Thomas Fazi

Most people know that Israel is one of the world’s top weapons producers and exporters. Less known is the fact that Israel, especially since 1967, has used its weapons industry to arm and support some of the most brutal regimes of the second half of the twentieth century, responsible for gross human rights violations — and, in some cases, even genocide.

Here are just some of the regimes/organisations that Israel has provided political and/or military support for over over the past decades:

– The Duvalier regime in Haiti, estimated to have killed between 30,000 and 60,000 Haitians.

– The dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay, which provided a home to Nazi war criminals.

– The Pinochet regime in Chile, during whose reign of terror at least 5,000 people were killed and more than 30,000 tortured.

– The “Nazi” military junta of Jorge Rafael Videla in Argentina, which murdered and “disappeared” around 30,000 people, including up to 3,000 Jews, which were openly persecuted.

– The Guatemalan military regime, responsible for widespread human rights violations and for committing genocide against the indigenous Maya population.

– The military regime in El Salvador, which murdered tens of thousands of mostly civilian activists.

– The Contras death squads in Nicaragua, including Israel’s participation in the Intra-Contra affair.

– Colombian far-right death squads. 

– Suharto’s “post-genocide” dictatorship in Indonesia, which came to power on the heels of an anti-communist purge that led to the death of at least half of million people.

– The South African apartheid regime, with which Israel cemented a long-standing political, ideological and military relationship often centered on weapons.

– The Hutu regime in Rwanda, which Israel armed before, during and after the 1994 genocide, which led to the death of between 500,000 and 800,000 Tutsis.

– The military regime in Myanmar, which Israel continued to arm even after the government was accused of genocide against the Muslim Rohingya minority. 

Most of the content here comes from the great book by @antloewenstein, The Palestine Laboratory, which I strongly recommend.

I knew about some of these cases, but had never realised that they were part of an organic project on Israel’s behalf. Clearly many of these alliances were about more than just money; they were about furthering the Western US-led project of global domination. In this sense, Israel over the past 70 years has been more than just an outpost of Western imperialism in the Middle East, as is often claimed; it has been a globe-spanning agent of Western imperialism.

For a detailed breakdown of this history, check out my latest article: thomasfazi.com/p/israel-armin…