TEHRAN – Martin Love, an American political analyst, believes that the ethnic cleansing of the Arabs of Jerusalem is a plot designed by Netanyahu to save himself from corrupt charges.

"The escalation in Palestine, beginning with the assaults and ethnic cleansing on the Arabs of East Jerusalem in Sheikh Jarrah and around the al-Aqsa and Damascus Gate were in some part designed by Netanyahu to keep him in power for a while longer," Martin Love tells the Tehran Times. 

The neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah has become the centerpiece of belligerent fighting between Israel and Palestine as Palestinians rallied around residents to resist the Israeli settlers encroaching on East Jerusalem.

Unrest in East Jerusalem has been on the rise since the beginning of Ramadan on 13 April, after the Israeli authorities installed metal barriers outside the Damascus Gate, blocking access to a public area for Palestinians.

"The escalation and bombings and killings of Gazans is a way for the Zionists to buy more time before they may be forced to change any policies," Love adds.

Following is the text of the interview:

Q: How do you evaluate the recent escalation in Palestine?

A: The escalation in Palestine, beginning with the assaults and ethnic cleansing on the Arabs of East Jerusalem in Sheikh Jarrah and around the al-Aqsa and Damascus Gate, was in some parts designed by Netanyahu to keep him in power for a while longer. This has been a cynical game for some time since he cannot be fully prosecuted and jailed on a variety of corruption charges as long as he holds office. But he and the Zionists probably did not expect what appeared to be a general Palestinian uprising on both sides of the Green Line, especially in Gaza with many volleys of more effective homemade missiles raining on all parts of central Israel. The escalation and bombings and killings of Gazans is a way for the Zionists to buy more time before they may be forced to change any policies, but this time they may have miscalculated because it is possible Palestinians are not going to quiet down and chaos could prevail west of the Jordan River virtually forever until the Occupation ends. One would hope the PA would be thoroughly dismantled and Abbas exposed for what he has long been – a quisling.

“A person would have to be blind and deaf to not to know that Israel and the support of Israel by the U.S. is the real block to calm and peace in the Middle East (West Asia).”Q: Israel says Iran is a threat to West Asia while we see Israeli sabotage operations against Iran and killing people in Palestine. Who is the real threat?

A: Iran has never been an active threat in the Middle East (West Asia) unless one considers a prosperous Iran a threat that makes no sense.  Therefore, we see decades of attempts to not let Iran prosper, to undermine the Islamic Republic by the U.S., the EU, and of course, the Zionists. A person would have to be blind and deaf to not to know that Israel and the support of Israel by the U.S. is the real block to calm and peace in the Middle East (West Asia). Imperialism and Colonialism have one aim: to divide and conquer. The divided part is not currently working very well, if at all, in Palestine for the very first time since the Nakba, it seems. The PA and Abbas must be obliterated. It has been a past century of utter SHAME that Muslims across the world have so far failed to come together and work together towards shared benefits. The Islamic Ummah must rise and prevail.

Q: How do you see Western media cover when it comes to conflicts in Palestine?

A: The mainstream Western media, particularly the New York Times and Washington Post, are still spouting the same garbage about Palestine and Iran and the Middle East (West Asia) generally. It is so predictable and ignorant. However, there are a few fair media outlets in the West and a handful of superb reporters and thinkers and writers, even a few in the U.S., who do understand the real dynamics underway and are not afraid, to tell the truth. More and more, we will see this going forward as more Western citizens wake up to the realities in the Middle East (West Asia). One big problem is that Americans and Brits and others generally have been dumbed way down by the usual media gibberish and propaganda that they understand very little.

The concern today is that President Biden, perhaps senile but certainly under the Zionist influence, is still saying what we have heard so often when "Israel" has erupted in violence: "Israel has a right to defend itself." But by murdering civilians in Gaza and the West Bank? What a joke that is.

Q: Why do successive administrations in the U.S. try to turn a blind eye to Israeli crimes?

A: Successive U.S. administrations are corrupted by their members' own ignorance, various Israel lobbies like AIPAC, and money. It is totally corrupted. AIPAC, for example, should be registered as a foreign agent liable to taxes in the U.S. One can posit that this corruption of governance could be the end of the U.S. influence eventually.

Q: How could Israel label its critics with anti-Semitism to marginalize them?

A: Anti-Semitism is a powerful concept when applied to others, given the Holocaust and so many references to it. Practically anyone who has advocated for the end of Apartheid has been smeared as anti-Semitic when all they have been against Zionism as a corrosive, criminal ideology. The conflation of Judaism and Zionism is utterly absurd, and many Jews in Iran would tell anyone if they were asked. Even Jimmy Carter has been called an anti-Semite for nearly 20 years! Most all decent journalists and writers focusing on the Middle East (West Asia) have been called anti-Semitic at one time or another. This is another crude absurdity. It is a ploy that is losing its effectiveness nowadays.
It is worth saying that Western governments that continue to spout the usual platitudes about "Israel" are slowly losing credibility even at home. But the process has been way too slow and many continue to suffer as a result. Zionism is failing, will fail.