Palestine and the World Crisis: The Road Ahead After the Gaza Relief Convoy


by Niloufer Bhagwat
Global Research
January 20, 2010


Palestinian determination, so well articulated by members of the Gaza relief convoy, has resurrected the historical saga of the people of Palestine, once again re- focusisng our attention on the colonization of Palestine, as much as on the recent re-colonization of parts of the Arab world extending into Central and South Asia, with Afghanistan alone brutally occupied by military contingents deployed by more than 50 governments supporting the US-UK led military invasion, with the destiny of the people of Afghanistan sought to be determined at an International Conference to be held at London by occupying powers.

Undoubtedly in the Arab world, it is the people of Palestine who were one of the most advanced in their political and intellectual perspective, a characteristic shared by movements inspired and organized to resist enslavement. The radical political stream of the Palestinian struggle invited the wrath of conservative and reactionary governments in the Arab world , in the main collaborators .Therefore in addition to collective killings and exile forced on the people of Palestine by the government of Israel, aided and abetted by the governments of Europe and North America among others, pursuing a common policy of preying on the region, with Israel as a military outpost; Palestinians faced discrimination and surveillance from one Arab country to another, apart from severe economic deprivation and second class status, notwithstanding lip service to Islamic or Muslim solidarity, further exposed by the involvement of Islamic governments as a part of the contingent of occupation forces and the military bases given to occupying powers even by the UAE . That this is not a civilizational struggle between cultures and religion is reflected in the treatment of Christians in occupied Palestine and Iraq and the atrocities being faced by diverse groups of Islamic people in Iraq , in Afghanistan and in Yemen among other countries where there is collaboration with occupiers.

After the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 to open up the economic space of Iraq for better exploition of oil resources, Palestinian refugees who had once been given asylum in Iraq , faced some of the worst attacks and were the first to be displaced from Baghdad when sectarian warfare and covert attacks by death squads were unleashed. Earlier in 1991 theywere imprisoned , tortured and turned out from Kuwait after the withdrawal of Iraqi forces and accused of collaboration.

The reality is that the occupation of Palestine as a bridgehead for the region , was the strategy of Western oil companies,banks and Financial Institutions among other Companies, as part of as the "great game " of national rivalries ,with policies for living off the surpluses of several regions, including the Arab world , forging a compact with Zionism for this purpose, while using the military resources of their own political system to colonize more than one region , through military means, a policy revived when another severe financial crisis commenced in the last quarter of the 20th Century in North America , followed by Europe and thereafter in the Triad as a whole . As a consequence , re-colonization has now been implemented as brutally , a continuation of the policies articulated by Cecil Rhodes among many other think tanks and reactionary policy Institutes for world wide seizure of resources and markets .The recent horrific war on Gaza was an example of renewed brutality for effect in the wider region which back fired , pulverizing a population already under siege by Israel, assisted by the blockade from the other side by Egypt , a policy of using collaborating classes of neighbouring countries for the more complete enslavement of economic and military strategic regions . Earlier the same strategy had been attempted in Lebanon and defeated by a well organized Resistance dedicated to national liberation with its social and political base in the working people of Lebanon among others.

The invasion of Iraq is another example, indicating that countries can once again be re-colonized and subjugated, either by military means or by incorporating comprador classes nominated from within the country or from emigre circles ,with or without elections.The inciting of fratricidal warfare in Yugoslavia for the breakup of the Republic, to open the economic space of the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was contributed to by the ruling classes of more than one country in a covert alliance . Recent history is replete with examples of governing oligarchies or privileged groups and even of émigrés being turned into allies and collaborators , to devour whole societies. Many erstwhile communist and socialist countries have succumbed to this strategy of global finance capital in the name of economic reforms, with the party bureaucracies transformed overnight into oligarchs.

The present reality responsible for the emergence of a new spirit of independence of societies ready to brave all odds , defying fear and the serious attempt to breakout of the encirclement among the Palestinians and many other movements and societies, is directly related not only to the financial collapse of economic centres but to the military reverses visible in the face of Resistance movements of the region facing occupation ,including in Iraq, in Lebanon , in Afghanistan , spreading to Somalia , Yemen and Latin America , which has considerably weakened the erstwhile citadels , even as these citadels face revolt from their own citizens, gradually pauperised or fed into the military machine.

Yet fascist systems never surrender unless overwhelmed is a lesson of the history of the 20th Century whether in Europe, the Americas or in Asia .The recent targeting of the citizens of so many countries for racial profiling in so called 'Security Checks' is in reality a list of societies sought to be taken over by military means , coloured revolutions or otherwise, for regime change; a propaganda ploy to prepare the ground for the take over of regions with economic and geopolitical objectives . Similarly the attempt to muzzle media channels on one pretext or another, despite the fact that it is BBC and CNN who are actually culpable of carrying on inimical propaganda against other countries, is with the same purpose , to prevent the reality of aggression and occupation from reaching the citizens and soldiers of governments ,whose ruling classes are resorting to seizure of resources of other societies.

The weakening of the heart of the financial centre of the system is now a reality. The political, economic and what is more the grave moral crisis of the dominant system can no longer be swept away or concealed.Not even by the former CEO of Shell now a member of a group of NATO Experts, advising the military pact ; nor by Lloyd's the world's leading Insurance Company ,despite the fervent rhetoric of Lloyd's Chairman at a NATO strategic conference in the UK, on the "MYRIAD OF DETERMINED AND DEADLY THREATS " that require daily NATO intervention.

While new manufacturing and investment platforms and markets have been acquired by those responsiblefor the strategy of NATO and those incorporated into the alliance , people everywhere are restive and have lost faith in their future in these systems, as observed by the Secretary General of the United Nations in an interview to the Guardian when the financial collapse of the leading Banks and Financial Institutions commenced ,as he was alarmed at what he correctly perceived as the dilemma of many governments in containing the unrest.

Mr. Galloway 's spirit and that of all the members of the Gaza relief convoy is to be emulated and admired. It was necessary, the visible acts of solidarity with the people of Palestine, to expose the inhuman and criminal blockade of Gaza and of the entire people of Palestine and to attempt to defeat the blockade. However,the people of Palestine as of all regions occupied, will have to discern the machinations of those governments and people who while paying lip service to their cause , including in neighbouring countries , continue to have military and other covert arrangements with the countries in occupation and with their Oligopolies , the Companies, who are the real architects of the occupation or policies of apartheid of peoples and races and of religious or sectarian warfare by death squads and the occupation of Palestine .For real change, a scientific construct and and on the ground political strategy will be necessary by people, to ensure the present and future of civilization , as the biggest casualty in this period is the sanctity of human life itself . The people of Haiti, even before this enormous tragedy resulting from the massive earthquake , have been enslaved, liberated , colonized and re-colonized yet again, denied the right to form their own government , terrorized by UN peacekeepers and now directly by US marines , with urgent relief convoys being obstructed as the airport is being occupied by US forces , with even the French government protesting.

The accumulation of millions, billions and trillions in profits, speculation or bonuses, has come at a price which the planet and its inhabitants can no longer pay , which is the desertification of whole economies, with no answers in sight . As a consequence of the subsidies paid out to millionaires and billionaires from public funds, directly or indirectly, the tributes paid by all including alliance partners to the hitherto global reserve currency, the financing of successive wars from the public exchequer and the hiring of contractors and mercenaries apart from standing armies; many erstwhile financial and economic success stories are now being reduced to dust bowls, with sovereign debt defaults by more than one country and by regional government in Federal States a certainty , with millions unemployed and worse ahead ,notwithstanding the manipulation of statistics by rating agencies who have lost their credibility.

The International alliances during this contemporary period are on the one hand between those who stand for the military and economic conquest of societies and those who finance wars and occupation seeking covert benefit , while on the other side of the divide are those who are opposed to the seizure of the economic resources of other societies by military or other means.

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