Victim turned perpetrator. The birth of an apartheid state

Following my preface to this series of posts on the vengeful retribution of the Israeli state, we begin with the origins of an apartheid state born of misguided exceptionalism.

Before we begin today, I just want to take a moment to mourn the passing of the unique and irrepressible tour de force that was Dolly Parton. She’ll be greatly missed, not only for her extraordinary musical and songwriting talent, but also for the example she set for us all through her care for others. I could write a whole piece about her generosity, not only in fiscal terms, which was beyond many people’s comprehension, but also her humanity and generosity of spirit. She was a shining example of achieving the American dream, and having done so, embracing the concept of ‘giving back’.

Her legacy is not about a ballroom or a triumphant arch; it’s about the FREE books she gave to schoolchildren and her quiet giving to those suffering times of struggle. It certainly won’t be for making dumb the new smart. We are blessed to have experienced the emotion of the songs, the performances, the humour, the self-deprecation, and her endless belief that we all deserve our place in this world. THANK YOU, Dolly.

You will be deeply missed; we will always love you, and as we embark on our daily nine-to-five, we’ll remember the joy you brought to an upside-down world with a smile that breaks a million hearts today.

Image - Irving Penn / © Condé Nast

Nothing could be further from the example that Dolly Parton set than that set by the Israeli government when it comes to humanity, or rather, total lack of it, wrapped up in their abhorrent behaviour. As someone who has written extensively about the Israeli government’s unconscionable actions, I am often hindered by concerns about how people might view the honesty of my condemnation. When I set out to bring myself up to speed on their latest atrocities, I decided to put aside any fear of retribution and take a fresh approach, dispensing with the sanitisation filter I normally apply when discussing matters concerning Netanyahu and his hard-right political thugs.

There’s a certain sense of liberation that comes with writing with the gloves off, where the sole objective is to approach the subject with the same unvarnished truth I usually apply to my work. My thoughts on the subject of the Israeli apartheid state go back decades and have been punctuated by the numerous military incursions onto Palestinian land and the construction of illegal settlements in the occupied territories.

Image - Getty Images

Before we can even begin to understand the dangers posed by ideological zealots, we have to grasp the very heart of the nationalist fervour that has long gripped a deeply divided society. It’s impossible to do a deep dive on this without understanding the wider picture that defines the US/Israel relationship. We talk about MAGA, but it’s just a derivative of Zionism; it's a common bond that has provided Netanyahu with the first real opportunity to truly manipulate a US political establishment which has long been sympathetic to the Jewish cause, but sceptical of its ideological aims. Trump has become the bridge to a dangerous ideological union that has proved not just unpopular with the American people, but also dangerous when it comes to national security.

The recent passage of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA, HR 8800) and, in particular, Section 219, which was derived from the United States-Israel FUTURES Act, was sponsored in February 2026 by Republican Ted Budd and Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand in the Senate and by Republican Ronny Jackson in the House. It should be noted that it had broad bipartisan support in the House. While it’s beyond the scope of this piece, it’s highly relevant because it highlights what can best be described as an infiltration of the US military in plain sight, aided by US lawmakers, for the benefit of a foreign state actor who is the subject of this series of posts.

Image courtesy of Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto & @kapyos

My aim, as always with critical geopolitical matters, is to provide links not just to the texts of the acts but also to assessments I believe add context to the actions of lawmakers elected by US citizens. Lawmakers who seem all too willing to abandon their constituents’ interests in favour of serving dark-money demands. When it comes to this type of dangerous development relating to military integration clearly spearheaded by the Israeli lobby and AIPAC in particular, it points to a disturbing reality. One in which an unregistered lobby group representing a foreign state actor prepared the ground for its client, the Israeli government and its Prime Minister, to drag the US into a war from which there is no escape. A war in which the chief protagonist is ambivalent to anything but the objectives of an out-of-control Israeli government held hostage by hard-right religious nationalist zealots. How bizarre it is that I could be talking about both nations.

Once you have lawmakers on the payroll of foreign entities, the question of sovereignty becomes a real question, and this is NOT just a Republican problem; AIPAC has bought just as many Democrats. I’m more than aware that dark money has long been a cancer at the heart of US politics, and it’s this that the Israeli government and its various PACS have exploited very effectively. You have to ask how a lobby group representing a foreign state can operate as a domestic lobby group while remaining unregistered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). It’s foreign infiltration; there can be no other words to describe it.

The key to understanding Israel’s position on the geopolitical landscape is recognising the historical power conferred by its relationship with the US. Israel. Netanyahu has long understood the importance of the US-Israeli alliance and the unconditional military support the US has provided for decades. Since the formation of the state of Israel, the US has provided over $300 billion in military and economic aid, the majority of which has been military. This makes Israel the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding.

To better understand the timeline of arms supply, I’ve included the chart below.

Both of these charts are included in an outstanding analysis of US aid to Israel by Jonathan Masters, Deputy Managing Editor, and Will Merrow, Senior Editor, Data Visualisation at The Council on Foreign Relations. The article was updated on October 7, 2025. If you are interested in drilling down into the details of military aid and arms sales to Israel, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

I can already hear whispers of ‘Come on Martin, get on with it’, to which I say, to truly understand how Israel has been able to commit genocide with total impunity, you absolutely MUST understand the grip that Israel has on US politics and especially foreign policy and Middle East affairs. I would like you to be able to use this piece as a reference point when forming an opinion of the threat I believe Israel poses not just to US national security, but to the impact we are seeing with the Iran war on the US economy.

I’ll do my best in the coming days to break it down into daily segments that don’t just deal with the crimes committed, but the symptoms and causes of them. To do this, we have to examine not just the history, but the support of Western allies to Israel. How its tentacles have infiltrated these allied states at the highest levels of government, by investing hundreds of millions of dollars to buy the loyalty of legislators across the globe. Be in no doubt: nobody manipulates its allies as Israel does- NOBODY.

If we put aside the international bribery and corruption to ensure control of the narrative, the next big question to tackle is the Israeli population and the diaspora. The total global population of the Jewish community is estimated at around 17.8 million according to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. That’s just 0.2% of the world’s population. Of that population, they overwhelmingly (between 85% and 90%) live in either Israel or the US. Beyond that, significant populations remain in France, Canada, the United Kingdom, Argentina, and Germany. Prior to the Holocaust, the population stood at 16.7 million, so it’s taken close to 80 years for the population to recover from the genocide committed in the Nazi concentration camps.

Why is this relevant? Because it clearly outlines where Israel’s primary political and military support comes from. This, in turn, leads us to the difference between the Israeli domestic population and the diaspora. It’s where we come face to face with Zionism and its relationship to the global Jewish community. I think it is safe to say that political values are shaped by lived experience. In Israel, the domestic population’s lives are defined by threats and the perpetual fear that they are constantly in harm’s way. It is in this environment that political Zionism finds fertile ground.

I would highly recommend that you take a moment to read the research undertaken by Pew Research on ‘Views of the Jewish state and the diaspora ’. The primary researchers were: Neha Sahgal, Senior Researcher, and Alan Cooperman, Director of Religion Research, but they were supported by a large research team as credited in the report. It should also be noted that the research is from March 2016, long before October 7 2023 and the tragic events that followed.

The reason I think the report is important is that it’s untainted by the events of 2023 and, as such, examines the uneasy relationship between Zionism and Judaism that permeates Jewish communities worldwide. Judaism is a religion; it represents the faith, culture, and way of life of the Jewish people. Zionism is a political movement that adheres to a manifesto asserting that Jewish people have the right to self-determination and to an independent state in the land of their ancestors.

On the face of it, there are no competing values, you might think, until you introduce the toxicity of religion and nationalism; then we’re talking Middle East MAGA territory. The founders of Zionism were largely secular and liberal in their values, but as with all things sensible, there’s always a malign element that seeks to weaponise the founding principles in order to seek power. Just as Christian Nationalism has infected US politics, the same cancer grew within the Zionist movement to a point where we now see the likes of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, and others, rise to shape Israeli politics.

It’s often said that Middle East politics is complicated. In the case of Israel, the history of how the state of Israel came to be, it’s probably a fair word to use. I don’t want to revisit the history of land ownership prior to 1948, other than to say it was considered British Crown territory and was controlled by the British Army after it defeated the Ottoman Empire in World War I. In short, Britain was the governing authority. At the time, Arab and Palestinian residents privately owned between 15% and 20% of the land, while Jewish buyers and organisations purchased around 7% separately.

Under the Ottoman Empire, Jews and Arabs lived side by side for CENTURIES; they traded and shared towns, and each was at liberty to practice their faith unhindered by the ruling authority under what was called the millet system, which permitted religious groups local autonomy. To be clear, Palestine existed for four centuries under the Ottoman Empire between 1516 and 1917. It is true to say it’s a historical fact that there has never been a sovereign country or state called Palestine, and the territory was never governed by a native Palestinian Arab government.

However, if you’d like to get more context, I highly recommend you read this piece by Douglas J. Feith for The Hudson Institute, who, as part of the article, notes that:

… the region has a long, recognised history as a geographic and administrative territory

The key takeaway from today’s first episode of this series is that prior to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and subsequent British rule, Arabs and Jews lived in peace side by side. The conflict began when, in 1948, 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes to make way for the Israeli state.

In the next episode, I want to zoom in on the politics of Zionism and the part it played in lighting the blue touch paper on the ethnic shaped charge that has delivered an apartheid state and the persecution of the Palestinians through sheer brute force, aided and abetted then by the British and American governments.

For those who want to support my work but can’t commit to a paid subscription, you can now make a one-off donation by clicking on the image below. By donating, you help to cover the cost of research resources and keep this independent reporting free for all.