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CounterPunch
December
7, 2002
A World Wide
Intifada? Why?
by WILLIAM A. COOK
A satellite view of attacks against western interests
spotlights the reality that a world-wide intifada against the
"developed" nations of the west and their allies is
already underway. Russian apartment houses and, recently, a theater,
the Twin Towers in New York, two Bali discos, a French super
tanker blown up off the coast of Yemen, an Israeli hotel destroyed
in Kenya, a failed missle shot at an Israeli passenger plane
off the coast of Africa, and others too numerous to mention demonstrate
the magnitude of the effort underway to wake up the west to the
consequences of its dominance over the lives and interests of
peoples throughout the world. Recent events, coupled with the
investigations of Jean-Louis Bruguiere, the French Judge who
has been tracking terrorist acts for two decades, forces us to
grapple with why this is happening. Bruguiere recently warned
that France is one of the two or three countries "most at
risk of attack due to its historic links to Algeria." "Islamic
extremism," he noted, "is breeding like a virus in
Europe."(World-Rueters, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2002)
What conditions prefigure the coming
"Intifada" against the United States and the west?
The first is misunderstanding of the deprived and displaced people
of the world, a subject far too broad for this article. Let us
concentrate on what Bin Laden told us was the most egregious
cause: "You attacked us in Palestine. Palestine, which has
sunk under military occupation for more than 80 years. The British
handed over Palestine, with your (US) help and your support,
to the Jews, who have occupied it for more than 50 years; years
overflowing with oppression, tyranny, crimes, killing, expulsion,
destruction and devastation" (Bin Laden, "Letter to
America," 11/24/02). Harley Sorensen pointed out, tellingly,
that Osama's letter had virtually no publicity in the American
Press; America's corporate press does not want Americans to know
why they are hated. (San Francisco Gate, Dec. 2, 2002)
Most citizens in the west, and certainly
American citizens, do not understand the Palestinian people,
their history, and their perception of the existence that has
been thrust upon them, what I will label as "The Stolen
Homeland"; the second is consciousness of the disparity
that exists between the Palestinians and the Israelis and the
reluctance of the state of Israel and its major supporter in
the west, the United States, to engage that disparity, which
results from the economic controls, the indignity and disrespect
engendered by the Ultra-Orthodox Right-Wing Likud and the military,
and this I label "The Chasm of Indifference and Desperation";
and, finally, the third is the corrosive destruction of a culture
by brute force in the bulldozing of their memory and the destructive
power implicitly present in globalization that impacts the uniqueness
of a people's culture, its economic structures, and its values,
what can only be labeled "Ethnic Erasure by Globalized Capitalism".
In many ways, these three form a complex
interwoven fabric that makes it difficult if not impossible to
see each clearly, yet, unless we make the attempt, we are doomed
to find ourselves constrained to our homes through fear of the
unknown individual(s) who must resort to self-sacrifice as the
last resort to rectify the unacceptable disparity that allows
no alternative.
The Stolen
Homeland:
Most Americans know nothing about the
way in which Israel was created. They do not know that Britain
turned Palestine over to the UN for resolution because it could
not continue its governance in light of the rising tensions that
existed between Zionists and Palestinians. In 1947 the UN General
Assembly resolved by a two-thirds vote to endorse the partition
of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state (Resolution No.
181). The Palestinians did not accept that resolution, yet the
partition went forward even though the General Assembly had no
legal authority to divide a country especially through the process
of endorsing a Resolution. The proposed partition called for
55% of the Palestinian area to be given to the Israelis, yet
they comprised slightly more than 30% of the population and owned
only 6% of the land. The Jewish population was composed mostly
of foreign-born immigrants, only one-third of whom had acquired
Palestinian citizenship. In addition, the territory allocated
to the Jews comprised the coastal plain from Akka to Ashdod and
other fertile lands. The Palestinians were left with mainly mountainous
areas and arid regions.
Americans receive most of their information
regarding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from corporate controlled,
politically manipulated mainstream media. Few have the opportunity
to scrutinize the reality of the history that has resulted in
the tensions that exist in the mid-east. Few know that Palestinians
are, in all legitimate ways, the indigenous population of the
area; that the land now occupied by the Israelis was owned by
the Palestinians; that in 1870, 98% of the population was Arab
and only 2% Jewish; that in 1940, Palestinians accounted for
69% of the population even as Jews thronged to the area from
Europe in an attempt to escape the Nazis; that in 1946, the year
that the UN created Israel without the approval of the indigenous
population, the Palestinians represented 65% and the Israelis
less than 35% of the 1,845,000 who lived there; that Israel now
occupies all but 22% of the Palestinian land having taken it
in the 1967 war and consistently refused to return it to its
proper owners in direct refutation of UN resolutions demanding
its return; that Israel has created illegal settlements in Palestinian
areas, with a population in excess of 400,000, taking land and
aquifers from the Palestinians, 34 of those settlements created
during the two year Prime Ministry of Ariel Sharon, and in direct
violation of UN mandates.
Is it surprising that the Palestinians
have rejected the existence of a state imposed upon its population
by foreign powers? Is it surprising that it has rejected the
Oslo Agreement when its full implementation was not part of the
"final" settlement and provided no resolution of the
refugee problem? Is it surprising that a people occupied by a
state supported by the world's greatest military power which
supplies the Israeli people with more than 3 billion dollars
for military hardware a year, more than any other nation receives
from the US, finds itself oppressed and humiliated?
The Chasm Of
Indifference And Desperation:
On May 4, 2002, the New York Times reported
that "It is safe to say that the infrastructure of life
itself and of any future Palestinian state roads, schools,
electricity pylons, water pipes, telephone lines has been
devastated." The most recent estimate of the infrastructure
damage alone by the UN and the World Bank comes to over 361 million
dollars. The totality of Sharon's destruction can never be known
because Sharon refused to admit the United Nations to inspect
the carnage, but it is safe to say that if we limit our focus
to the Human Rights Watch reports alone, the savagery is more
than terrorism, it is barbaric. Palestinians, especially the
families who suffered immediate devastation of homes and family
members, cannot but perceive the dehumanization of their lot
by the Israelis. HRW reports that 22 civilians in the Jenin refugee
camp "were killed willfully or unlawfully" (5/3/02),
civilians were used as human shields, medical personnel were
killed, and civilian homes became military targets. Yet no one
cared.
Perhaps nothing is so incomprehensible
to the deprived as the indifference of those who are responsible
for the deprivation. Nothing is more devastating to human dignity
than to be ignored. Nothing is more destructive to communication
among people than the hypocrisy of "developed", "democratic",
and "Judaic-Christian" nations exploiting "under-developed",
non-democratic, and non-Christian nations.
The United States, led by a "reborn"
Christian, supported by a fundamentalist Attorney General and
by fundamentalist denominations like Pat Robertson's, rally behind
support of Israel because they believe that their God has determined
that the Jews must be resident in "Judea" if they are
to be converted to the one true faith, Christianity. They willingly
accept the necessity of Sharon's slaughter of the Palestinians
to accomplish that goal. It matters not that Christ said you
should not take up the sword; the myths of the Old Testament
shall carry the day, "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."
These are the Christians who support the right-wing elements
among the Jews who call Palestinians "two-legged vermin"
(former Prime minister Golda Meir) and "drugged roaches
in a bottle" (former Prime Minister Begin). These are bloodthirsty
Christians unwilling to give their cloak to the beggar, unwilling
to give shelter to the homeless, unwilling to give food to the
hungry, unwilling to succor the weak and the dying. These are
the Americans willing to provide on average $500.00 per Israeli
citizen per year beyond that provided for the military, but unwilling
to provide comparably for the Palestinians. This is the born
again President who extols Sharon, a man condemned by an Israeli
court for allowing the wanton slaughter of thousands at Shabra,
as a "man of peace."
Considering the slave-like conditions
imposed on the Palestinians by the Israelis, it might be instructive
to hear the thoughts of the former slave Frederick Douglas as
he contemplated his condition: "I loathed them (my oppressors)
as being the meanest as well as the most wicked of men."
And that inner anger tormented him day and night, "I saw
nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it,
and felt nothing without feeling it I found myself wishing
myself dead " Here is an explanation for the "suicide
bombers," intolerable indignities and humiliations inflicted
by those who are the chosen of God. They are acts of absolute
desperation wrought by futility as Daoud abu Sway's family suggested
as they attempted to explain why a father of eight would detonate
himself: "That he did so illustrates the depths to which
people caught up in this conflict are sinking." (L.A. Times
12/9/01)
Consider the slave-like conditions we
as Americans have imposed on the deprived of the world to fuel
our economy at home and we can understand how desperation will
seek its solace in destruction through sacrifice. Such people
need only a bin Laden, a man driven by hatred of the perceived
oppressors, to bring the requisite money to achieve his ends,
and the future state of fear for America becomes immediately
apparent.
Israel's oppression of the Palestinians mirrors how the deprived
of the world perceive America, a land that could receive the
same condemnation from Hosea in 800BC: "Sins of greed are
compounded by Israel's arrogance."
Ethnic Erasure
By Globalized Capitalism:
Beyond America's image as overseer of
Israel and protector of her right to exist, is the image created
by America as the protector of transnational corporations. This
image coupled with the presence of America's military creates
a negative image of the US as the perpetrator of Third World
exploitation, the destroyer of forests, minerals, metal resources,
land, and people. And the people of these poor nations must live
with the environmental disasters, soil erosion, pollution, poisonings
from toxic waste, and industrial accidents. With only 5% of the
world's population America emits 1.5 billion tons per year of
carbon dioxide, a quarter of the world's total.
Hatred of America grows with each passing
day. The most recent Pew Foundation Report detailing that dislike
came out this week and shows that European states as well as
Arab have the same loathing. People feel deprived, taken advantage
of, and ignored. They see the disparate conditions because the
west has made available, through satellite communications, the
viewing of the standard of living available in the west, particularly
in the US, since its programming dominates the airwaves. They
understand that Americans and Europeans spend 17 billion a year
on pet food, 4 billion more than the estimated annual additional
total needed to provide basic health and nutrition for everyone
in the world. (UN Human Development Report, 1997). The excessive
use of natural resources in the US, resources taken from Third
World countries, explodes visually on the TV screen even in the
worst of hovels in Africa, South and Central America, Asia, and
the Mid-East. These are the deprived who have nothing to lose
and much to hate. These are the people that the CIA and the FBI
talk about when they warn Americans of future "terrorist"
acts. As this anger erupts, America will live in the same atmosphere
of fear that envelops Israel.
Consider the reality of this "Ethnic Erasure by Globalized
Capitalism" and the perceptions and reactions it causes
in the minds and hearts of the deprived as it prefigures attitudes
and behaviors in lands beyond Palestine impacted by the west
and particularly the United States. As transnational corporations
spread their tentacles around the world, they create strangleholds
on local governments forcing them to concede relaxation of tax
income, release of land areas for industrial development, sale
of natural resources, and exploitation of citizens. Martin Khor
has noted how transnational corporations have moved their operations
to Third World countries " where safety and environmental
regulations are either lax or nonexistent." The result is
exposure for Third World citizens to hazardous products, toxic
or dangerous technologies, crippling drugs, pesticides and the
like. (Global Economy and the Third World)
The introduction of global agreements
that benefit transnationals has negated the standards forced
upon these corporations in the United States, standards that
require regulations to protect against child labor, that regulate
safety conditions, and protect workers' health. Neither NAFTA
nor GATT imposes regulations that ensure worker protection in
these areas. Sunday's Los Angeles Times (December
1, 2002) carried a magazine story detailing the end of Levi Strauss
Company's production in America. Levi had to resort to production
abroad because it is caught in the web of competition and must
"chase low-cost labor." These wages reflect the full
exploitation of people in "underdeveloped" countries:
Guatemala, 37 cents per hour; China, 28 cents; Nicaragua, 23
cents; Bangladesh, 13 to 20 cents.
The transnationals have deforested more
than half of the forest area in developing nations, created large
infrastructures to support industrial projects, built huge steel
plants, cement plants, vast highways, bridges, all requiring
enormous land holdings taken out of the control of the weak nation
states, all needing energy resulting in hydroelectric dams and
nuclear power stations. These conditions result in displacement
of thousands of people, the crowding of populations into cramped
quarters in urban areas, sanitation problems, homelessness and
poverty.
The chasm of disparity glares through
the statistics: the richest fifth of the world's population receives
86% of global income while 1.2 billion live on the equivalent
of less than a dollar a day. Edward Goldsmith explains the situation
in these terms: "Even strong national governments are no
longer able to exert any sort of control over TNCs (Transnationals)
Indeed, TNCs are now free to scour the globe and establish themselves
wherever labor is the cheapest, environmental laws are the laxest,
fiscal regimes are the least onerous, and subsidies are the most
generous." (Development as Colonialism) Documentation
of human exploitation in Indonesia, Vietnam, China, Malaysia,
and Mexico is readily available. What is not available, then,
is an understanding of the feelings that gnaw at the souls of
the deprived: the sense of hopelessness, of indignity, of lack
of respect, of dehumanization.
In addition, the United States military
presence in a hundred and fifty nations, ostensibly for the protection
of US interests, results in huge areas owned and/or controlled
by a foreign power. As the US pours millions of dollars into
the economy of these countries, the benefits are seen by the
local population as going to the local power elite, as is evident
most recently in the case of Saudi Arabia. But the same conditions
have resulted in flare-ups in Japan, Korea, and Greece (until
the US was expelled under the Papandreou regime in the early
'90s). In short, the people of these countries are at odds with
their rulers. This has been painfully evident in recent months
as even Kuwait citizens have demonstrated against their government
and the US.
As a result of America's monetary support
since its founding in 1947, Israel has prospered militarily and
economically at a rate far greater and faster than any other
nation anywhere. The US has poured more than 3 billion a year
into the Israeli military since 1947, an amount that since 1995
equals more than 8 trillion dollars. Considering that this investment
ensures the continuation of the military-industrial complex in
the US, since Israel is required, by the agreement that provides
this support, to buy three quarters of its equipment and technology
from US firms, it is crystal clear why the corporate elite desire
to maintain Israel's dominance in the mid-east. Israeli allegiance
to the US interests ensures that the oil needed by the US will
continue to flow. But Israel can demand a heavy price for their
collusion with the US, and hence their defiance of Bush's demands
that they withdraw from the West Bank.
The US's support for Sharon's government
is touted throughout the world without regard for its consequences
by Senate and Congressional resolutions; the standard of living
in Israel which is a mirror image of its host, the United States,
stands in mocking contrast to the squalor of the refugee camps
and the sewage infested alleys of the Palestinians who are crammed
into miniscule segments of land surrounded by their oppressors;
the oppressors army controls Palestinian movement through heavily
guarded positions with towers, barbed wire fences, and crossing
guards whose attitude toward the Palestinian is one of hatred
and distain. These conditions give rise to jealousy, hatred,
vengeance, despair, retaliation, and sacrifice against the enemy;
conditions every Israeli should understand from their own unfortunate
history. How many Jews offered themselves for sacrifice against
the Nazi forces during the war and against the British when the
Israelis were attempting to establish a Jewish state in Palestine?
In their drive to own and control all
of Palestine, the right-wing Likud party and the Ultra Orthodox
look only to the Old Testament, a text 2500 years old that does
not reflect the reality of the past two thousand years. Yet their
absolute commitment to these ancient myths legitimizes their
actions to suppress the Palestinians. They encouraged, nay they
forced Sharon to bulldoze whole sections of ancient cities sacred
to the Palestinians, demolish mosques so even the memory of their
existence would be forgotten, destroy documents that established
ownership of properties and the personal identities of Palestinian
citizens as though through that destruction they could erase
the memory of a people. How ironic that this was the purpose
of the Nazi regime's eradication of the Jews.
They are indifferent to the plight of
those who have been driven from their homeland penniless, uncompensated
for the homes they have lost, who await the day when they can
return after fifty years in refugee camps in foreign lands. They
are indifferent to the rampant poverty that sits next to them
in Jenin, Ramallah, or Rafah; they do not see or want to see
the wastelands that the tanks and bulldozers have created in
Rafah as they smashed 100s of homes, dozens of shops, leaving
hundreds homeless, a scene repeated over and over again throughout
Palestine. Yet these are the religious of Israel, those who claim
to believe in the one true God, a God who willingly allows the
destruction and slaughter of thousands of defenseless women and
children. But, blinded by their ambition to claim once again
God's Promised Land, they overlook the reality of what they have
created, a people more defiant then ever, a people who have endured
and will continue to endure even if that be their only lasting
claim to their humanity, a people filled with patience, lacking
hope, but determined to be a people, to retain a culture, to
love a God, to share what little they have with those worse off
than themselves,
The above scenario plays throughout the
world in those nations labeled underdeveloped. The deprivation
and poverty have been created by Capitalism's global thrust and
by the indifference of its corporate elite who have only their
investments to protect and the ultimate fulfillment of their
faith's ultimate promise, globalized markets where products can
be produced at the lowest possible cost and return the greatest
profit for the investor regardless of the consequences to the
workers, the natural resources, or the cultures that are destroyed
in the process. Islamic fundamentalism has become the "repository
of a passion for pure belonging, a passion exacerbated by the
unsettlements of globalization," according to Todd Gitlin
in a review of In the Name of Identity. (L.A. Times Book
Review, 9/23/01). Gitlin's point refers to the helpless state
of those deprived throughout the world, and Islamic fundamentalists
capture only a small percentage of those deprived. He cautions
that we must understand the hatred that drives the terrorist
for he/she is neither a god or an animal but a wounded person
touched by a community of wounded people among whom arises an
agitator "who promises victory or vengeance" against
those who deserve it and they slip imperceptibly from denouncing
injustice to perpetrating it.
Unless the US and the west recognize
the inherent and explosive consequences generated by their indifference
to the plight of those exploited, unless sincere attempts are
made to realign the disparity between the haves and the have-nots,
unless the arrogance of the elite changes to empathy for the
deprived, the vicious and insidious behaviors of the fanatics,
the desperate, and the powerful will explode throughout America.
William Cook
is a professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern
California. He can be reached at: cookb@ULV.EDU
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