The tote bag brightly emblazoned with `Palestine’ which MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra prominently carried around Parliament the other day means far more than just a signal of support for the victims of genocide in Gaza. It signalled strategic and geopolitical independence and an assertion of sovereignty that has been rare since her grandmother, Indira Gandhi, was Prime Minister during the 1970s.
So over-weaning is the Zionists’ control over Western media and mass media that many of us do not realise the extent of Zionist control over the political class in several important countries. No prominent US politician other than Democrat Bernie Sanders dares to critique Israel. Zionists entirely dominate the Biden administration, and the incoming Trump government too is strongly Zionist. So is Prime Minister Starmer’s Labour government in the UK (as were the successive Tory governments), and EU President Ursula Von Der Leyen’s set-up.
Even in India, hardly any political leader has spoken out against the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Lebanon, and surrounding areas. Priyanka did, some months ago. And now that she is a member of the Lok Sabha, carrying that bag gave a definite signal of support for the homeless, starving, dying Palestinians.
Bold and risky stand
Priyanka’s signalling is in keeping with the spirit and traditions of India’s freedom movement, when Gandhi, Tagore, Nehru, and the Congress party’s resolutions took stands on international issues, always backing freedom and people’s rights. From Mahatma Gandhi to Indira Gandhi, Indian leaders were a clarion voice on behalf of the ethnically cleansed Palestinians.
Half a century on, however, such a stand is not just bold, it is risky. For, the Zionist lobbies have come to dominate the world in the decades since the Second World War. They not only control the media, mass media, banks, and major corporates in the US, but they have over-weaning influence over its `5-Eyes’ allies—the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand—plus Germany and the EU. Australia has been somewhat critical under Prime Minister Albanese, but that is a rare exception to what has become more or less the rule over the past several decades.
More remarkably, most of the countries of the Arabian peninsula (other than Yemen) do what Israel wants, whatever rhetorical positions they might take. The same goes for Turkey. It has also become increasingly evident that the most violent and radical Islamist terror groups, including ISIS and Al Qaeda, have been covertly run by Israeli intelligence. Indeed, Abu Mohammad Jolani, the new leader of Syria, was once identified as the ISIS chief in Syria. Now, he has been suitably whitewashed by the ever-compliant and widely disseminated Western media.
My audience was dumbstruck when I predicted in a lecture at Berlin’s Humboldt University main building in January 2012 that the US would reinstall the Taliban in Afghanistan, but that’s exactly what happened in the very first year of Biden’s term.
Tight control
The result of wide-ranging control is that it has become politically inappropriate to criticise Israel publicly. It’s downright dangerous. For, such terrorist groups cropped up all over Asia during the last half-century. Priyanka’s father met a horrible death at the hands of a terrorist group. Only those who know, know which forces and agencies might have been behind that gruesome assassination.
Powerful leaders are aware that US President John F Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 soon after he insisted that the Zionist lobbying group, AIPAC, must register as a foreign lobbyist. Sixty-one years later, it still has not. Its significant campaign funds and media influence have more or less decided most electoral battles in US elections since then.
Not just that, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie told newsman Tucker Carlson recently that each US member of Congressman has a specific AIPAC handler who instructs them on how they should vote on various bills and issues. Non-compliance causes a Zionist effort to unseat the representative in the next elections.
In countries whose agencies and forces have close ties with Zionists worldwide, it is hazardous to call out Israel, Zionist bankers and corporations, or what US President Eisenhower called the Military Industrial Complex (just before he left office in January 1961).
It is in this continuing context that the Deep State has, through statements from various US representatives, been gunning for Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice as Director of National Intelligence. No wonder. For, economist and geopolitical analyst Jeffrey Sachs has correctly called Gabbard, `probably the most important appointment,’ adding that she is `brilliant, incredibly honest, incredibly committed to US security.’
Surely Priyanka knows the stakes involved in her seemingly minor gesture of support for the beleaguered Palestinian people. She also knows, no doubt, the tradition of bold and incisive stands she is heir to from her outstanding grandmother.
David Devadas is an Indian journalist and author who has written extensively on Kashmir and its politics.