Al Mayadeen English

  • Ar
  • Es
  • x
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Features
  • Videos
    • NewsFeed
    • Video Features
    • Explainers
    • TV
    • Digital Series
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Features
Videos
  • NewsFeed
  • Video Features
  • Explainers
  • TV
  • Digital Series
Infographs
In Pictures
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Asia-Pacific
  • Europe
  • Latin America
  • MENA
  • Palestine
  • US & Canada
BREAKING
Palestinian media: Israeli occupation launches airstrike in eastern Gaza City.
Reuters, citing White House: Hungary received a one-year exemption from US sanctions that prohibit the import of Russian energy resources.
Local sources: An explosive device detonated in Bir Hasna, east of Al-Abbasiya in the Palmyra countryside, Syria, causing injuries and material damage.
Palestinian resistance to hand over Israeli captive body at 9 pm local time.
Syrian media: Israeli occupation forces entered the Quneitra countryside and set up a checkpoint between the village of Ufania and Khan Arnabeh to inspect civilian vehicles.
Palestinian Ministry of Health: Two children killed by the gunfire of Israeli occupation forces in the town of al-Judeira, occupied al-Quds, and their bodies are being withheld
Iranian Foreign Ministry: We express our solidarity with the Lebanese government and people in the face of these criminal attacks and our support for the legitimate resistance
The Iranian Foreign Ministry stressed that the United Nations, the international community, and regional countries bear responsibility for confronting what it described as "Israel’s" growing tendency to ignite wars
Iranian Foreign Ministry: We strongly condemn the Israeli entity's extensive military aggression against Lebanon
Japanese Prime Minister: No confirmations regarding damage caused by the North Korean missile

The Shackle of Western Non-meaningful Narrative

  • Alastair Crooke Alastair Crooke
  • Source: Al Mayadeen
  • 13 Jul 2021 21:39
  • 4 Shares
4 Min Read

Biden's narratives will remain as fantasies, which cannot be acted out in reality. That is to say, they cannot be acted out without starting a major Middle East war – one that would threaten the very existence of 'Israel'.

  • x
  • The Shackle of Western Non-meaningful Narrative

When the outgoing Israeli President met with Biden in the Oval Office last month, all the Global Establishment’s ‘trigger narratives’ were on display: The US enforced ‘global order’; the bolstering of the anti-Iranian Arab alliance; the boxing-in of Iran’s nuclear push; arresting Iran’s acceleration towards the weapons threshold – and Iran ‘will never reach a nuclear weapon device on ‘my’ (i.e. Biden’s) watch’.

It sounds as tough. It resonates at home, as the US leading the world ‘from the front’. It is, however, all just the loud clashing of cymbals – for Team Biden cannot, in fact, actuate any of these narratives. They remain as fantasies, which cannot be acted out in reality:  That is to say, they cannot be acted out without starting a major Middle East war – one that would threaten the very existence of 'Israel'.

The global order has faltered, and its ‘values’ no longer compel emulation; Iran can no longer be forced into a 'nuclear containment box’ – and just how would Biden ensure (without a major regional war) that there will be no Iranian ‘weapon’ on his watch?  It is the same with other regional boasts: The US will ‘kick-start’ a two-state solution for the Palestinians, and Assad must be held accountable for 'killing his own people.'

How would Biden ensure a Palestinian State?  And, beyond turning Syria into a smoking desert – how will he force the Syrians to abandon their leader?

This goes to the crux of the Mid-East dilemma:  The region has transformed over the last four years; the world is striking off in new directions, yet none of this can be addressed – none of this truth is directly ‘looked in the eye’ in western discourse, because of the sanctity of these stale shibboleths.  And since it cannot be spoken of, or thought about critically in the West - the ability of the region to move forward is gravely attenuated. 

Here is the problem: When the Establishment finally ousted Trump – and its ‘New Normal’ was proclaimed - we (the world) were already thoroughly befuddled through living a reality in which facts no longer mattered at all, where things that never happened, nonetheless took place officially. And other things that obviously happened, never happened - not officially, at least. It transpired the latter lacked a grounding in ‘science’, and therefore merited condemnation as far-Right extremism, or conspiracy theories; or fake news - or whatever – despite the fact that people knew that they weren’t fake. And they could see that. 

Related News

Kyrgyzstan’s forgotten colour revolution

Zionists target the US MAGA movement amid evolving 'influencer' strategy

Well, it is clear from Biden’s narrative, that ‘his masters’ do not at all, want to think through - or address - the new strategic realities of the Region.  They do not care for any searching examination of its’ new circumstance. They want, rather, to go in the opposite direction to epistemological purity. They seek to generate a lot of contradictory realities; that is not just contradictory ideologies, but mutually exclusive realities, which could not possibly simultaneously exist, and which of course serve only further to confuse people. 

The aim is to ‘unvalue’ all remaining national values, untether national cohesion – for its logical objective is not to author a new ideology or narrative (it doesn’t need that); but, rather, to prolong a single global, mercantilist order. 

Of course, even the White House still needs its ‘narrative’. But the point here – any Establishment narrative – is to draw a Maginot line, a defensive ideological boundary, between ‘the truth’ as defined by the ruling classes, and with that of any other ‘truth’, that contradicts their own narrative.

The credentialed ‘managerial classes’ (such as run Brussels and staff Congress), know that their worldly success is, in large part, attainable by their enthusiasm for official narratives.  And their collective hope is that the espousal of ‘correct narrative’ assures them an enduring safe space. On one side of this ‘Maginot Line’, then, there are safety and certain advancement; but on its obverse side, lie social and professional stigmatization, and the end to a career.

There lies the crux of it.  The Middle East, (in company with other regions), is held shackled by this cage of deliberately nonsensical narratives.  Until the meta-narrative of a global order, backed by US ‘muscle’ - and the subordinate narrative of a guaranteed Israeli ‘edge’ over the Muslim world, finally fractures, the region seems condemned to enduring crisis. 

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Mayadeen’s editorial stance.
  • United States
  • Israel
  • Middle East
  • Joe Biden
  • Iran
Alastair Crooke

Alastair Crooke

Director of Conflicts Forum; Former Senior British Diplomat; Author.

Most Read

All
It is no secret that removing Russia from Syria in preparation for isolating it in Libya and Africa is a Western goal. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

Will Damascus be willing to pay the price to restore relations with Moscow?

  • Feature
  • 25 Oct 2025
The war for the Conservative mind is in full flow, but it is already showing signs of coming off the rails. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

Zionists target the US MAGA movement amid evolving 'influencer' strategy

  • Opinion
  • 5 Nov 2025
In the Zionist regime’s thinking, now is a historic opportunity to exterminate all those who resist it, eliminate Gaza entirely, and impose uncontested dominance over the region. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)

What is the Israeli strategy in Gaza?

  • Opinion
  • 28 Oct 2025
DeVore believed “ideally”, a “major national gun rights” organisation in the US, such as the National Rifle Association “or one of its rivals” would “play a coordinating role.” (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab el-Hajj)

Leaked: Britain’s Ukrainian sniper training plot

  • Opinion
  • 29 Oct 2025

Coverage

All
Gaza: An Epic of Resilience and Valor

More from this writer

All
The Nakedness of EU ‘Geo-political’ Ambitions Will Be Revealed - As the Ukraine War Melts Away

The Nakedness of EU ‘Geo-political’ Ambitions Will Be Revealed - As the Ukraine War Melts Away

The Slow-Motion Advance to the Edge of the Abyss

The Slow-Motion Advance to the Edge of the Abyss

Already, "Israel" has the White House committed to support an Israeli military operation against Hezbollah. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Zeinab El-Hajj)

Does 'Israel' want war?

The European Mutiny: The Consequences are Just Beginning

The European Mutiny: The Consequences are Just Beginning

Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • x
  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS