Thanks to the far-right regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the influence of AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) in the United States, the global political landscape is undergoing rapid and dangerous shifts. Crises of comparable magnitude to those that once shook the international order and led to the Second World War are once again destabilizing the 21st century. Today’s world has its Chamberlains in the leadership of the UK and Germany, while Netanyahu and Biden/Trump stand in for the contemporary ‘Axis Powers.’
On the other side of this global divide stand the Palestinians and their international supporters, spanning grassroots movements across the world and outspoken governments in Yemen, Russia, China, Turkey, Brazil, Venezuela, Spain, Ireland, Norway, and many others. As the genocide in Gaza drags into its second year, even governments in countries such as France and Australia have begun to align themselves with the Palestinian cause. Strikingly, some European states—including Norway and the Netherlands—have gone so far as to declare that they would arrest Netanyahu should he enter their territory. And these are not Russia or China, but core members of the Western alliance and NATO itself. Against this backdrop, we are compelled to ask: why now?
Developments that led to October 7
The Western media, heavily influenced by the Israel lobby known as AIPAC, has relentlessly insisted that the current crisis began with Hamas’ offensive inside Israel on October 7. The narrative is presented as simple, almost mechanical. But that is misleading, for no political crisis emerges on a single date. The roots stretch back decades—arguably to 1989, when the Soviet Union dissolved. It was then that the United States and Israel allegedly formulated a strategy to realize the longstanding ambition of the Zionist movement: the creation of a “biblical Israel” encompassing not only Israel proper but also the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights, southern Lebanon, and, if possible, the Sinai Peninsula. The 9/11 attacks, the invasion of Iraq, and subsequent wars have been interpreted by some—including in an interview once attributed to US General Petraeus—as stages of this grand design. Yet the Iraq war failed to produce a reliable pro-US regime, forcing a pause in the broader plan.
When Trump assumed the presidency in 2016, this grand plan was revived. A great deal of diplomacy was undertaken to tame Arab regimes, with countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the Emirates drawn into normalized relations with Israel. This implied freezing any meaningful support for the Palestinian cause—a process actively pushed by Washington. Turkey, though restrained, also fell partly into line.
Meanwhile, Trump and Netanyahu declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel, openly defying international law and violating UN Security Council Resolution 242 of 1967. Yet given the long record of US and Israeli disregard for UN resolutions, the move came as no surprise. Palestinians in the West Bank responded with waves of demonstrations, only to be met with brutal crackdowns. Netanyahu’s forces mowed down hundreds of young protesters, with estimates at the time suggesting that nearly 400 Palestinian youth were massacred. This marked the beginning of an intensifying campaign of mass killings that continued for years.
At the same time, a new campaign was launched against Iran, as the US and Israel anticipated resistance from Tehran to their regional domination. In his infamous address to the US Congress, Netanyahu theatrically brandished maps and diagrams of Iran’s nuclear program, urging immediate military action to “stop Iran before it develops a nuclear weapon.”
Trump’s electoral defeat halted this trajectory, forcing Netanyahu to pivot to Plan B: ensnaring Hamas into launching a major attack. Such a provocation would hand Israel the pretext to obliterate Gaza, crush Hamas, carry out mass killings, and ultimately annex Gaza and the West Bank—fulfilling the Zionist project of “biblical Israel.” Hamas took the bait, launching its October 7 attacks and taking hostages. Reports later suggested that Israeli forces had deliberately relaxed border security, effectively allowing the incursion to occur. In this sense, Netanyahu sacrificed Israeli civilians, letting them be kidnapped and killed, to justify a war of annihilation against Palestinians.
It is therefore critical to recognize that Israel had already been waging a campaign of elimination against Palestinians for more than two years prior to October 7.
A central pillar of this strategy has been the relentless expansion of Jewish settlements. By building on Palestinian land, Israel reduces the territory available for a future Palestinian state, making it appear ever more “logical” to argue that such a state is impossible: after all, how can there be a state without land? This settlement expansion continues despite numerous UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions forbidding it. Yet, whenever Israel violated international law, the United States stood firmly by its side, vetoing any meaningful Security Council action.
Another facet of this strategy has been the systematic displacement of Palestinians—forcing them to flee into neighboring countries, a process that began with the Nakba in 1948 and continues to this day.
Nazi type cruelty
The level of cruelty displayed by Israeli armed forces in Palestine is unparalleled—even by Nazi standards. What the Nazis inflicted on Jews in Auschwitz and other concentration camps is now being repeated in Gaza, in many ways with even greater ferocity. One of the most shocking aspects is the deliberate targeting of children. Reports from Gaza describe Israeli soldiers shooting children in the head and chest, often with chilling precision. A European medical doctor working in a Gaza hospital recently confirmed a disturbing pattern: nearly every child’s corpse he received had been struck in the head or chest. Israeli soldiers have even boasted, laughingly, of carrying out such killings. When asked why they target children, an Israeli minister openly stated: “Because these kids will become terrorists.”
Women have also been systematically targeted. In genocides, one way to ensure the destruction of a people is to kill women en masse, as they are the bearers of future generations. This too has been part of Israel’s war in Gaza.
The roots of such cruelty can be traced to the supremacist belief that Jews are a “chosen people,” divinely elevated above others. In this worldview, non-Jews—Palestinians especially—are dehumanized and treated as expendable. The result has been an unfolding horror in Gaza: a place described as hell on earth. Israel has blockaded the territory, denying food, medicine, and fuel to its population. Children and the elderly have been deliberately starved. Hundreds of UN and charity aid trucks loaded with life-saving supplies have been blocked or destroyed by settlers, while those waiting in line for food distribution have been bombed. This is cruelty taken to its extreme.
Global Solidarity with Palestine
The world has not witnessed such a massive outpouring of solidarity with a people under siege since the Vietnam War. From Seoul in East Asia to Mexico City and Caracas in Latin America, millions have taken to the streets to denounce Israel’s actions and demand justice for Palestine. In China, five million marched in support of Gaza. In Brussels, half a million filled the streets a few weeks ago; in The Hague and Madrid, more than one hundred thousand marched in each city, with countless others joining across Europe.
In Italy, a government influenced by remnants of Mussolini’s party refused to recognize Palestine. Yet the Italian working class rose in defiance, launching a general strike in solidarity with Gaza—a rare and historic move in European politics.
These protests have forced a reckoning in Western capitals. Governments once indifferent—or openly supportive of Israel—have begun to shift under the pressure of public opinion. Ireland, Spain, and Norway were among the first to recognize the Palestinian state, splitting the Western alliance. As demonstrations grew, more governments followed their lead—eventually including France. Even Britain’s Labour government, long complicit in supplying arms to Israel, conceded and formally recognized Palestine.
At the United Nations General Assembly in New York, 140 governments voiced recognition of a Palestinian state and condemned the ongoing genocide. Only the United States stood isolated, clinging to its alliance with Israel. In typical fashion, Donald Trump dismissed the very idea of a Palestinian state, once again demonstrating profound ignorance of the crisis.
The Kennedy Factor
Soon after his election, Trump announced that he had reviewed the Kennedy files and declared the case “closed once and for all,” insisting that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin. Few questioned why Trump would suddenly intervene on such a matter. Yet, not long after, public interest in Kennedy’s assassination resurfaced, and researchers began digging deeper. One discovery was a copy of a 1939 letter written by John F. Kennedy to his father during a visit to Jerusalem. In it, the young Kennedy described firsthand the terrorist activities of the Zionist underground movements that later founded Israel. He wrote: “There were 13 bombs set off on my last evening there, all in the Jewish quarter and all set off by Jews. The ironical part is that the Jewish terrorists bomb their own telephone lines and electric connections and the next day frantically phone the British to come and fix them up.”
Kennedy, who had been critical of Zionist terrorism since his youth, became US president in 1961. As president, he took two decisive steps regarding Israel. The first concerned Israel’s secret nuclear program at Dimona, aimed at producing nuclear warheads. At the time, the major international debate centered on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons beyond the handful of states that already possessed them. Kennedy, committed to this vision, opposed Israel’s nuclear ambitions. He halted US involvement in Dimona and threatened to cut American support for Israel if it pursued nuclear weapons. His stance prompted David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding prime minister, to resign in protest. This episode enraged Israeli leaders.
It is worth emphasizing that John F. Kennedy was unique among American presidents in his commitment to world peace. In his address to the United Nations General Assembly, he declared unambiguously that nuclear disarmament was essential for lasting peace. Alongside Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, Kennedy pushed for a universal test ban treaty, opposing any “upstart” nation seeking nuclear arms. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy and Khrushchev forged a cautious but promising rapport that many believed could have paved the way toward nuclear disarmament and genuine peace.
His assassination in 1963 destroyed that possibility. It was not only a blow to the United States but also to world peace itself. With Kennedy out of the picture, Israel’s nuclear ambitions continued, extinguishing a historic chance for disarmament. The consequences have echoed for decades, culminating in today’s crisis: the genocide in Gaza in 2024/25.
Another issue where Kennedy took a firm stand was the Jewish lobby that later became AIPAC. He argued that the lobby should be registered as a foreign organization and made to operate under the same rules as other foreign agents. But Kennedy was assassinated before he could implement this measure. According to Ken McCarthy’s recent book John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy’s Battle Against Zionist Extremism, it was Mossad—the Israeli intelligence agency—that orchestrated the assassinations of both brothers.
How Gaza shook the world
As has been increasingly acknowledged even within the United States, the American state has become, in effect, a colony of Israel, as Senator Frank Church once remarked, thanks to the influence of the powerful Israel lobby, AIPAC. John Mearsheimer (Prof.), co-author of The Israel Lobby, has explained in detail how this network operates—controlling virtually every major node of American power: Congress, the White House, the State Department, the CIA, the FBI, state governors, universities, and the mainstream media, including outlets like The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times.
The late President Jimmy Carter himself admitted that any elected official who rejects AIPAC’s funding risks political extinction. For that reason, most American politicians—especially members of Congress—are too afraid to criticize Israel openly.
Mossad, according to numerous allegations, has also perfected the art of blackmail to control influential figures. One notorious example is the disgraced Jeffrey Epstein, widely believed to have been a Mossad asset. Epstein organized parties for powerful men, providing them with underage girls, and then recorded their activities for leverage. These records, including videos, were allegedly used to blackmail politicians. Trump, a guest at Epstein’s events, has appeared in pictures with teen girls, who have since spoken publicly about their experiences.
Today, the refusal of the US and Israel to recognize the rulings of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court—as well as their routine defiance of UN General Assembly resolutions—has rendered these institutions effectively toothless. This undermining of global law and accountability is a grave blow to the international order, and no actors have been more responsible for it than the US and Israel.
Contributed by Ayelech Sidistkilo
