Unaffordable democracy

You can't afford democracy. That is the lesson the United States and Europe are teaching Palestinians. You may have your choice of government, but it will cost you. You may wish to insist on justice and keep repeating that Israel occupied Palestinian territory illegally, but it will win you no friends. If you want to succeed, throw your beliefs and principles over board and go with the money.

The lesson for the wider public world-wide is that the people are powerless and their elected governments are mere gatekeepers whilst we are governed by an elite with no respect for such aspirations as self-governance and freedom of belief and expression. In a recent programme on BBC's Radio 4 commentators made a comparison between the City of London and the East India Company, each of which representing a private interest group acting as a de-facto government. So as to not implicate the government of the day they conduct their global meddling under the subterfuge of trade and commerce. Should they run into difficulties, however, the political government is always there to help them out. The power elites know how to diversify in order to look after the interests of the oligarchy.

Whether it is the withholding of funding for the Palestinians in the hope that they would turn against the government they just elected (a serious miscalculation which indicates that our rulers have learned nothing from history and do not understand what motivates people under occupation), whether it is the creation of the European super state managed by an unelected commission, or whether it is the manipulation of political parties through funding and loans as in Britain, they get the policies they are paying for. We may think ourselves far advanced today from the days of colonialism, but we've really just got used to wearing blinkers. As the Iraq invasion under the spurious excuse of the danger from weapons of mass destruction has shown, the fight for resources is as fierce today as it was then, and whether we have an elected government or not, clandestine and open foreign adventures continue unabashed.

Now and then our governments see their greatest threat in the people whom they are meant to represent. Much of their effort is spent on keeping them in the dark at least until after the event, like with the so-called extraordinary rendition flights. The idiosyncrasies of the electoral system - which is also dependent on big finance - ensure that it is rare indeed that a government is in tune with its people. When it is, like in Palestine, it poses an unwelcome challenge to those who are used to be obeyed and must be starved out of existence.