US Domestic Priorities vs. Israel‘s War on Palestine; NATO’s Provocations of Russia; and Increasing Threats of Nuclear War

I am in receipts of numerous fund-raising solicitations from candidates for office, all reciting the threat to important US domestic programs posed by the potentially disastrous results of the 2024 elections. While I am in favor of the domestic priorities usually mentioned, I am deeply disappointed by the nearly unanimous support of both Parties for Israel’s war on the Palestinians and the actions of the US and NATO in provoking Russia’s war on Ukraine, and am increasingly concerned by these and other actions which threaten us with the prospect of nuclear war. Herein I outline the origins of the Israeli state, Israel’s apparent program of eradicating any prospect of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the origins of the Russian war on Ukraine, and what must be done to decrease, rather than increase, the threat of nuclear war.

The origins of the Israeli state and Israel‘s apparent plans to eradicate the remnants of Palestine

This outline is drawn from former diplomat Alastair Crooke’s “Pulling the Roof Down on Today’s Paradigm” (October 16, 2023)

” At the end of WW2, the West wanted its European Jews to have a ‘homeland’, and so in 1947, Palestine was peremptorily divided between Jews and Arabs.

“The predominant narrative in the West has been that the travails and wars that segued from that event – particularly today’s confrontation in Israel/Palestine – result simply from Arab States’ perverse inability to come to terms with the existence of the State of Israel. Many in the West see this as irrational at the least – or as a fundamental cultural flaw, at worst.

“Well, as was the case in respect to the European post-war military situation, nothing was formally agreed in respect to Jews and Arabs living on the one plot of land. The 1993 Oslo Accords were an attempt at some agreement, but again everything was vague, and the crucially master security ‘key’ to the whole Accord rested wholly at the discretion of the Israelis.

“Plainly, this was intended to give Israel maximum room for manoeuvre. More than that, it was intended that Israel should have the strategic ‘edge’ – not just the political ‘edge’, but the U.S. had pledged to ensure that Israel would have the military ‘edge’ over its neighbours too.

“…[O]ver the last decade, Israel has been departing further and further away from the foundations on which any sustainable regional peace might have been built. Israel, perversely, has been moving in the opposite direction – striking down the pillars by which a regional rapprochement might have been possible.

” This performance has distracted the western world from understanding fully what radical ministers in Netanyahu’s government have been planning:

“One key commitment of Netanyahu’s Cabinet colleagues is to build the Jewish (Third) Temple on Temple Mount, where al-Aqsa Mosque presently stands. Plainly put, this implies a commitment to demolish al-Aqsa and build a Judaic Temple in its stead.

“The second key pledge is to found Israel on the biblical ‘Land of Israel’. Again, plainly put, this would dispossess Palestinians in the West Bank; as National Security Minister Ben Gvir made clear, they would face a choice: leave or live under subservience in a Jewish supremacist state.

“The third is to institute Jewish law (Halakha) in the stead of secular law. This would divest non-Jews in Israel of their legal status.

“Put together – the Judaification of al-Aqsa; the founding of the State upon the biblical ‘Land of Israel’ and the ending of secular Basic law – Palestine and the Palestinian people simply are erased. Three weeks ago, Netanyahu waved a map of Israel as he gave his address at the UN General Assembly; have a look: Gaza and the Palestinian territories do not appear on it at all. They are erased. The situation is as existential as that.

“These are the stakes that ultimately underlie Hamas’ military forces’ extreme provocation into Israel. It is intended to break the paradigm (it is not a cry for some kind of return to the Oslo framework).”

Against this background it is both significant and concerning that both Russia and China have indicated their belief that the only road to long-term peace in the Middle East requires a two-state solution respecting the rights of Palestinians.

If it needs to be added: no occupier has a “right of self-defense” against the occupied. And the first step toward ending the conflict would be a permanent cease-fire.

Russia‘s Reaction to Israel‘s War on Palestine

This outline is based on reports from rt.com and other sources cited:

Taking part, by videoconference, in an extraordinary BRICS summit to discuss the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin argued that Moscow has a moral obligation to deliver humanitarian aid to the civilian population in Gaza. The day before, according to rt.com, he told other BRICS leaders that he had been moved by videos depicting Palestinian children being operated on without anesthesia.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organization (WHO) accused Israel of routinely targeting medical facilities. Israel may plan to destroy all hospitals in Gaza, as part of a program to make Palestinians being forced to leave, conclude that they can never return, as not only their homes but the entire societal infrastructure of Gaza is being leveled.

Mr. Putin went on to describe the provision of aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza as “our sacred duty.” He noted that the “death of thousands of people, the mass displacement of the civilian population and the humanitarian catastrophe that has erupted” are cause for the “deepest concern.”

“When you watch how children are being operated on with no anesthesia – this of course arouses very special feelings,” Putin added.

I have searched in vain, but not thoroughly for lack of time, for the videos Mr. Putin alludes to. However, Reuters reports:

“At Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, director Dr Mohammad Zaqout said there had been a period early on in the war when anaesthetic supplies ran out completely, until aid trucks were allowed in.

“‘Some procedures were carried out without anaesthesia, including Caesarian sections on women, and we were also forced to operate on some burns that way too,'” said Zaqout.

“He said that staff did their best to alleviate patients’ pain with other, weaker medications, but this was inadequate.”

“…Zaqout added that while the shortage of anaesthesia had been eased at his own hospital thanks to aid deliveries, there were still severe shortages at Al Shifa and at the Indonesian Hospital, both of which are in the heavily bombarded north of the strip.” See further Some doctors performing operations without anesthesia in Gaza, World Health Organization says and As a Gazan doctor, I’m having to amputate children’s legs without anaesthetic.

President Biden and both major political parties apparently see the role of the United States in this matter as shipping yet more weapons to Israel to assist in producing such results.

Origins of the Russian war on Ukraine

The US and NATO provoked the current violence in Ukraine by moving NATO steadily eastward until Russia was (and is) existentially threatened. The current phase of the provocation began with the US-based coup that overthrew the democratically-elected government there, installed a neo-Nazi regime which still holds power, and undertook what became eight years of shelling civilians in the Donbas. And the repeated escalation of the conflict by President Biden and NATO now has us risking nuclear war.

This risk is exacerbated by the continuing and deepening demonization of Russian president Putin and Russia itself, which the Clinton Democrats initiated with their efforts to undermine the Trump administration through Russiagate, which has now been exposed as an unconscionable fraud. As a result the US, which has no national interest in Ukraine, is now itself existentially threatened. One useful summary of the situation is provided in Gilbert Doctorow, “Are we in a countdown to all-out nuclear war?” .

Where we must go from here

The US must immediately stop supplying arms to both Israel and Ukraine and ask for the resumption of civilized negotiations with Russia (to which Russia has frequently indicated its willingness, but which the US has steadily opposed) with an eye toward reducing the nuclear threat, through such common-sense measures as:

• Ending the policy of ‘first use’ of nuclear weapons;


• Rejoining nuclear arms control treaties from which the US has withdrawn;


• Taking US nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alaert;


• Eliminating, rather than “modernizing,” land-based ICBMs;


• Supporting legislation like H. Res. 1185, calling on the US to “lead a global effort to prevent nuclear war”; and


• Moving the money thus saved to meet human needs, rather than enriching the oligarchs and so-called “defense” industries who support, or constitute, the military-industrial complex.

Suggestions for Further Reading