Any Islamist hegemonic project is most likely to be faced with an opposition that includes the military and security apparatus, the deep state and large sections of internationally integrated liberals, ethnically marked minorities, as well as Kemalist true believers.
Excerpt from “Recalling the Caliphate” by S. Sayyid
Two important events happened yesterday in different regions. A ceasefire was reached between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and a violent state crackdown (dubbed the “Islamabad Massacre” by the victims) liquidated an anti-government protest that had engulfed the Pakistani capital of Islamabad for the past 2 days. There seems to be little correlation between these two events at the 1st glance. It is the job of the analyst to detect the governing dynamics and unearth the subtle processes governing and linking such apparently unrelated happenings.
In this article, I contend that both these, and many other vital occurrences around the world, are manufactured through what I call the “Israeli Formula”. The name is somewhat a misnomer as this formula predates the comparatively recently conceived illegitimate state of Israel but I have named it so because Israel is the most vivid example among the products of this formula.
What is the Israeli formula? It is a recipe created chiefly by Western chefs in the kitchens of colonialism powered by violence and genocide. The main ingredients are a monopoly of violence, control over the sources of information, perpetuation of social injustice in victim societies, and creating cadres of slaves to employ as vassals. All these processes are synergistic and produce vicious positive feedback loops (a loop in which the product of a reaction further augments that reaction) in victim societies.
I will clarify the theory with examples. Let’s deconstruct Israel and examine its foundational parts. Objectively speaking, Israel is no more than a relatively recent iteration of Western settler colonialism. The Zionists were allowed by the British occupiers of Palestine following WW1 to make paramilitary organizations like Haganah which later grew into the present Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). A Western power, Britain, armed and trained Zionists before the illegitimate birth of Israel whereas another Western power, the USA, armed the Zionists and even wrote in its own law that it was the responsibility of the USA to maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge (read monopoly of violence) over all its Arab neighbors. The second element i.e. information control is quite well known and out in the open. Zionist “deep pockets” have ensured that Palestinians are merely killed (by who?), and die (how?) while Zionists (if any are killed which is a rarity) are the hapless victims of vicious Palestinian/Islamic terrorism! For example, the BBC report about the ceasefire in Lebanon stresses the importance of the Israeli right to self-defense multiple times but utterly neglects to mention the Lebanese right to self-defense. Completely false stories are circulated through “respected” outlets like CNN and BBC to malign the freedom fighters of Palestine and deify the Israeli perpetrators of the most heinous crime known to man: genocide.
These two processes are quite overt and open. Despite attempts at obfuscation, evidence for them is relatively easy to find. However, the other two ingredients of the Israeli formula are more insidious. People from among the victim populations are used in these. Many of the tasks required to bring about the desired outcome are accomplished surreptitiously. An elite is carefully created and then nurtured. Attempts to confer legitimacy on them are made. Palestinians like Mehmood Abbas are an example. This elite lacks any independent thinking and it is psychologically, intellectually, and financially dependent on the oppressors. Its only purpose is to act as a vassal for the oppressors because direct control is costlier. Some element of monopoly on violence is also given to this elite by its masters (like the security forces of the Palestinian Authority). Their ability to access weapons and training is dependent upon the goodwill of the oppressors and hence, the forces of the elite are only able to conduct successful violence against their own people. Rarely, if ever, they do try to rebel, they are sorted out quickly by the masters due to their complete logistical dependence. So, the real monopoly on violence remains with the oppressors despite the illusion of “security forces” under the command of vassal elites. This elite also ensures that no social justice can ever be established in the victim/captive society. In collaboration with local channels of information and the forces holding a monopoly on violence, every movement or attempt to bring social justice and welfare to the people is sabotaged. Religious/sectarian/ethnic hatreds are systematically inflamed, attempts to improve public health and education are sabotaged, and destructive social deviances like LGBT, pornography, and prostitution are subtly encouraged. Without the provision of social justice and the will to enforce it, the vassal elite and the real rule of oppressors are solidified.
Let’s talk about Pakistan a bit and examine how Pakistan is a victim of the Israeli formula. 1st question: Who has the monopoly on violence in Pakistan? Well, it’s the security forces, chiefly the Pak Army. Who controls the army? The Generals. But who controls the generals? Students of Pakistan’s history are aware of the fact that the USA was the decisive factor behind the coups and subsequent rule of all four Pakistani military dictators. Even the latest regime change in Pakistan was allegedly carried out with US complicity and encouragement. Isn’t it a curious fact that the best and the brightest young officers of the Pakistan Armed Forces are sent for training courses in Western countries whereas most of our weaponry is imported from China? Research needs to be conducted on this to quantify this phenomenon but it is an empirical truth that the bulk of Pakistani civil and military elite wants to educate and settle its kids in the West. How a General with his salary can manage to send his progeny to Western universities where a single degree may cost lakhs of dollars is anybody’s guess. Pak Armed Forces’ dependence on the West was drastically exposed in the wars of 1965 and 1999 when it indulged in armed confrontation with India without US approval and was consequently abandoned by the US. The results of these conflicts left the Pak Army red-faced before both the world and the Pakistani people (even though successful local propaganda did serve to somewhat obscure the criminal follies of the generals in much of the local populace). So, the model in Palestine and Pakistan appears to be the same. Create a vassal armed force to control the people but retain significant leverage on the vassal force to preclude the possibility of its turning rouge.
2nd question: Who controls the sources of information in Pakistan? As anyone who is following Pakistani mainstream media these days can tell, it is utterly under the control of the military. So, the military not only has a monopoly on violence, it also has a monopoly on information. These days it is trying to confront “digital terrorism”, a euphemism for the military attempts to control social media with an iron hand through steps like banning X (formerly known as Twitter) and installing a firewall. Pakistani media can’t name opposition leader Imran Khan in the same way BBC and CNN are unable to name Israel when reporting numerous killings of Palestinians. In reality, the much-ridiculed Pakistani media is almost as “free” as CNN or BBC. It just happens that Pakistani media is controlled by the vassals of those who control CNN or BBC.
Establishing a monopoly on violence and information control is one thing. Sustaining it is another. That is where the social structures come into place. The oppressors can never tolerate the advent of social justice in their captive nation’s society. Only through social justice can a national identity be truly created and once this identity is cemented in the people’s psyche, freedom becomes inevitable. That is why the 1st thing the Prophet Muhammad SAW did in the political sphere was not to strive to build a state or an army but to engrave the spirit of social equality and justice on the basis of merit among his followers. Bilal and Abu Bakr were equal before the law whereas Bilal was infinitely superior to chieftains like Amr bin Hasham and Abi Sufyan on the basis of Islamic merit (taqwa). The oppressors of that era (the Quresh) knew the importance of this and feared it greatly. The same is true today. There is nothing that the creators of the Israeli formula fear more than the advent of social justice in the Islamicate. That is why they impose military dictators and monarchs on Muslim countries and then enable these tyrants to destroy any attempt to bring enlightenment to the people and campaign for social equality. Natasha from Pakistan’s protection is a vital issue for the imposed elite in Pakistan and the protection of this imposed elite is essential for the successful working of the Israeli formula.
Lastly, it is essential to replenish the ranks of the vassal elite for its sustainability. Here’s where the military training courses and Fulbright and Chevening Scholarships for officers and upper-middle-class youth from countries like Pakistan and Egypt come into play. But the more subtle and indirect efforts at psychologically molding the younger generation of captive nations are even more important. From planted “intellectuals” to poison the minds through disinformation to the impact of mass entertainment industries like Hollywood, the framers of the Israeli formula are ever vigilant to sow confusion about the basic tenets of Islamic ideology (they even have many so-called religious scholars to preach non-resistance to their neo-colonialist world order!), create mental slaves through passive means, and weaken any sense of Islamic identity that some in the captive nations might develop. These mental slaves swell the ranks of the vassal forces against their own people and provide an important link between the oppressors and their vassals.
At the end of this article, I will briefly discuss how to counter the Israeli formula. There is no better example than Israel’s nemesis: Hamas. Hamas traces its origins to the Muslim Brotherhood organization in Gaza. The founders of Hamas, chiefly Sheikh Yassin, belonged to this organization and refused to join many Palestinian factions in armed struggle against the Zionists. According to Sheikh Yassin, no sustainable challenge could be given to Israel’s monopoly on violence by an ideologically weak and divided nation. He was correct in understanding that among the four chief aspects of the Israeli formula, the monopoly on violence aspect must be the last one to be attacked. Taking his guidance from Prophet Muhammad SAW’s life, he insisted that first all efforts must be directed toward the provision of welfare and social justice. Health and education were to be prioritized and a national identity was to be forged that would reject the supremacy of elite families. Hospitals and clinics were opened. The Islamic University of Gaza was established. Only after 20 years of consistent and successful efforts, Sheikh Yassin and his cohorts decided to create Hamas and signal their intention to combat Israel’s monopoly on violence. They knew that Israel possessed a military might far superior to their own. However, they were confident that by creating a national identity based on sound ideology and merit, they had the means to achieve sustainability even before the full might of Israel and the USA. They were right. The Israeli Formula was ruthlessly applied to destroy Hamas. The top-tier leadership was assassinated not once, but many times. Each time new leaders selected through merit and steeped in the Islamic ideology took up the mantle with competence and perseverance. With every new crackdown, Hamas only emerged stronger. Even during the current unprecedented genocide, Hamas continues to thrive. This has only been possible due to Hamas’s deep integration with the Palestinian people. Unlike the armies of countries like Pakistan and Egypt, Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades aren’t dependent on any oppressor. Unlike the generals of Pakistan and Egypt, commanders like Yahya Sinwar and Muhammad Deif aren’t psychologically servile to the West and never had any plans to settle their families in the West. They and their children graduated from the Islamic University of Gaza instead of going to a Western university with the sole aim of integrating into the Western middle class. That is why the Al-Qassam Brigades were decisively successful over the US and Israeli puppet Muhammad Dahlan when he was tasked by his masters to defeat Hamas and oppress the people of Gaza with his well-supplied and Western-trained “Palestinian Security Forces”. Unlike the people of Pakistan and Egypt, the people of Gaza were ready and united behind a national identity. No amount of disinformation could sway them and there no mental slaves of the West among them. As a result, the key component of vassalage in the Israeli Formula became neutralized. Now, Israel and USA had to directly apply their capacity to wage violence to destroy Hamas, at a great financial and strategic cost. Still, they have failed so far. Despite expending billions of dollars, taking thousands of casualties, and bringing down the full might of US-Israel to bear on Gaza, they have been unable to do a regime change in a tiny enclave. Contrast this with Pakistan, the fifth most populous country in the world, where a mere signal from a middle-ranked US official was enough for the military to initiate a destructive regime change that has dealt irreversible damage to the country!
Social justice engenders a national identity. National identity spawns national unity. A united nation destroys vassalage. The destruction of vassalage signals the dawn of freedom. Only a free nation is capable of independent thinking without which nothing exceptional can ever be created, be it a superb military or an excellent university. The Israeli Formula is the process of creating unbreakable chains and numerous Uncle Toms. The Counter-Israeli or the Hamas Formula is like the sword of Ali bin Abi Talib, invincible and ever-triumphant in the right hands.
