Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism, and Zionism

One of the best illustrations of Empire, Inc.'s motto -- no permanent enemies, no permanent friends -- is its about-face on Afghanistan. Today's a good day to remember it:

Twenty years ago today, the commander of the Soviet Limited Contingent in Afghanistan Boris Gromov crossed the Termez Bridge out of Afghanistan, thus marking the end of the Soviet war which lasted almost ten years and cost tens of thousands of Soviet and Afghan lives. . . . The documents suggest that the Soviet decision to withdraw occurred as early as 1985, but the process of implementing that decision was excruciatingly slow, in part because the Soviet-backed Afghan regime was never able to achieve the necessary domestic support and legitimacy -- a key problem even today for the current U.S. and NATO-supported government in Kabul. ("Afghanistan and the Soviet Withdrawal 1989: 20 Years Later," National Security Archive)

Capitalism and imperialism has no structural necessity for Islamophobia. Islamophobia is ascendant today because Empire, Inc. is fighting wars against predominantly Muslim nations. When it was fighting against godless Communists, in contrast, it celebrated even the most reactionary Islamist extremists as "freedom fighters."

Similarly, capitalism and imperialism has no structural need for either Zionism or anti-Semitism. They can rise or fall depending on the perceived self-interests of the power elite of Empire, Inc. Classic anti-Semitism is already a residual ideology, and so will Zionism be, as it has already lost its original raison d'être (the inability of Jews to obtain equal rights in the West), and as it begins to lose, slowly but surely, Western elite support, with Israel starting to get in the way of Empire, Inc.'s ability to rule the Arab masses through its Arab clients.