Now We Must Stand Up for Truth! Some Important History of Israel, Palestine and the British ‘Great Game’

We present here the author’s edit of his remarks on May 4 to The LaRouche Organization’s weekly “Manhattan Project” dialogue. Subheads have been added. The full video of the program may be seen here.

May 6—The world is watching the struggle of students who are protesting on U.S. campuses, asserting the First Amendment right to constitutionally protected free speech; in this case, free speech and condemnation of the genocide being committed by Israel on the people of Palestine. And this genocide will continue. As Netanyahu just said, it doesn’t matter if there’s a truce or not; the Israelis are still going into Rafah.

Now, free speech is a legacy of the fight of the American Revolution against British colonialism. The battle on America’s university campuses is a continuation of that struggle. The question is, will today’s oligarchy succeed in stifling free speech in order to support the policies of genocide which they are backing? That’s what’s at stake. Don’t get caught up in the left-and-right polarization that’s being created by the media, the politicians, the conspiracy theorists who would have you argue points that are basically irrelevant from the standpoint of the bigger strategic picture. They’re trying to change the subject; but the subject is the fight against the U.S./Western corporate cartels and their neo-colonial policy, whether it’s in Gaza, in Ukraine, in Asia, or in Africa. The oligarchs are defending an imperial unipolar order. The real fight is for peace—against genocide.

Why carry out genocide? What’s the point here? Well, the imperial system is a system of predatory looting, and when there’s opposition to it, as we’re seeing from the Global South and from many nations of the world, the efforts of the oligarchy to suppress it become essential for their survival—because the system that they have perpetuated for the last three, four, five hundred years is collapsing. The imperial system today is based on corporate cartels, central banks, and enforced by the U.S. and NATO military. They do not want these issues discussed; they want people discussing side issues. So, they promote fraudulent narratives to silence their opponents. What’s one of these leading narratives that’s been used to try and silence and terrify and intimidate their opponents? To call them an anti-Semite, or, in the United States, a synonym for that has become in the media, a white nationalist.

The Truth of Anti-Semitism

I’ll demonstrate that the charge of anti-Semitism is not only false, but it’s a coward’s way of avoiding a real, principled discussion; and that’s what is needed—a real, principled discussion. That’s not to say there aren’t anti-Semites; there are. Anti-Semitism is a form of ignorance and racism. But those who are opposing Israel’s post-October 7th response in Gaza, who are being labeled pro-Hamas, pro-terrorist anti-Semites—for the most part that’s false; they’re being called violent, when the violence has been perpetrated by police called in by college administrators, to dismantle the encampments set up by protesters. And Congress has adopted a new bill defining being anti-Israel as the equivalent of anti-Semitic.

This is what we’re hearing from all sides of the political spectrum—Biden and Trump are essentially identical on this. Trump’s a little bit more extreme in his condemnation, but they’re both saying that anti-Semitism is the leading factor behind the protests, and it’s unacceptable. House Speaker Mike Johnson and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the current Republican Speaker and the former Democratic Speaker, have the same line. Texas Senator Ted Cruz and New York Senator Chuck Schumer, the same line. They’re using the argument that the demonstrations must be shut down, students arrested, kicked out of school, because they’re “anti-Semitic.” And now there’s a bill being presented to Congress which would establish monitors, anti-Semite monitors on campuses. It’s called the COLUMBIA Act.

Now, here’s something interesting for you. Long before October 7th, there was concern that something like this would be legislated. In fact, there was a move to set up monitoring. Here is a quote from a March 26, 2006 article titled, “The Israel Lobby,” in the London Review of Books, written by John Mearsheimer and Steven Walt. Many people now know Mearsheimer, because he’s emerged as a prominent critic on the internet of the endless U.S. wars. But here’s what he wrote in March 2006: “Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of all this is the efforts Jewish groups have made to push Congress into establishing mechanisms to monitor what professors say. If they manage to get this passed, universities judged to have an anti-Israel bias would be denied federal funding.” That’s in fact what’s in this new bill. “Their efforts have not yet succeeded, but they are an indication of the importance placed on controlling debate.”

This, as I said, was written long before October 7, 2023. This has been a part of the effort of the so-called Zionist lobby in the United States to control the debate. But it’s not just about Israel. We just saw the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) spy-court re-authorized by a bipartisan majority. The point is, we’re all being monitored; we’re all being spied on. That’s what Ed Snowden warned us was the result of the post-9/11 operation, which increased the power of the “national security state.”

Some History of the British Zionism Project

Let’s take a look at some of the history behind this; the whole question of Zionism, anti-Semitism, and make the point that Zionism is not Judaism. Judaism is a religion; Zionism is a political cult, and it has a religious-cultish backing to it. But most importantly, it’s a tool that’s been used by the empire to serve the interests of the empire in Southwest Asia.