Israel, corporate power and sham democracies
JVL Introduction
Jonathan Cook’s wideranging article focuses on the role of politicians and why they change from being progressive to reactionary once near to, or in, power. He argues that this is because “… the only route to power for any individual in our societies is by subordinating their personal beliefs and values to the interests of a rapacious, predatory class of capitalists.”
He looks in some detail at Israel, at the remorse from former leaders of the Shin Bet, their prediction that something like October 7th 2023 would happen because of the brutality of occupation, through Corporations that poison the land and water as well as exploit poorer countries to the dramatic about turns for the British Home Secretary and the Prime Minister back to why Israel is useful to corporations and finally to the reality of what is possible for an Andy Burnham as he tries to get back to Westminster and become PM himself.
We need to understand why there is resistance to change nearly everyone agrees we need and then resist that.
LL
This article was originally published by Jonathan Cook's Substack on Wed 20 May 2026. Read the original here.
Western leaders play their part in our charade democracies. Can you spot the tell?
The super-rich and their vassals are deeply invested in the system because it richly rewards them. They’ll deploy everything they can – from the media to the ‘security’ forces – to prevent change
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A fine article and a sad commentary on the state of our so-called democracy.
Good article.
However, I very much doubt that Shabana Mahmood was ever seriously concerned about the issue of Palestine. How many times did she protest on this issue?
The following year, 2015, she joined the shadow cabinet under the interim leadership of Harriet Harman. But she resigned from the front bench immediately following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader:
“Following Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader, Mahmood resigned from the position and declined to serve in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet. She supported Owen Smith in the attempt to replace Corbyn at the 2016 leadership election.” (Wikipedia).
Now, this is rather curious behaviour for someone who was supposedly concerned about the issue of Palestine.