Where Are We Heading?
According to news agencies, the result of the recent E.U. election came to the world as a surprise. I cannot understand why. The direction they were following was clear. As I have often mentioned in my previous writings, “unawareness of our past has stonewalled our efforts to predict and understand our future.” We are so blinded by our present and perceived splendor that we have forgotten to maintain what it takes to preserve it.
Allow me to go back a few decades and illustrate what I mean. On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was assassinated in Sarajevo by a Bosnian Serb Nationalist, Gavrilo Princip. He was suspected by the Austrian to be a Serbian agent. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914. The World War I began.
On May 17, 1915, a German submarine sank the passenger ship “Lusitania” causing the death of all 128 American passengers on board. The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. The battle lasted until 1918 and ended with the defeat of the Germans. Germany signed the Armistice at Compiègne[1], France on Nov. 11, 1918. The peace treaty was signed on June 28, 1919, in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, France (June 28, 1919—effective January 10, 1920).
Before this event taking place, President Woodrow Wilson of the United States made his now- famous “Fourteen Points” speech, as the foundation for a long-standing peace. At the end of his address, he proposed the formation of an International organization to maintain world peace, “The League of Nations.”
The peace treaty contained 440 articles, article 231 being the worst. It was purposely designed to humiliate the Germans. It forced Germany to reimburse the Allies for all the war’s damages and demanded more concessions from the Germans in controlling their internal administration. Germany was required to have a much smaller military force, a markedly reduced military armaments, and a limited air and naval forces.
My understanding of this treaty was that the Allies wanted to dehumanize Germans in the worst possible way. They did not want a peace treaty; they were after revenge, causing the President of the United States to sign a different treaty with the Germans. I do not doubt that what the British and the French did post-WWI played a significant part in the formation of Nazism.
Hitler quickly sold Germans his disastrous ideology and with his fiery nationalistic speeches became able to get them all aboard. In a few short years, Europe was sunk into another terrible war and witnessed one of the largest genocides that the world had ever seen.
Did we learn anything from these events? Not in the slightest. The victorious governments acted
as their predecessors did after WWI. The United Nations was created to substitute the League of Nations. The world began revolving on the same axis as it did post-WWI. The different ideologies divided the nations apart. The war, big and small, erupted around the globe, destabilizing nations and causing communities, large or small, to flee their home and country and live as a refugee, unwanted by the host countries. The wars in the Far East, in central Asia, the attack on Afghanistan by the Soviets, and the creation of the Taliban by the U.S. and the West, to name a few. The mess the West created in the Middle East became an intractable problem. Sponsoring a Coup d’etat in Iran for the benefit of an old colonizing government and later changing the country into a religious state without having the slightest notion of the outcome of their act, the U.S. showed its ineptitude as a leader of the free world. It gave those criminals in Iran a cart blanch to commit the massacre of the centuries. Why worry for the lives of tens of thousands of Iranians? The West could get oil at a cheaper price. It did not work that way!
Invading Iraq with forged evidence, unbelievable as it was. Unsuccessful occupation of Afghanistan and continuation of war for years and then exiting the country without any exit plans and leaving billions of dollars’ worth of arms and equipment to the people who haven’t the knowledge and the expertise to use them. The U.S., with the help of other Western nations, created the most significant harm to all citizens of those countries. WHY, AND WHAT WERE WE LOOKING FOR?
Our blind and irrational pursuit of the British colonial policies made us a criminal nation for the Middle Easterners, the South Africans, and many other countries around the world. Our government approved the British proposal to create an Israel in Palestine without evaluating the situation and having a plan of action for the existing citizens of the country, just like anything else that we do. Israelis’ hardliners, with our military equipment, occupied Palestine, killed, displaced, and dislodged millions of Palestinians, who became refugees around the world, including in European countries.
Clashes started between the newcomers and the residents of the host counties. Cultures with incompatible norms and often with different views, and sometimes contradictory, were the source of disagreements and conflicts. The divergence caused polarization among the hosts and the guests, yielding ultimately to resentment of the nationals toward their guests. Over decades, this discontentment turned into animosities and dislikes and the rise of nationalism that we are now observing around the globe.
The latest election in E.U. countries showed nothing but a grim view of what is in store for all of us. The DPA report (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) clarifies the facts. These changes were also noticeable in non-EU countries such as England. The Independence Party (UKIP) won 27.9% of the votes in the United Kingdom and became the first victor outside the mainstream parties in over 100 years (Reuter).
The European Parliament is comprised of about 720 members elected from all E.U. countries. The table below shows the projected result for the 2024 election, which indicates a definite shift to the right compared with the seats of 2019.
What does it all mean for the world? It is the first step in a series of disappointments and disapprovals of the uneasiness of nations to what they have been subjected to, “Tolerate the Imported Refugees, and force them to live and support these unwanted guests.” Sensing the problems, the refugees become equally disenchanted with what they have been subjected to, and mutual distrust and disagreement ended in a more significant conflict, as we are witnessing now in most host nations.
The irresponsible action of the United States and its allies in the Middle East, attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan, was a major cause of displacement for tens of thousands of Afghanis and Iraqis to flee their countries. Similarly, the action of the U.S. and its so-called allies in Iran by removing the Shah was a significant drive in the Iranian migration to Europe and the United States.
| Parties | EPP | S & D | Renew | ECR | ID | Green | Left |
| 2024 | 26.3% | 18.8% | 11.00% | 10.6% | 8.1% | 7.4% | 5.4% |
| 2019 | 25.4% | 20.0% | 14.2% | 9.5% | 8.2% | 10.1% | 5.4% |
| % {Increased} | 0.09% | 1.2% | 3.2% | 1.1% | 0.1% | 2.7% | 0.0% |
The rightist group’s percentage increase in the latest E.U. Parliamentary Election indicates the increased power of the right-wing in almost every country in Europe.
(2024)
On top of all, and to make the situation a lot worse, is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As I have alluded to earlier, the creation of Israel was done without any consideration for the people who were already residing in the area. Did the big powers, the United States and Britain, supporting the new nation, think of those people? Did they ever reflect on where the displaced inhabitants of Palestine should be residing? They had not even considered them as human beings. In my visit to the area in early 2000, I noticed some of those unfortunates, living as refugees in Jordan in a condition unsuitable for humans.
I have read about the British actions in South Africa and India and the crimes that they committed in their wars against the Boers. I witnessed, personally, what they committed in Iran during both World Wars. They caused the famine of 1917-1919 that led to the death of half of the Iranian population (About 10 million). A genocide that they never answered for in any International court, as the Germans did in the Nuremberg trial.
During WWII and the Allied occupation of Iran, the British used the same tactic as in 1917 and tried to block the Iranian government’s effort to purchase grain from the U.S. Their excuse was that the Iranian Railroad must serve the war efforts and carry armament to the USSR rather than food for the starving occupied nation.[2]. Killing the Iranians was justifiable to obtain a result, victory over the Germans. To paraphrase President Thomas Jefferson’s words about the British, “They subscribe to no code of morality in their policies toward others.”
The world has seen the miseries of millions of displaced Palestinians since the creation of Israel. The Anglo-American policies made Palestinians homeless and left them at the mercy of governments and nations that neither cared nor wanted them. These people, out of despair, have revolted and created Hamas and engaged in criminal activities. They are labeled “Terrorists, the right terminology for what they are committing.” However, I am puzzled; can someone tell me why it is that we don’t label the Americans, the British, the French, and the Israelis who are doing the very exact, as “Terrorists.” Weren’t the Israelis responsible for establishing Hamas to fight against the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), their presumed enemies?
Israeli hardliners have been pursuing the wrong policy from the start. The world, however, is catching up with their deceptive action. Can’t they realize that their present policy affects the world’s response toward them? Can’t they envisage that they are creating another Hitler somewhere in the world? Maybe not tomorrow or next year, but fifty or a hundred years from now. It is just a matter of time. Why don’t those intelligent Israelis take charge of the country’s affairs and devise a system to work better for the good of all? The world is not against them, but it is up to them to show the world that they are ready for the task. Netanyahu and the likes him should not have a place in any progressive and or just government; his place in history is with Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Khomeini, Khamenei, and the likes of them. It will be a grave mistake if they bank on their nuclear power to give them the upper hand in pursuing their heart’s desire, eliminating all Palestinians, and grabbing their lands and homes. Having atomic capability may be a deterrent but is not necessarily a tool to bring around or maintain victory or peace. They should realize that the world will not buy the “Cry of Antisemitism” any longer. It is getting too monotonous!
I care greatly about Israel’s welfare and its people. My hope for them is that they can live in peace and harmony with their neighbors and continue using their great intelligence for the welfare of mankind. Most people criticizing Israel are not against them; they are merely expressing their conviction that Israel is following the wrong policy of a few hardliners, which could possibly end up in another disaster for them and the region.
On June 21, 2024, the news agencies reported that the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, warned the South Cypress, not to open its ports to the Israelis in case of Israel attacks on Lebanon, “Cyprus will be part of this war too, if it opens its airports and bases to Israeli forces”, the leader of the Iran-backed militant group said in a televised speech Wednesday, a day after Israel warned that the prospect of “all-out war” in Lebanon was “getting very close.” [3]
Cypress is a member of the E.U. and benefits of its membership. Why Israel wants to broaden the sphere of the present war? Is it because Netanyahu is losing the internal support and to remain in power, his existence depends on Israel to be in continuous state of war.
Considering what has transpired, one question; why the U.S. Congress invited the Israeli Prime Minister to speak to its join session? What is he going to say, criticize the President of the country to appease the other Party? As he did in his last speech. If the Congress wants to know the whole story, why it does not invite a representative of the Palestinian to give the story of the other side.
[1] – A commune in the Oise department in northern France, on the bank of the river Oise. Two armistices were signed there: one in 1918 with the Germans’ defeat, and the second in 1940 when the French were defeated, and Hitler demanded the armistice to be signed at the same place to avenge what the French did post-WWI.
[2] – H. Guilak; Fire Beneath the Ashes; 2011/ Chapter XIII, P. 224.
[3] – CNN, June 20, 2024.
Guils of Guilan 