“People do bad things because they believe there isn’t enough to go around.”
Sadly, this is a gross over-simplification. I speak from both personal experience, which has been reinforced by my readings of history. When I moved to Israel 19 years ago, it was a developing country, barely out of third world status. The first 17 years I lived there it grew into an world-class economic power-house by any standard. There was plenty to go around. Over the past two years, it is again slipping into third-world status (which is one of the reasons I left). In fact, now people are going hungry. So what motivated Israelis to give up the good life and fight a senseless and meaningless war which is bringing them death, destruction and poverty?
I would argue that in fact most Israelis do want to reach a settlement with the Palestinians, and vice versa. The man in the street is miserable. But why isn’t it happening? Because the power structures on both sides would lose their power if peace actually happened.
All the evidence shows that Ehud Barak went to Camp David consciously planning to make it fail, while dumping the blame on Arafat. He knew the people wanted him to cut a deal, but he didn’t want to do it for his own personal reasons. Barak could have made a more generous offer which the Israeli people would have backed. The proof being that the Palestinians have clearly stated that they support the Clinton/Taba/Saudi/Arab League parameters, and I have no doubt most Israelis could be sold on that. But as I said, once there is peace, Barak, Sharon and all the others like them become irrelevant. So Barak manipulated the situation to make it look like he was doing what the people want, without risking his own will to power.
War is about the few who use it to stay in power. Power is also related to money, of course. When Barak lost the election, he went to work with his brother-in-law (another ex-army brat) selling arms to third world countries. Israeli army brass not only control politics, but also, to a large degree, the economy.
Is it that much different here? When we say the war is about oil, it doesn’t mean that Exxon and Mobil want this war. In fact they may be (although its not likely) big losers. But the people who will win are Bush and everyone around him. Controlling Iraqi oil fields means you get to decide who gets huge, highly lucrative contracts. It means you have enormous power and influence over governements around the world.
The warlord plutocracies who push for war for their own personal power and gain, need to convince the masses why they should sacrifice their sons, their livelihoods and their well-being. They can’t say “Help me be rich and powerful.” So they use religion, nationalism, the threat of scarcity, ideology – many and varied excuses that on the surface, at least, appeal to people’s good side and/or deep fears. But behind it all is “oil” as a symbol of power and money. Power and money for them, not the people.
Since this is Thanksgiving, I do want to praise a bunch of men who despite their own privilege and power, did embark on a radical experiment. I mean the founding fathers of the United States. True some may argue that they manipulated their fellow colonialists into going to war for their own personal power and economic gain. But if it had only been that, especially in the context of the time, they could have devised a far more autocratic system of government. To their eternal credit, they put in place a system that allows the people, if they want to, to take power from the plutocracies and make war a distant thing.
But this can only happen if we understand the true motivations of those who want us to go to war. We have to learn to ignore the appeals to our patriotrism, the appeals to our noble instincts, the false threats to our security and livelihood. These are all manipulative lies. The other day I saw an interview with an Israeli man who was lying in a hospital bed after being wounded in the latest terror attack in Jerusalem. He expressed a very simple truth: “We must make peace with the Palestinians, because in war, there are only losers.” Except for the warlord plutocrats, that is.
Tags: Feature, Logic of Occupation, War Racket
