The Democrat is a “Zionist” and the Republican is an “Israeli” With No Shift in U.S. Policy /  Concerns in Washington and Tel Aviv Over an Iranian Strike… The Ground War’s Opportunities Exhausted

 November 05, 2024

The political editor wrote

Americans face a difficult choice between presidential candidates with little certainty about the future. Former President Donald Trump is the Republican candidate, while Vice President Kamala Harris is the Democratic nominee. As Trump seeks a third run, his odds of winning are as balanced given his first victory and second loss. The likelihood of smooth acceptance of the election results is equally matched by the potential for protests and rejection, possibly leading to unrest as it did before. Both camps harbor doubts about the results, with each side braced to blame crucial swing states controlled by governors from the opposing party.

This is not a typical election cycle; voters themselves express dissatisfaction and uncertainty, sensing that their country is heading toward troubling choices and doubting their ability to prevent this descent. The familiar split into nearly equal halves for a third time reflects a deeper showdown between the projects of globalisation and Americanization – a conflict encapsulated by Trump’s slogan “Great America” meaning strong and proud at home, not “Greater America” as an extending hegemon abroad. This clash isn’t merely rhetorical; it divides the beneficiaries and backers of globalisation – bankers, stock market and finance moguls, backed by the military-industrial complex, think tanks, major newspapers, TV channels, and various groups opposed to Trump’s conservative, racist policies, including gays, Latinos, women, and Black Americans. On Trump’s side are those who have lost out in the globalisation era that dreamt of America’s hegemony across the oceans, instead they seek strengthening hospitals, schools, factories, farms, and oil fields – without immigration and with a predominantly white, Protestant population. The rivalry is complex and mixed on both sides, with fear as a powerful motivator in one camp and concern as an effective driver in the other.

This battle between globalisation and Americanization translates, in our region, into a divide between “Zionism” and “Israelization” regarding support for the occupying entity. Regardless of who wins, there will be no substantive change in this policy – no increase, no decrease. What President Joe Biden, the “Zionist”, has offered will continue under Trump or Harris; neither can possibly surpass the provisions and backing currently in place. Democrats back the occupying entity as part of their view of globalisation as the key to global dominance and the entity’s place in that project, feeling responsible for preventing its defeat. Most Republicans, especially evangelical Christians, support “Israel” out of a biblical allegiance, seeing the Bible as the “New Covenant” and the Torah as the “Old Covenant”.

Meanwhile, Washington and Tel Aviv are anxious about the possibility of a severe Iranian strike on the entity, with repeated Pentagon, White House, and State Department warnings directed at Iran. On the southern Lebanon front, ground operations have decreased following the failure of the occupying entity’s Brigade 98 to secure the town of Khiyam and villages like Kafr Kila and Adaisseh, signalling an exhaustion of ground offensive options.