We are in the final stages and the stakes have never been higher.
The Netanyahu government knows this and it is stepping up its efforts in rendering Gaza uninhabitable for the natives.
As any idiot surely knows, it was never really about Hamas and the events of the 7th of October; it’s simply a good old-fashioned land grab.
And we cannot start to unpick the events currently unfolding without historical perspective.
When America turned its guns on the Middle East in the 1950s, it was to support Nasser’s government against the Brits, French and the Israelis, who wanted the pan-Arabist and Africanist ousted from power, when he dared to nationalize the Suez Canal.
Kennedy who succeeded Eisenhower didn’t last too long on the job to have a clear policy on Asia minor and nor did Lyndon Baines Johnson, for that matter.
It was during Richard Milhous Nixon’s tenure in the White House that the military-industrial complex initiated major changes in the middle-east.
And Henry Kissinger was at the heart of this worldview.
Aided by the hubris of his adversaries -Gamal Nasser and Hafiz al-Assad-the German born strategist, was able to strengthen the position of the state of Israel by winning wars and territories from Syria and Egypt.
What we didn’t know then was that territorial expansion was at the heart of America’s strategic objectives in the middle-east and it only became apparent with time.
Lebanon, which was once regarded as the Paris of the region, fell prey to internecine conflict between the Shia Muslims and Christians, and given the former’s sympathies with the Palestinian cause, Israel took it upon itself to bomb the levant back to the stone ages.
The ideological wars which came to define the 1980s also made its presence felt in the middle-east with The Islamic Republic of Iran going head to head with Iraq.
Saddam Hussein might have thought that he was an ally of the great Satan when he sought its permission to invade its neighbour for its precious resource, but he quickly found out that America was only loyal to its strategic interests.
The first gulf war which arose from Hussein’s folly only strengthened Israel’s hand in the region.
The military industrial-complex, which has been defined by its ruthlessness and disregard for history needed new enemies in the aftermath of the cold War and disintegration of the Soviet Union and it identified its recently vanquished foe as the perfect target.
And America led with the narrative of the weapons of mass destruction.
The world, which had seen bogus reasons dug up by their governments to wage wars and steal resources of other players, rose in their millions across Berlin, Rome, Paris, Munich, Washington, New York and London to oppose the invasion of Iraq, but it fell on deaf ears.
On the 20th of March 2003, the invasion of another sovereign nation began and within a few months, Saddam Hussein’s grip on power ended and with it, any notion of peace in the middle-east.
No sooner had America taken over the reins in Iraq than all kinds of problems began : problems to which the empire builders in Washington had failed to pay attention.
The ugliness which had been buried beneath the surface by the strongmen of the region — al-Assad, Saleh and Hussein — came to the fore and wasted no time in destroying the very things which made their civilization highly formidable.
The tensions which had been building up across the region found its most powerful expression when a frustrated vendor self-immolated in Tunisia in December 2010.
Mohammed Bouazizi’s actions led to the reconfiguration of the most unstable region in the world with age-old dictatorships falling like a house of cards.
The leaders of Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, Algeria, Syria and Egypt were defenestrated, with America, Britain and France taking full advantage of the ensuing mess, wherever they could.
And it is no stretch to state that Israel has been the biggest beneficiary of the mess, as its position became unassailable.
Until the 7th of October 2023.
Israel’s reprisal attacks on innocent Palestinians at a time when China’s economic preponderance has been the biggest news in town, has raised many important questions, not least of which is the very title of this article: can Zionism survive the end of the American empire?
In all likelihood, no.
Its survival is inextricably linked to the fortunes of Pax Americana and given its benefactor’s implosion, it’s difficult to see how zionism thrives.
Some will argue with the premise of this article stating that the author fails to take into account which Israel’s made in recent times, which has all but guaranteed its survival.
And there’s some credibility to this line of thinking.
In a multipolar world, where nations collaborate on equal terms, it’s inconceivable that Israel will bully Palestine without major reprisals.
A strong China with Russia and Iran won’t countenance genocide and land grab.
And what’s more, its consequences would reverberate across the globe.
Foreign Exchange are op-eds from writers who do not live in the U.S. They have thoughts but don't have a dog in the race.