The Ideology of “Zionism” and “Axis of Resistance” is Dead(ly) – We need Dialogos and not Demagogos

“I argued that armed struggle was supremely unsuited to the Palestinian condition, that it was a mistake to put so much emphasis on it. I argued that armed struggle is less about arms and more about organization, that a successful armed struggle proceeds to out-administer the adversary and not out-fight him. And that the task of out-administration was a task of out-legitimizing the enemy. Finally, I argued that this out-administration occurs when you identify the primary contradiction of your adversary and expose that contradiction not only to yourselves, which you don’t need to do so much, but to the world at large, and more important, to the people of the adversarial country itself. I argued that Israel’s fundamental contradiction was that it was founded as a symbol of the suffering of humanity . . . at the expense of another people who were innocent of guilt. It’s this contradiction that you have to bring out. And you don’t bring it out by armed struggle. In fact, you suppress this contradiction by armed struggle. The Israeli Zionist organizations continue to portray the Jews as victims of Arab violence.” ― Eqbal Ahmad, Confronting Empire

“Good and evil cannot be equal. Repel evil with what is better, and your enemy will become as close as an old and valued friend.” ― (Holy Quran 41:34)

"Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing" ― (Holy Bible - Peter 3:9)

***

October 7th was the curtain call for ideological materialist worldviews. Every ideology is based on taking something out of creation’s totality, raising it above that creation, and making the latter revolve around and serve it. It is further based on the assumption that this idol has the capacity to save us from some real or perceived Evil in the world. In other words, ideology by definition is idolatry ― the idolatry of liberation, justice, and violence. October 7th highlighted the moral bankruptcy of ideologies that have for decades claimed the "know-how" of "liberation" and the political alchemy for "decolonization". Regardless of whose side you are on, October 7th revealed that deterministic ideologies are detrimental for social prosperity. Take for instance the ideology of the “Axis of Resistance”. Their rhetoric emphasizes that their essential worldview was never and could never be inclusionary because of their messianic worldview and their apolitical solutions taking “justice”, "liberation", and "violence" out of creations totality and make everything else revolve around it ― even at the expense of incinerating other countries (i.e., Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen).

Whether you are an opponent or proponent of Israel or Palestine located in the South/East or North/West, the past few months have revealed that the retarding of "liberation" is linked to ideologies having severed spirituality from the epistemic equation by simply emphasizing materialism – this is the case of all MODERN ideologies ESECIALLY the ones that claim to be "Anti-Western". These ideologies and their pharisaic media pundits on podcasts, TV stations, academic campuses are not interested in a moral (inclusionary) solution celebrating both sides as humans but rather revert to articulating words that leave the audience wondering if those engaging in the discussion are celebrating violence and whether they are aware that their rhetoric is essentially demagoguery. Aristophanes reminds us that, "A demagogue must be neither an educated nor an honest man; he has to be an ignoramus and a rogue"

How can someone take you seriously when you are only highlighting the death of Palestinians and not even considering in your discussion that people in Israel are also dying...civilians! The life of a Palestinian and Israeli are equal! Unless your ideology allows you to create a hierarchy of human worth which ipso facto makes you guilty of the same ideology (i.e., Zionism) that you are attempting to eliminate. The death of innocent civilians is not to be blamed on one side even though ideologues and demagogues would want us to think otherwise. The past 6 months revealed the ills of the heart of many peoples who claim to be defending Palestine or Israel. This psychosocial neurosis and polluted heart disclosed how proponents or opponents of Palestine and Israel dehumanized each other when speaking to each other whether online, in gatherings, or in an academic milieu. What happened in Gaza has happened historically to many regions of the world. What is different – according to ideologues – is that this is the "Holy Land"; the land of the prophets and of our blessed Mother Mary (PBUH). But those ideologues lack the ethos of such HISTORICAL ARCHETYPES (i.e., Prophet Muhammad, Prophet Moses, Prophet David, Prophet Solomon, Prophet Jesus). Not to mention that their policy for ending Zionism - as highlighted by Dr. Eqbal in the introductory quote - is categorically incompetent.

Should you not be compassionate when speaking to your supposed "adversary" since that is the ethos of Saints and Prophets who walked the holy land? Why such pompous stance when you are supposedly defending the "Truth"? No truth has been internalized through shouting, interruption, and slander. I am in no way seeking to undermine the catastrophe that has occurred in Arabia since October 7th – even though, for instance, the Arab world has since 9/11 witnessed several "Gaza's" in Iraq, Libya, Lebanon, Yemen, Sudan, Syria, etc. with cumulatively casualties surpassing 7 million dead– but we cannot expect to have everyone be concerned and convert to our thoughts; this belief is a shortcut to psychological disenchantment; also a prominent belief with academics, students, and common people who fetishize a materialist worldview.

I, like others, have been privy in the past few months to academics and students who are engaging in the most unethical forms of discussion by claiming the "high ground" since they are "from Palestine" or Arab, or Muslim. These people are even reverting to subjective events such as providing personal anecdotes thus affirming not a "compassionate position" but a "hubristic position" when engaging in a discussion. A person who genuinely seeks to have a dialogue need not revert to reminding people of their own "history", and if they do, it shouldn’t be with the goal to dehumanize the interlocutor in front of you (i.e., Aristotle's art of persuasion?). In the Holy Quran it says, "You surely cannot guide whoever you like...but it is Allah Who guides whoever He wills, and He knows best who are ˹fit to be˺ guided" and in the Holy Bible it says "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." It seems that some intellectuals are not even equipped with the art of persuasion, and this is trickling down to viewers, academics, students, and industry experts who are now demanding everyone to be aware of the "Palestine Struggle", and that is not only impossible, but hypocritical and selfish. If a person is not aware, then teach them, and if they do not want to learn, that is also fine since they have the right not to know! Do not revert to indecency and ill-mannered behaviour by calling people names such as "White", "Racist", "Settler", "Colonial sympathizer", "traitors", "imperialists" etc., simply because your EGO is not willing to comprehend that is the nature of the temporal world to have people disagree with you or NOT; be as moved by an event as you or NOT.

 A human being is not required to have lived under oppression or have people in their family die for them to comprehend injustice; this belief that I know more than YOU because I lived through oppression comes from an agonized individual who is ironically trying to dominate the person in front of them. While there are victims of oppression, it is unwise to self-victimize; rather, harmonizing reason and revelation would suggest self-criticism, compassion, forgiveness, and gratitude—a philosophical and theological virtue. While mitigating injustices is necessary, continuous ingratitude and an obsession for earthly justice is an upstream road to discontentment.

 Most “critical” scholars (i.e., nominalists, existentialists, and post-modernists) are morally ego-centric in that they put the material world at the centre of their discussions by exclusively transposing subjective materialist elaborations to analyze questions that clearly demand going beyond the corporeal.

For that, I want to highlight a few points that are not being emphasized enough in academic debates and student discussions because of the secular-humanist and/or ideological materialist curricula that dominates the “culture” of some academic departments:

1) Most Arabs in the East – including academics and students – are not proponents of armed struggle and several conferences and seminars before and after 7/10 have discussed that ideological materialist ideologies retarded Arab societies from eliminating Zionism and that the most pragmatic method to succeed against any-nationalist ideology is not by violence but through politics and exposing the contradictions.

2) Palestinians have drastic political divisions amongst themselves, and most people are not aware that while Fatah was the first armed group seeking Palestinian decolonization (established in Kuwait), it changed its method of engagement from armed struggle to non-armed struggle at the end of the 1980s since it realized that it caused more harm politically, socially, and economically.

3) Arab leaders have never betrayed the Palestinian cause. It is the Arab League, members of the UNGA, and the OIC who made sure that the South Africa vs Israel case was advanced by our brothers and sisters in South Africa in the ICJ. In addition, it is the Arab Group at the UN with the help of several Global North foreign ministers who advanced a ceasefire resolution and who have recently advanced a resolution seeking full Palestinian membership at the UN. The only peoples stating that Arab governments "betrayed" Palestinians are the same individuals who are the "loudest" and the most "unethical" in their discussions.

4) What Hamas fighters did on October 7th , and the exclusionary discourse used by their leaders is understandable from a sociological-psychological approach (they are traumatized because of oppression and subjugation), however, UNDERSTANDING is not CONDONING. Therefore, what Hamas did is a war crime and violates IHL and Hamas leaders will be JUDGED whether in a temporal court, or in the court of the Almighty in the Hereafter. Hamas leaders will be judged for their incompetent decisions, not only on October 7th, but for decades, which played a huge role in the destruction of Gaza. Yes, the IDF is committing and has always committed war crimes and genocides, however, Hamas with its “Axis of Resistance” self-centered ideology provided the IDF a much needed reason to not only rejuvenate its right-wing nationalist ideology, but also ignored non-violent means of engagement that the Arab League in collaboration with Fatah, the BRICS, and other UNGA countries were advancing which would have brought reaped generational results.

5) Most Hamas leaders left Gaza weeks before October 7th according to several Arab writers and government officials such as former Palestinian ambassador to India Osama Al-Ali and renown Arab scholar Dr. Imad Adeeb.

6) PM Netanyahu's government was already losing power before October 7th....why would Hamas through Iranian support provide Zionism and its organization an operation that rejuvenated its raison d'être?

7) We need to place what is occurring in Gaza in a larger geopolitical framing that is part and parcel of a new world system which started several years ago. The establishment of Israel in 1948 is the crown jewel of the Anglo-American International Order established after WWII. Prior to that establishment we had the atomic bombing of Japan. Now, post-(Zionist) Israel is in the making and this time Arabs are choosing the structure of this International Order architecture in difference to the Inter-War years Mandate System during the League of Nations.

8) Zionism is no longer an asset but a liability for the North and the South. This reality not only explains why western countries are doubling down on supporting Israel, but also “resistance” groups whose existence is based on “anti-Zionism” (read: Hezbollah, Hamas, IRC, etc). The Axis of Resistance is breathing its last breath, and (Iran) is simply forcing its seat on the table of the New Middle East using its regional militias.

9) A one-state solution is the remedy to the political and social violence that have engulfed Palestine/Israel since a two-state solution will only reinforce ideological nationalism and future generational hatred. And more importantly, it betrays the essence of Arab civilization where Jews, Christians, and Muslims coexisted for millenniums. Borders are not the solution but the problem!

10) Some academic institutions with secular curriculums are to blame for not being rigorous enough in their hiring and evaluation process of their faculty who are failing to equip students with knowledge that would allow them cope and address political and social crises with ethics considered and decorum. Instead students have been equipped with theories that are – to paraphrase the words of Dr. Ali Ataie – form over substance. These theories have made them believe that they NEED to take matters in their own hands to the point of justifying ad hominem or après moi, le déluge.

Arthur Martine counselled in his magnificent 1866 guide to the art of conversation, “let your aim be to come at truth, not to conquer your opponent. So you never shall be at a loss in losing the argument and gaining a new discovery.” Of course, this isn’t what happens most of the time especially when we deploy the artillery of our righteousness from behind the comfortable shield of the keyboard or volume of our voice and condescending tone. That form of “criticism” — which is really a menace of reacting rather than responding is not a quality of a person who is really interested in revealing the Truth or engaging in a meaningful dialogue based on compassion; but rather is a one-way conversation exposing the neurosis, psychosis, and ills of the heart which only an inward re-evaluation can solve; no amount of protests, no amount of shouting, no amount of posts on twitter, Instagram, or X can remedy such polluted heart.

Dr. Hamza Yusuf reminds us that Hujat Al Islam Imam al-Ghazali said “you don’t want to eliminate anger; you want to make it like a hunting dog where you release it at the proper time to the proper object and for the right reasons. That’s at the heart of the spiritual practice of trying to tame the irascible soul which was placed in us to ward off evil and harm”. With the current international order witnessing an epistemic shift led by HUMANS from the Global South and Global North, it becomes all the more necessary to demand a future that converts death into life and hatred into friendship. We must maintain our primordial compassionate state and refuse to give in to despair, or the urge for vengeance. We must commit ourselves to defending the dignity of all human beings, irrespective of religion and race. We cannot and should never surrender our faith in the human spirit – even now, when doing so is more challenging than ever before.

والله أعلم

______________________________

Author Biography: Khaled Al-Kassimi is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations. His research engages in law and philosophy, history and political science with an eye appreciating and critiquing the civilizational heritage accentuating the epistemic reconnaissance between the Orient and Occident. Also, Arab-Islamic and Latin-European epistemological differences pertaining to their different jurisprudent and philosophical theology. His most recent monograph published by Routledge entitled "International Law, Necropolitics, and Arab Lives - The Legalization of Creative Chaos in Arabia" argues that International Relations and International Law continue to be accented by epistemic violence by naturalizing a separation between law and morality.

X: @khaledalkassimi Facebook: Khaled Al-Kassimi