What REALLY Happened on October 7

Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
GED/HEO
4-10-24

Well presented and important report about the events of October 7th 2023

I want to add one point about Anti-Semitism. The presenter makes the point that the Palestinians are resisting, using armed resistance, against a brutal occupation by an Apartheid state. So it is against Jews and Zionists that they are fighting.  As he points out, the Palestinians don't get to choose their occupiers. It is Zionism, (Jewish extremism) that is the problem though, not Judaism. With the Gaza genocide, we see that young Jews in particular are in the forefront of the movement against it and the occupation, both here in the US and in the UK I understand. After October 7th, the first time I saw the banner "Never again----for anyone" was at an occupation here in the US organized by Jewish Voices For Peace.

But when I read articles, see meme's or watch video's that claim that Israel owns the US, one I saw was about how Israel came to control the US with images that bolstered that claim, it is a red flag for me as it repeats the vicious centuries old European Anti-Semitism that culminated in the extermination of some 6 million European Jews in the Nazi Holocaust. To write articles or make videos on how Jews came to control America, would incite outrage and would be opposed for the most part. The brutality of the Zionist regime offers an alternative and the term Jews is simply replaced by Zionism. Anti-Semites run with that. The Jew haters are opportunists too.

It is a red flag because the idea that the tail wags the dog, or that Israel is in the drivers seat is false; this doesn't mean Israel doesn't have some leverage way beyond its size would imply . The Zionist regime, a colonial settler regime, is the only reliable ally US imperialism has in the Middle East. US imperialism is losing its influence on the global stage and this "loyal little Ulster in the Middle East amid a sea of Arabism" as one former British official called it, is an important ally indeed. Any outcome that weakens the Zionists strengthens the Arab population. The Arab masses from Syria to Morocco are a potentially powerful revolutionary force; look how rapidly US supported dictators fell with the arrival of the Arab Spring in 2011. The Arab regimes are armed to the teeth by the US more to strengthen them in the face of domestic uprising from their own working class than an Israeli (or Iranian) threat.

A Yemeni friend of mine refers to Jews as (our cousins) but scratches his head when we talk about the present Israeli regime that he refers to as "those people".  So many Americans think that the Israel Palestine "conflict" has been going on for centuries. Jews and Muslims have been warring for centuries. This is nonsense of course, it was Christian Europe that fits this role.  Jews, Muslims and Christians lived together in relative harmony for much of the history there.

In the aftermath of WW1 British, and western capital in general, saw an opportunity to gain a foothold in this important part of the world after the vacuum that existed with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire if they supported the founding of a national home (a state) for the Jewish people. This statement above from the first British governor of Jerusalem in that period expressed that view. .

The near elimination of European Jewry in WW2 added to the drive for a Jewish national homeland and would also provide a solution to Europe's Jewish problem. In that sense, Europe's surviving Jewish population, most of them never ever having any desire to emigrate to Palestine, were also exploited by British and US capitalism, the ruling class of both being rabid Anti-Semites themselves.

No, the US could have stopped the Zionists and saved thousands of Palestinian lives, including some 15,000 children prior to October 7th 2023. All Biden would have had to do was call Netanyahu and let him know he was taking steps to halt all weapons sales to Israel immediately.  But it's not in US capitalism's best interests to do so; it's that simple.

These are some quick thoughts the video got me to thinking and I wanted to share them.