemen, Syria and Iraq under
President Obama, the so-called ‘historic
black’ president. Obama’s ‘predator
drones’ have killed hundreds of Afghan
and Pakistani villagers. Such is the
power of ‘identity politics’ that
ignominious Obama was awarded the ‘Nobel
Peace Prize’.
Meanwhile, in the United States under
Obama, racial inequalities between black
and white workers (wages, unemployment,
access to housing, health and
educational services) have widened.
Police violence against blacks
intensified with total impunity for
‘killer cops’. Over two million
immigrant Latino workers have been
expelled - breaking up hundreds of
thousands of families– and accompanied
by a marked increase of repression
compared to earlier administrations.
Millions of black and white workers’
home mortgages were foreclosed while all
of the corrupt banks were bailed out -
at a greater rate than had occurred
under white presidents.
This blatant, cynical manipulation of
identity politics facilitated the
continuation and deepening of imperial
wars, class exploitation and racial
exclusion. Symbolic representation
undermined class struggles for genuine
changes.
Past Suffering to Justify Contemporary
Exploitation
Imperial propagandists repeatedly evoke
the victims and abuses of the past in
order to justify their own aggressive
imperial interventions and support for
the ‘land grabs’ and ethnic cleansing
committed by their colonial allies -
like Israel, among others. The victims
and crimes of the past are presented as
a perpetual presence to justify ongoing
brutalities against contemporary subject
people.
The case of US-Israeli colonization of
Palestine clearly illustrates how rabid
criminality, pillage, ethnic cleansing
and self-enrichment can be justified and
glorified through the language of past
victimization. Propagandists in the US
and Israel have created ‘the cult of the
Holocaust’, worshiping a near
century-old Nazi crime against Jews (as
well as captive Slavs, Gypsies and other
minorities) in Europe, to justify the
bloody conquest and theft of Arab lands
and sovereignty and engage in systematic
military assaults against Lebanon and
Syria. Millions of Muslim and Christian
Palestinians have been driven into
perpetual exile. Elite, wealthy,
well-organized and influential zionist
Jews, with primary fealty to Israel,
have successfully sabotaged every
contemporary struggle for peace in the
Middle East and have created real
barriers for social democracy in the US
through their promotion of militarism
and empire building. Those claiming to
represent victims of the past have
become among the most oppressive of
contemporary elites. Using the language
of ‘defense’, they promote aggressive
forms of expansion and pillage. They
claim their monopoly on historic
’suffering’ has given them a ’special
dispensation’ from the rules of
civilized conduct: their cult of the
Holocaust allows them to inflict immense
pain on others while silencing any
criticism with the accusation of
‘anti-Semitism’ and relentlessly
punishing critics. Their key role in
imperial propaganda warfare is based on
their claims of an exclusive franchise
on suffering and immunity from the norms
of justice.
Entertainment Spectacles on Military
Platforms
Entertainment spectacles glorify
militarism. Imperial propagandists link
the public to unpopular wars promoted by
otherwise discredited leaders. Sports
events present soldiers dressed up as
war heroes with deafening, emotional
displays of ‘flag worship’ to celebrate
the ongoing overseas wars of aggression.
These mind-numbing extravaganzas with
crude elements of religiosity demand
choreographed expressions of national
allegiance from the spectators as a
cover for continued war crimes abroad
and the destruction of citizens’
economic rights at home.
Much admired, multi-millionaire
musicians and entertainers of all races
and orientations, present war to the
masses with a humanitarian facade. The
entertainers smiling faces serve
genocide just as powerfully as the
President’s benign and friendly face
accompanies his embrace of militarism.
The propagandist message for the
spectator is that ‘your favorite team or
singer is there just for you… because
our noble wars and valiant warriors have
made you free and now they want you to
be entertained.’
The old style of blatant bellicose
appeals to the public is obsolete: the
new propaganda conflates entertainment
with militarism, allowing the ruling
elite to secure tacit support for its
wars without disturbing the spectators’
experience.
Conclusion
Do
the Imperial Techniques of Propaganda
Work?
How effective are the modern imperial
propaganda techniques? The results seem
to be mixed. In recent months, elite
black athletes have begun protesting
white racism by challenging the
requirement for choreographed displays
of flag worship. . . opening public
controversy into the larger issues of
police brutality and sustained
marginalization. Identity politics,
which led to the election of Obama, may
be giving way to issues of class
struggle, racial justice,
anti-militarism and the impact of
continued imperial wars. Hysterical
rants may still secure international
attention, but repeated performances
begin to lose their impact and subject
the ‘ranter’ to ridicule.
The cult of victimology has become less
a rationale for the multi-billion dollar
US-tribute to Israel, than the
overwhelming political and economic
influence and thuggery of billionaire
Zionist fundraisers who demand US
politicians’ support for the state of
Israel.
Brandishing identify politics may have
worked the first few times, but
inevitably black, Latino, immigrant and
all exploited workers, all underpaid and
overworked women and mothers reject the
empty symbolic gestures and demand
substantive socio-economic changes - and
here they find common links with the
majority of exploited white workers.
In
other words, the existing propaganda
techniques are losing their edge - the
corporate media news is seen as a sham.
Who follows the actor-soldiers and
flag-worshipers once the game has begun?
The propagandists of empire are
desperate for a new line to grab public
attention and obedience. Could the
recent domestic terror bombings in New
York and New Jersey provoke mass
hysteria and more militarization? Could
they serve as cover for more wars abroad
. . .?
A
recent survey, published in Military
Times, reported that the vast majority
of active US soldiers oppose more
imperial wars. They are calling for
defense at home and social justice.
Soldiers and veterans have even formed
groups to support the protesting black
athletes who have refused to participate
in flag worship while unarmed black men
are being killed by police in the
streets. Despite the multi-billion
dollar electoral propaganda, over sixty
percent of the electorate reject both
major party candidates. The reality
principle has finally started to
undermine State propaganda!
James Petras is a Bartle Professor
(Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton
University, New York.
http://petras.lahaine.org
