Bonaparte comes to Palestine

History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. – Marx

Fall of the republicans

Reagan was a dumb but great actor. The neocons in Chicago wrote the script. It had taken 40 years to defeat Keynesianism. But the US was still hampered by the military strength of the Soviet Union. Like Jimmy Carter, Reagan tried to defeat Persia but could not. So the spooks came up with an idea, we’ll get Saddam to do the job for us. Rumsfeld and his cronies went to work.

Tragedy

United States provided Iraq with intelligence, economic assistance, and military materiel, including chemicals and technology sent by American companies to Iraq for use in Chemical Ali’s extermination campaign. The US chemical giant Alcolac exported thiodiglycol used to manufacture mustard gas and poison Iranian soldiers defending their country.

Over one million Iranian lives, many of whom were child soldiers, were lost. No distinctive victory on either side, as if the death toll was not enough, the neocons decided to invade Iraq and steal the oil. This cost a million Iraqi lives. There was so much betrayal and turbulence that led to the Arab Spring costing even more lives and ultimate defeat of popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria. Throughout this period, Israel dominated the region with constant war and attacks on Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq Yemen, and Iran.

There followed the fall of dual power between the Soviet Union and the US. Imperialism won out.

The long crisis in capitalism slowed momentarily.

In The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Karl Marx analysed how a political figure could arise claiming to stand above parties and classes during a period when institutions of the state lost authority.

The second coming

Louis Bonaparte exploited divisions within French society after the revolutions of 1848, presenting himself as the embodiment of national unity while balancing between competing social forces. This was the end of liberty, equality, and fraternity announced during the French Revolution.

In 1799 his uncle Napoleon had sacked Jaffa in Palestine ruthlessly executing all but a few prisoners-of-war.

Trump’s rise occurred under very different historical conditions, yet similar themes appear. Not since Bonaparte has anyone sacked lackeys with less ceremony than Trump.

Decapitation

Trump II purged these members of the executive:

Pam Bondi — Attorney General — fired April 2026
Kristi Noem — Secretary of Homeland Security — fired March 2026
Caleb Vitello — Acting ICE Director — removed/reassigned early 2025
Todd Lyons — Acting ICE leadership — departed 2026 (resignation/exit)
Lisa Cook — Federal Reserve Board Governor — attempted removal (not successfully sacked)
Joe Kent — National Counterterrorism Center Director — resigned 2026

Decades of neoliberal globalisation, endless wars, financial crises, and political disillusionment weakened confidence in the state.

Sections of the working and middle classes, particularly in deindustrialised regions, became hostile to political elites associated with the US one-party-state with two right wings. Trump presented himself as an outsider opposed to the “establishment,” while simultaneously drawing support from powerful sections of capital (tech bros) and the Republican Party.

Trump and the Epstein class moved in overlapping wealthy social circles in places such as New York City and Palm Beach during the 1990s and early 2000s. Trump later claimed they had fallen out and said Epstein had been banned from Mar-a-Lago. While the New York Times was recycling Zionist hasbara (lies) about mass rape on 7 October they have been two squeamish to recite the depravities of the Epstein class (so far).

Trump constantly claimed to be the consummate deal maker but was unable to establish any lasting order. Instability and chaos reign. Then came another war on Iran, prompted by U.S interests in the region and by Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Israeli response to an open air prison breakout in Gaza on the 7th of October 2023 was to expand so that the greater Israel project became a project without borders that could extend into Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Gaza.

This was a godsend to Trump and the Republicans, because it spelled the end and demise of the Democrats who had spent their lives cultivating elitism alongside the Zionist lobby within their own party.

Louis Bonaparte, the ultimate buffoon, had arrived on the American stage, claiming—bizarrely—recognition and honours for achievements that were never his, projecting a sense of authority and success detached from any real accomplishment.

Trump demanded a Nobel Peace Prize for his interventions in multiple wars, including against Russia, Yemen, Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran, none of his own creation but claiming authority over all.

Nationalism

The United States invented nationalism with the slogan liberty and fraternity during its war of independence against Britain. Later, the French went one better by adding égalité.

Gaza turned the world against the United States and Israel.

Chinese goods have begun a move towards Asia even in the West. The Chinese republic makes better cars, faster trains, bigger dams, better bridges plus a lot of sought after consumer goods.

Worldwide poverty is swinging people back to social democracy even in Britain, the home of aristocrats and monarchs. Keir Stamer is dead, long live the king.

Betrayal

In desperation, the United States tried decapitation. Trump boastfully assassinated the entire leadership of Iran. The Islamic Republic held firm and played its Trump card, the Straits of Hormuz, with 20% of the world’s fossil fuels passing through it. Trump was forced to call off the bombing. Editors of the Oxford dictionary are in a panic train to redefine ‘ceasefire’. Both in Lebanon, Gaza or even in the Persian Gulf the term has become meaningless.  Trump enabled Netanyahu to demolish southern Lebanon in the same way Israel and the United States had done in Gaza. Sectarian differences between Shia, Sunni, Maronite, and Greek Orthodox communities have thawed but some dream for little Lebanon.

The resistance is desperately defending villages in Lebanon and camps in Gaza. Few have come to their aid. And others plot against them. The resistance has changed the world. Opinion is better informed and more supportive of Palestine despite Zionists’ lie that the pro-Palestine movement is Iran driven.

Palestinian flags fly worldwide.

Ian Curr, 23 June 2026

Reference

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx @ https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/?utm_source=chatgpt.com