On The Question Of Cease Fires

Commentary


As the reader is probably aware of by now the Israeli government, under whatever prodding from its international allies and pressure from worldwide outrage, has called a unilateral military cease fire (as of this writing) in its dispute with the Hamas-led government in Gaza. Given, the military and political realities, or for that matter the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza no one can be unhappy to see the slaughter stopped (over 1200 Palestinians killed, including many women and children, and thousand more injured and homeless. This, however, begs the question about the radical anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist position on cease fires. In short, where or when do we call for them and to whom do we address the question.

A cease fire, in the final analysis, reflects one option of many in a military situation. In the present case while we welcome a cease fire we did not call on Israel to do so. All of our sympathies here are with the beleaguered Palestinians, despite their Hamas political leadership. We called for military defense of the Hamas-led forces against Israel. We would have supported a cease fire called by those forces, if the military called for it as is apparent here with the disproportion of forces.

The real question for those of us who called for the defense of the Palestinian people is whether we contract out the question of a cease fire to one of more of the imperialist allies of Israel or some imperialist-dominated international agency, like the United Nations. No, we do not do that. As even a brief look at the sordid history of imperialist-brokered cease fires and other military maneuvers demonstrates, at the end of the day this neither does anything for the beleaguered forces we support nor does it resolve any of the questions that are on the historic agenda. All such efforts on the part of militants, well meaning or not, and there have been more than a few socialists who have called on these imperialist agencies, is a rather touching faith in these institutions. Some defense of the Palestinian people! More on this later, as this is hardly a fully worked out exposition on the matter.

Defend The Palestinian People!- Israel Hands Off Gaza!

Commentary

Ironically, and sadly, the entry originally scheduled for this space today was review of the film "The Visitor" a story of a Palestinian diaspora immigrant (from Syria)and his travails with the American immigration authorities. That film will be reviewed on January 11, 2009.

Israel Hands Off Gaza!-Military Victory To Hamas!

At this moment there is no need for some greatly detailed analysis of who or what went wrong in the Middle East that has caused Israel to rain hell down on the Palestinian people in Gaza. Now is the time to outline an anti-imperialist policy toward this unfolding struggle. As I write this entry Israeli bombs are falling on Gaza causing several hundred deaths, many injuries and much physical destruction, as can be expected when an advanced capitalist country puts the hammer down militarily on essentially defenseless people. Israel, moreover, appears to be preparing to launch ground forces into Gaza. I believe that that military possibility is only a matter of time. Israel Hands Off Gaza! Meanwhile American policy continues, as it has been throughout the Bush Administration, to let Israel run the show on its own terms (except, as was shown in Lebanon in 2006, on that little issue of America providing military materials to Israel on the fast track when things got tight).

I have mentioned before that a just solution to the Palestinian questions today seems far beyond any possible solution. That understanding, however, does not mean we have no policy when, as today, the Palestinian people are under the gun. Today we call, as we did in Lebanon with Hezbollah, for military victory to Hamas, even if we do so holding our noses. We have some things to settle with the Islamic fundamentalists of Hamas but that is for another day. Today, let’s be clear, the main enemy of the Palestinian people is Israel. An Israeli military victory, especially in the context of a new American presidential administration coming into power in a few weeks, only postpones a just solution to the national question in that area of the world. Military Victory To Hamas! More later.

ISRAEL OUT OF GAZA-DEFEND THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

COMMENTARY


As usual the Palestinian people are the odd people out now that the Israeli-Hezbollah war is raging and world attention is focused on that event. Nevertheless, the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza (and the West Bank, for that matter) continues to be desperate. Note well here, Hezbollah’s fight against Israel contains not even the fig leaf of a notion of a ‘second front’ in defense of the Palestinian people. As usual, everybody is sad about their plight but precious little is done about it. It is enough to emphasize here that the current situation once again graphically points out how fruitless it is to believe that a just solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict can ever be resolved short of a general socialist solution in the Middle East- and even then there will be problems, let us not kid ourselves on that score. In the short term, getting Israel out of all the occupied areas, releasing Palestinian governmental figures, and calling for an end to United States military aid to Israel is called for. DEFEND THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE! - ISRAEL OUT OF GAZA!