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

Petras, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0986073105 ISBN 13: 9780986073106

Publisher: Clarity Press, 2014

Synopsis

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”.

About this title

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 media such as The New York Times, the Guardian, the Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, and a winner of the American Sociological Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

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'.

About this edition

• Publisher: Clarity Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0986073105
• ISBN 13: 9780986073106
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 154