The state of Israel is an Apartheid, wanna-be Petroleum-State. That statement is meant to be inflammatory and bring to light exactly the reason for its existence and continued support from the United States and many of its allies. One of the first questions someone might have is, ”What the fuck is an Apartheid-Petroleum-State??” In short, it’s a state that exists on policy to separate groups of people to inflict violence, that’s apartheid per the South African definition. The ways in which the Israeli government designates specific areas to Palestinians while also moving their own settlements reflects this policy heavily, but you may wonder what basis I have in calling Israel a Petroleum-state. A Petrostate is a country whose economy is mostly contingent on the nation’s oil industry, the extracting and exporting of oil to other nations. This definition clearly does not apply to Israel, as that area of the Middle East is very poor in oil compared to places such as Iran, Iraq, or Saudi Arabia. This is where we must turn our attention to the ways in which they compensate for this deficiency, types of business the State of Israel engages in, and what this may mean for the future interests of certain corporate entities. To truly understand this, professor of literature at Columbia University and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies, Edward Said says, “I don’t think you can understand what’s happening today and the situation of the Palestinians unless you understand what happened in 1948.” and it’s this central point of interest where our current day festers.
The Founding of Israel is one of an unusually unorthodox matter, it wasn’t formed out of mutual treaty or in an act of self determination, but out of an artificially created mandate from an already existing empire; the perseverance of British colonialism. The growing Antisemitism preceding WW1 in Europe led Zionist movements to pressure the British government for a “National home for Jews” (As described in the Balfour Declaration) in the newly acquired Palestine/Jordan region following the war. The League of Nations (Who later became the UN) mandated Palestine to the British Empire and through three decades of protest, general strikes, and revolts, Post-WW2 decolonization began. The US pressured Britain to open up the global economy to the rest of the world market and realizing Palestine wasn’t as oil rich as its neighbors it wasn’t too hard of a decision for Britain. All of this leading to the first war for Palestine (1947-1949) which if given by the name known to local Palestinian Arabs as “Nakba” (Catastrophe) it was a devastating atrocity that left countless people stripped of their home, sustainability, and their identity.
As mentioned before, the area in which Israel and Palestine are located is actually quite poor in oil compared to the rest of the Middle East. This is no secret to the oil capitalists whose watchful eyes and greedy hands have been on the Middle East since the British struck “Black Gold'' back in the early 1900’s in places like Saudi Arabia and Persia (Now Iran). These areas are home to the largest oil fields we have so far discovered, and with that discovery it has awoken a Lovecraftian horror that lives right beneath our feet. Setting into motion a series of events that we are still tackling over 100 years later. A discovery of a natural resource that was supposed to bring a new era of energy, prosperity, and advancement. Instead it has only brought with it endless wars, irreversible climate disaster, and an ongoing genocide over Petroleum-politics. More so as Edward Said has stated in interviews, the Middle East has been thrown into a severe wealth inequality crisis. Those who are wealthy enough to participate in the trade of these natural resources have the ability to economically and socially climb, leaving the majority of people exploited and impoverished. This inequality having direct influence on the activity of Palestinian sectarian formations like Hamas and Islamic Jihad to gain influence. “Globalization, with its transformation of economics into vast consumer markets for venture capitalism, has made things worse...The vast mass of people live in poverty with threats of eviction, the inability to find jobs or feed their children and send them to school.” And just like we see in our own country, where wealth inequality happens is where people will band together and survive based on their own abilities. Said continues, “I think it’s wrong to see the Islamic organizations simply as terrorist formations. They certainly have provided a civic alternative to the governments, which are all, without exception, corrupt.”
Petroleum has been described as a sort of “lifeblood” of our planet which is ironic as it quite literally exists because of the death of many living things over spans of time we can never truly grasp. Yet it is these past deaths that have given us a new life with the ability to have mass transit, plastics, and many other modern day conveniences we have grown accustomed to. As Reza Negarestani says in his book Cyclonopedia, “The utilization of power in a decaying system is a necrophilic experience.” And it’s this power which has attracted much of the foreign interest seen from Britain, the United States, Australia, and much of the rest of the Euro-American world has led to an impact on the national and local governments directly from western influence. In response to this, cartels like The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting (OPEC) have been organized in reaction to seeking self-determination as opposed to being subjected to Western influence; this is one of, if not the main catalyst for tensions perpetuated by the West in the Middle East. So imagine you’re a Western nation and the Middle Eastern nations you want to have economic control over have banded together to play your own capitalist game against you, what do you do? Proxy wars.
The US is no stranger to funding and training local militia to fight in our interests. Oftentimes it is done by finding the right people, who’s desires will bring about the outcome best for us in the end. The real concerns the people of these areas have is not of interest to the Nations making direct influence on them, their concerns are rather redirected to serve the purpose of the bigger picture the West has, one of the biggest examples in the popular conscious is the US backing of Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan throughout the 1980’s and their fight against Soviet Union influence and other Imperialists. As many know, many of these fighters who were considered heroes by the US later joined groups such as Al-Qaeda and were subsequently branded as “terrorists'' when they continued their fight against Western Imperialism. And it’s this exploitation of indigenous people, using them as a means to an end that has shaped much of the local politics and power structures of the areas. While I will continue to discuss the economic wars occurring in the Middle East it is inseparable from the social impact the West had forced upon the people of various cultures for their own purposes. And it’s this way the West shifts its views on groups of people within Eastern Cultures to fit a narrative it has created about them, is what Edward Said refers to when he explains Orientalism. To quote Edward Said again, “Moreover, the vastly expanded American political and economic role in the Near East (the Middle East) makes great claims on our understanding of that Orient...My contention is that without examining Orientalism as a discourse one cannot possibly understand the enormously systematic discipline by which European culture was able to manage-and even produce-the Orient politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively during the post-Enlightenment period.” In no way does any politics have the ability to be reduced to a single aspect, especially when dissecting oppression and power structures. So with that understanding, let's look at another facet of violence tied to the Western Gaze.
Israel’s economy is a strange one, almost fine tuned to be an ally to the world’s largest superpowers. Cut diamonds, refined petroleum, pharmaceuticals, machinery and equipment, medical instruments, computer hardware and software, agricultural products, chemicals, and a newly discovered wealth of Natural Gas off its coast. And that coast, that beautiful Mediterranean coast giving the most direct access to trade with the West from the Middle East. For countries a part of OPEC such as Iran and Iraq the occupation of Palestine can be seen as an economic statement while using religion as a justification. Especially when you consider the retaliation the West has done towards these nations through sanctions, blockades, and all-out invasions. Israel exists economically as a means to put pressure on the Middle Eastern Oil industry on one hand but this isn’t an emotion to tap into on an individual level, so on the other hand it would be unfair to not consider that it does exist as a home country for Jewish people as a result of rising antisemitism. The economic factor is one of direct importance to Westerners, as the entire funding of the nation hinges on the ability for the country to output the goals of Capitalist nations, if it were to cease being profitable or another opportunity in the area shows itself to be more profitable, I cannot see Israel receiving the same economic support it currently receives. But as of November 2020 the official amount of money in military aid (Considered separate from Foreign aid in US Budgeting) to Israel from the United States is $146 billion dollars, putting it at the top of the list for Military aid recipients in United States history. So with this much invested in Israel to remain a dominant force in the Middle East, it is no wonder why nearly every politician whether they are the President or just a local Representative has shown some sort of allegiance to the sovereignty and legitimacy of Israel. The only thing it is missing is its own source of oil.
Finally we can conclude by talking about OPEC and Israel’s place in this “fight” between the West and Middle Eastern powers, namely OPEC. Since the 1970’s it has been popular rhetoric for American Presidents to attack OPEC and demand they bring the price of oil down, as if that is an equal substitute for lowering working people’s taxes. But the best kept secret Western Imperialism and Israeli Zionism have pedaled for the last 30 or so years, is that OPEC does not hold the power they want you to think they have. Yes they work as a Cartel and that word has an insidious tone to it, but in the economic sense it's a way that business is practiced within Capitalist production some examples include the Swiss banking cartel or the International Tin Council. Yet this hasn’t stopped Israel from pumping out hasbara, the Hebrew word for information but specifically Israeli propaganda for goyim, the foreigners. This will portray Israel in a forthcoming, democratic. defensive, victimized, generous, and compassionate, in other words the image Western identities want to see and show. OPEC rose to major influence through the 1970’s as the 1973 Arab–Israeli War raged as Arab nations launched a surprise attack in the name of liberation for indigenous people who lived in the land that Israel took in the 1967 Six days war. This led to OPEC using this as an opportunity to enact an embargo on oil and profited during 1972 to 1977. With how intertwined Israel and its economic, political, and military sectors are with the oil industry without being an “oil country” itself is where I start to draw upon the inclusion of the state as a “Petroleum state”. The combined earnings of its members spiked from $23 billion to $140 billion. Saudi Arabia decided to reduce oil production by 5% per month on October 17, 1973. On October 19, 1973 President Nixon moved a mass amount of arms, supplies, and $2.2 billion in appropriations for Israeli forces. In the West, higher oil prices caused recessions and U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) fell 6% from 1973 to 1975 (Also known as the 1973 Energy Crisis) while unemployment doubled. As CFR’s Amy Myers Jaffe and economist Edward Morse says, OPEC’s embargo was “hailed at the time as the first major victory of ‘Third World’ powers to bring the West to its knees.” And the West has never forgotten this, they can’t.
Israel since the 1973 Energy Crisis has acted as a way to keep leverage against OPEC by the west. This is most embodied by Israel Corporation, the county's largest holding company (a company that owns the outstanding stock of other companies, it doesn’t produce goods or services itself and its purpose is to own shares of other companies to form a corporate group.) founded by the State of Israel in 1968 as a means to attract foreign investment. The company has subsidiaries that are involved in oil refinery, cargo shipping, computer hardware and software, chemical manufacturing in agriculture, in food, and in engineering. If we recall the Israeli national economy, that accounts for a majority of what makes up their market and it’s that overwhelming control they have that has drawn some unwanted attention their way. In 2008 Israeli documentary, The Shakshuka System (Previously allegedly banned in Israel, having finally aired on channel one) depicts the history of the company and seriously critiques it. The company benefited from ‘Revolving door’ politics between the public and private sector of the market as well as its wide network of connections in Israel's political and economic systems. Israel Corporation has used its high degree of influence on local media to make potential criticism disappear. The company's stake in the country's largest oil refinery, Bazan, was bought out by the Israeli government. Many considered it to be bought at a higher rate than it was worth, especially since Israel Corporation made an agreement to return its holding of Bazan to the Israeli government without compensation. Alleged embezzlement and fraud is not unheard of in this same corporation as the Director General of Israel Corporation was sentenced to 15 years in 1975 on 18 counts of embezzlement, theft, fraud and bribery.
So with capitalist corruption not unlike anything we see in our own country, proxy wars fought by agitated exploited people by global superpowers, trade wars with industry cartels, and a propaganda campaign that is catered to the Western audience to show us what we want to see. There’s many ways this could evolve, but it seems the 2020 covid-19 pandemic has started to tear away some of the veils that had been put up through propaganda. The 2020 pandemic showed how fragile the oil industry was after the compound of the virus halting some aspects of global trade and the Russia-Saudi oil price war oil prices fell to the lowest we had seen in the last two decades and by April of 2020 one of the major US oil producers, Whiting petroleum, filed for bankruptcy. But as history has shown us, capitalists will find any way to take ownership of the sources of production and the US has seen a boom in Shale (High quality crude oil) production, letting American companies gain more independence in oil production. This even has led to conversations to cooperate with OPEC to cut production costs. While this may be unlikely as neoliberals focused on Western dominance in the global economy will see US oil production as a way to continue a global stronghold on an economy the West has historically relied on the exports of the Middle East. OPEC itself doesn’t have the power it used to as since 2019, Qatar has left the cartel but as Russia has become a closer ally to OPEC, proxy wars are likely to remain a tactic to control the global oil industry.
As western support for Israel has been on a steady decline and OPEC’s newfound ally in Russia, combined with the rise of shale oil, and increasing U.S. energy independence, presents us with a seemingly prolonged period of uncertainty. Either way from the perspective of our dear friend, the capitalist, the profitability of Israel as a project is contingent on how much support and investments are given to the Apartheid-Petroleum-State. This has shown itself as American politicians will often publicly support Israel but not discuss the topic any further, this apathy or willing avoidance of the subject has permeated itself into the popular consciousness where taking a definitive stance on the subject is practically a social death sentence. But as the global economy continues to feel the seismic ripple from the Covid-19 pandemic, and public support from the general public in the US in 2021 has seen some of the largest cracks start to form. What this may mean moving forward is unclear but the divide between the people, politicians, and corporations is starting to be shown as an ever-widening gap. If those who hold power don’t decide where to go soon, the decision looming ahead might be made very suddenly for us and there's no telling if any of us will be able to survive any of those outcomes.