Every speech Benjamin Netanyahu gives is an exercise in utter evil. At this point, Bibi’s evil rantings should shock no one. With that said, the fascist demagogue’s recent speech to the United Nations represented a stark display in U.S. imperialist arrogance and Nazi brutality.
Netanyahu ranted for a little over half an hour. His speech was full of the typical lies, racist vitriol, and genocide apologia that have been Bibi’s hallmark throughout his political career. The Israeli Prime Minister again repeated accusations against Hamas of rape and beheadings on Oct. 7 – accusations that have been thoroughly debunked. Bibi painted a picture of an aggressive Iran hell bent on the eradication of the Jewish people. Another lie.
One of the largest lies played a central role in the speech, this lie being that the current genocide against Gaza is all an attempt to rescue Israeli hostages from Gaza. If the current genocidal effort against Gaza was remotely related to Israeli prisoners of war, Netanyahu would have made a deal two years ago. Exacerbating the transparency of this lie is the fact that Zionist strikes have consistently killed their own citizens held prisoner in Gaza.
This genocidal war is not about hostages or Jewish safety or self-defense. This war is about the imperialist attempt to break all resistance to their ambitions in the Middle East. Bibi’s speech highlighted these ambitions in substance and structure. He opened the tirade with not just firebrand anti-Palestinian rhetoric, but with a complete condemnation of the entire Muslim world. The Prime Minister bragged that Israel had assassinated so many religious and political leaders in countries like Yemen, Iran, and Lebanon – as if this should be a source of pride.
At full froth, Netanyahu displayed a map identifying “The Curse.” The map is marked in red: Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Yemen. While Israel is the face of imperialist war in the Middle East, there is importance in understanding that all these countries are enemies of Israel because they are enemies of the United States.
Yemen, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran all represent two core problems for U.S. imperialism. One, they provide varying levels of resistance against U.S. / Israeli military rule in the region. Two, all five of these places have been historically or currently are markets closed to the U.S. on some level. In the present day, Western billionaires can’t make a profit from Gaza’s beaches, Iran’s oil, or southern Lebanon’s agriculture. And in the imperialist mind, if they can’t profit, then they would rather destroy completely.
That is not to say all these places are politically homogeneous or share the same form of government. However, at one period or another, one way or another, these “curses” have represented a problem for U.S. imperialist economic and political domination of the region. Imperialism in its current phase is not willing to accept loss of profit or influence, no matter how small.
This is exactly why Israel has so aggressively waged war against the people of the entire region for daring to assert any self-determination. Netanyahu said as much:
“You know deep down that Israel is fighting your fight. I want to tell you a secret. Behind closed doors, many of the leaders who publicly condemn us, privately thank us. They tell me how much they value Israel’s superb intelligence services that have prevented time and again terrorist attacks in their capitals. Time and again saving countless lives.”
Netanyahu may be a liar, but here he’s telling somewhat of a truth. Many European leaders have publicly criticized or denounced Israel for their actions. However, the criticism has often proven to be performative as those same leaders approved new weapons sales to Israel. It isn’t hard to believe that these same leaders would thank Netanyahu privately for his country’s fascist service on behalf of imperialism.
Netanyahu’s speech is a reminder of the role Israel serves. Israel’s role is not to avenge the Holocaust, or protect the Jewish people, or to preserve democracy in the Middle East. Israel’s role is to carry out brutal and asymmetrical warfare on behalf of Western billionaires while they sit safely in New York, Washington, London, Berlin, and Brussels.
To fight the enemy, that enemy must be identified. Luckily, Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently done the work making obvious who the true enemy of the working class and the Global South is: U.S. imperialism.
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