I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that the extremist settler movement in Israel is rooted in the USA and culturally has a lot in common with US white supremacist/settler ideology—there's a reason Netanyahu is so comfortable with Republicans who dine at the Christian Nationalist table. https://mastodon.social/@cmonagle/112462865808610948
@cstross The antisemitism of some of these replies is frightening. Zionism was not invented by Christians or by the United States. Truly, Jews are capable of agency. Nor did any European power or the US want a Jewish state in Israel – they just wanted the Jews gone and weren't too picky about how they went away.
@ravenonthill It has been a very long time sinew Theodor Herzl started the Zionist movement in Austria-Hungary and what has happened since then is neither inevitable nor even an anticipated outcome: but Zionism grew out of 19th century European ethno-nationalism and colonialism and shares their failure modes.
@cstross I think it's more than that; Jews have after all been praying "Next year in Jerusalem" for a very long time. First Arab, and then Palestinian, nationalism also emerged in that period. And then there was the antisemitism of Tsar Alexander III and the WWI victors partition of the Ottoman empire.
History is overdetermined, and usually the reason to reify something as a single cause is to propagandize about it.
@ravenonthill Don't forget the naval logistics fallout from Admiral Rozhestvensky's excellent adventure: sailing a battle fleet from the Baltic to the Sea of Japan—on coal!. Which caused the British Admirality to get religion about bunker oil (because: refueling at sea was so much easier with oil) and then a rush for Black Gold in, first Persia, then the Arabian Gulf (which was conveniently close to the Suez Canal, the carotid artery of the British Empire).
@ravenonthill The time frame fits—from the Russo-Japanese war of 1905-06 to the WW1 carve-up of the Middle East was just over a decade, and the RN war experimenting with oil-burning steam turbines from the turn of the century on.
I thought in this case "the British Admiralty" was more Churchill in his typically extravagant mode. Which if I recall properly is how Yergin saw it in "The Prize". Not that I personally have paid attention to the details, and it's been a very long time since I read that.
It had the drawback that if you lose your first battles, and you don't have your own resources, you're out of the game; so, not exactly prudent. But arguably necessary, and certainly forward-looking.
@glc@ravenonthill As the RN at that time held global maritime supremacy—they had more ships in service than the next two naval powers combined, and expected to fight and win two wars in different hemispheres simultaneously—it probably wasn't a bad bet circa 1900-1910.
@Steveg58 The kibbutz movement had its origin in European socialist movements and went into steep decline post-1967; the modern "settlers" are not kibbutzim and are clearly mostly American.
@cstross There was even a TV article, 60 Minutes IIRC, on American evangelicals supporting West Bank "settlers" in taking over what was agreed to be Palestinian territory. I think that support made the "settler" situation dramatically worse. #Biden is NOT to blame for far right Israeli government actions. Don't forget that #Trump actively supported Netanyahu and company, making a bad situation much worse.
@WizardBear@cstross Biden is very much complicit by providing the funding and arms. He is the enabler. He has broken both Federal and Intl Law. Should key Israeli Gov and IDF officials ever be charged with genocidal acts, Biden and Blinken will be next on the list. The law is clear on that. You cannot point the finger at Trump for today’s actions while Biden is shovelling money and arms into Israel as fast as he can. That is risible.
@Lassielmr@cstross While Biden may have been slow in responding to the aggression against Palestinians, he did NOT start it. He has slowed down arms shipments and is working hard to provide humanitarian relief (floating pier). He and Blinken are trying to get Netanyahu to change course, but that hasn't gone well yet. Do you honestly believe that Trump will be better? I don't. Bashing Biden serves RW interests, and Putin's interests more than help Palestinians. My 2 cents.
Biden is on record as a committed Zionist. He has the power to completely halt weapons shipments and financial support for the state of Israel. The US State Department ties itself in knots gaslighting the world about the culmination of 76 years of unbridled colonialism, apartheid and genocide against Palestinians. The US couldn't give a damn about international law. Please don't patronise us with any more excuses: what's happening in Palestine is an obscenity.
@WizardBear@cstross I had thought that American Evangelical support for the settlements and settlers was common knowledge, at least among left-wingers, but it’s not. It’s a very important aspect of what’s going on in Palestine now and has been a major factor in Israeli politics for the last 20 years
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