Summary
Chapter 2 of Palestine: A Socialist Introduction’s name for Israel’s role for US imperialism in the Middle East: a reliable local power that punishes neighbouring states, crushes Palestinian and regional movements, and supplies arms and repression expertise worldwide, in exchange for massive US military aid (Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, lines 546-620).
Details
- The term originates, in the chapter, in a Haaretz proposal to the West: “Israel is to become the watchdog.” and could be relied on to punish neighbouring states whose discourtesy to the West went beyond bounds (line 573).
- The role was cemented by the June 1967 war; presidents from Johnson to Reagan are said to have acknowledged Israel’s sub-imperial role, Reagan calling it a “strategic asset” (line 589).
- Its proofs in the chapter include Israel’s readiness to intercede in Jordan in 1970, after which US military aid multiplied tenfold, its defeat of Soviet-backed armies in 1973, its Lebanon invasions, and its arms supplies to Latin American dictatorships, apartheid South Africa and other regimes the US could not openly support (lines 593-601).
- After the Cold War the role expanded into partnership: shared ventures against so-called Islamic terrorism, police and border training for US forces, and Elbit Systems’ contracts to militarize the US–Mexico border; “The Israeli state serves as the research, development, and training division of the US state and other authoritarian regimes worldwide.” (lines 605-609).
Related pages
Palestine: A Socialist Introduction, Shireen Akram-Boshar, Imperialism, Elbit Systems, Israel