The war launched by the Zionist state against Palestine cannot be resolved on the basis of simply a defence of Palestine, against the Holocaust that the Zionists seek to inflict upon them. A war by other Arab states, against the Zionist state, would, itself, be reactionary, as with any other war fought between capitalist states. Only a global civil war of the global working-class against the global ruling-class can provide a progressive solution. As Marx noted, in relation to The Civil War in France, the capitalist state cannot be simply reformed, or its function “improved”. Instead, it must be smashed, and a workers' state established in its place. The Zionist state is a capitalist/imperialist state, and so it too must be smashed, not via war conducted by neighbouring capitalist states, but by a revolutionary civil war undertaken by Israeli workers, and alongside it, a revolutionary war by workers in neighbouring states, to overthrow their own capitalist ruling classes.
But, what the Zionist war against Palestine has shown, is also the sham, hypocritical nature of bourgeois-democracy itself, as witnessed by the uncritical, unconditional support for the war crimes committed by the Zionist state, not only from the leaders of imperialist governments in the US, UK, and EU, but also from the leaders of the so called workers' parties, in all those imperialist heartlands, just as they also supported the corrupt, anti-working-class regime of Zelensky in Ukraine. That support has not only been confined to the main bourgeois-workers parties, but to large sections of the so called “left” too, that has descended into petty-bourgeois nationalism, and social imperialism.
There is a simple reason that the so called “democracies” have been full throated in their support for the war crimes committed by the Zionist state, which has already seen over 1,000 Palestinian children slaughtered in Gaza, this last week alone, but which, actually only adds to the total of Palestinian children slaughtered by Zionists over the last 75 years. It is that, for these imperialists, they may think that the Zionists are “bastards, but they are our bastards”, to paraphrase a previous US President. Britain first promised Zionists a state, in 1917, for its own strategic interests, and, then, reneged on that promise, for its own strategic interests, whilst after WWII, the US, as it sought to replace European colonialism's role in the Middle East, and access to cheap oil, threw its weight behind the Zionist project, establishing the Zionist state as a permanent, military outpost, in the region, from which it could extend its iron fist.
But, ends cannot be divorced from means, as one group of Zionist, social-imperialists reminded us recently. The ends of Zionism were always clear. It was, and remains a racist, exclusivist, and colonialist ideology, whose objective was the creation of such a racist, exclusivist, and colonialist, confessional state. Originally, it was not particularly bothered where that state was, so long as it facilitated that end goal, but the idea of establishing it in Palestine, as opposed to the other places considered, such as Uganda, Argentina and so on, had obvious advantages, as it allowed the Zionists to make mystical and mythical references to their tie to the land of King David.
Wherever such a racist and colonialist state had been established, the Zionists would have been driven to seek to expand its borders, until it was seen as big enough to meet its requirements. Establishing it in Palestine, necessarily stealing, violently, the land from the Palestinians already living there, simply facilitated that, by these mythical references to King David, themselves reinforced by its imperialist backers, and purveyed into the minds of their populations, by the imperialist media, and facilitated by the myths pumped into the heads of western populations, from birth, by the religious establishment. The reality, of course, was that, there was no large Jewish state, created by King David, in an era when nearly all of the peoples in the area lived the lives of nomads, shepherds and small farmers. And, whatever, state might have existed, cased to exist thousands of years ago, as Jews spread, in the diaspora across the globe. Jews in Palestine, constituted a very small proportion of the population, and even, today, 60% of Jews live outside Israel. As many live in the US, alone, as live in Israel.
The ends of Zionism, were to create such a Zionist state, based upon its racist, colonialist ideology, and those ends determined its means. From the start the Zionists used racist and violent means to wage a communalist war against the Palestinians, living in Palestine, in an attempt at ethnic cleansing, in order to steal their land. Their ideology was quite clear. From the start, their methods were those of petty-bourgeois nationalism, and terrorism. That terrorism was not only used against Palestinians, but also against Britain, and, when, the Zionists of the Irgun split, it was only on the basis of who they thought would best serve their interests after WWII. Both factions were fascist, in their ideology, and most notably so in the case of the Lehi Group (Stern Gang).
They sought an alliance with the Nazis, and with fascist Italy, where Stern went to train. Stern also proposed recruiting 40,000 Jews from occupied Europe to invade Palestine with German support to oust the British. On 11 January 1941, Vice Admiral Ralf von der Marwitz, the German Naval attaché in Turkey, filed a report (the "Ankara document") conveying an offer by Lehi to "actively take part in the war on Germany's side" in return for German support for "the establishment of the historic Jewish state on a national and totalitarian basis, bound by a treaty with the German Reich."
As Trotsky, wrote, in 1940, of Zionism, as an ideology, in general,
“The attempt to solve the Jewish question through the migration of Jews to Palestine can now be seen for what it is, a tragic mockery of the Jewish people. Interested in winning the sympathies of the Arabs who are more numerous than the Jews, the British government has sharply altered its policy toward the Jews, and has actually renounced its promise to help them found their “own home” in a foreign land. The future development of military events may well transform Palestine into a bloody trap for several hundred thousand Jews. Never was it so clear as it is today that the salvation of the Jewish people is bound up inseparably with the overthrow of the capitalist system.”
But, those military events, and subsequent development of US strategic interests, as against those of the USSR, which sought allies amongst the newly developing bourgeois Arab nationalist regimes in Egypt, Syria, Libya and Iraq, saw US imperialism throw its weight behind Zionism, turning Palestine into a bloody trap for millions of Palestinians, and, as US imperialism now dominated UK and European imperialism, they were also drawn in behind it, as defenders of Zionism, and its racist, colonialist ideology.
The racist, colonialist ends of Zionism, which determined its means of achieving those ends, by terrorist violence, by the ethnic cleansing and genocidal attacks on Palestinians, driving from their land and into huge refugee camps, in neighbouring territories, and Gaza, the introduction of police state methods in Israel itself, and a continual need, to expand its borders, whilst depriving Palestinians of equal political rights, even inside Israel, let alone in the occupied territories, now, also, became the means that imperialism, itself, had to defend, and act as apologists for.
No matter what government held office in Israel from the right-wing Israeli Labour Party, to the right-wing incarnations of Likud, and so on on, what remained the same was this underlying racism and colonialism of Zionism. Moreover, as imperialism simply apologised for Zionism, and its continued stealing of Palestinian land in the West Bank, that simply encouraged a further move in that direction by the Zionist state, and encouragement of more hard line Zionists, from across the globe, into Palestine, to become settlers, backed by the Zionist military apparatus to steal yet further land, which, thereby, fuelled the proportion of the population comprised of these ever more rabid, right-wing, racists, consolidating the position of ever more rabid, right-wing racist politicians, such as Netanyahu, Ben-Gvir, and so on, to the point, whereby, when more moderate Jews, opposed Netanyahu, he felt confident enough, like his friend Trump, to launch his fascist coup. But, unlike Trump, who faces the opposition of the ruling class and its state, Netanyahu, has the support of the Zionist state, whose existence depends on a continuation of those racist and colonialist policies.
The US Marxist, Oliver Cromwell Cox, noted that racism only arises, as a result of the development of bourgeois ideology and its claims of equality. In pre-bourgeois societies, when the idea of equality did not exist, and society was divided into a series of ranks and social estates, there was no need to justify why some people were treated as unequal. But, bourgeois ideology that rests upon the idea of equality of all, needs to explain why it then treats colonial slaves, as not being equal, or even worthy of freedom. Its answer is racism, to claim that some people are sub-human.
Imperialism, as opposed to colonialism, tends to move away from that, for the simple reason that rather than seeking to establish colonial dominion over peoples, it seeks instead to simply expand single markets, and to exploit labourers, not as colonial slaves, but as industrial wage workers, in the same way it does in the developed capitalist economies. But, in order to justify its full-throated support for Zionism, and its genocidal attacks on Palestinians, its repeated war crimes, in pursuit of its ends, imperialism, itself, has to resort to that same racism, once more.
It must declare that Palestinian Lives Do Not Matter, or, certainly, do not matter as much as Jewish lives. (Hence, even carrying Palestinian flags are deemed to be "anti-Semitic") It was the basis of the fake anti-Semitism campaign waged over several years, not just, as a tactic against the Left inside the Labour Party, but more widely, in order to make impossible any criticism of the Zionist state, making anti-Zionism synonymous with anti-Semitism, which, in itself, is anti-Semitic, because by extension it equates all Jews with Zionism, and the Zionist state, and so makes all Jews responsible for the actions of Zionism, and the Zionist state!
The sham, hypocritical nature of bourgeois-democracy, is, thereby, exposed, as it justifies Zionist racism, its genocidal attacks on Palestinians, its refusal to even call Zionist war crimes illegal, but instead, to repeatedly state that it stands shoulder to shoulder with that Zionism, and to supply it with even more weapons so as to carry out those war crimes! In that is also seen the real issues that were obscured by Brexit. When it comes to defending the interests of imperialism, on a global scale, there is no difference between UK imperialism and EU imperialism. Whether it is Biden, Sunak, or Von Der Leyen, the class interests of the bourgeoisie are the same. The real issue, obscured by Brexit nationalism, is not, whether this or that capitalist state, or association of states is the solution to workers problems, but that the task of workers is to overthrow them all, and to erect in their place a workers' state. The EU is only preferable to Britain, in facilitating the solidarity of workers across it, in common struggle against capital, and against a single state.
The mass demonstrations across the globe, and particularly in the US, Britain and EU capitals, involving millions of workers in support of the Palestinians, are a start, but, the implication of such demonstrations is that they can somehow influence their own states policies towards the Zionist state, and the Holocaust it is carrying out, as it seeks a final solution to the Palestinian problem. They cannot. Imperialism, may seek to get the Zionist state to moderate its war crimes, for public relations purposes, but that is too little, too late, and, as seen for the last 75 years, it will not stop the continued oppression of Palestinians, or the racist policies of the Zionist state, nor its continued stealing of Palestinian lands. Imperialism, has done nothing to reverse the expansion of the Zionist state into the Golan Heights, for example, despite UN resolutions, let alone the continuation of the policy of expanding illegal settlements in the West Bank.
As Trotsky put it,
"Where and when has an oppressed proletariat “controlled” the foreign policy of the bourgeoisie and the activities of its arm? How can it achieve this when the entire power is in the hands of the bourgeoisie? In order to lead the army, it is necessary to overthrow the bourgeoisie and seize power. There is no other road. But the new policy of the Communist International implies the renunciation of this only road.
When a working class party proclaims that in the event of war it is prepared to “control” (i.e., to support) its national militarism and not to overthrow it, it transforms itself by this very thing into the domestic beast of capital. There is not the slightest ground for fearing such a party: it is not a revolutionary tiger but a trained donkey. It may be kept in starvation, flogged, spat upon it – it will nevertheless carry the cargo of patriotism. Perhaps only from time to time it will piteously bray: “For God’s sake, disarm the Fascist leagues.” In reply to its braying it will receive an additional blow of the whip. And deservingly so!"
If we are to prevent the war crimes being committed by the Zionist state, backed and armed by imperialism, demonstrations, which amount merely to a toothless appeal to imperialism to desist, are useless. First of all, we need workers in the imperialist states, to black all work on military production; we need workers to black any military supplies going to the Zionist state, or to the imperialist forces being sent into the Mediterranean.
Rather than just calling for more and bigger demonstrations, we need to be calling for a General Strike across the US, Britain and EU, demanding an end to their support for the Zionist war crimes, and, instead, organising support for the Palestinians suffering a Holocaust in Gaza. We should ensure that such General Strikes are linked to the attacks on workers cost of living inflicted on them, by the policies of imperialism, including that resulting from the imperialist war being fought against Russia, in Ukraine, and the huge rise in energy prices caused by the boycott and sanctions against Russian oil and gas exports.
But, there are two sides to that reactionary war in Ukraine too, and, now is the time for Russian workers to also rise up against their own oligarchic ruling-class, and the regime of Putin. Putin can hardly criticise the actions of Zionism, given his own actions in Ukraine, any more than imperialism can criticise Putin for his actions in Ukraine, whilst giving carte blanche to Zionist occupation of the West Bank, and its war crimes in Gaza that have already caused far more deaths and casualties than has Russia's attacks on Ukraine.
The Zionists, and US state are seeking to shift the burden on to Egypt, as the Zionist state seeks to ethnically cleanse Northern Gaza, and deport millions of Palestinians to Southern Gaza, and then, into Egypt, via the Rafah Crossing, just as in the past, as it stole Palestinian land, it deported them, as refugees, into Lebanon, Jordan and so on. Of course, in so doing, it continues to bomb civilian convoys on their way South, as well as having bombed the Rafah Crossing. A responsibility lies on the Egyptian working-class, which began to get off its knees in 2011, to mobilise now, in support of the Palestinians. Egyptian workers should forcibly open the border to Gaza, and ensure that supplies are provided to Palestinians, providing water, food, clothing, and medical supplies, but also military supplies.
Egyptian workers, via their organisations can organise military support, and the provision of arms to Palestinian workers, to defend themselves. A part of that involves work in the Egyptian military itself, to ensure that ordinary rank and file soldiers, sailors and air force are mobilised against the regime of Al Sisi, which itself acts as an agent of US imperialism. Now is the time for Egyptian workers to finish the job started in 2011, when they overthrew the regime of Mubarak, but this time, they must ensure that the power resides in their own hands, via the creation of workers and soliders soviets. The same is true in Lebanon and Syria.
But, the primary responsibility resides with workers in Israel itself. Over recent months, millions of Israeli citizens have taken to the streets against the fascist regime of Netanyahu, both Israeli Jews and Arabs. A large part of the responsibility for the current situation, indeed, resides with Netanyahu's regime, for its intensification of attacks on Palestinians, and creation of illegal settlements, as well as with the imperialist regimes that facilitated him in doing so.
Even sections of the Israeli military took to the streets against Netanyahu. Now, is the time, for Israeli workers, Jew and Arab alike, to come together, and engage in a General Strike, to bring down Netanyahu's regime, and to make the Holocaust it is inflicting on Gaza impossible to continue. But, so long as a Zionist state exists in Palestine, any such cessation will only be temporary. The goal must be to smash that Zionist state, in the same way we seek to smash all other capitalist states, and to erect in their place a Workers State, a United Socialist States of the Middle East and North Africa.
As soon as workers in the Middle East, begin to rise up to defend Palestine, and to engage in a civil war against their own ruling class, the current sabre rattling of imperialism, with its deployment of war ships to the Mediterranean, would turn into attempts to suppress those workers. That is why, workers in the EU, in Britain, and in the US, must be prepared to rise up themselves, and to take their own direct action against the imperialist war machine that is driving towards global imperialist war, as shown not only with its action in Ukraine, in the Pacific against China, but also in its actions and support for Zionist war crimes in the Middle-East. The working-class, must organise, now, to stop that war drive, by the preparation of General Strikes.
Everywhere, that will also involve cleansing the labour movement of all racists, Zionists, social-imperialists, and social-patriots. That not only means removing the obvious elements such as the leaders such as Biden, Starmer, Sholz and so on, but all of those like the AWL and the rest of the supporters of the Ukraine Solidarity Committee that lined up as apologists for imperialism.
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