THE CAT’S PAW – A Conversation about the US Empire, Israel, and Europe

The American lion feasts. Photograph Derek Keats

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Two friends debate Brian Berletic’s arguments against blaming Zionism for US wars, and hope that the EU can once again be a healthy region of a multi-polar world.

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RICHARD: It sounds like you want to overturn the whole world order, Phil. You say it’s not Israel – it’s the US. Global capitalism. The problem with that is that nothing changes unless everything does. People can relate to the inhumanity of Hind Rajab’s murder. If you make this about the entire world order, we have even less chance of getting anywhere.

Plus, this Berletic bloke seems obsessed with antisemitism – which is wildly exaggerated as an issue. He claims there isn’t a single thing AIPAC lobbies for that wasn’t already US policy. The inference is that Israeli money in American politics is no problem at all. He says Netanyahu is a tool of American imperialism.

But the soldiers on the ground killing children believe in a greater Israel. If they are tools of global capital, they don’t know it. It’s not in their heads. So yes, all this stuff is true – but it’s also not true. There are many moving parts.

PHIL: Of course he’s right about global corporations. But I agree – it would be a very bad idea to let Israel and its leadership off the hook.

RICHARD: I heard him say that. I just didn’t like his tone. Anyone who doesn’t adhere to his take is an idiot. I’ve had vile threats from Israelis online. I don’t think all of them work for American corporations. Much of Israeli society is sick and deluded. And that has nothing to do with being Jewish – a line this guy went down quite a bit. Most of us opposing the genocide aren’t looking for Jewish names behind financial institutions.

PHIL: Do you understand the point he is making?

RICHARD: Yes. He’s talking about global capitalism and the American empire. Israel isn’t controlling the US – it’s the other way around. Israel is a US strategic base in the Middle East. They’re doing the same thing all over the world. There’s truth in it. But it’s not the whole story. And I don’t like his snotty attitude. He’s not as clever as he thinks. He suggests it’s idiotic to think politicians are in hock to AIPAC because corporations spend more. But he doesn’t account for other reasons – ideological ones – that politicians support Israel. It’s not just about money.

PHIL: Don’t go ad hominem. He’s responding to those ‘alternative’ commentators who believe in global Zionist conspiracies.

RICHARD: Then he’s fallen for the antisemitism lie.

PHIL: No, he hasn’t.

RICHARD: Yes – because he characterises anyone who talks about Israeli influence as basically antisemitic. He conflates Israel with Jews.

PHIL: No. He went through a list of companies and said: people who claim Jews control world finance – those people are antisemites. He says the so called ‘alternative media’ people massively exaggerate the role of Israel.

RICHARD: Most people opposing Israel are not talking about international Jewish conspiracies. That’s what the Israelis want you to think.

PHIL: His main point is that the USA has behaved genocidally since its founding – Vietnam had nothing to do with Israel, nor did the coups in Latin America. The point is the ‘blame it on Bibi’ narrative.

RICHARD: There is a lot of evil in Israel that has nothing to do with the United States.

PHIL: The USA wants the destruction of Iran. It wants oil flow cut off from the whole Gulf. It has been planning this for decades. The Israel lobby represents a fraction of Washington’s lobbying power.

RICHARD: Don’t they want Arab oil?

PHIL: They have energy independence now. If they attack Iran, they strangle China’s energy supply and make Europe more dependent on expensive US oil. Every bullet, plane, gun – everything comes from the USA. They are using Israel as their cat’s paw. Which is not to say Israel isn’t an evil settler state.

RICHARD: It’s both. Netanyahu has been trying to get American presidents to attack Iran for decades. They are using Israel, and Israel is using them.

PHIL: But the same is true for Ukraine – literal Nazis the US has backed since the 1940s. Almost every evil in the developing world has been US-supported. John Mearsheimer is quoted as saying that 38 million people have been killed directly or indirectly by the US since 1973. Of course, Israel gets no free pass.

RICHARD: That’s not controversial. I remember Vietnam.

PHIL: The bigger picture is that Israel is a favoured proxy. Maybe it out-evils other regimes.

RICHARD: But suggesting that people who oppose Israel are morons – because “it’s nothing to do with Israel, it’s all the American empire” – is not productive. What are you going to do? End global capitalism? Bring in world socialism? In the meantime, millions die.

PHIL: Your problem – and my brother’s – is that you identify with America emotionally. Its music, its culture. So you point the finger at the hand, not the controlling head. You can’t face the real evil. So you blame the Zionists.

RICHARD: That’s nothing to do with it. I don’t believe in nations at all.

PHIL: You believe they are “us”. So do many on the left.

RICHARD: I think good things have come from America – music. That’s not the country. So you think the real evil is the US, and Zionism is just a tool to dupe us?

PHIL: Exactly. The Zionists who are genociding Palestinians deserve our opposition – even hate. But so do all the other right-wing US proxy regimes.

RICHARD: So how are you going to defeat American capitalism, Phil? How long will it take? How many people die while you figure it out? That’s the only question. And you’re not going to do it, are you? Then I have to disagree with you fundamentally.

PHIL: That is the only question. My own view: European sovereignty. Europe must be independent.

RICHARD: That’s what I’ve been saying forever. That’s what the EU was meant to be.

PHIL: There you go. That’s the key. My father was a great supporter of regional blocs and a huge fan of the EU. Europe is down but not out.

RICHARD: Exactly my point during Brexit. The EU was our only chance to stand up to the US and China and Russia. None of them want a strong Europe. For all its faults, Europe is the most progressive region on the planet.

PHIL: But the USA sabotaged Europe. A pincer movement: pressuring for right-wing American controlled Eastern European governments to come into into Europe, using the cavilling Blairite UK as its advocate for this. I’m sure the US was behind Brexit. In 2000, the EU had a GDP $2tn more than the US and $6tn more than China. The US strategy has been to destroy Europe as an economic rival. We were trying to get an army and joint foreign policy together. But the USA actually occupies great parts of Europe with its military. Let’s not pretend this is friendly.

RICHARD: I was sick of being a colony of the United States. I knew Brexit would make it worse – and it has.

PHIL: We needed an army and independent foreign policy. The CIA prevented a coalition with communists in Italy in 1976. Operation Gladio. Nazis and fascists with no scruples. Imagine if Europe decided to help Palestine. The USA would have destroyed any leader who tried.

RICHARD: On a different subject: what do you think of Mehdi Hasan?

PHIL: I think he’s probably an MI6 asset.

RICHARD: I imagined you’d say that. But so what? He opposes the genocide. That’s what matters.

PHIL: Which is not to say MI6 isn’t necessary for sovereignty. Without it, Russia would roll us over. We have to remember: Russia is not our friend. I’ve met members of their elite – reactionary, arrogant, obnoxious. Andrei Martyanov is an atrocious example, though I haven’t met him. He’s very insulting.

RICHARD: Just because the US is terrible doesn’t mean China and Russia aren’t just as bad.

PHIL: The global enemy of the world is the USA. China and Russia aren’t pirates – but they are not our friends. I am all for a multipolar world. Countries become regions. Regions become a united planet.

RICHARD: Yes. We do not need concentrations of power. The problems facing humanity cannot be solved by individual countries. We need agreement across the world, with nobody having too much power.

PHIL: That requires humane socialism. So we agree.

RICHARD: Absolutely. And let me say this: Yes, I have faith in people and I have met many Americans that I have found to be very nice and generous people.

RICHARD: Forget countries. People are our friends.