“America Don't Worry! Israel is Behind You!”

Nadia Hasan's latest article in Palestine Think Tank is an insightful piece that merely scratches the surface of the U.S. corporocratic campaign in the greater Middle East. The seed of the story is a t-shirt she saw during a trip to Jerusalem several years ago that read "“America Don’t Worry! Israel is Behind You!”. At the time, she remarked that the names should have been reversed, given the United States's near-unconditional support for Israel at the urging of many powerful lobbying organizations. She then later realized the ironic truth of the t-shirt's slogan:

The recent events in Lebanon and in recent months in the Occupied Palestinian Territory of Gaza Strip proves that certain international and regional powers are continuing efforts to implement their “master plan” of chaos for the region as the first step in a greater plan to make their domination permanent.

This is not a conspiracy theory as many are saying, is just the result of decades of efforts from the imperialistic powers to gain the control of certain strategic areas in the Arab Homeland and to control Arab oil and monopolize their market. For that reason these incidents are not limited just to Lebanon. Sometimes we get so overwhelmed with the huge amount of propaganda that we are not able to see the whole picture, the clear chain of events with similar patterns from the Gaza Strip to Baghdad to Somalia to Darfur to Beirut. Some elements can be different in each case, but they have one thing in common, the master colonialist project of United States and the high security risks that these events cause to its main settlement in the region, Israel. These places are strategically interconnected and the success of the US plan in the region depends being able to control them.

Although the importance of oil and strategic control are certainly a huge motivator, the Friedmanesque economic dominance of the region should not be overlooked. It's no secret that since 2001, World Bank loans to the Middle East have increased, with a massive upsurge in privatization of state-run industries. Egypt has been the largest privatizer, selling off banks and other industries to the highest bidder. Israel is not merely a mercenary force in this globalization campaign, it is also a victim, with state assets being sold off while inequality and poverty increase. An aid-dependent Israel is no different than an aid-dependent Jordan or Egypt - they'll always put the profit of a few over the needs of the majority.