There is a hegemonic story in the corporate media that considers it an identity or relligious conflict, associating the Palestinians with a jihadism of the ISIS modality, exalting the anti-terrorist and “civilizing” rhetoric and promoting the mythology of the war “Israel Hamas”. Israel would be an indicator of the enlightened West in a “non-civilized” territory. Faced with this reading, the alternative view, historically driven by the Palestinian movement and internationalism, has been increasingly marked: That the Palestinian is a territory to be decolonized; that the regime established by the State of Israel is not only an occupation, but that it imposes violent apartheid on the Palestinian population; that the main key is the national and the anti-imperialist, the national rights of the Palestinians. The reading of the oppressed therefore makes considerable progress in world public opinion, going beyond Zionist propaganda.

In this violent battle of stories, there is a huge gap between the popular sectors and the political authorities of Europe and the United States. In Euskal Herria we have been filling the streets to the hill for three consecutive weekends, and this is happening in other urban centers in a wave that is becoming global. As this happens, Ursula Von der Leyer, Joe Biden or Rishi Sunak travel to Israel in procession to offer political support to the Netanyahu government in this genocidal operation. Others, such as the Spanish Government, are constantly changing their position so as not to completely oppose the pro-Palestinian street environment, but without imposing any limit or threat on the Israeli Government and thus offering de facto political support for genocide. Why is this happening? Why do our rulers line up with Israel in a conflict that apparently does not directly affect us?

This is not something new, but a coherent historical continuity. That was the case, with ups and downs, during the Cold War. It was also the Oslo agreement in the trap against the Palestinians, where these central powers clearly moved for the benefit of Israel, even when it embarked on a strategy of systematic non-compliance with the agreements. In recent years, when the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime have plunged into a process of “normalization”, these powers have done nothing to improve the Palestinian status quo, and have worked to permanently consolidate Israel’s international position in what armed confrontation has been tempered. Israeli Western behaviour is therefore systematic and historical.

Most aggressive in the last month

But, since 7 October, we see how the European and US authorities are implementing more aggressive, more obvious, more explicit drifts in favour of Israel. What the most belligerent “hawks” used to say is becoming a measure of official discourse. Thus, even though the scale of the massacre is becoming increasingly untenable, even though Israeli rhetoric has explicitly become genocidal and supremacist, such as Macron or Schultz, they still do not internalise nuances in their speech, concealing themselves in the mantra trap of Israel’s “right to defence”, even if society becomes more and more supportive of the Palestinians. The historical thread remains intact, but the contradictions are increasing.

There are a number of elements that explain to some extent this trend in favour of Israel: the strength of the Israeli lobby, which is often mentioned in the US, Germany’s historical guilt complex with Jewish communities, etc. It is undeniable that these arguments play a role. But they are not enough to explain the discarded Western political support for the behaviour of Israel that we are seeing these days. There is an element of first order that is increasingly emerging in this current crisis and that conditions all the other elements: Israel is, in the present and conflicting geopolitics, one of the most important positions of the Euro-American bloc in this absolutely strategic region. In short, Israel is the most prominent representative of the central powers of the capitalist world of the system, namely the United States and the European Union, in the Middle East. In this sense, it already plays a clear imperialist role from its historical origin, with rigour and absolute discipline. This does not mean that Israel does not have its own agency, but that the dynamics of each, those of Israel and the central powers, are functional among themselves and largely share strategic objectives. In short, the policies of action in the United States and in the whole area of the European Union revolve around Israel.

This imperialist articulation has concrete implications in the current context and partly explains the particularly aggressive attitude of the European and US authorities. In this way, the complex nature of the geopolitical context we live in is becoming a new norm: the rise of the BRICS group, the decline of Europe’s global hegemony and EE.UU, commercial, technological and military competition with China, the expulsion of France from its postcolonial positions in West Africa, the war in Ukraine, etc. All this is due to the organic crisis of profitability of capitalism and the advance of the climate emergency. In this context, and in view of their political, economic, corporate, military and cultural position, these central powers are playing increasingly aggressive to maintain their hegemonic positions, maintain and expand their global influence frameworks. And in the case of the Middle East this means: To maintain that strategic alliance with Israel, to strengthen that position in favour of the central powers. This means politically protecting a genocide being televised. In a world where commitments and transitions are becoming less and less present, the European Union (and, of course, the United States much more accustomed to the execution of the imperialist hard power) strongly supports their difference.

In this increasingly conflicting context, Israel plays a strategic role in the competition opened by the Euro-American bloc with China, for example. Thus, it is no accident that Biden passed through Israel at the G20 summit last summer, India – the Middle East – European Corridor (IMEC) and is in the port of Haifa as one of its strategic stops. To cope with the New Silk Road, Israel is fully aligned with the central powers, as is the case with many other international keys. That is to say, in our view, the reason that structurally explains the relationship between Israel and the power bloc forming Europe and the United States.

The work of popular movements from home

This imposes specific obligations on the internationalist popular movement at European level. This is not a tragic disaster that occurs outside our influence, but rather a massacre that is taking place through geopolitics itself. We are not mere witnesses looking from the outside, but direct active participants. Israel’s position is the position of the European Union and, therefore, what Israel does to maintain that position (genocide and ethnic cleansing, in this case), it also falls to us. The colonial behavior of Israel is a direct indicator of the imperial colonial projection of Europe and the United States on the Palestinians. Israel is us, competing for global hegemony in that region. That is why we have a direct responsibility, firstly, to break the massacre; secondly, to promote a democratic solution (i.e. to promote the total decolonization of Palestine and to undermine the supremacist infrastructure of Israel). As we explained in this report, the most effective internationalist conduct consists in combating our imperialist colonial logic and agents in our home, in co-cialisation and abolition.

In this regard, and in view of the emergency situation caused by the Israeli offensive, an immediate objective is to stop the massacre. To this end, it is clear that the messages being sent by the European and US authorities – calling for a ‘pause’ for the bombings, seeking humanitarian corridors, rhetorically calling for efforts to reduce civilian deaths – are not enough to achieve that goal. What is more, these authorities are aware of this, and therefore their position is de facto political support for Israel. Not doing enough calculated enough to stop the massacre is a simple blow. Therefore, the only way that can be effective at present to achieve this minimum objective is to promote strong international isolation and reproach in Israel. The ongoing genocide can only be threatened by international ostracism. A first task of the grass-roots movement would therefore be the pressure of political leaders to break with Israel in their respective areas. That is, to promote the breakdown of diplomatic relations from the Foreign Ministers, from the autonomous governments of the CAV and the NFE, through the government of the Spanish State and to the European Union. Like Bolivia, Colombia and Chile. Street mobilization and popular force are fundamental to this, because the current authorities at all these levels will not do so on their own initiative. Because it would call into question a strong geopolitical alliance.

Beyond that, initiatives must be taken to repeal all the instruments enabling the structural relations of the institutions at all levels with the State of Israel. From the current Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement of the European Union, to the agreement of the Bizkaia Foral Council with the Israeli company accelerator Sosa in 2018. Companies based in our territory engaged in the armero trade with Israel, operating in occupied territories such as the Basque railway company CAF, etc. These are all relationships that must be conflicted from the popular movement.

This is the main task of internationalism: to stand alongside the Palestinian people in short of our own imperialist geopolitics. And to do this, you have to go down the streets.