You could get rid of both Biden and Trump, whoever replaced them would be beholden to the same imperial corporate interests and be just as vile with their policies.
You could do Putin or Zelenskyy in, and another capitalist oligarch would just take their places.
If Netanyahu disappeared tomorrow, Israel has plenty of genocidal politicians ready to fill his boots.
The real world isn’t a Marvel movie, there is no single “ultimate bad guy” to rally against. The entire systems of these places need to be overcome.
Good post, I get worried hearing libs, or Israeli people, complain about Netenyahu; it’s a distraction from the root issue. Like Derek Chauvin being convicted, it’s good that he had some consequences but it legitimizes the system that enables the murder. Netenyahu gets ousted, new elections in Israel, and libs will say “look at that, he was bad and they kicked him out, Israel is a bastion of freedom and democracy!”
Yes, that is why Biden going out of his way for Netanyahu is so insane.
Biden could send Netanyahu to the ICC, offload all the bad decisions on him. Then replace Netanyahu with whoever is next in line and continue the genocide without pausing for even a second.
I think perhaps one of the unspoken goals here is that Israel be beyond reproach; he doesn’t necessarily care about Netanyahu, but instead cares that Israel be absolutely beyond the criticisms that are traditionally only levied against non-Western countries.
Also if the Israeli government was condemned wholly or in general for genocide, it would put them in the public consciousness in the same area as all the countries we’re taught to hate and to shrug when violent war comes to their shores.
good post !
I have noticed various media outlets for months now scapegoating ol’ Bibi like the entire colonialist zionist project isn’t the problem
Only because he’s unpopular (to an extent) in Israel; I’m doubtful they’d do the same if he was extremely popular.
He’s unpopular on polls and yet him and Likud constantly win elections.
Also don’t forget that he’s not unpopular for good reasons. He’s unpopular because he’s getting blame for Oct 7, not making Israelis feel 100% safe since then, and not being genocidal enough in Gaza.
This is a consistent pattern in Israel’s political history.
Golda Meir, the then-Prime Minister of Israel and a Ukrainian-American-British Palestinian so-called “socialist” (don’t laugh), coerced the US under Nixon into interceding (!!) during the Yom Kippur War under the threat of nuclear force. Despite being an absolutely vile chauvinist who was the most staunch supporter of ethnic cleansing, she was insufficiently bloodthirsty and belligerent for the Israeli voting public, which was a key factor in ending her political career.
Israel is irredeemable. Always has been.
The “cult of personality” is encouraged by design. Putting all focus and blame on individuals shields the system from being scrutinized.
There is nothing wrong with denouncing American plutocrats like Bezos and Gates for greed, but we cannot stop there: we must understand that the system of exploitation is not held together by any individual’s vices. As Lenin put it, “The capitalists divide the world, not out of any particular malice, but because the degree of concentration which has been reached forces them to adopt this method in order to obtain profits.” [10] If one of them had a major change of heart and stopped pursuing ruthless accumulation, they would quickly be ousted by stockholders for endangering their investment. In the unlikely event that their stockholders were cooperative, a competitor would swoop in and relieve them of their commanding market share. This is not apologia for Bezos, but we need to understand that there is a talent to being a capitalist exploiter, or else we will underestimate our enemy. The market selects for profitability, and it selects well — it just doesn’t select for environmental responsibility or decency or who can bring the most benefits to the greatest number. From Marx, to Lenin, to Deng, we can observe a baseline level of respect for the enemy: “Management is also a technique.” [11]
On my view, the core Marxist insight is the following: Feudal lords were the masters of Feudalism. Capitalists, however, aren’t the masters of capitalism. They are merely the high priests of capitalism. The master of capitalism is Capital itself.
