Islam Times - Analyst Says Israel Exists to Help West Loot, Dominate Middle East

Islam Times - Political activist Joti Brar argues that Israel’s establishment as a state was driven by colonial ambitions, with Western powers, particularly the United States and the UK, maintaining support for the country to control Middle Eastern resources.

Israel's existence is often justified under the terms of "Jewish self-determination" or "decolonization," but its ideological origins frame Zionism as a colonial project, according to the Russian Sputnik news agency.

The Balfour Declaration, issued by the British government in 1917, is widely seen as a key moment in the West's support for a Jewish state in the Levant.

This pronouncement, notorious among Palestinians and their supporters, committed the UK to establishing a "national home for the Jewish people."

Some Zionists saw this as a progressive move to counter rising European antisemitism, but historians note Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour's antisemitic intentions, aimed at appeasing a British public concerned about Jewish immigration.

Political activist Joti Brar, vice chair of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), discussed the ongoing US support for Israel during its military operations in Gaza on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program.

“We see the desperation, despite the fact that this genocide is going on in the full glare of public scrutiny,” said Brar. “The balance of power has totally shifted away from them… And therefore, if they want to survive, they've got to find another way forward.”

However, Brar argues no viable path exists, asserting, "Israel is an outpost of Anglo-American imperialism in the Middle East, essential for controlling the region's resources,” she continued. “They need that there. It's their armed base in the middle of the Arab world to control the Arab world and to be able to keep the loot flowing.”

Although modern defenders of Israel justify its existence under the pretense of “Jewish self-determination” or “decolonization,” the state’s ideological forebears clearly articulated Zionism as a colonial project.

Brar’s stance echoes historical views, such as Zionism's founder, Theodor Herzl, who, in 1902, described Zionism to Cecil Rhodes as a colonial venture.

“You are being invited to help make history,” wrote the ideology’s founder Theodor Herzl in a 1902 letter to Cecil Rhodes, the notorious namesake of the white supremacist African republic of Rhodesia. “It doesn’t involve Africa, but a piece of Asia Minor; not Englishmen but Jews… How, then, do I happen to turn to you since this is an out-of-the-way matter for you? How indeed? Because it is something colonial.”

Jewish migration to Palestine surged after the Balfour Declaration, and violent paramilitary groups such as Lehi and Irgun emerged, targeting indigenous Palestinians. These groups later formed the foundation of the Israeli Defense Forces following Israel's establishment in 1948. Since then, Israel has marginalized non-Jewish inhabitants, leading many international bodies to label it an apartheid state.

“Oil remains the single most important commodity in the world today,” noted Brar. “It is the most important source of energy for the world, for industry and for war and it is the most geopolitically significant asset for that reason. And without controlling the oil and being able to loot it at rock bottom prices in the way that they do because of their colonial position in the region, then imperialism would be in massive trouble. What's left of their economies would be collapsing.”

“And so you see this really existential identification of Western imperialism with Israel, which to a lot of people seems to make no sense. They can't see why they don't just let Israel fight its own battles and fight and die or live and die according to its own abilities. Why are they all jumping in? Why is Zionism so important to the West?”

“The reason is it's their tool for controlling the region and the region's resources,” Brar explained. “Without those resources they're going to be in really, really big trouble.”