Israel - 2025/6 - Delusions
Israel – an
Economic/Moral – Delusion
+972
Magazine has an excellent writing:
Is
Israel’s genocide economy on the brink?
Economist
Shir Hever explains how the Gaza war mobilization propped up a ‘zombie economy’
that appears to function but lacks any future horizon.
by Amos
Brison dated December 16, 2025. Brison
explains multiple factors predicting a worsening State of Israel even with
massive outside financial and political support from western powers, most
notably The United States, Great Britain and Germany.
Speaking as
a Jewish USian, who has long opposed Israel’s militarism and treatment of the
Palestinian People, I think that things are changing greatly in ways that merit
a deeper look at multiple significant core things.
I’d like to
examine Israel in multiple contexts looking backwards and forwards
timewise. Oft times I hear various
people viewing 2025 and looking to 2026 very, very negatively.
Infrequently
do I hear a deeper dive into exploring how we got to where we’re at, as opposed
to a fixation on people and things like: “Donald Trump”, “Benjamin Netanyahu
and his extremist cabinet members”, and/or “Hamas”.
Words like
“settler colonialism” are noted, but few look deeply to our past and future,
even related to such individuals and forces we readily label.
Donald Trump
and Benjamin Netanyahu are both horrible individuals! Neither of them built and retained his power
solely or almost exclusively through simple luck, or bizarre/naïve actions of
USians and Israeli Jews.
Hamas, while
being Islamist, is far, far from the simplistic caricatures put forth about
it. One can view Hamas in mixed, or
non-positive ways, while not vilifying it and minimizing its current importance. Regime change in (current) Palestinian
leadership will only deal indirectly with the symptoms of the current problems,
and not get at any core issues.
Gaza is
facing horrific, intensifying genocide, despite the “ceasefire”! The West Bank is mired in Settler and direct military
violence directed at The Palestinian People, not “a few bad apples”.
At the same
time, the resistance is still strong!
The resilience of the Palestinian People will in the end triumph, absent
a nuclear holocaust destroying the world.
U.S.
“leadership” and Israeli barbarism are delaying the possibility of a just,
lasting, safe peace. There is no
“Victory” currently, or possible in the future, as far forward as I can see.
--
Why, one may
ask, do I see things in this way? My
perspective is far from the reality put forth by mainstream U.S. media,
politicians in my country, and the views of many. The vast majority of the “caring” people, and
“those people” who are strongly opposed to my perspective generally see things
quite differently.
Israel’s
history has been distorted in the public view significantly pre-dating May 15,
1948, when Israel declared its independence.
The Balfour
Declaration – a promise from the British Government to “the Jewish people” in
1917 needs a few “*’s” added to it. How
could Great Britain promise a Jewish State when Palestine was (still) a part of
The Ottoman (Turkish) Empire? What
right had Great Britain and France following World War I to divide the Middle
East into areas to dominate?
Hitler and
the Nazi’s created a huge refugee problem for Jews beginning May 7-8th,
1945 when Germany surrendered. The
Palestinian People and others in The Middle East didn’t create the
problem. They were the (seemingly)
“simple solution” to this refugee problem.
Both the
United States and Great Britain (within its borders) strongly resisted
admitting most Jews seeking asylum prior to World War II. Neither country actively provided support to
help Jews escape to anywhere else.
My paternal grand-father’s
generation included:
-Rivkah
(Rebecca Marx) Bruenn- who scandalized
her father moving to Palestine circa 1919-1920 as a single woman. In Palestine she met and married Wolf Zeev
Bruenn, a physician.
-Alexander
Marx - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Marx - upon completing his PhD at the University
of Koenigsberg (E Prussia) in 1903, was recruited as chief librarian and
history professor at The Jewish Theological Seminary in NYC, which he had ties
to until his death in 1953
-Moses Marx
– my paternal grandfather (1885-1973) – was recruited in 1926 from Berlin – (possibly
through connections with Alexander Marx) – as the Chief Cataloger Hebrew Union
College (Cincinnati) library
-Esther
(Marx) Agnon, a younger sister of Moses, was the spouse of Israel’s first Nobel
Laureate- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shmuel_Yosef_Agnon
.
My father’s
family were privileged German Jews. My
great-grandfather, who I was named after, was wealthy - https://jewsineastprussia.de/catalog-konigsberg-05/ .
Many Jews of
Europe/Poland/Lithuania/Russia (etc) were not as fortunate as most of my family
was.
In 1945 and
immediately beyond then, it remained difficult for many, many Jewish refugees
in Europe to get into The United States, Canada, and other countries outside of
Europe. Much of Europe had little
capacity for refugees.
It is beyond
the scope of this writing to look at the problems of Jews living in countries
such as Iraq and Iran. I would suggest
that those interested in such issues look at the writings of scholars such as
Avi Shlaim:
( https://www.georgemarx.org/2024/10/three-worlds-avi-shlaim.html + https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avi_Shlaim ) .
I would note
that this is not a simple: “The Jews were forced out of Arab countries to
Israel where they needed to go to escape Anti-Semitism”.
There are
small Jewish communities in countries like Iraq and Iran today. These peoples’ lives are perhaps “not great”,
but they are not facing death, as many in The West Bank and Gaza face, simply
by being Palestinian.
NOTE: If you, the reader, want to dig deeper into
my perspective, (whether in support or
opposition to my beliefs and perspective) see:
https://www.georgemarx.org/2022/12/palestine-israel-judiasm-posts-links-my.html .
The history
of what became Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other adjacent countries,
Yemen, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran has both complexities and simple
truths. Oil had a lot to do with what
transpired!
The Jews of
Israel moved, with detours, towards becoming an independent country.
Anyone who
believes that Great Britain, France and The United States were building the other
Middle Eastern countries towards “independence” is seriously naïve. Britain’s policies were erratic and
inconsistent, but Never favored Palestinian independence.
There is no
doubt that there was horrific Anti-Semitism in Czarist Russia, as well as in
parts of Eastern Europe. At the same
time, the leadership of countries like Britain, France, Germany – had a “Jewish
Problem” – in that though Jews were a tiny minority, disproportionately they
spoke up against the oppressive governments in their native lands.
Wealthy Jews
such as the Rothschild’s helped purchase property in what became Israel. Palestine becoming Israel – was an obvious
solution to The “Jewish Problem” in countries like Great Britain and
Germany. Western European Jewry were
disproportionately highly educated.
The
Anti-Semitism of the first half of the 20th Century was primarily stretching
from Britain, through Russia, where the Muslim and Arab populations were
tiny. The weakening Turkish Government
discriminated against Jews in relatively minor ways, similar to how it treated
Christian People.
In 1933
the largest Jewish populations were concentrated in eastern Europe, including
Poland, the Soviet Union, Hungary, and Romania.
…
According to the census of June 16, 1933, the Jewish population of Germany,
including the Saar region (which at that time was still under the
administration of the League of Nations), was approximately 505,000 people out
of a total population of 67 million, or somewhat less than 0.75 percent.
,
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/ = U.S. Holocaust Museum Encyclopedia
In 1933
France had 68 million residents, of which 225,000 (see above) were Jewish. In 1933 The U.S. had a little under 126
million residents, while Canada had 10 ½ million residents.
It seems
obvious that The United States, in particular, could have taken in far, far
more Jews, than it did prior to 1938!
Canada – had plenty of land, and a lot less people.
During the
1947-1948 period of time, The Arab Legion – the British lead Jordanian military
was the strongest military force in opposition to what became Israel. Its military held on to much of the area
around Jerusalem, as well as The West Bank.
Rarely
known/discussed are the ties of the Jordanian leader with the Israeli
leadership.
Abdullah
I[a] (Abdullah bin Hussein;[b] 2
February 1882 – 20 July 1951) was the ruler of Jordan from
11 April 1921 until his assassination in 1951. He was the Emir of Transjordan, a British protectorate, until 25 May 1946,[1][2] after
which he was king of an independent Jordan.[1][2] As
a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of Jordan since
1921, Abdullah was a 38th-generation direct descendant of Muhammad.[5]
…
In 1947,
when the UN supported partition of Palestine into
one Jewish and one Arab state, Abdullah was the only Arab leader supporting the
decision.[3]
In
1946–48, Abdullah supported partition in order that the Arab allocated areas of
the British Mandate for Palestine could be annexed into Transjordan. Abdullah
went so far as to have secret meetings with the Jewish Agency for Israel. Future Israeli
prime minister Golda Meir was among the delegates to these
meetings that came to a mutually agreed upon partition plan independently of
the United Nations in November 1947.[23]
On 17
November 1947, in a secret meeting with Golda Meir, Abdullah stated that he
wished to annex all of the Arab parts as a minimum, and would prefer to annex
all of Palestine.[24][25] This
partition plan was supported by British Foreign Secretary Ernest
Bevin who preferred to see Abdullah's territory increased at the
expense of the Palestinians rather than risk the creation of a Palestinian
state headed by the Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammad Amin al-Husayni.[10][26]
Historian
Graham Jevon discusses the Shlaim and Karsh interpretations of the critical
meeting and accepts that there may not have been a "firm agreement"
as posited by Shlaim while claiming it is clear that the parties openly
discussed the possibility of a Hashemite-Zionist accommodation and further says
it is "indisputable" that the Zionists confirmed that they were
willing to accept Abdullah's intention.[27]
On 4 May
1948, Abdullah, as a part of the effort to seize as much of Palestine as
possible, sent in the Arab Legion to attack the Israeli settlements in the
Etzion Bloc.[24] Less
than a week before the outbreak of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Abdullah met with Meir
for one last time on 11 May 1948.[24] Abdullah
told Meir, "Why are you in such a hurry to proclaim your state? Why don't
you wait a few years? I will take over the whole country and you will be
represented in my parliament. I will treat you very well and there will be no
war".[24]
Abdullah
proposed to Meir the creation "of an autonomous Jewish canton within a Hashemite
kingdom," but "Meir countered back that in November, they had agreed
on a partition with Jewish statehood."[28] Depressed
by the unavoidable war that would come between Jordan and the Yishuv, one Jewish
Agency representative wrote, "[Abdullah] will not remain faithful
to the 29 November [UN Partition] borders, but [he] will not attempt to conquer
all of our state [either]."[29] Abdullah
too found the coming war to be unfortunate, in part because he "preferred
a Jewish state [as Transjordan's neighbour] to a Palestinian Arab state run by
the mufti."[28]
The
Palestinian Arabs, the neighbouring Arab states, the promise of the expansion
of territory and the goal to conquer Jerusalem finally
pressured Abdullah into joining them in an "all-Arab military
intervention" on 15 May 1948. He used the military intervention to restore
his prestige in the Arab world, which had grown suspicious of his relatively
good relationship with Western and Jewish leaders.[28][30] Abdullah
was especially anxious to take Jerusalem as compensation for the loss of the
guardianship of Mecca, which had traditionally been held by the Hashemites
until Ibn
Saud seized the Hejaz in 1925.[31]
Abdullah's
role in this war became substantial. He distrusted the leaders of the other
Arab nations and thought they had weak military forces; the other Arabs
distrusted Abdullah in return.[32][33] He
saw himself as the "supreme commander of the Arab forces" and
"persuaded the Arab League to appoint him" to this position.[34] His
forces under their British commander Glubb
Pasha did not approach the area set aside for the Jewish state, though
they clashed with the Yishuv forces around Jerusalem, intended to be an
international zone.[citation needed] According
to Abdullah el-Tell it was the King's personal
intervention that led to the Arab
Legion entering the Old City against Glubb's wishes.[32]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_I_of_Jordan
It is
unclear to me why Palestine was and Israel remains “the place” Jews are
“supposed to live”. If the Palestinian Native
Population was similar to those in areas proximate to The South Pole, I’d fully
understand it, but… The excuse that
“there are plenty of Arab countries” is simplistic and simply WRONG!
On 19 August
1953, Prime
Minister of Iran Mohammad
Mosaddegh was
overthrown in a coup d'état orchestrated by the United States (CIA)
and the United
Kingdom (MI6).
A key motive was to protect British oil interests in Iran after Mossadegh
nationalized and refused to concede to western oil demands.[5][6][7] It was instigated by the United States (under the name TP-AJAX
Project[8] or Operation Ajax)
and the United Kingdom (under the name Operation Boot).[9][10][11][12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat
The United
States interfered in both Iraq and Iran – related to maintaining The Shah of
Iran, prior to the Iranian Revolution.
The successor Iranian Government – helped (through interference) in the
election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980. Saddam Hussein and the Iranian leadership
were played off against each other later on.
--
There have
been various illusions/delusions about Israel that are important to
understand.
1.) One false narrative is/was that the
Palestinians were told by their leadership to leave their homes, so they could
return after the Jews were driven out.
A much more
accurate truism is that Palestinians were forced out of their homes by members
of the Haganah and other Jewish forces.
Young children and elderly people were forced to walk, to survive.
2.) Another false narrative is that the
underdog Jewish heroes took on multiple invading Arab armies when Israel
declared its independence on May 15, 1948.
USian and British intelligence were clear that the much more united,
relatively well-armed Jewish forces were thought to be able to safely win the
war. Most of the troops sent in from
outside were not well-trained and were very poorly motivated.
3.) Probably the most unfair narrative
relates to the failure of the Palestinian People and the neighboring states to
accept the U.N. partition plan passed in the General Assembly on November 29,
1947.
The Arab
state was to have a territory of 11,592 square kilometres, or 42.88 percent of
the Mandate's territory, and the Jewish state a territory of 15,264 square
kilometres, or 56.47 percent; the remaining 0.65 percent or 176 square
kilometres—comprising Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the adjoining area—would
become an international
zone.[5][4][6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Partition_Plan_for_Palestine
By the
end of the British Mandate period in 1948, Jewish farmers had cultivated
425,450 dunams of land, while Arab farmers had 5,484,700 dunams of land under
cultivation.[22]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_land_purchase_in_Palestine
Jewish
farmers cultivated 7% of the farmland and Palestinians cultivated the remaining
93%.
It is not
correct that Arabs owned 94% of the land in Palestine, yet that is the
assumption left in most historical accounts of the land issue in Palestine.
Actually Jews purchased 28 percent of all the land of Palestine that became the
State of Israel. Again, the assumption that Arabs owned or had the rights to
the remaining 72% is simply not historically correct.
https://israeled.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/themes-land-issue-2-22-13.pdf
The UN
Partition Plan denied the demographic facts in Palestine no more than it did
the ownership of land.
The Mandate authorities had furnished UNSCOP with statistics showing Jewish
land ownership to reach no
more than 39% in any one sub-district and remain far less in all others. In
December 1947,
Jewish landholdings totaled 1,734 km2, or 6.6% of the total territory. The
majority of the remainder was in
Palestinian ownership, either communal or private, while state lands and nature
reserves were not
extensive in the area allotted the Jewish state in the plan. The exception was
the Beersheba district, where
85% of the area was state land.
https://maps.passia.org/land-ownership-in-palestine-1948/
The Jewish
Virtual Library states that the Jewish (vs.
non-Jewish populations) of Israel (what became Israel) was:
1946 = 30%,
1947 = 32%,
1948 =
82.1%,
1950 =
87.8%,
1990 =
81.9%,
2000 = 77.8
%,
2010 =
75.4%,
2020 = 73.9%
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-and-non-jewish-population-of-israel-palestine-1517-present
Clearly in
1947-1948 the Jewish population of Palestine/Israel was primarily
urban/suburban and the Palestinian population was primarily rural/village
based.
I can not
see any way that the creation of The State of Israel was “fair” related to its
Palestinian population. One may argue
that The Negev Desert distorts things.
If one uses this argument, one must also recognize that Palestinians
should logically have had the rights to their farmlands and for the Palestinian
villages to remain intact.
There was NO
Hamas, PLO or other resistance force in 1947, 1948 or 1949! The Palestinians “army” – if one can call it
that, has been limited to the military resistance in Gaza in recent years
(only).
Since the
1967 and 1973 Wars, Israel has occupied The West Bank. The entire “Settlement Project” – or whatever
one wishes to call it has destroyed the possibility of a two state solution,
absent extremely, extremely complex changes.
A
Palestinian State – a real state – would require a number of things that would
be exceedingly difficult to achieve including:
1.) Expropriation of Israeli Settlements
– and/or
2.) Changing the allocations of water –
so that the Palestinian residents have far, far, far more water, and the
Settlers have far, far less,
3.) Ending the Highway System – which has
separate roads for Israeli’s and Palestinians
4.) Thoroughly changing the entire
Jerusalem Area – where Palestinians have lost most of their lands and houses
and businesses and much, much more
5.) Dealing with the Courts, Jails,
police systems and related things – ending the totally unequal systems that
currently exist.
If one were
to instead look at a Single State or a Confederation or similar there are
obviously a variety of other issues.
Clearly, absent the killing of a substantially larger number of
Palestinians, the State will become Majority Palestinian, if it isn’t already
Majority Palestinian.
Reparations
– seem an obvious issue to me, while Zionists will no doubt strenuously
disagree!
--
Looking at
Israel today – as described in the noted economic focused writing at the
beginning of what I’ve written here – as well as reading writings such as:
Ilan Pappe -
https://www.georgemarx.org/2025/11/israel-on-brink-ilan-pappe.html and/or
Peter
Beinart - https://www.georgemarx.org/2025/09/being-jewish-after-destruction-of-gaza.html
one may note
that Israel’s Jewish population is coping with:
1.) Lots of folks – leaving Israel for
The U.S., Germany, and other Western European Countries as the power of very
religious and very anti-Palestinian Jews gain more and more power,
2.) Difficulties in maintaining its –
military going forward – with high failures to report for duty, as well as
suicides
3.) Credible reports of the rapes, sexual
abuse, and other brutalization of Palestinian People
4.) West Bank – increased violence
against Palestinian People
5.) Endless – denial – investigations of
“incidents”- minimalization of patterns of “questionable” actions in various
ways
And:
An economy which is a mess!
If anyone really believes that President Trump is going to
help resolve things, I think one is deluding oneself.
--
It seems relatively simple for the politicians of the U.S. to
speak of their desire for a Two-State Solution, while The Trump Administration
acts bizarrely.
With a tiny few – “weak” exceptions – nothing has been done
by U.S. leadership since 1948 to allow for any viable solution to the core
issues in Israel-Palestine!
The Oslo Accords and other supposed “peace efforts”, upon
reviewing the “fine print” both provided proposed solutions that were grossly
unfair to the Palestinian People. Even –
following agreements – is consistently identical to the pathways of The United
States Government with its native population.
If readers are interested in delving further into issues such
as have been brought up here, I can suggest various resources that are relatively
easy to access – Read/Watch:
1. Rashid Khalidi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EDypq6cKDM
+
https://www.georgemarx.org/2024/02/the-hundred-years-war-rashid-khalidi.html
2. Noura Erakat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPYoYGgi2bg
+
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61nzb8u7g30&list=PLcqXhvSDf0z2gqomwH9LfiyXPf0V4j0or&index=9
+
https://www.georgemarx.org/2024/05/justice-for-some-noura-erakat-great-book.html
3. Common Dreams - https://www.commondreams.org/
In closing I’d
like to note that both through:
1.) wearing t-shirts that say things
like: “Free Palestine” (alone) and:
2.) re-posting most of my writings on
Medium
Solely Fellow
Jews 99.9% of the time – attack me personally – not focusing upon the details
of my writings – but call me – “Anti-Semitic”, “Self-Hating” – clearly being
triggered by my message and my being “a traitor” – as a fellow Jew, while
others including some Jews speak positively.
The Fear –
the Hatred – will not lead to safety or feeling safe or feeling safer! Really, listening deeply to the words of
those one disagrees with at times, acknowledging and even embracing one’s own
discomfort – can lead to growth and a feeling – of “belonging” – that on one
level, as an Aspie I will never have, and as an ally/resister/co-conspirator –
I find more and more in my life.
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