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[TEASER] Palestine Pt. 17: Capital Accumulation at Any Cost w/ Jason Hickel

Mar 31, 2026
Jason Hickel, professor of international political economy and ecological economics and author on global inequality and degrowth. He links Palestinian liberation to the global fight against imperialism and capitalism. He discusses Palestine’s geopolitical role in West Asia, Israel as a U.S. proxy around the world, and how these dynamics tie into U.S. hegemony and the Second Cold War with China.
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INSIGHT

Palestine As A Strategic Linchpin

  • Palestinian liberation threatens the capitalist world system by removing a key U.S. proxy in West Asia and enabling regional sovereign development.
  • Jason Hickel explains that a liberated West Asia could control oil, trade outside the dollar, and build alliances with China, undermining Western capital dominance.
INSIGHT

Imperial Core Relies On Unequal Exchange

  • Capital accumulation in the imperial core depends on appropriating cheap labor and resources from the Global South to sustain consumption and profits.
  • Jason Hickel cites billions of tons of materials and trillions of dollars annually appropriated to show how Southern sovereign development would raise costs for the core.
INSIGHT

Israel As A Longstanding U.S. Proxy

  • The U.S. backed the Zionist project to create a military proxy in West Asia to counter Arab socialist and national liberation movements in the 1960s.
  • Jason Hickel traces Israel's role in destabilizing states and diverting resources to defense, blocking regional industrial development.
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