A Short Tale of Two Great Democracies Gone Rogue

Donald Trump, left, talks with Benjamin Netanyahu

America and Israel were considered the World’s two leading democracies.

They were both hailed as beacons of light illuminating a dark world in their respective geo-political spheres. America was known for decades as an energetic, innovative, new-world power-house; a country which was an inviting, open-immigrant nation that was equitable, fairer than most other nations, and the definitively ‘leader of the free world’. While Israel was touted as the only ‘civilized, developed, democratic nation’ in the region (the Middle East) which was dominated by inhumane dictatorships, over-bearing monarchies, and hearkening-to-the-dark-ages regressive theocracies - at times all rolled into one.

America’s rise as the sole democratic industrial and militarily dominant global power after the Second World War is well known. But after WWII, America also emerged as the greatest culturally dominant country, influencing the world through its ubiquitous and iconic clothing style (jeans & T-shirts), fast food cuisine (burgers and coke), its unique musical genres (such as rock and roll, country and western, and jazz). And, its Hollywood made movies were not only the most popular movies in the world, but they were also the most influential in shaping the rest of the world’s sense of style, and setting society’s general moral compass regarding human interactions between genders and races.

In all these areas of daily human activity across the world, even in some of the most remote corners of the world, America’s influence was far reaching.

During the decades following WWII, America in so many ways, shaped the world in its own image. Not only were Jeans, jazz and McDonalds to be found all over the world, but America’s presence was in almost everything – in the changing business and private spaces with American capitalist models and management principles, Microsofts and McIntoshs, automobiles, airlines/airplanes, television, gasoline, magazines, Cokes and Pepsis, agro-seeds etc.

As for Israel, from its official formation in 1948, its most identifiable influence on the world was the growing reputation of its regionally dominant defence capabilities, and its most legendry intelligence agency Mossad’s extraordinary effectiveness in overt and covert operations against all who were deemed to be a threat to Israel. This intelligence capability of Israel’s made it ultimately the most powerful country in the world. Every country regardless of its size was most sensibly afraid of Israel because it had used its intelligence capability to determine other countries’ weakness and strengths, and how to exploit them to its advantage. Israel’s extraordinary intelligence capability combined with its sophisticated military capability made it lethal for its enemies.

Its most successful coup was its total control of the most powerful nation on earth, the USA, through the incredibly powerful and American-politics-deciding American-Jewish diaspora, and the cultivating of religious zealotry of the frothing-at-the-mouth American evangelists who considered Israel vital to their attainment of the Rapture (return of Christ and the formation of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, with Jerusalem as its holy capital). While neither the State of Israel nor the Jews believe in Christ as the ‘Messiah’, the Rapture, nor, through Christ the formation of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, yet they realized the critical importance of the politically influential American Evangelicals to their own established global power, and encouraged their endless unconditional devotion, political and financial support of Israel. This combination of religious fervour and western modernism made Israel the darling of the US, who used its capabilities extensively to further its own Middle Eastern agenda which centred on the control of the world’s most vital and valuable resource since the Great Wars – oil.

Today, neither the United States nor Israel is seriously challenged, let alone credibly threatened, militarily or economically. Yet, both have raised their decades-long bully status to be serious threats to decades of established world-order, the international rule-of-law, and overall international geo-political stability, by taking regular governance challenges and inflating them into existential crisis for both countries. For America, its ‘everybody is ripping us off’; And for Israel, its ‘October 7th, Hamas, Hamas, Hamas’ …

And why now, because both countries have chosen to elect leaders that are power-hungry despots, abject liars, and credibly confirmed criminals who found creating crises where none exist to be an effective way to stay out of probable criminal convictions and possible jail times.

Yes, both Trump and Netanyahu are verifiable criminals. Trump has already been convicted in America multiple times and was most probably going to face additional convictions on more serious crimes. If he had not been saved by getting elected as President by a dangerously foolish, careless, ignorant and naïve electorate that is now angry and perplexed as to why their dreams of an instant utopian America under the leadership of Trump, is turning into a real-time existential nightmare.

Under Trump, America has become seriously dysfunctional internally, what with all its major agencies and institutions attacked and gutted by the embarrassingly ignorant, posturing incompetents, known as the Trump-administration. Externally, America has become a threatening pariah nation, willing to break internationally accepted world trade policies, treaties and agreements, arbitrarily, without justifiable cause, just because its narcissistic President wants historic glory for making America great again, and for changing the world; but, without understanding the most basic concepts of global trade and geo-political relationships that go with it.

So, ignoring all international precedents, laws and long established relationships, Trump’s America has become a rogue nation threatening world peace and order by going over to the dark-side, and embracing and praising ruthless self-serving dictators, while attacking and mocking democratic allies.

Israel under Netanyahu and his coalition of ruthless and barbaric ‘hard-right-wing-Zionist’ parties have gone even further than its hypocritical, international rules breaking, genocide enabling Big Brother co-conspirator, endlessly warmongering America. And even though Trump is positioning himself as the ‘peace President’, he is supporting war-mongering aggressors - Putin’s Russia, against the victimized Ukraine; and, the brutally genocidal Israeli Defence Force (IDF), the Israeli armed forces, against the most persecuted people, the Muslim Palestinians in Gaza.

Ever since Trump, the President, got directly involved in those two illegal invasions - Russia in Ukraine, and Israel obliterating and depopulating Gaza - the level of genocidal violence has only increased on both fronts, with Trump unconvincingly huffing and puffing while being incapable of doing anything, except totally capitulating to Putin’s demands, and shamelessly musing about turning the obliterated Gaza waterfront property into a luxury resort!!

Israel was formed by the invasion of Palestine by persecuted and surviving European Jews forcing themselves into the historic land of Palestine by first fighting the occupying British, and then evacuating and systematically eradicating local Muslims living in the land, from before 1918 to the shameful present. The excuse Israel has used for breaking and ignoring all international laws to-date and committing its war crimes unabated, ruthlessly, is that it is merely defending itself from terrorism.

That premise has always been incorrect in Palestine.

Defence, as the reason for perpetual aggression, would have been justified had not Israel defeated all Arab military opposition in the 6 day war in 1967. After the 6 day war, opposition from neighbouring Arab countries to Israel’s 8 plus decades of constant occupation and expansion has been feeble, sporadic and ineffective, as Israel not only had America as its unconditional personal bodyguard, but with America’s blessings had become a formidable military and nuclear power - in fact, to this day, the only nuclear power in the Middle East.

So to say that stone-throwing Palestinian youth resisting brutal occupation of their lands, or even rocket-lobbying opposition from political groups puts Israel in any real danger is preposterous, as Israel has been effectively guarded by the latest American anti-missile weaponry, its world-class armed forces, and its considerable nuclear arsenal - which explains the minimal damage to Israel or Israelis from all Arab attacks to-date, as compared to existential damage to all near Arab States, and Arab Palestinian resistance. October 7th 1200 Israeli causalities versus the hundreds of thousands Palestinians killed, wounded, tortured, and imprisoned, and millions more permanently displaced, is a harsh case-in-point.  

In greater Europe where for centuries of Jews were ruthlessly persecuted, and during Nazi times 6 million exterminated. There, an all-out, active lethal defence was justified, but as everyone knows Palestinians never posed such a threat to Jews, or to Zionist Israel as a country.

Yet, invaded Palestinians who had lived with the small minority Jewish neighbours in Palestine for centuries, are being exterminated. A collective, steady unqualified extermination of a people over 8 decades (since 1948), now accelerated openly to kill or pushing them all out of their remaining land is unqualified genocide; as increasingly the International community, and the International Criminal Court of Justice (ICC) are calling it.

And, ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for allegedly committing war crimes against the Palestinians, so this isn’t just another critique that can be dismissed under the all-encompassing self-serving ‘antisemitism’, whenever Israel is criticized. This is legitimate criticism of a nation gone rogue.  

A Short Tale of Two Great Democracies Gone Rogue - June 3, 2025