Radio War Nerd #281 — Max Blumenthal on Late-Stage Zionism & Israel-Palestine Wars

POP radlibs who are pro-Palestine are so out of ideological confusion. Their support for Palestine is motivated by a sympathy for Palestine as a David v Goliath fight. If and when Palestinians gain Palestine as a state, they will revert to a juvenile 'all states bad' position. If pressed, POPs will stay queasy on the question of one state, of Palestine as state. When POPs extend solidarity based on politics of the underdog, they land on the uncomfortable position of extending solidarity to HTS in Idlib, for example, or TIP proxies of the WUC, as they perceive Al Qaeda in Syria (and in China) to be underdogs against 'baddies'. Edit: you can also call POPs POOPs, or, Progressives Only On Palestine.

There was a problem with Max's analysis. He seems to have gotten into analyzing one administration vs. another, and not seeing the commonalities. There may have been some differences under Obama, but the relationship and US support were strong. And Israel has continued to play the same role for the US and Western imperialism overall. People mistake rhetoric for reality, and US "criticism" of Israel for actual differences. The latest war was somewhat different and support for the Palestinians is growing among people around the world. But the b.s. about Democratic politicians supporting Palestine really is b.s. and serves to keep many people believing in the system, whatever anyone's intentions. There was an interesting PBS documentary called "The Jihadist" last night, in which the al Nusra (al Qaeda) leader appeals for US support. Interestingly, US ambassador Jeffries thinks this is a good idea (against Russia and Iran). Good example of all sides being bad and the big error of choosing one over the other.

We had something similar here in the UK. 1. Day one - demonstrations and queezy hand-wringing plus equally queezy support for the Israeli position from the usual suspects. 2. Day two - reporting of anti-semitic shouting at passers by during the demonstrations. Some arrests. 3. Back to business as usual in the press. Tommy Robinson (UK proto Richard Spencer seen at pro Israel rally. Also, while looking at a YouTube, street-walking video from South America, I noticed that the security for a street market was provided by a company called Golani. Also recall the support for Israel given by the Neo-liberal/far-right governements in South America as opposed to the support shown to the Palestinians by the broadly left-wing governments.

Excellent analysis of the opposition to Israel among young Democrats because of their experience with Trump... in which case why are the Democrats not doing more about Modi/BJP who are having a free run in USA... is it because of China?

Great show! Learned a lot!

Good episode. Max is always highly informative and does a nice job providing background and context.

Max made a great Point about Shia Iran supporting Sunni Palestinians Much is made about the sectarian divide in the islamic world… Do you guys know if there’s any other such alliances that challenge the western media’s presentation of this religions schism?

I'm going to dissent from you guys a bit here. And I enjoy your show and all. But, how is the Palestinians' situation anything but dire? The reality is; Gaza is under permanent siege, the West Bank is increasingly split up into a type of reservations for Palestinians, with Israeli settlers and military in control of the rest. The neighbouring Arab countries have all signed peace treaties with Israel now, bar Syria and Lebanon, I believe. Yeah ok, Israel might be losing the propaganda war (in America), but the physical control of space and power in the actual country has never been so one sided. Meanwhile their own representative organisations fight with each other and there hasn't been any kind of legitimate election in either the West Bank or Gaza since 2006, if, again, I'm not mistaken.

If you can, you should make this episode freely available. Thanks.