Palestine is holding strong, and the world is changing. This year’s International Quds Day has a new global context. The people of the world are peace-loving in their great majority, and the people of the world are seeing more clearly, than ever before, the true face of the USA.

By Denis Rancourt

The steadfast perseverance of Palestinians (their legendary “Sumud”) is an inspiration and a grounding force for all people of the world who fight for their homes, their lands, their dignities, and for self-determination.

Unless one is disconnected from reality, it is impossible to image a more honourable and effective viable resistance. This resistance is against the brutal and ideological occupying regime of Israel, and Israel is given virtually unlimited resources by the ruthless global occupier that is the USA.

The USA thinks nothing of mass murders of entire nations (the list is a long one), of empowering local monsters on many continents (another long list), and of covert proxy wars where UN approval for “no fly” carpet bombing cannot be stomached.

Likewise, Israel thinks nothing of military campaigns against Gaza, of indefinite and inhumane occupation, of mass detentions, of killing civilians at will, of condoning extreme settler terrorism, of depriving the Gaza population of basic needs, and of sustained “cleansing” against villages, neighborhoods, and Jerusalem itself.

I hope that the Palestinian diaspora is not being entirely sucked into the illusions of the Western regimes, and into the dulling superficiality that is offered to the Western middle class. I hope that Israel can never coerce all the occupied Palestinians to be collaborators.

On the contrary, the recent hunger strike of prisoners driven to the brink of destruction is a testament that the Palestinian will is strong enough to achieve liberation despite the increasing stranglehold that Israel is applying.

Palestine is holding strong, and the world is changing. This year’s International Quds Day has a new global context. The people of the world are peace-loving in their great majority, and the people of the world are seeing more clearly, than ever before, the true face of the USA.

The world is finally seeing what the American aboriginals have seen, what all the victims of USA state terror have seen, and what Yemenis, Syrians, Afghans, Libyans, Iraqis, Latin Americans, Filipinos… are presently seeing. Many Europeans and citizens of allied countries are seeing that the USA has led their states towards a policy of global terror.

More and more people correctly perceive that the USA wants continuous instability and violence because global stability and respect for national sovereignty (the very basis of the UN Charter) imply the natural development and independence of Eurasia, Latin America, Africa... and the natural loss of USA hegemony.

Likewise, as its victims know well, Israel wants continuous war and conflict in the Middle East to assert its military and enforcement hegemony, which is otherwise naturally eroded by regional development.

In contrast, Russia and China want diplomacy and collaboration to avoid USA mayhem and economic predation. The more the USA, Israel and Saudi Arabia bully nations with sanctions and military campaigns and support terrorist proxies, the more emerging nations collaborate and respond.

The USA military regime enforces and thrives from global economic predation. However, the power of the USA dollar, printed at will by the hegemon, is being eroded and will soon collapse. In the new era, stable development will be based on fair trading of national human and natural resources. This model of development is being applied by the competing blocks. Only USA and Israeli blockades, sanctions and elite coercion stand in the way.

The present period is a dangerous period because the failing USA system is frantic and disorganised. The USA economy is a military and predatory economy. The USA regime will continue to inflict damage to slow the inevitable, and for short-term and domestic “gains”. This will accelerate its crisis of international legitimacy. As the storm passes, both the USA and Israel (and their clients) will need to face the new reality of emerging sovereign nations having mutual interests in stability and respect.

This transformation is occurring because regionally powerful nations are refusing to accept the USA nightmare and insist on sovereignty: Russia, China, Venezuela, Iran … because of the dedication and self-preservation of committed home combatants in Palestine, Syria, South Lebanon (Hezbollah), Yemen … and because of both designed and circumstantial increasing collaboration between independent nations against USA hegemony.

It is the global reality that is causing popular awakening. The USA no longer can intimidate as effectively and no longer controls the narrative. In such a world: war, murder, and genocide carry the consequences of loss of legitimacy and isolation. Does the USA really want to become closed onto itself, with only Canada to exploit? Do client states really only want the privileges of buying overpriced USA weapons and of being paid in soon-to-be-worthless USA dollars for everything they have? Do USA “allies” really want to adopt Hollywood-made pseudo-culture and values?

The answers are no, no, and no. The world is freeing itself at a fast pace. The USA cannot nuke everyone like it did against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There are not enough bombs to destroy the emerging world.

This International Quds Day marks these profound changes and sits on the cusp of a global transformation that will include the liberation of Palestine, to the degree that occupied Palestinians will themselves mostly determine. All of this will make both Israel and the USA more humanistic, which is not difficult to imagine.

Occupied Palestinians constantly make brave contributions to humanity, literally with their lives. We celebrate their invaluable gifts to us and we reciprocate when we fight to secure our own self-respect and dignity.

*Denis G. Rancourt is a former tenured and Full Professor of physics at the University of Ottawa, Canada. He is known for his applications in physics education research. Rancourt has published over 100 articles in leading scientific journals and has written several social commentary essays. He is the author of the book Hierarchy and Free Expression in the Fight Against Racism. While he was at the University of Ottawa, he supported student activism and opposed the influence of the Israeli lobby at that institution, which fired him under false pretext in 2009.