TEHRAN– Let’s shout out what the Secretary General of the United Nations has said, the attack on October 7 did not happen in a vacuum.

Before the creation of Israel, there was the 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel by the right-wing Zionist Irgun. The hotel housed the British administrative headquarters for Mandatory Palestine. That was terrorism.   In 1948, Palestinians were robbed of their land (without compensation) and evicted from their homes. That was terrorism.

Again in 1948, there was the Deir Yassin massacre, where Zionists from Irgun and Lehi killed more than 100  Palestinians, including women and children, even after both parties had agreed to a peace. That was terrorism.

Then in 1982, there was the massacre at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps by Israeli forces and their Lebanese Christian allies during the Lebanese Civil War, killing up to 3,500 Palestinians. That was terrorism.

More recently, Israeli settlers living in illegal settlements built on confiscated Palestinian land and supported by Israeli forces have attacked, killed, separated and imprisoned Palestinians on a daily basis. That is terrorism.

Less news is that Israeli citizens who are not Jewish are treated as second-class citizens throughout Israel. That’s not terrorism but is instead apartheid.

Palestinians living on the West Bank and in al-Quds are humiliated in every way. That is apartheid.

2.5 million Palestinians living in Gaza have been subjugated to sub-human status in the largest prison on earth. They are cut off from the world and relegated to a miserable life. That is apartheid.

Whatever you call the Hamas attacks of October 7, the Israeli policies over the years have been steeped in terrorism. Israel has been an apartheid country and is now responsible for crimes against humanity.

Zionists have been, and are, great teachers and conveyers of terrorism.

Today roughly 7 million Jewish Israelis and 7 million Palestinians live between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, an area encompassing Israel and the West Bank (including East al-Quds, and Gaza). In the areas where Palestinians live, Israel is either the only governing power or it has primary authority with limited Palestinian self-rule. Palestinians, even those who have Israeli citizenship, are treated as second-class citizens and those without Israeli citizenship are seen as “creatures” with little or no civil rights. Israel has imprisoned, separated and subjugated Palestinians because of who they are and not what they have done. All in all, we have witnessed practices that are apartheid and crimes against humanity.

How could this happen?

This is where a sanctimonious United States comes into the picture and is supported by its sheepish followers around the world, especially in Europe, Canada and Australia. The planes and bombs that Israel uses are supplied by the United States. This and the financial support is money provided by U.S. taxpayers. The United States gives political support to squash criticisms of Israel. The United States has issued approaching 100 vetoes at the United Nations Security Council to protect Israel’s egregious policies and acts. These vetoes isolate the United States from the rest of the world who at least witness what is happening on the ground. The squashing of free speech has permeated U.S. shores. Americans criticizing Israel are immediately labeled anti-Semites. Others have lost their employment. Even at universities, the supposed bastions of free speech, wealthy Jewish donors have voiced their displeasure of Israeli criticisms by withholding financial support to institutions that do not squash criticism of Israel. Most effective is the role of Jewish money in U.S. politics—withholding financial support to politicians and campaigns that do not tow the Israeli line.

How does the United States justify such blind support? With two big lies that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and our greatest ally. Israel is by no means a democracy. It is more accurately an apartheid state. And a fair-weather ally at best, as manifestly apparent in its unwillingness to support U.S. policies toward Ukraine and ignoring intermittent U.S. pleas to refrain from expanding settlements in the West Bank and annexing parts of East Jerusalem.

Are Arabs (and Muslims) so helpless that they can do nothing?

No they are not helpless, but Arab and most Muslim rulers are illegitimate, weak and selfish. Most have followed the United States, if not openly at least quietly. As illegitimate rulers, they rely on U.S. support to thwart domestic opposition and to hold onto power. We now live under a world of collaborative colonialism—where rulers towing the wishes of colonial powers to stay in power themselves.

Sure they cannot use military force to push back on Israeli-American aggression, but they have the most effective economic weapon—sanctions. They could issue an EMBARGO or SANCTIONS on OIL and LIQUIFIED NATURAL GAS (LNG) EXPORTS. Arabs and Muslims should learn from the United States. At the flip of a coin the U.S. sanctions anyone and anything. It has been a “pioneer” in using economic sanctions that contravene World Trade Organization (WTO) rules with impunity, not just sanctioning a country, an entity, a company or a person, but also any entity that breaks U.S. sanctions by engaging with an American sanctioned entity. Arab and Muslim countries, especially the oil and LNG exporters, have this weapon at their fingertips but are scared to band together and use it, lest they upset the United States, the blind backer of Israel. Arabs and Muslims would do well to recall even the limited embargo imposed by the late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia in 1973 and the panic that it caused in the United States.

What we are witnessing is not only tragic for Palestinians and Israelis but also for the United States. An Israeli officer justified the horrific Israeli onslaught of Gaza—War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity—by blithely saying that what Hamas did on October 7 is a crime committed by all those living in Gaza as they are all responsible. Why? Because they could have overthrown their leaders. So does that mean all Israelis and Americans are responsible for what Israel has done and is likely to do?

How will America be viewed by the world as Israeli war criminals continue on their rampage, the dust settles and we are forced to witness the massacre of tens of thousands of innocent civilians killed by Israel using American planes and bombs?

Professor Hossein Askari is an Economist and Emeritus Professor of Business and International Affairs at George Washington University.