Quiet coups
in plain sight...
There just occurred one of those rare moments of clarity that reveals exactly how the world is run.
The American secretary of defence, Lloyd Austin, found himself unable to move freely around Tel Aviv in order to meet his Israeli hosts. They had to take a helicopter to meet him in a safe location.
The reason was that too many Israelis had filled the streets in hostile demonstrations against the government of Bibi Netanyahu.
This opposition includes members of the Israeli military who have refused to fly their planes, train for exercises, etc. All ostensibly because Netanyahu’s government wants to change the rules governing the power of the Israeli Supreme Court. For his part the Israeli president has accused the government of staging a judicial coup.
The protesters say: Stand up for the rule of law. Stand up for checks and balances. We do not want to live under a Jewish version of the Muslim Brotherhood!
The Israeli military also say, implicitly: Quite right. See how we treat Hamas. See what happened to Mohamed Morsi.
The American secretary happens to be a retired general. There was once an exception made for an exceptional man in that job: General George C Marshall. Defence secretaries were otherwise meant to be civilians. This rule appears to have gone away.
On the eve of his visit to Israel, Mister-General-Secretary Austin let it be known that his department refuses to give information on Russian military atrocities in Ukraine to the International Criminal Court because the USA does not recognise the authority of this body, least of all in cases brought against its own troops and military actions.
Needless to say, neither does Israel.
Critics of the American passion for the ‘rules-based international order’ were quick to jump on the case. Hypocrisy! Thy name is Kosovo, Fallujah, Tripoli, etc, etc, etc.
The American military also say, implicitly: Damn right. See how we treat anybody who tries to restrain us.
Who makes the rules in today’s world? It’s not a trick question.
It is not a simple question, either. For as every coup leader knows, there comes a day when he faces a decision: How do I hold on to power and give it up at the same time? No coup can last forever. And no coup, however effective and popular it may be, is as legitimate as a free and fair election.
Thus the cynicism of the democratic age that refuses to contemplate something better.