By FLAVIO AGUIAR*

Israel targets “its Jews,” identifying itself not with the heroic struggles of its people, as in the Warsaw Ghetto, but with the abominable practices of its ancestors’ executioners.

I have read comments that consider Donald Trump’s plan to “cleanse” Gaza of its material and human rubble and build a sort of Balneário Camboriú there, or a new Mediterranean Riviera for those with Eurocentric tastes, to be “crazy.” Yes, it is crazy, but it has deep roots in the DNA of the United States. And in another equally perverse DNA, as we will see throughout this article.

Since the British occupation, the future United States has been struggling with what to do with the native populations.

The relationship between these populations and the European colonists and their descendants was mediated by the capitalist expansion of the colonial project and by the religious feeling that they were symbolic heirs of the thirteen tribes of Israel that had left Egypt in biblical times.

This image is preserved in the thirteen white and red stripes that have adorned the American flag since its inception. They recall the bands of clouds that guided the thirteen tribes of Israel on their Exodus through the desert, white at night and red during the day. And they justified the feeling of superiority of those settlers over the other peoples around them, whether natives or African slaves who also came from overseas.

The independence of the colonies and their march to the west, in what was conventionally called the “Manifest Destiny”, worsened the conflict between settlers and natives, and the restriction of the latter's freedoms and the dispossession of their territories.

This new condition inspired the “Indian Removal Act”, signed into law by President Andrew Jackson in 1830. The decree authorized the “voluntary” or forced removal of native populations from lands coveted by settlers advancing westward. In general, the decree allowed the relocation of these populations to territories west of the Mississippi River.

It is estimated that between 1830 and 1841, 60 natives were forced to leave their original territories and move west or south to north, being housed in inhospitable lands that were unfavorable to survival. This practice continued for the following decades, opening what tradition has called “The Trail of Tears,” as many of these forced migrants perished along the way due to disease or the harsh living conditions at their points of arrival.

Over time, these territorial reserves had their areas reduced. And in the 20th century, there was a conceptual change in the distribution of land: instead of granting collective reserves, they began to be granted individually to isolated owners, which contributed even more to the reduction of the affected areas. It was the first policy of “ethnic cleansing” in the history of the United States, something that is behind Donald Trump’s proposal for Gaza.

The situation only changed from 1934 onwards, after Franklin Delano Roosevelt's victory in the 1933 election and his policy of New Deal, which began to recognize rights acquired by native peoples, also extending healthcare assistance to them.

I imagine this “Indian New Deal” by Roosevelt, as it became known, is abhorred by Trump and his gang as: “a communist thing”.

But there is more. Another great tradition of planning forced displacements belongs to the German Nazi regime.

The first proposed solution to the “Jewish problem” in Germany and occupied Europe was not extermination. It was forced deportation to Madagascar, then a French colony recently occupied by the troops of the Third World War.^o. Rich.

This proposal was formulated by Franz Rademacher, a German diplomat who was appointed director of the “Jewish Section” of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1940, after the capture of Paris. The proposal was accepted by Hitler and the other members of the Nazi command. And the person in charge of making it administratively viable was none other than Adolf Eichmann.

The proposal had precedents. It had already been defended by notable anti-Semites, such as the German Paul de Lagarde in the 19th century, and the British Henry Hamilton Beamish and Arnold Leese in the 20th century.

However, the proposal did not prosper. The Nazis thought of implementing it using the British commercial fleet as a means of transport, after England was occupied. However, the Nazi planes Air force lost the air battle to the Royal Air Force, and the British maintained their naval power, preventing forced emigration.

Still, the Nazis thought about moving the Jews to Siberia after the invasion of the Soviet Union by Operation Barbarossa, launched on June 22, 1941. They imagined that the Soviet Union would collapse in a few weeks, which did not happen.

In the end, the deportation proposal was replaced by the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, agreed upon at the sinister Wannsee Conference, led by Reinhard Heydrich on January 20, 1942 and chaired by the same Adolf Eichmann, who was also responsible for making it administratively viable.

Donald Trump’s attitude is shocking, but not surprising. What is surprising, and also shocking, is his reception by the Israeli government. It follows a true ethical twist in the neck, as it demonstrates that the inspiration of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and his neo-fascists is a complicated collective operation of psychological transference. They are now targeting “their Jews,” identifying themselves not with the heroic struggles of their people, as in the Warsaw Ghetto, but with the abominable practices of the executioners of their ancestors.

* Flavio Aguiar, journalist and writer, is a retired professor of Brazilian literature at USP. Author, among other books, of Chronicles of the World Upside Down (boitempo). [https://amzn.to/48UDikx]

the earth is round there is thanks to our readers and supporters.
Help us keep this idea going.
CONTRIBUTE