What Comes Next on the Greater Israel Agenda?
The eminent Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus in a biography of his illustrious father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agrippa famously wrote “Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium, atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.” Which translates in the Loeb Classical Library edition as “To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname empire: they make a desolation and they call it peace.” Lord Byron, in his poem the Bride of Abydos, rendered the Tacitus Latin as “Mark where his carnage and his conquests cease! He makes a solitude, and calls it — peace.” Per Tacitus’ no doubt second hand account , the words were originally spoken by the Caledonian chieftain Calgacus who was addressing his assembled warriors concerning Rome’s insatiable appetite for conquest and plunder. The chieftain’s sentiment can be contrasted to pax in terra “peace on earth” which was sometimes inscribed on Roman medals (phalera) awarded to soldiers returning from the imperial wars.
Tacitus’ description of the First Century Roman Empire using a metaphor should strike a chord for modern American observers of the carnage taking place in the Middle East. The only question would be whether the description better fits Israel or the United States. Or, perhaps, does it apply to both since the two nations have lately in practice been governed out of Tel Aviv? Israel is an ethno-religious state that aspires to regional dominance to create what is referred to as Eretz Israel, Greater Israel, a nation state based on the apartheid view that only Jews, as being chosen by God, can rule and have full rights in the area that they control. The modern vision of what that would include as imagined by extremist advocates of the Jewish state’s expansion would stretch from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River in Iraq, together with South Lebanon to the Litani River. Nations like Jordan and Syria would be absorbed in the process an there would be no Palestinians.
Some observers are supporting the theory that Donald Trump, who subordinated actual US interests to those of Israel during his first term in office, will now play hard ball with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if only to maintain his self-proclaimed reputation as a champion of world peace, solving international conflicts through making “deals” rather than by fighting. Brokering a deal on Israel-Palestine would be an achievement that has proven to be beyond the reach of every previous administration and it would surely earn him the Nobel Peace Prize. His initial position in 2016 was precisely that, to make a deal that would be acceptable to both sides, until the Israel Lobby punished him for it and forced him to back down.
Indeed, Trump is now pulling one of his characteristic one step forward two steps back with his proposal that Gaza should be made free of Gazans who should be conveniently moved to Jordan and Egypt “to clean out the whole thing.” That would be something like a perfect solution for Benjamin Netanyahu but the proposal has not been well received in either Amman or Cairo. Nevertheless, Trump certainly deserves a great deal of credit for what he has achieved. His supporters point to the recently initiated ceasefire with Gaza which came about due to Trump’s pressure on Netanyahu delivered in an impromptu visit by special emissary Steve Witkoff, succeeding in a objective that the clueless and genocide enabling
Article from LewRockwell
LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
