The Politics of Empire: The US, Israel and the Middle East

by James Petras

Overview

This book provides a unique conception of US empire building, linking overseas expansion with: 1) the growth of a police state and declining living standards; 2) advanced technologically driven global spying on adversaries and allies with declining economic competitiveness and military defeats; 3) large scale, long term commitments of economic and military resources to wars in the Middle East to the detriment of major corporate interests, but for the benefit of a pariah state, Israel; and 4) the power of a foreign state (Israel) over US policy via its domestic pro-Zionist power configuration. The interplay of these four specific features of US empire building has no past or present precedent among imperial states. Because of Israeli-Zionist influence on US imperial policy, the main targets and objectives of imperial wars are located in the Middle East. The objectives of Israeli and Zionist- influenced US policy in the Middle East is to enhance Israeli regional power and the dispossession of the Palestinian people. The trillion dollar cost of US wars for Israel, however, has alienated the vast majority of US society and driven a wedge between the political elite backing new wars for Israel, and the public prioritizing of domestic economic welfare. This study highlights how the domestic foundations of empire building have deteriorated and forced the imperial presidency to modify its approach, seeking diplomatic negotiations over new military interventions, specifically in the cases of Syria and Iran. Imperial politics is viewed as a multi-sided power struggle between military and economic elites, Israel and the Zionist power configuration, overseas resistance movements and nationalist regimes, and the US public. The resolution of this power struggle is more than an academic question; it will determine whether the US will become a full blown police state, ruled by the pawns of a racist-colonial state engaged in endless wars or return to its roots as an independent democratic republic “free of foreign entanglements”.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780986073113
Publisher:	Clarity Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	10/28/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	751 KB

About the Author

James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of 64 books published in 29 languages, and over 560 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, Journal of Contemporary Asia, and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has published over 2000 articles in nonprofessional journals.

Read an Excerpt

While the potential reach of the police state agencies covers the entire US population, in fact, it operates on the basis of 'concentric circles'. The police state is perceived and experienced by the US population according to the degree of their involvement in critical opposition to state policies. While the police state theoretically affects 'everyone', in practice it operates through a series of concentric circles. The 'inner core' of approximately several million citizens is the sector of the population experiencing the brunt of the police state persecution. This includes the most critical, active citizens, especially those identified by the police state as sharing religious and ethnic identities with declared foreign enemies, critics or alleged 'terrorists'. These include immigrants and citizens of Arab, Persian, Pakistani, Afghan and Somali descent, as well as American converts to Islam.
Ethnic and religious "profiling" is rife in all transport centers (airports, bus and train stations and on the highways). Mosques, Islamic charities and foundations are under constant surveillance and subject to raids, entrapment, arrests, and even Israeli-style 'targeted' assassinations.
The second core group targeted by the police state includes African Americans, Hispanics and immigration rights activists (numbering in the millions). They are subject to massive arbitrary sweeps, round-ups and unlimited detention without trial as well as mass indiscriminate deportations.
After the 'core groups' is the 'inner circle' which includes millions of US citizens and residents, who have written or spoken critically of US and Israeli policy in the Middle East, expressed solidarity with the suffering of the Palestinian people, opposed US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, or have visited countries or regions opposed to US empire building (Venezuela, Iran, South Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza, etc.). Hundreds of thousands of these citizens have their telephone, e-mail and internet communications under surveillance; they have been targeted in airports, denied passports, subjected to 'visits' and to covert and overt blacklisting at their schools and workplaces. Activists engaged in civil liberties groups, lawyers, and professionals, leftists engaged in anti-Imperialist, pro-democracy and anti-police state activities and their publications are on 'file' in the massive police state labyrinth of data collecting on 'political terrorists'.

Table of Contents

Part I Overview: The State of the Empire 9

The Changing Contours of US Imperial Intervention in World Conflicts 11

The Obama Regime's Military Metaphysics Rejects Diplomatic Opportunities 22

The Decline of the US (and Everyone Else) 31

Part II Cyber-Imperialism 39

The Logic Behind Mass Spying: Empire and Cyber-Imperialism 41

The Deeper Meaning of Mass Spying in America 48

Part III Police State: Domestic Foundation of Empire 53

Fabricating Terror Conspiracies 55

The Rise of the Police State and the Absence of Mass Opposition 61

Presidential Rule by Deception: The Master Con-Man 68

The Two Faces of the Police State: Sheltering Tax Evaders, Financial Swindlers and Money Launderers While Policing the Citizens 78

Part IV The Power of Israel in the United States 83

Israel Buys the US Congress: Sabotaging the US-Iran Peace Negotiations 85

Obama with Israel and Against the World 95

Fifteen Minutes an American President 102

Israel's Willing Executioners: AIPAC Invades Washington 112

The Great Transformation of American Jewish Charities 122

Part V Imperial and Zionist Wars and Terror in the Middle East: Palestine, Iran, Syria and Yemen 129

Israeli Terror: The "Final Solution" to the Palestinian Question 131

Obama at the General Assembly: Sacrificing Palestine for Campaign Funds 139

Israeli Bombers: Al Qaeda's Air Force 144

The Bloody Road to Damascus: The Triple Alliance's War on a Sovereign State 151

Saudi Arabia: A Retrograde Rentier Dictatorship and Global Terrorism 156

Iran-US Interim Agreement: Historic Breakthrough or Historic Sellout? 162

The Assassination of Anwar Al Awlaki by Fiat 170

Oligarchs, Demagogues and Mass Revolts… Against Democracy 174

Conclusion 183

Endnotes 185

Index 191