They say that timing is everything. It is especially important when your last shreds of decency are fast disappearing down the drain, and you are desperate to give the appearance of wanting to salvage some claim to moral standing despite the overwhelming evidence that demonstrates unequivocally the futility of such an endeavour.
Or, at least, that is what the Australian government and the governments of some of the other staunch supporters of Israel seem to think.
I refer, of course, to the recent spate of recognitions of a Palestinian state – or the intention so to do – made by the governments of Australia, France, and the UK. That is, the very same governments that, from the inception, have been among those who have supported Israel’s brutal campaign of ‘self-defence’ against Palestine with one or more of weapons and spare parts, intelligence, propaganda, and the suppression of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli sentiment at home.
Perhaps as compensation for the fighter aircraft spare parts that it has exported to Israel – which its defence minister implausibly claims to be a ‘separate issue’ (from weapons) – since October 2023, Australia has also allocated AUD$110 million to humanitarian assistance to Gaza. Is this some bizarre, macabre attempt at balancing the books of justice, an adjustment to corporate image?
The announcements regarding the Palestinian state come as the killing of Palestinians continues unabated and as Israel is putting the finishing touches to its plans to occupy Gaza, to seize Gaza City, and forcibly displace its million or so inhabitants, many of whom have had this done to them several times before. Announcements that amount to saying, ‘We recognise or intend to recognise a Palestinian state just as Gaza is about to be occupied, as what is left of its people are exterminated or expelled, and as the rubble of what remains of its infrastructure is pounded into a fine dust.’
So what else can we infer from these last-minute statements about Palestinian statehood?
First, Israeli business as usual vis-à-vis Palestine is unlikely to be affected by them. At this late stage, Israel will not be stopped in its tracks in its aim to rid Palestine of its pesky inhabitants. The backing of the Godfather in Washington, D.C., will guarantee that. Indeed, the Israeli security cabinet has recently approved the takeover of Gaza City.
Second, it is surely just as clear that the governments of Australia, the UK, and France have not suddenly developed a sense of compassion and empathy. To this point, the unfolding genocide (a word that is too extreme for their delicate sensibilities) in Gaza – with a death toll now likely to exceed 500,000 – appears to have been acceptable to them.
We should not be surprised by any of this, as all three countries have substantial pedigrees of colonialism and racism, exemplified by revered political figures like Winston Churchill, who in 1937 had this to say about the Palestinians and other indigenous peoples (from Arundhati Roy, 2004, pp. 24-25):
I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger, even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians by America, or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.
As we have suggested elsewhere, while perhaps not stated in such an unambiguous and ‘confronting’ way (as they would say in the leafy suburbs of Melbourne or Adelaide), these beliefs are still very much alive and well in Australia and the former colonial powers. The foreign policy ‘altruism’ of these countries has been fashioned accordingly.
But how does Netanyahu’s public dressing down of Albanese fit into the picture? Is it simply another piece of political theatre – of the nod, nod, wink, wink kind? Being among the small fry supporters (one whose prime ministers’ names barely register in the place that matters most) of the US and Israel has its downsides. Yours is a minor – Falstaffian – role, one that makes you a convenient and expendable target for the slings and arrows of the friend you are said to have betrayed.
It is a role that Australia has grown accustomed to, having been an obedient bit player in many of the US Empire’s adventures (killing sprees) abroad, which, since 9/11, have produced between 4.5 and 4.7 million direct and indirect deaths. Australia has been a willing ally and accomplice – for example, in the ‘spillover’ of the Vietnam war to Cambodia and Laos, the slaughter in Iraq (where sanctions alone are said to have resulted in the deaths of half a million children), in Afghanistan (about 200,000), and in Indonesia during Suharto’s pogrom against alleged communists and their sympathisers where at least another half a million people were killed.
In relation to the latter, the Australian prime minister of the time, Harold Holt, famously (dismissively) said to a US audience: ‘with five hundred thousand to one million communist sympathisers knocked off, I think it is safe to assume that a reorientation has taken place.’
For loyal gang members of the imperialist enterprise, this is standard behaviour.
To return then to our opening question, we can only assume that these last-minute announcements about a Palestinian state by Australia, the UK, and France are window dressing, a way of mitigating or avoiding accountability for what is a fait accompli, and a way of giving some credence to the Palestinian Authority and thereby undermining Palestinian self-determination. As always, the motives are largely self-interest-driven.
It is as if these sham and puny protests on behalf of Palestine by this suddenly – miraculously – evangelical band of erstwhile Israeli apologists are the death knell of the Palestinian state rather than a precursor to its liberation.
After all, history shows that when this particular band of ‘saints’ comes marching in, you can be pretty sure that no good will come of it.
The post When the ‘Saints’ Come Marching In first appeared on Dissident Voice.
This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Peter Blunt.