Since WWII, the US has launched many wars, regime change operations, and sanctions against countries not aligned with US political and economic policies. The US conducts regime change operations through assassinations, coups, rebellions, and sometimes military invasions. 

In Covert Regime Change: America’s Secret Cold War published by Cornell University, author Lindsey O’Rourke documents how the US government launched 64 secret regime change operations and 6 open operations between 1947 and 1989, stating “States seldom resort to war to overthrow their adversaries. They are more likely to attempt to covertly change the opposing regime, by assassinating a foreign leader, sponsoring a coup d’état, meddling in a democratic election, or secretly aiding foreign dissident groups.” Stephen Kinzer’s Overthrow also details a history of how the US has toppled foreign governments not subordinate to US political and economic goals. According to a 2016 report by the Washington Post, the US attempted to overthrow governments in other countries 72 times during the Cold War. In the post-Cold War period, such regime change operations are commonly referred to as “color revolutions.”

In 2003, following the US invasion of Iraq – with  its oil industry being  fully nationalized and closed to Western corporations – Baghdad returned to selling its oil in dollars. 

In 2011, following NATO’s invasion of Libya – which  had planned to move away from the dollar towards a gold-backed pan-African currency – the petrodollar survived its global prestige.

In 2019, regarding the NATO-Gulf backed regime change war on Syria – and subsequent US occupation – then-President Donald Trump stated “We’re keeping the oil, we have the oil, the oil is secure. We left troops behind only for the oil.”

In 2019, the US failed a coup attempt in Venezuela – which has the world’s largest oil reserves yet has been reduced to abject poverty due to devastating US sanctions – aimed at imposing a leader that would adopt US policies.

Former US national security advisor and ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, openly acknowledged his role in planning multiple coups in foreign countries, telling CNN “As somebody who has helped plan coups d’etat – not here but, you know, [in] other places – it takes a lot of work.” 

Economics Professor Michael Hudson, author of Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire, adds “By bringing [West Asia] under the US’s control, it can control the energy imports of much of the world. And therefore, this gives American diplomats the power to cut off oil and gas, and to sanction any country that tries to go multipolar, any country that tries to resist US unipolar control.” 

In the early 90’s, US sanctions in Iraq alone led to the deaths of half a million children, which former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright infamously claimed “the price was worth it.”

In 2010, Mike Prysner, an Iraq war veteran and executive producer of “The Empire Files,” delivered an anti-war speech at the White House, stating “To all those serving in the army and the marines and the air force and the navy, you have the absolute right to refuse to take part in these criminal wars, and that’s the right that all of you should exercise. We’ve been to Iraq. We’ve been to Afghanistan. And we know what these wars are really about. We join the military, and they tell us that our enemies are poor people in caves in Afghanistan, or poor people in deserts of Iraq. But we’ve been to those countries, and we know that our enemies are not other poor people abroad. Our enemies are the people that laid us off of our jobs, that denied us healthcare, that make it impossible to get an education. Our enemies are not in the poorest countries on the planet, but right here in the richest one. They’re not going to end the wars, because it’s not our government. It’s their government. It’s a government of the rich. It’s a government of Wall Street, of the oil giants, of the defense contractors.“

In 1953, a CIA-led coup removed Iran’s democratically elected prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, after he planned to nationalize Iran’s oil industry. The US-backed Shah Monarchy returned to power, which was favorable to Western corporations, policies, and interests – including support for Israel. According to Amnesty International, the Shah’s regime was one of the worst human rights abusers in the world. His secret police, the SAVAK, were trained by the CIA and Israeli Mossad. They monitored nearly all aspects of Iranian society and tortured and executed thousands of political prisoners.

In 1979, the people of Iran overthrew the repressive Shah Monarchy. The Islamic Revolution, led by Imam Ruhollah Khomeini, sought independence from tyranny, subjugation, and exploitation by foreign powers. One of its many slogans included “Nor East (Soviet Communism), Nor West (US Capitalism), Islamic Republic!” The new Islamic Republic gained full control over its vast resources, severing ties with US and other Western multinational corporations, which sparked an “oil shock” across the globe including gasoline shortages in the US for a time.

Iran immediately severed all diplomatic relations with Israel, transforming the Israeli embassy in Tehran into a Palestinian embassy. The Islamic Revolution believed the cause for liberating Palestine from Zionist military occupation – particularly the Al-Aqsa compound which is sanctified in the Holy Quran and revered by nearly two billion Muslims – was a matter of divine principle and not Arab nationalism alone. The Islamic Revolution inspired and supported many Islamic resistance and anti-colonial movements across the region. Such groups are composed of the region’s indigenous people who rose to defend their people, lands, and sanctities from foreign domination. Most notably, they include; Lebanon’s Hezbollah which emerged following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Palestine’s Hamas who emerged during the First Intifada in 1987, Yemen’s Ansarullah which rose to prominence following the Saudi War on Yemen in 2014, and Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) which mobilized following the ISIS invasion of Iraq in 2014. Along with the governments of Iran and Syria, they are commonly referred to as the “Resistance Axis.”

The Islamic Republic declared the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan to be the annual “Al-Quds Day” – or Jerusalem Day – to express support for all the oppressed around the world, centralizing the Palestinian cause. Iran established the Quds Force – an elite clandestine wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – specialized in providing military, financial, and logistical support to regional resistance groups against the Zionist entity. In Palestine, the Quds Force supports many of the different factions resisting the occupation. Most notably, Islamic movements Hamas and PIJ, but also the PRC and socialist PFLP.

The Islamic Revolution values human principles over material interests. For instance, the new Islamic Republic broke all formal relations with apartheid South Africa. Whereas, the previous Shah monarchy had close military and economic ties with the apartheid state, providing over 90 percent of its oil. According to a report by the Journal of South African Studies, “It [the Islamic Revolution] affected South Africa in two ways: oil imports were disrupted, and it contributed to the growing militancy of South African Muslims in the anti-apartheid struggle. Iran then made financial contributions to the ANC, resulting in a friendly resumption of ties after the end of apartheid.” In 1992, Nelson Mendala addressed the current leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran – Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei – as “My leader.” The Islamic Republic’s foreign policy rests on the principle of supporting all oppressed people, no matter their religion, sect and ethnicity. For example, Iran maintains a practical and moral support of Venezuela in the face of US sanctions, providing oil shipments despite the further sanctions Iran has had to face as a result.

As for occupied Palestine, Ayatollah Khamenei has long suggested “We neither propose a classical war with the armies of Islamic countries, nor do we propose throwing Jewish immigrants into the sea, or intervention of the United Nations and other international organizations. We propose a referendum among the Palestinian people. Just like any other nation, the Palestinian nation has the right to determine its own destiny and to elect its own government. All the original people of Palestine — including Muslims, Christians, Jews, and indigenous inhabitants — should take part in a general and orderly referendum to determine the future of Palestine’s government, whether they live inside Palestine, or in refugee camps, or in any other place. The government that is established after the referendum will determine the destiny of non-Palestinian immigrants who migrated to Palestine in the past.”

Zionists denounce such proposals as incompatible with Zionism and therefore “anti-semetic,” often equating abolishing the apartheid system with “eradicating the Jewish people.”

In 1980, Saddam Hussain’s Iraq invaded Iran, launching a devastating 8-year war that failed to topple the new Islamic Republic. Saddam’s war effort was supported by the US, Soviet Union, and other Western powers, and openly financed by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. After the military war failed, the West had no choice but to resort to soft and economic warfare, which have also failed. 

The Zionist regime constantly lobbies the US to attack Iran on its behalf – often on the pretext that Iran is building a nuclear weapon to “annihilate the Jewish people.” Israel was staunchly against the Obama Administration’s nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic, although Israel’s primary concern is not Iran developing nuclear weapons – as it knows Iran won’t deploy them. Rather, the fear is America striking negotiations with the Resistance Axis and entering into compromises. With the Zionist entity created to agitate anti-imperialism across the region, such compromises between the imperialists and the resistance could cease Israel’s functional role,reducing the need for such unequivocal military, economic, and diplomatic support provided by the US that are vital for Israel’s survival as a military occupation. Moreover, the apartheid entity is existentially threatened by the Resistance Axis, which would only grow stronger with Iran as a nuclear power.

In 2018, Netanyahu told Fox News that Israel’s three greatest threats are “ Iran, Iran, Iran.”

The Islamic Revolution caused a tectonic shift in the geopolitical landscape across the region. For the US, Iran’s primary threat is the model it presents for the region’s indigenous people and around the world – more so than losing a key ally. Although Iran has not initiated any wars against its neighbors, the imperialists fear its anti-imperial/monarchical ideology spreading to other oil producing countries as well as its support for regional resistance against the Zionist occupation. Such fears prompted the US-Saudi petrodollar-security agreement and have contributed in no small measure to the growing normalization between repressive Arab monarchies and the apartheid Zionist entity. The region today is largely divided between two main camps; the US-Israel-Saudi bloc and the Resistance Axis.

In 2000, a series of events underlined a tumultuous year for US imperialism and Zionist colonialism in the region. In Lebanon, the Israeli occupation was expelled by Hezbollah, marking the first time Israel was ever forced to unilaterally withdraw without any concessions. In Palestine, Israeli occupation forces were bogged down in the Second Intifada (eventually leading to Gaza’s liberation in 2005), which erupted after the Oslo process failed to bring about an independent Palestinian state. In Iraq, Saddam made the daring move of abandoning the petrodollar for euros in protest of strict sanctions imposed by the US. With such events threatening US hegemony in the region, Washington identified the need for increased military presence. 

Following  the events of 9/11 – used as a pretext by the US to launch its never-ending so-called ‘War on Terror’ – the US invaded Iraq and Afghanistan; thereby surrounding the Islamic Republic of Iran. The US also stationed troops in Pakistan for full encirclement of Iran. 

The US never found the alleged WMD’s (weapons of mass destruction) in Iraq while the Taliban – founded due to the West’s need to enter Afghanistan and unite it under American control – continues to govern Afghanistan in the present day. Within a few years, Iraq’s oil industry was fully privatized and dominated by Western corporations, including ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, and Halliburton. The US established military bases throughout the entire region, launching an era of perpetual war, conflict, and military operation aimed at maintaining US dominance in what former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice infamously referred to as the ‘New Middle East.’ However, the primary objective was not to combat Saddam, whose government collapsed within days of the US invasion. Rather, it was to confront Iran and the Resistance Axis that is threatening Israel. US and Israeli strategy was centered around isolating the Islamic Republic and countering regional resistance against the Zionist entity.

According to a 2013 report by the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs regarding the US’s $130 billion in direct aid to Israel, “This estimate does not include the costs resulting from the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq—hundreds of billions of dollars, thousands of American and allied casualties, and untold tens of thousands of Iraqi casualties—which is widely believed in the Arab world, and by many non-Arabs as well, to have been undertaken for the benefit of Israel.” 

Then Israeli PM Ehud Barak wrote a New York Times op-ed titled “Taking Apart Iraq’s Nuclear Threat,” while Benjamin Netanyahu published a similar article in the Wall Street Journal titled “The Case for Toppling Saddam.” According to Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv, Netanyahu publicly stated “We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq.” adding the events “swung American public opinion in our favor.” Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported “the military and political leadership yearns for war in Iraq.” 

According to Professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, authors of The Israel Lobby, “The [Iraq] war was motivated in good part by a desire to make Israel more secure. According to Philip Zelikow – a former member of the president’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, the executive director of the 9/11 Commission, and now a counselor to Condoleezza Rice – the ‘real threat’ from Iraq was not a threat to the United States. The ’unstated threat’ was the threat against Israel.”

In 2007, top US general and NATO commander Wesley Clark infamously disclosed the Bush Administration’s plans to overthrow seven countries in five years, “starting with Iraq, then Syria and Lebanon, then Libya, then Somalia and Sudan, and then back to Iran.” The Zionist entity – through US military, financial, and diplomatic support – has intervened in nearly all of these countries, functioning as a military base or “aircraft carrier” from which the US can direct its campaigns. 

The ‘New Middle East’ strategy was a shift from indirect US hegemony to direct US presence. The US entered Iraq under the pretext of WMD’s. However, Iraq was not a threat to America and by extension Israel. The real threat was fighting Israel, which came from Iran. The main objective was to encircle Iran and cut off Resistance Axis veins,disrupting the corridor for military, economic, and logistical coordination. This required the need for setting up American headquarters in the region, which was decided to be in Iraq, especially as Saddam’s reign had effectively expired and deemed no longer effective for US interests. With US and NATO interventions devastating Iraq and later Libya, the plan was to isolate Lebanon from Syria before a second attempt at an Israeli invasion. For instance, the assassination of Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri in 2005 plunged the country into political turmoil aimed at removing Syrian influence and thus its security protection of Hezbollah. Thereafter, backed by direct US presence and reinforcement, the Zionist entity launched a second war on Lebanon in 2006, failing to re-occupy the country or quash the resistance. In Syria, the plan moved forward in 2011 with the decade-long US-NATO-Gulf backed regime change war which failed to topple the Assad government. ISIS and other terrorist groups were unleashed on both Iraq and Syria, failing to destabilize and disrupt the corridor for the Resistance Axis. 

The Zionist entity also launched major wars and aggressions on Gaza in 2006, 2008, 2014, 2021, and 2023-2024 (ongoing), failing to rout the Palestinian resistance. With the hard war failing to isolate Iran for potential military intervention, US strategy continues to focus on applying “maximum pressure” through soft and economic warfare aimed at overthrowing the Islamic Republic. Such tactics include crippling sanctions, cyber-attacks, assassinations, terrorist attacks, media wars and fomenting unrest aimed at plunging the country into chaos. US sanctions – such as the 2019 Caesar Act on Syria – have left devastating effects on the Resistance Axis countries, aiming to turn their populace against the path of resistance and to force them into submission. 

In addition, the Trump Administration’s Abraham Accords in 2020 – which brought four more Arab governments (UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan) to join Egypt and Jordan in officially normalizing relations with Israel in return for trade, loans, and investment opportunities – sought to get the populations in the Resistance Axis countries (Iran, Lebanon, Syria, etc) to reconsider the route of resistance if normalization meant stable economies and livelihoods, similar to that of Gulf countries. However, the Resistance Axis is only standing today because of the support it holds from the people, and such normalization-for-stability deals are swiftly rejected by the people of the region based on moral and human principles. The resistance believes that not only is armed struggle against military occupation a recognized right under international law, but also a righteous duty under Divine law. Further, such proposals for stability are believed to be baseless and are nullified by the case of Egypt, which, despite being the first Arab country to normalize with the Zionist entity, continues to suffer a deepening economic crisis and an eroding standard of living.

The ‘New Middle East’ strategy hoped to culminate in normalization between Israel and the Arab states, to consolidate Arab and Muslim countries under US hegemony, and to extinguish the Palestinian cause once and for all. However, such measures have failed to quell the Resistance Axis, which continues to expand its capabilities and establish new military equations on the ground.

^{* TMJ’s upcoming report on Israel’s 2023-2024 War on Gaza will cover the Resistance Axis’s extensive intervention in support of Palestine throughout the war, while the many Arab client states of US imperialism collaborated with Israel behind the scenes in order to circumvent such actions. The ongoing war has made evident those who truly support the Palestinian cause, and has exposed those who only provide empty slogans.}

Similar to Israel’s function as a “bulwark” for US interests, many terrorist groups are also used as tools – or proxies – to destabilize countries determined to defy US dictates. 

On numerous occasions, President Donald Trump accused the Obama Administration of being the “creators” or “founders” of  ISIS. In a 2010 interview with Fox News, then Secretary of State Hilary Clinton explained the US’s history of creating terrorist groups to fight adversary governments, stating “to be fair, we helped create the problem we are now fighting…the people we are fighting today, we were supporting in the fight against the Soviets.” In a 2014 lecture to Harvard students on foreign policy, then Vice President Joe Biden explained how US allies –  including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, and Turkey – financed and armed terrorist groups Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra, and others to fight against the Assad government in Syria. Israel also acknowledged that it supplied weapons, funding, and medical treatment to such terrorists in Syria. Currently, the US occupies nearly one-third of Syrian territory – particularly the oil-rich countryside – while Israel routinely launches airstrikes on the country. 

Such terrorist groups are primarily active against countries that resist the Zionist entity – i.e. Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen – where they carry out attacks at the behest of US-Israeli-Gulf interests. In comparison, such terrorist groups are largely inactive in countries that have good relations with the Zionist entity and/or serve US-Israeli-Gulf interests – such as Saudi, Turkey, UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, and Egypt. Although such client states are all Muslim majority countries who claim to support the Palestinian cause, their leaderships curb support for the Resistance Axis on sectarian and nationalistic lines, propagating brands of Islam whichlegitimize their respective rulers, oppose direct intervention against Israel, and align with US imperial interests.

In comparison, the Resistance Axis advocates for Islamic unity. It is composed of groups from various Islamic sects who are bound together by supreme goals, values, and principles against a common enemy. For instance, while Iran and Hezbollah follow the Shia doctrine, Palestinians are predominantly Sunni. Ansarullah is primarily Zaidi, while the leadership in Syria are mostly Alawite. However, the Wahhabi brand supported by Saudi Arabia promotes a sectarian version of Islam that often apostatizes such sects – particularly the revolutionary Shia creed. This has been weaponized in the past four decades to attack and isolate the line of resistance that is of a Shi’i characterisation, spearheaded by Iran. Wahhabism has space to flourish due to its pact with the Saudi family, which grants the Saudi monarchy religious cover, while the Saudi family has space to flourish due to its pact with America, which provides Saudi’s security cover. Wahhabi beliefs give legitimacy to their respective rulers – who collaborate with the apartheid entity and are apathetic to the Palestinian cause – through claims that rising against their Muslim rulers is forbidden even if they are unjust. The Wahhabi ideology promotes ideas which give rise to terrorist groups – such as ISIS, al-Qaeda, and al-Nusra – whose primary purpose is to attack the resistance line across the region. For instance, such terrorist groups called for a ‘holy war’ against the Resistance Axis in Iraq and Syria, yet have no issues with the decades-long Zionist occupation of Palestine. Additionally, the imperial powers use such terrorist groups to vilify the religion of Islam in general in order to curb the spread of its revolutionary message globally. These terrorist groups are used to initiate attacks on behalf of US interests in the process, whether historically against the Soviets in Afghanistan or currently against the Resistance Axis across the region. 

In 2009, while addressing a Congress subcommittee, Hillary Clinton testified “They [Soviet Union] invaded Afghanistan…and we did not want to see them control Central Asia and we went to work… and it was President Reagan in partnership with Congress led by Democrats who said you know what it sounds like a pretty good idea… let’s deal with the ISI and the Pakistan military and let’s go recruit these mujahideen. And great, let them come from Saudi Arabia and other countries, importing their Wahabi brand of Islam so that we can go beat the Soviet Union. And guess what … they (Soviets) retreated … they lost billions of dollars and it led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.”

Saudi Arabia also demonstrated its role as a “bulwark” for US imperialism directly during its recent US-backed War on Yemen which failed to topple the Ansarullah led government. Saudi Arabia purchased a record $110 billion worth of military equipment from the US to conduct its catastrophic bombing campaign on one of the world’s poorest countries, causing what the UN deemed “one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.”

In January 2023, Netanyahu told Israeli media “establishing warm relations with Saudi Arabia would change Israel’s relationship with the rest of the Arab world” adding “this is a goal that we are working on in parallel with the goal of stopping Iran; the two are intertwined.” In September 2023, during a landmark interview with Fox News, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Muhammad bin Salman (MbS), publicly acknowledged for the first time the kingdom’s normalization process with Israel, stating “every day we are getting closer.” With such a move potentially enhancing Israel’s acceptance in the Arab and Muslim world, it could thus extinguish the Palestinian hope for independence. Only two days after MbS’s surprising statement, Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly showing a map of the “New Middle East” without Palestine. Such significant events are widely considered to be contributing factors in what led to Hamas launching its military operation shortly after on October 7th, aimed at revitalizing the Palestinian quest for liberation.

In exchange for its potential recognition of Israel, Saudi Arabia has been seeking concessions from the US in the form of security guarantees and nuclear advancement to compete with Iran. Threatening to seek other security partners, MbS told Fox News “They [US] don’t want to see Saudi Arabia shifting their armament from America to another place…We are the biggest buyer of American armored manufacturing…We have a lot of security and military ties that really strengthen the position of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East and strengthen the position of America globally…You don’t want that to be shifted.”

The fear of anti-colonial, anti-imperial, and anti-monarchical [Islamic] movements spreading to other oil producing countries has sparked a Middle-East arms race that has been incredibly lucrative for the US military-industrial complex. As the US continues to arm the oil rich Gulf, it continues to arm the Zionist entity even stronger due to the ‘special relationship’ and US commitment to maintain Israel’s “Qualitative Military Edge.”

In 2023, US politician and presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., stated “[Israel] has been an incredible ally in terms of the technology exchange, in building the Iron Dome which we paid a lot for… Those military expenditures, 75% of it goes to US companies under the [MOU] agreement.”

The US military-industrial complex is a major benefactor in supporting the Zionist entity. The US is by far the world’s largest arms exporter, controlling an estimated 45 percent of the world’s weapons exports – nearly five times more than any other nation. The US arms industry consists of sales directly from the government as well as from military contractors – such as Lockhead Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing – which comprise the bulk of the business. Having long sold weapons to Israel, such companies profit from and enable Israeli aggressions in the region. In 2022 alone, America’s top five weapons contractors recorded $196 billion in military-related revenue, while their CEO’s collectively made $318 million from 2020 to 2022.

Such companies have some of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington alongside pro-Israel groups. Current Secretary of Defense General Lloyd Austin previously served on the board of directors at Raytheon. The military-industrial complex has considerable stakes in supporting massive arms shipments to Israel and other Middle Eastern allies. Under the MOU, only about 75% of the military aid given to Israel must be used to purchase military equipment from US manufacturers, allowing approximately a quarter to be spent on Israeli manufacturers. No other recipient of US military assistance has been granted this benefit, allowing Israel’s arm industry to become the 10th largest military exporter in the world. Additionally, Israel’s frequent wars have provided battlefield testing and advertising for American arms – often against Russian and Chinese weapons. In 2022 alone, US foreign military sales amounted to $153.7 billion in weapons, military parts and services to overseas buyers. According to a report by the Institute for Policy Studies, Israel has served as a conduit for US arms to regimes and movements too unpopular in the US for openly granting direct military assistance, such as apartheid South Africa, the military junta in Guatemala, and the Nicaraguan Contras. Israel has cooperated with the U.S. military-industrial complex with research and development for new fighter jets and anti-missile defense systems. According to a report by the Washington Institutes Military and Security Studies Program “The two governments work together to develop sophisticated military technology, such as the David’s Sling counter-rocket and Arrow missile defense systems…Israel’s military research and development complex has pioneered many cutting-edge technologies that are transforming the face of modern war, including cyberweapons, unmanned vehicles (such as land robots and aerial drones), sensors and electronic warfare systems, and advanced defenses for military vehicles.” 

During Israel’s 2023-2024 War on Gaza, the Zionist entity has relied heavily on artificial intelligence warfare to compensate for its lack of a ground force – made up of mostly forced conscripts. Israel deployed untested and undisclosed AI-powered targeting systems – ‘Lavender’ and ‘The Gospel’ – which many human rights defenders have referred to as the worlds first “AI-assisted genocide.”

According to a recent article by the New York Times, Israel’s current war on Gaza “is just the latest impetus behind a boom in international arms sales that is bolstering profits and weapons-making capacity among American suppliers. The surge in sales is providing the Biden administration with new opportunities to tie the militaries of other countries more closely to the United States,” adding “The United States is beginning to make inroads with new customers… taking them away or weaning them from Russia or China, while selling more to existing allies and buyers. Purchases of American-made weapons systems typically require close coordination with the U.S. military and long-term contracts for maintenance and upgrades that help to build ties.” 

Such military coordination with other countries – i.e. US influence over their armaments and capabilities – constitutes a major interest for US imperialism globally, more so than profits.

Additionally, thousands of US law enforcement officers undergo extensive training programs with Israeli occupation forces and intelligence agents, both in Israel and at Israeli-led conferences within the US. Produced by Researching the American Israeli Alliance  and Jewish Voice for Peace, “Deadly Exchange: The Dangerous Consequences of American Law Enforcement Trainings in Israel,” comprehensively documents how these trainings solidify partnerships between the US and Israeli governments to exchange methods of state violence and control, mass surveillance, racial profiling, brutal force, and suppression of protest and dissent. The exchange of such militarized tactics – including the knee-on-neck maneuver – came under heavy scrutiny following the killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer. The report also highlights the financial incentives and collaboration between Israeli and American security firms and technologies.

With Israel functioning as a colonial outpost to protect US interests in the region, such interests include US dominance over the global economy, which includes and depends on the ability to advance MNC’s both regionally and abroad. 

MNC’s are defined as companies that have business operations in two or more countries, with a centralized headquarters in a home country responsible for coordinating its global management. MNC’s are viewed as the epitome of modern capitalism, responsible for large portions of world production, trade, investment, and employment. The largest US MNC’s represent a variety of industries ranging from big tech, big oil, big pharma, banking, and home goods. US-headquartered MNCs are vital for the US economy. In 2017, they accounted for over 40% of exports, over 25% of imports, and over 20% of private sector employment. According to a report by the Brookings Institute, MNCs “seek to monopolize markets, exploit foreign and domestic labor, avoid paying taxes, dodge government regulations, manage innovation inappropriately, and exploit their financial positions to the detriment of other companies,” adding they are “uniquely capable of deploying their market positions and influence over government to solidify their control, obtaining outsized profits with actions that undermine the public interest.” Historically, MNCs were associated with colonialism, with companies such as the British East India Company and Swedish Africa Company. Currently, MNCs are often linked with neo-colonialism. According to a research study by the Awka Journal of International Relations, “Multinational Corporations are one of the major instruments and agents of Neo-colonialism and economic exploitation by the colonial powers and their United States of America counterparts against their former African Independent colonies. These MNCs have enormous assets in their home countries and they are able to practically and conspicuously influence their home governments as well as interfere in the policies of the governments of the host country where they operate.” 

Israel itself is home to around 430 MNC’s, over 80% of which are US-based corporations, incentivized by comprehensive governmental programs such as tax breaks and supportive grants. The US is Israel’s top trading partner, with an annual bilateral trade of nearly $50 billion in goods and services. In 2011, Israel accounted for 25% of all U.S. exports to the region, eclipsing Saudi Arabia as the top market for American products.

The vast majority of MNCs in Israel involve advanced technology. Often dubbed the next Silicon Valley, Israel has more than 270 tech companies, over 200 of which are American, including tech giants Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. They have established over 320 research and development centers throughout Israel which employ around half of Israel’s hi-tech workforce and contribute significantly to its economy. The close cooperation between Big Tech and both the US and Israeli governments contributes in great measure to surveillance, intelligence, and information gathering both regionally and abroad. Recently, an Israeli cyber-unit, codenamed “Team Jorge,” was exposed for covertly meddling in more than 30 elections around the world through hacking, sabotage and automated disinformation on social media. Its software, AIMS, controlled a vast army of tens of thousands of fake profiles, or bots, used to manipulate public opinion. Such cyber-units play a major role in the soft war against the Resistance Axis. For instance, during the 2022 protests in Iran, millions of the tweets and hashtags fomenting riots and unrest were being generated from Israel. 

In 2021, Amazon and Google signed a $1.22 billion deal with the Israeli government to provide cloud services to Israel’s military, known as ‘Project Nimbus,’ which contributes to the surveillance, occupation, and dispossession of Palestinians. Thousands of tech employees have condemned the move believing it makes the systemic discrimination of Palestinians even more oppressive. Hundreds signed and published a letter at The Guardian stating “We have watched Google and Amazon pursue contracts with institutions like the US Department of Defense, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and state and local police departments. These contracts are part of a disturbing pattern of militarization, lack of transparency, and avoidance of oversight… This technology allows for further surveillance of and unlawful data collection on Palestinians, and facilitates expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements on Palestinian land.” Activist groups launched the ‘No Tech for Apartheid’ campaign, frequently protesting and calling for the end of ‘Project Nimbus’ and other harmful deals. 

During Israels 2023-2024 War on Gaza, a Google software engineer was fired after interrupting a presentation at a Google-sponsored Israeli tech conference, shouting “I refuse to build technology that powers genocide, aparthied  or surveillance!…Free Palestine!”

The collaboration between big tech and the Israeli government helps the Zionist entity shape and moderate the Israel-Palestine narrative on social media platforms. Arranged algorithms increase the reach of pro-Israel propaganda and curtail the reach of pro-Palestine content. They often censor, suppress, and shadow ban posts and accounts supportive of Palestine and/or critical of Israel, forcing users to engage in ‘algospeak’ in order to by-pass such AI-powered filters. According to 7amleh, the Israeli Ministry of Justice sends content-removal requests to social media companies, boasting 95% of their requests are approved.

During Israel’s 2023-2024 War on Gaza, Instagram disabled many pro-Palestine accounts, especially those with massive followings, including; activist Sean King, activist group ‘Within Our Lifetime,’ and the leader of the Islamic Revolution in Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Furthermore, amidst growing concerns for increasing pro-Palestine views among young people, Congress approved a bill that could impose a nationwide ban on TikTok for not effectively promoting the Israeli narrative on the Chinese-owned platform. 

In a growing multi-polar world, the Israeli entity has been desperate in trying to maintain relevance as a colonial outpost for protecting US interests in the region,specially with the recent emergence of intergovernmental organizations such as BRICS, as well as new global infrastructure projects such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). BRICS aims to form a geopolitical bloc capable of counterbalancing the influence of US-dominated global institutions – such as the World Bank and IMF – and calls for a new global reserve currency as an alternative to the US dollar. Meanwhile, China’s BRI plans to move the center of world trade back to Asia – through the “New Silk Road” – which passes directly through Northern Iran, Iraq, and Syria (adversaries of US imperialism and Zionist colonialism). The US has aimed to challenge such developments in order to maintain its economic, military, and political hegemony over the region. To counter BRICS and China’s BRI, the Zionist entity has pitched to create a rival trade route which passes directly through America’s “oldest ally” and “greatest strength” in the region: Israel. 

In September 2023 – two weeks before Hamas launched its military operation on October 7th – Saudi’s MbS publicized progress towards normalization with the Zionist entity while Israeli PM Netanyahu showed the UN General Assembly a map of the “New Middle East” without Palestine. The map included the idea of an economic corridor starting from India and passing through the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and finally to Europe (allies of US imperialism and Zionist colonialism).

With US sanctions on Russia for its war in Ukraine and the recent explosion of the Nord Stream pipeline having both caused major gas shortages across Europe, Israel has proposed alternative projects to transfer energy supplies to the continent, aiming to maintain its relevance as a colonial outpost for serving Western interests in the region. Especially with the recent discovery of the Leviathan gas field off the shores of Syria, Lebanon, and occupied Palestine, which the Zionist entity seeks to contain for itself. The imperialist strategy aims to prevent the aforementioned countries from acquiring their due shares, as access to such resources would offset the effects of US sanctions designed to pressure the Resistance Axis into submission. 

Additionally, it is widely believed the Zionist entity has long wished to construct a rival canal to the Suez – known as the “Ben Gurion Canal” – which would pass directly through occupied Palestine in aims to establish Israeli influence over the world’s most important shipping lane and global maritime trade.

However, following the events of October 7th and the ongoing Israeli War on Gaza, the Zionist entity was hit deep in its depth – losing its deterrence capacity and no longer able to pitch itself as a stable entity to serve Western interests in the region. As the Resistance Axis continues to make advancements on the ground and as Israel fails to achieve any military objectives, Israel’s role of agitating anti-imperialism across the region has begun to expire, becoming more of a liability than an asset for its imperial backers. Coupled with global support for Palestine and widespread condemnation of Israel – such as the genocide case at the ICJ – Israel’s functional role faces an existential crisis, making such proposals to secure energy to Europe or to even continue attracting unconditional Western support no longer feasible. As US complicity in Israel’s genocide in Gaza continues to expose the double standard of the liberal international order – or “rules based order” – many countries have begun to turn away from US hegemony. It remains to be seen how long the US could afford to withstand its unwavering support for the Zionist entity as the US begins to lose its sphere of influence around the world – particularly across the Global South.

^{*TMJ’s upcoming report on Israel’s 2023-2024 War on Gaza will analyze the war’s geopolitical implications, outcomes, and potential aftermath in greater detail.}

In an archived interview on the Israel Lobby, former US President Richard Nixon stated “Usually, what is best for America is also best for Israel and vice versa. But on occasions, an American president must make a decision that does not in effect give Israeli’s a blank check. One example of that is a decision I made early on in my administration that we were going to seek good relations with Egypt and others of Israel’s neighbors. Many of my Israeli friends didn’t like that because they wanted a “special relationship” with Israel and Israel only.”

Current US President Joe Biden often repeats that if Israel didn’t exist, the US would have to “invent” an Israel to protect its interests in the region. However, US strategy to protect such interests occasionally clashes with the Zionist dream of an ethno-supremacist Jewish state “from the Nile to the Euphrates.” For instance, Israel was vehemently opposed to the Obama Administration’s nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, after securing $424 million in campaign contributions from Jewish-American billionaire and Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, the Trump Administration tore apart the deal.