Video from Middle East Eye

Zionism and Imperialism

By John Clarke

Former Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) organizer. Presently part of 230 Fightback

A major source of left disorientation on the question of Palestine is a failure to understand the relationship between the Zionist project and its imperialist sponsors. A lot flows from this so it’s worth thinking through.

Zionism emerged, as a political ideology in 19th Century Europe. It was a highly secular and nationalist perspective that was embraced by some Jewish intellectuals. Based largely on the discrimination and persecution that Jews faced, they decided that a Jewish homeland was the solution. Once it was decided that the theft of Palestinian land would form the basis for the new state, the stamp of colonialism and racism marked the whole undertaking.

Like any other forms of settler-colonialism, the Zionist project required an imperial sponsor and those taking it forward placed a huge emphasis on convincing ruling circles in Europe that the state they proposed to establish would be a garrison that would protect their regional interests. This was framed in predictably racist terms that suggested ‘civilization’ could be protected from Asiatic ‘barbarism.’ Christian ideas of a reclaiming of the ‘Holy Land’ were also appealed to with considerable success. Indeed, Christian Zionism predated the movement that emerged among Jewish intellectuals.

The great breakthrough for the Zionists came in 1917 when the British government issued the infamous Balfour Declaration. This recognized the Zionist claim and supported a Jewish state on Palestinian land. With the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WW1 and its loss of control of Palestine, the country was placed under a British Mandate.

European Jewish settlers continued to move into Palestine and the British crushed Palestinian resistance with extreme brutality. Though the British would clash with the Zionist militias, they cleared the way for the 1948 ethnic cleansing that led to the formation of the Israeli state.

As the effort to complete the dispossession of the Palestinians proceeded, Western support for the ongoing project was crucial. A 1947 UN resolution (adopted at a time when that body was comprised almost entirely of Western countries) proposed to partition Palestine in proportions that gave far more territory to the Jewish settlers than the size of their population could possibly justify. Canada played a key role in ensuring this resolution was adopted.

The 1948 cleansing operation took even more Palestinian territory that the UN resolution called and Israel was established in that year. A belated colonial state had been established in the Middle East just as that region was, for the most part, ridding itself of direct colonial domination. Israel’s role as a garrison of Western interests was firmly established right at the outset.

It wasn’t until 1967, when the remaining part of historic Palestine was seized, that the US decided to give the level of support to the Zionist project it has maintained ever since. The huge defeat that the forces of Arab nationalism suffered at the hands of Israel’s military convinced the US to adopt the role of main imperial sponsor that Britain had once played.

While there have been significant differences between the US and Israel over the years and some particularly sharp ones have arisen at the present time, the massive and vital support that has given has been based on the interests of the dominant imperialist power. 

This has been based on the great significance of oil wealth and the other economic assets of the region, as well as geopolitical considerations. If the importance of the region’s oil has receded for the US, control of the region remains a key priority and the containment of Chinese influence and investment is an ongoing objective.

The Israeli garrison state is so critical because of its militarized settler population. Client state authoritarian Arab regimes are greatly valued but they face the threat of popular uprisings. Israel, on the other hand, is a warlike regional attack dog with a thoroughly pro-Western settler population that the US strongly preserves with the utmost determination.

Israel has a powerful base of support in the Western countries and this includes a lobby operated by forces within the official Jewish institutions that is undoubtedly very influential. However, the role of these initiatives is often greatly exaggerated and you will often see articles and social media posts suggesting that this lobby is the one that is really in control. Sometimes, this goes over to ugly stereotypes that dredge up notions of conspiracy and undue influence on the part of a Jewish cabal.

Yet, the simple reality is that the tail doesn’t wag the dog and Western support for the settler state is rooted in self-interest. If we were to imagine the impossible and consider what would happen if the Zionist lobby transferred its resources, support base and high-placed mouthpieces into an effort to convince Western governments to take climate change seriously, we can be sure that its influence would take a nosedive.

A related form of left disorientation can be seen in the exceptionalization of Israel and the Zionist ideology. Of course, Israel’s dispossession of the Palestinians, its genocide in Gaza and its regional wars of aggression are utterly terrible crimes but they take place within a broader imperialist framework that continues on a global scale. From Hiroshima to Iraq and in dozens of other places, US imperialism has engaged in murder and state terrorism on a scale that far exceeds Israel’s crimes, which we might note have been carried out with US weapons.

Zionism is a supremacist and deeply racist ideology with its own particular elements but it emerged out of European colonialism and remains linked to ideological perspectives that exist within the Western powers. The hideous dehumanization of the Palestinians that is a defining feature of Zionism is entirely in line with the ideologies that have driven forward colonial undertakings since Columbus and his genocidal cohorts set sail.

We must oppose the Zionist state, expose its crimes and challenge its enablers. However, our key task is to sever the lifeline of military, economic and diplomatic support that maintains Israel as a Western garrison state. To do that, it is essential that we understand that the Western ruling establishments aren’t the dupes of some mysteriously influential Zionist conspiracy but the brutal and clear minded sponsors of the horrors that Israel inflicts and from which they benefit. If we can be clear on this question, our contribution to the fight for a free Palestine will be all the stronger for it.