Rhetoric of Control

@matthewcabret1 on Unsplash

Removing old regime’s institutional foundations and laws that has consistently been a building block of new ones does not take a day. Otherwise complete destruction ensues. Regional and international cooperation through diplomacy during Obama’s administration was heavy even with noticeable cracks that needed lasting patches. On March 2016, Obama’s administration was the first to visit Cuba since 1928. With onset combating of his administration with the tea party movement, Obama’s administration was facing an uphill battle in the senate and the streets. I remember driving down to church on 85 and seeing a noose on the bridge with Obama’s piñata head on it and was shook that the president’s face can be in the open area in the middle of the most crowded highway in Georgia.

In congress, Tea Party had also been preparing tactics of destabilizing and delegitimizing Obama’s administration efforts to rebuild the economy that had been crumbled by the housing market. In media, conspiracies like “pizza gate” had also started circulating all over social media platforms of democrats “crammed in basement restaurants for sacrificial ritual.” As sadistic as it sounds, young people were regurgitating it all. At my college, a student had to be rebuffed after stating that United Nations initial foundation was the beginning of a long conspiracy program of the powerful people to take over the world. I was shocked to hear that a person at an institution could say the most outlandish statements in the open, given the deep discussions on NGO cooperation at the then height of globalism. At that moment, I was not fully aware of the future consequences that would continue as right-wing politics became socially acceptable.

To kick-start direct talks with Palestinian-Israel peace talks, Obama appointed George Mitchell as the special envoy in January 2009. Mitchell had been the key player in Northern Ireland peace process and apart of the ceasefire were Mitchell Principles. “Unlike the peace process of the Clinton era, Mitchell did not accept Israel’s position as the limits of US policy and strove to comfort head-on the most thorny aspect of negotiations: freezing Jewish settlements, the future of Jerusalem, and the return of Palestinian refugees. Building on his success with IRA in Ireland, he proposed involving Hamas in the negotiating process, which he saw as crucial to comprehensive solution, but he was ultimately unsuccessful, in large measure of Israel opposition.”

The opposition was aggressive towards Obama’s administration conflict resolution efforts. It started with Netanyahu directly addressing congress both in 2011, 2015 and 2024. In the 2011 address, Netanyahu emphatically says that “In any peace agreement that ends the conflict, some settlements will end beyond Israel’s borders. Now the precise delineation of those borders must be negotiated.” As a counterfeit gesture, he added that “We will be generous about the size of the future Palestinian state.” Outside the borders of occupation in 2015, his congressional address was directed at Iran’s destabilization. In the 2024 address, Netanyahu came again, this time now defending Israel war in Gaza, but not without with heavy boycotts and protests in and outside the congress. Right now, any institutional foundations that had been previously jumpstarted have not only been wiped out including Palestinians, but have actually succeeded, creating Palestinian issue to be outside the borders.

Also, colonial settlements continue to exist around the world, and proxy settlements like those of Israel can seem to be a natural process to everyday people. Some of the research I often find always humble me too. As a show of superior force, former television personality and now current secretary of war Pete Hegseth’s plan to change the U.S Department of Defense’s name was not engineered by him. During colonial settlements, terms like Secretary of War, and War Department were actual departments of colonial settlers who occupied the Americas and waged tyrannical extermination of Indians.

Now, the MAGA movements lies reminiscent of good Ole’ days, they mean the destabilization of the country from within by rebranding certain phrases to sound like new invention. When whites escaped tyranny form the British, Spanish and the French because of the social conditions that were behest on them by monarchy by coming to Americas, where civilization was thriving, laws in place, and were indeed welcomed by the inhabitants unbeknownst to them of colonial ulterior conquest motive in mind, their generations later, including other minorities are now banding together to weaken the systems of governments put in place to protect their conquest. Years later, distortion of history was erected at the height of Civil Rights movements with building confederate monuments and re-writing of the history books mostly in the south by white women movements. Re-fabricating old racial tales works and “Bibi” knows they could be sold by the masses in public media, anytime, in the palm of our hands. But not everyone is sold.

Leaders, countries and movements globally have been in solidarity with Palestinians and the larger Arab cause. After the onset of Israel’s occupation, a wave of refugees flooded neighboring countries like Syria, Iran, Lebanon and Iraq including many others. Palestinian refugees were ingrained in counties’ economy, were offered benefits and education, employment, right to vote and so fourth. While every refugee was offered various benefits, laws varied by countries. In the Arab gulf of Libya and Algeria, Palestinians indeed played a major role in these developments of building the countries during early development by being ingrained in “countries’ economies government services and education systems,” considering that 1940s to later was the focal point of most countries. These countries were able to offer not only safety net but Palestinian movements that we are currently privy to fighting for their rights.

Now, when Netanyahu, Secretary of War, and Trump’s defiance fight towards Palestinians not only in Gaza and West back but attacking their neighbors like Lebanon and Iran, the attack is not only towards rising democratic movements like Woman, Life, and Freedom but also hijacking those movements. Since October 7, the focus has vastly shifted from people affected, the ongoing Genocide in Gaza and West Bank, to the outright victory lap of Netanyahu’s congressional speech reminiscent of 2011 in finding “some settlements…beyond Israel’s borders.” The colonial settlers thus binding not only U.S on rules of engagement, but without direct retaliation in attacking it’s neighbors. That is a scary situation not only for people in the settler’s colony, but also directly affecting the economy globally because indirect ruling of Israel is being flipped on our heads. This is far worse and harmful in a long run for America that is being forced to pick a side not only in politics but also everyday life, mainly because the assaults are in our faces on a regular basis, while delegitimizing any geopolitical relations that had been achieved.

Obama’s administration uphill battle started as soon as he stepped into the office. Aside from Obama’s administration takeover of 2008 near market collapse that caused a toll on people especially homeowners loosing houses investments and savings droughts, geopolitical conflicts and Islamophobia were also growing especially after 9/11, directed at him and his family after inauguration. Ironically during the same time, the tone of “terrorism” also constituted on the admission of refugees and immigrants globally, whom my family were a bunch of the influx of those communities. Normalizing relations with Arab states after Iraq invasion was the administration’s focus during the first 100 days.

Apart of the normalization was the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal that was signed which included UN Security Council and German and the deal was to drastically reduce sanctions that were imposed on Iran. To remove the sanction, Iran had promised to reduce it’s nuclear deposits, which it did with the observance of the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The previous times that IAEA confirmed of the presence of undeclared nuclear sites was in 2003. Apart of the agreement was also the negotiations done between EU countries and Iran of bringing back US hostages in return of the 400+ million of confiscated assets from Iran by US dating back to the Iran revolution. The fiasco of returning the money to Iran was however portrayed as a ransom that was given back rather than a negotiated measure of not even dollars, but rather Euro, Swiss Francs and other currencies due to US laws and regulations, but in my opinion, because it was a multilateral agreement that was being had not only with US, but with EU countries as well. The deal did not last long.

On may 8, 2018, Trump’s administration’s cut the deal calling it “One of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.” Unprovoked and with no substantiated of evidence of nuclear enrichment, Israeli’s military intelligence reached out to Trump regarding “secret nuclear weapon activity,” and in return Trump retaliated with slashing the deal and also halted Iran oil export which has been drastically hurting it’s economy. Below shows the rollbacks that JCPOA was trying to initiate after it’s removal and parties involved in Iran’s oil exports.

The Impact of Financial Sanctions: The Case of Iran 2011–2016

The significance of rolling back of some of the policies require an understanding, otherwise the fully dilute and downplays current issues, such as the grassroots movements that were occurring both regionally in Israel, Iran and for that matter regional countries like Lebanon. During Trump’s first administration, consequential changes like removing the U.S embassy to Jerusalem and green lighting the capital to Jerusalem was a major shift, because any settlements that Israel took over ultimately removed any Palestinian participation. This barred the Holy City from any Jew, Christian or Muslim from observing it. Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is routinely stormed by Israel forces, attacking and arresting worshippers and denying them their right to worship which Foreign ministers of Türkiye, UAE, Indonesia, Qatar, Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan all called for blatant violation of international law. The last time the Embassy tried to uprooted from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was with the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 that congress tried to pass, but was rejected by President Clinton.

As I write, developments unfolding is the stripping of Al-Aqsa custodianship from the Jordan which they have been overseeing since 1924 when Palestine was under the British mandate. The plan to overtake the Waqf is reportedly being negotiated by Jared Kushner who is not apart of the government, championed by Donald Trump and Israel. When the current Secretary of State was asked if he’s aware of the reports of the overtake by Senator Van Hollen, his response was “I’m not even aware of these reports.”

Most of the people in the current administration is a family of Trump, worked with Trumps’s family, previous propagandists, media personalities, and ironically refugees or immigrants who are controlling the most sensitive information of the public data thus controlling the narrative being told. The pushbacks to Administration’s actions have been limited. In the 1st term, the groundwork was solidifying the base which I have pointed out regarding rule of laws, supreme court appointments, and the cutting back of most regulations. The 2nd term has been a correlated confusion with less oversight and government overreach. In an interview with meet the press, President Trump called Iran invasion a military exercise instead of a war to diverge congressional oversight, even though US-Israel airstrikes are directly attacking another sovereign nation and killing it’s leaders.

Retaliation was met with attacking US allies and closing one of the main hub for trading. In response to the closure of strait of hormuz on Easter Sunday, president Trump posted on social media, “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fucking Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”

The waterway is still closed. The language used towards Iran is a threat of war, especially since it is directly being bombed by Israel funded by US. Any regional country that has spoken out against ongoing Palestinians genocide has violently been met with attacks, Lebanon being the recent one.

Two days later, the president posted on truth social once again saying, “A whole civilization will die tonight”.

Inclination of protecting Americans through hate threats posts on truth social does not make sense unless with those that have decided to run with a lie that foreign adversaries like Iran pose a nuclear threat. The tone, like Irans’ threat to America and Israel doesn’t make people any safer. Contextually, the closest any foreign state adversary came to attacking the US borders aside form direct attack of Pearl Harbor, was with the cuban missile crisis, which president Kennedy rebuffed forcefully and it has been causing Cuba’s economy up to now. There has not been any other time. For non-immigrant, that is a luxury a nation state possesses. For any immigrant, threats of destabilization is not a foreign concept. So, the idea that certain immigrants, especially some state officials’ constant bear poking through military threats shows no comradely and lack of patriotism.

To be accurate, military exercises have been direct attacks of certain groups of people in certain region. A region that in past times that have not been shown mercy or understanding. Invoking an Islamic prayer to attack a mostly islamic region on Easter using another religion infuses hate that most people on the ground will never understand where the spark even started, but the leaders that light it know the intention. How does one restrain from constant unprovoked attacks? The everyday person will not only grow weary of overhead bombs but also weary of protecting those they see being affected, which at this time the moral gaze is still on Palestinians and their liberation cause. Clearing Gaza and branding it into a destination vacation spot might also be the most inhumane and insensitive act any occupying settler can give as the parting gift of an extermination.

Old adage of moral corruption is the anti-semitism scapegoat the regime is creating. That the current disruption is of the Jewish cause which is far from the truth. At times of tragedy, every pile of rubbish is put on the salvation of the Jew and the Jewish community at large, when most of times like any of the most marginalized community in history, is to be left alone.

Jean-Paul Sartre recalls of Jews and their constant run against anti-Semitism and hate.

“It has been called to my attention that there have been no Jewish surrealists in France. That is because surrealism, in its own way, raises the question of human destiny. Its destructive activities and the great fanfare raised over them where the luxurious games of young members of the middle class at ease in a victorious country that belonged to them. The Jew does not dream of destroying, or of considering the condition of man in its nudity. He is the social man par excellence, because his torment is social. It is society, not the decree of God, that made him the Jew and brought the Jewish problem into being.”

I am reminded of a movie called Last Black Man in San Fransisco reading Sartre words. The crusade being embarked on currently was never railed by any Jew or Jewish community but rather the opposite. The luxury and liberation of freedoms is on the contrary being taken by the conditions that are happening in Iran, Lebanon and to Palestinians at large. There has not been a time where an occupying settler and the settler colony willingly gave the rights and freedom of the occupied, so the indication that a far-right regime will bring about a Jewish cause is absurd and harmful to the protection of the Jew and the larger Jewish communities. Anti-Semitism have spiked in America ever since the MAGA movements stepped foot in the political arena, at large, anti-hate broadly. Jewish hate has been the blueprint from the start from far right nationalist and we have witnessed it taking place post by post, and on top of it, adding a Palestinian genocide. That is why my world has been hard to comprehend, because communities have not only rallied against Jewish hate and anti-semitism, with most elected officials tone deaf, but continually arming those that are inciting Jewish hate and anti-semitism.

The same way Jewish surrealism is nonexistent in France is the same way it’s becoming non-existent in Israel.

“It is easy enough to understand this repugnance. But we who are not Jews, should we share it? Richard Wright, the Negro write, said recently: “There is no Negro problem in the United States, there is only a White problem.”