Global activists, demand from your governments! / Necessity to stand up against US- imposed order
Pars Today - The US successive pressures on world countries such as South Africa, North African Arab countries, Ireland, Latin American countries, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, China, Iraq, Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Syria, Yemen and a number of others with the aim of silencing them against the Israeli regime show the necessity of forming a global coalition.
Since the US empire is a great obstacle to the rights, freedom, decolonization and sovereignty of Palestinians, as well as the sovereignty of middle powers, then other states, especially regional powers have a duty to plan and follow a path of action that deals with this problem.
Obviously, the best path forward is for countries around the world to become less dependent on US and Western imperial economic power. Although there are efforts to accomplish this goal, such as BRICS, it remains a long way from changing global economic structures.
Another more immediate path is to make it difficult for the US to respond harshly to states that cut off all diplomatic and economic ties to the Israeli regime.
If a coalition of middle powers forms and together announces their severing of ties with Israel, then it will be more difficult for the US to threaten and sanction them all because it would become too costly for the US itself to do so.
This coalition can start with countries like South Africa, Iran, Turkey, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Egypt, Morocco, Spain, Norway, Ireland and others. Countries that already don’t claim any diplomatic and economic relations with Israel – such as Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and others – would also join the coalition. Other powers can also join when this momentum builds, adding pressure and making it virtually impossible for the US to target all of them.
Momentum can build, and countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Belgium and others that understand that this is the right course of action but are either too cowardly or too unwilling to pursue it for reasons of economic self-interest and their role in the US imperial alliance might be pressured to join, even if partially, for example by imposing military embargo on Israel.
None of this will be easy. But it is necessary, and it can work. It’s incumbent on activists to begin to speak to their government’s self-interest to pressure them towards forming such a coalition. Governments will only move so much on the basis of a “name and shame” strategy and electoral politics calculations. Activists, policy analysts and scholars can convince their governments that it is in their best interest to follow this policy path.
Challenging the US empire on the question of Palestine will have tremendous consequences for building a more democratic world order. Although some of the states listed above believe that by simply ignoring the plight of the Palestinian people, they can avoid clashing with the US, this is short-term thinking for two reasons.
First, just because they can avoid the wrath of the US on the question of Palestine does not mean that they will not face it on another issue in the future. It is never in the self-interest of middle powers to live under the subordination of a great superpower. Even if temporarily beneficial, at some point, there will be a price to pay for this subordination. So why challenge it now if they do not have to at this moment?
This is where the second reason comes in. There is currently grassroots momentum around the world to challenge US imperialism. Now is the time to seize the opportunity, draw on this energy and direct it towards a democratic world order that in fact stands up for human rights and freedoms for all.
It is critical to seize this moment and send a message to the US empire that business as usual, where US dominance determines international economic, political and cultural directions, is neither wanted nor tolerated. The US empire will either have to come around or itself become isolated. When we reach that stage, we will reach the end of Israeli settler colonialism. We will reach the end of apartheid and genocide, the two most lethal weapons in the Israeli settler colonial arsenal.
Once Israel is globally isolated, it will be forced to change its behavior. Israelis will have no choice but to cease their settler colonial project.
Such an outcome would not only benefit Palestinians and indigenous Jews, but it will also be a real signal that the US empire is no longer the empire that it once was and people from around the world, Americans included, can begin to build a real democratic world order that is no longer under the thumb of one superpower.
A democratic world order will decrease the chances of great wars, imperial wars and settler colonial invasions and help avoid the tremendous human suffering that the Palestinians today are experiencing.
The horrors that the Palestinian people have been facing for more than 100 years did not start with the Palestinians and will not end there. It is in everyone’s self-interest to avoid such suffering, and one way to do that is to build a more democratic world.
Nelson Mandela once said: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” It is well past time that the rest of the world came to truly understand what this quote means and take tangible action to advance freedom from empire and colonialism.
This was adopted from an article titled “It is time for a democratic world order”, authored by Muhannad Ayyash, professor of sociology. This article is published at Aljazeera English website.
AE/MG
