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.
Showing posts with label palestine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label palestine. Show all posts
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
U.S. Stop Military Aid To Israel Now!!
Commentary
Repost of December 29, 2008 Entry
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.
Posted December 30, 2008
I should add a slogan here for anti-imperialist militants worldwide to take up. This is an episodic slogan appropriate now that Israel appears to be going full bore toward invasion of Gaza. U.S. Stop Military Aid To Israel Now! I would also add that our trade union friends should be raising the question of ‘hot-cargoing’ military shipments to Israel.
Note: As always when the question of Palestine takes center stage the local Zionists here in America are plowing ahead with their uncritical support for any and all Israeli military actions in Gaza (and elsewhere). Of particular notice is a comment made by one such supporter. When asked by a local reporter what his solution to the festering Palestinian question should be he answered-“I would drop an atomic bomb on Gaza and get rid of those bastards”. Well, that is plain enough. Not only does it tell us how far away a just solution is to the question but that yesterday’s former oppressed population, the Jews, are capable, or at least one of them is and I fear he is not alone, of working out their own xenophobic nationalist “final solution”. I would only add that the person interviewed should check his geography and, perhaps, a little physics, because an atomic bomb dropped in Gaza is going to have “blow back” into Israel. Big time. Of course, nationalists of every stripe can never be accused of rational thought when they are on their little hobbyhorses. More later.
Repost of December 29, 2008 Entry
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.
Posted December 30, 2008
I should add a slogan here for anti-imperialist militants worldwide to take up. This is an episodic slogan appropriate now that Israel appears to be going full bore toward invasion of Gaza. U.S. Stop Military Aid To Israel Now! I would also add that our trade union friends should be raising the question of ‘hot-cargoing’ military shipments to Israel.
Note: As always when the question of Palestine takes center stage the local Zionists here in America are plowing ahead with their uncritical support for any and all Israeli military actions in Gaza (and elsewhere). Of particular notice is a comment made by one such supporter. When asked by a local reporter what his solution to the festering Palestinian question should be he answered-“I would drop an atomic bomb on Gaza and get rid of those bastards”. Well, that is plain enough. Not only does it tell us how far away a just solution is to the question but that yesterday’s former oppressed population, the Jews, are capable, or at least one of them is and I fear he is not alone, of working out their own xenophobic nationalist “final solution”. I would only add that the person interviewed should check his geography and, perhaps, a little physics, because an atomic bomb dropped in Gaza is going to have “blow back” into Israel. Big time. Of course, nationalists of every stripe can never be accused of rational thought when they are on their little hobbyhorses. More later.
Monday, December 29, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
On the Palestinian Question
Commentary
I HATE to write about the Middle East conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Any half aware political person knows why without having to go into detail. Right? There are bad days with shots fired, hostages taken, rockets launched, separation walls built and tensions on both sides inflamed by their respective leaderships. Then it goes downhill from there. However in light of American President Bush’s ‘optimism’ about concluding a just peace and, moreover, some kind of peace treaty, before he leaves office a few words are in order.
The Israeli-Palestinian dispute is a classic example of the fate of interpenetrated peoples who both have the right to national self-determination but the exercise by one of which, however, in effect denies the other of its right. There are other such situations, like in Ireland, but today this conflict is the one that is front and center. I have mentioned at other times in discussing the right to national self-determination that it is not a supra-historic right but is rather a basic democratic right. Whether or when it is exercised depends on the state of the class struggle and whether it helps resolve the national question satisfactorily. And that, my friends, is the point. Socialist support the right to national self-determination in order to take the nagging national question off the agenda and put the class question to the fore. And that is basically all we ask of it. As a general proposition, self evident in the age of ‘globalization’, the nation state is obsolete as a political entity. However, they are easier to declare obsolete than to get rid of.
For the most the part in the year 2008 the national right to self-determination does no come up as a question for most states. Although no Zionist wants to hear this, in the context of the question of Israel’s right to national self-determination, in short its right to exist, is not seriously in question. There may be a great deal of bluster on all sides about this but when the deal goes down Israel is by far the dominant military power in the region and by that fact alone assures its continued existence. Moreover, the subject Palestinian people, despite their occasional military efforts to the contrary, do not represent any threat to the existence of the state of Israel.
That, dear reader, brings us back to President Bush’s, or for that matter any party’s, efforts today to ‘resolve’ the national question here. Let us be clear, we support measures that represent even a distorted expression of the Palestinian right to national self-determination like the bi-national state. However, at the risk of sounding utopian the hard reality is that the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is one of those that really cry out for a socialist solution that goes beyond the democratic question of national self-determination where the working people of the two countries create a bi-national state as part of a greater federation in the Middle East. Ya right, you say. Okay that does sound utopian today but YOU tell me another just and equitable way out. In any case, I forewarned you that I hate to write on this subject. Enough said.
I HATE to write about the Middle East conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Any half aware political person knows why without having to go into detail. Right? There are bad days with shots fired, hostages taken, rockets launched, separation walls built and tensions on both sides inflamed by their respective leaderships. Then it goes downhill from there. However in light of American President Bush’s ‘optimism’ about concluding a just peace and, moreover, some kind of peace treaty, before he leaves office a few words are in order.
The Israeli-Palestinian dispute is a classic example of the fate of interpenetrated peoples who both have the right to national self-determination but the exercise by one of which, however, in effect denies the other of its right. There are other such situations, like in Ireland, but today this conflict is the one that is front and center. I have mentioned at other times in discussing the right to national self-determination that it is not a supra-historic right but is rather a basic democratic right. Whether or when it is exercised depends on the state of the class struggle and whether it helps resolve the national question satisfactorily. And that, my friends, is the point. Socialist support the right to national self-determination in order to take the nagging national question off the agenda and put the class question to the fore. And that is basically all we ask of it. As a general proposition, self evident in the age of ‘globalization’, the nation state is obsolete as a political entity. However, they are easier to declare obsolete than to get rid of.
For the most the part in the year 2008 the national right to self-determination does no come up as a question for most states. Although no Zionist wants to hear this, in the context of the question of Israel’s right to national self-determination, in short its right to exist, is not seriously in question. There may be a great deal of bluster on all sides about this but when the deal goes down Israel is by far the dominant military power in the region and by that fact alone assures its continued existence. Moreover, the subject Palestinian people, despite their occasional military efforts to the contrary, do not represent any threat to the existence of the state of Israel.
That, dear reader, brings us back to President Bush’s, or for that matter any party’s, efforts today to ‘resolve’ the national question here. Let us be clear, we support measures that represent even a distorted expression of the Palestinian right to national self-determination like the bi-national state. However, at the risk of sounding utopian the hard reality is that the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is one of those that really cry out for a socialist solution that goes beyond the democratic question of national self-determination where the working people of the two countries create a bi-national state as part of a greater federation in the Middle East. Ya right, you say. Okay that does sound utopian today but YOU tell me another just and equitable way out. In any case, I forewarned you that I hate to write on this subject. Enough said.
Saturday, September 01, 2007
REINSTATE PROFESSOR NORMAN FINKELSTEIN
COMMENTARY
CONTROVERSIAL PROFESSOR FIRED BY DEPAUL UNIVERSITY
Hey, the situation in the so-called hallowed groves of academia is getting a little tense this summer, to say the least. First, they finally got controversial University of Colorado ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill. In July the Colorado Board of Regents acting on a recommendation by the school voted 8-1 to fire him. Ostensibly, as always, it was for some academic infractions but we know the real reason.
Now Professor Norman Finkelstein has had his contract with DePaul University canceled. Ostensibly for being ‘too controversial’. Where have we heard that before? The professor, son of Holocaust survivors, is known for his forthright views, as stated in his book Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History, that the State of Israel and others have used the Holocaust as a bloody flag to justify any and all repressive policies, including denial of the rights of Palestinians in Israel, the West Back and Gaza.
What is important here is that speech, academic speech in this case, is really what drove the DePaul Administration’s decision, as it did in the Churchill case. Aided here, no doubt, by the smear campaign of one Zionist zealot Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz. Free speech is the real issue and the one that all militants, leftists, and just plain old ordinary garden variety democrats should be howling to the rooftops over. One does not have to be in political agreement with the good professor to know that the whole point of the vaunted freedom of expression that we are desperately trying to defend against the yahoos only works when controversial expression is safeguarded. Otherwise it is just something nice for the bourgeois democrats to point to in their constitution. Thus, the spearhead of the free speech fight right now is to defend Professor Finkelstein. Reinstate Professor Finkelstein! Send messages of solidarity and support to Professor Finkelstein and to the DePaul University Administration now.
CONTROVERSIAL PROFESSOR FIRED BY DEPAUL UNIVERSITY
Hey, the situation in the so-called hallowed groves of academia is getting a little tense this summer, to say the least. First, they finally got controversial University of Colorado ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill. In July the Colorado Board of Regents acting on a recommendation by the school voted 8-1 to fire him. Ostensibly, as always, it was for some academic infractions but we know the real reason.
Now Professor Norman Finkelstein has had his contract with DePaul University canceled. Ostensibly for being ‘too controversial’. Where have we heard that before? The professor, son of Holocaust survivors, is known for his forthright views, as stated in his book Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History, that the State of Israel and others have used the Holocaust as a bloody flag to justify any and all repressive policies, including denial of the rights of Palestinians in Israel, the West Back and Gaza.
What is important here is that speech, academic speech in this case, is really what drove the DePaul Administration’s decision, as it did in the Churchill case. Aided here, no doubt, by the smear campaign of one Zionist zealot Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz. Free speech is the real issue and the one that all militants, leftists, and just plain old ordinary garden variety democrats should be howling to the rooftops over. One does not have to be in political agreement with the good professor to know that the whole point of the vaunted freedom of expression that we are desperately trying to defend against the yahoos only works when controversial expression is safeguarded. Otherwise it is just something nice for the bourgeois democrats to point to in their constitution. Thus, the spearhead of the free speech fight right now is to defend Professor Finkelstein. Reinstate Professor Finkelstein! Send messages of solidarity and support to Professor Finkelstein and to the DePaul University Administration now.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
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!
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!
ISRAEL OUT OF LEBANON NOW! DEFEND THE LEBANESE PEOPLE!
THE HELL WITH CEASEFIRES-IMMEDIATE ISRAELI WITHDRAWAL NOW!
UNITED STATES- STOP MILITARY AID TO THE ISRAELI OFFENSIVE!
ISRAEL OUT OF GAZA- DEFEND THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE!
COMMENTARY
When this writer started this blog (see below) in February, 2006 his intention was mainly to review books and make very occasional commentary that might be of interest to militant leftists in the struggle to change the world for the better. The events of the past several months have tended to reverse his priorities as an already dangerous world has only become more dangerous. As Karl Marx in the 19th century once remarked- men (updated in the 21st century for political correctness to mean humankind) make their own history although not always rationally or to their liking. Well, the events of this summer of 2006 are certainly not to this leftist’s liking. Here are some points leftists should ponder. Be forewarned. They aint pretty.
There is no need to go into the details of the current Israeli-Lebanese war. If any one reading this is not familiar with the events of the last several weeks in this Middle Eastern hotspot then nothing I can say here would aid those individuals. Informed leftists, however, need to take a position on the developments in the region. Leftist do not base their analysis of a war on who started it. Christ, if we had to do that here we would have support both sides or neither side because every nation state(or quasi-nation state as in the case of Hezbollah) can come up with more than ample ‘evidence’ that it is only acting in self-defense, expressing its right to self-determination etc, etc.. In short, the other guy started it.
Nor in this particular case are we concerned about a ‘proxy’ war being fought by Hezbollah on behalf of Iran and/ or Syria. Or Israel as a 'proxy' for American imperialism. These opponents have their own scores to settle. While Hezbollah has apparently long been supplied by Iran and/or Syria the forces on the ground are a substitute for a Lebanese national army in South Lebanon. This is in fact an old fight between these opponents. Only now it appears, one way or the other, it is going to be fought to the finish.
Israel is a modern, sub-imperialist capitalist state which has overwhelming military superiority in this contest. Lebanon, after the destructive events of the past 30 years, is barely a nation-state. Hezbollah’s militia, for all intents and purposes, stands in as the Lebanese national army in South Lebanon. Given the vast disproportion between the forces in dispute leftists are duty bound to stand in defense of the weaker force here- Hezbollah’s militia. A military victory here for Israel is not in the interest of the oppressed of the world, including Israel’s own working classes. As a practical matter militant leftists here must call for the American and other governments to stop military shipments to Israel. Now! I told you it wasn’t pretty.
I hope that I am not the only militant leftist who is feeling squeamish about the duty to defend Hezbollah’s militia against the Israeli onslaught. They are not even making a pretense that their actions are a ‘second front’ in aid of the beleaguered Palestinian people who are in desperate straits in Gaza and the West Bank. That would, at least, give us a little something to hang on to in defense of them. Moreover, Hezbollah, as I understand it, in Arabic means “Army of God”. Hell, militant leftists are in a bad way in the Middle East when the “Army of God” is the ‘progressive’ side in a conflict.
When the deal goes down Hezbollah is eventually the same force we will have to fight if we want to see a desperately needed socialist solution in the Middle East, as hard as that solution is to imagine today. If anyone needs a quick history lesson on this remember the kindred spirits of Hezbollah who, gladly assisted by the American government, fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980’s. Most of those fighters went on to form the Taliban. No, these are definitely not our people. However, that is another fight for another time. Right now in this situation this is what we are up against. Yes, we make our own history- but, damn, let’s start to set the terms of engagement around so we can at least support forces that can see past the 8th century. Enough said.
UNITED STATES- STOP MILITARY AID TO THE ISRAELI OFFENSIVE!
ISRAEL OUT OF GAZA- DEFEND THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE!
COMMENTARY
When this writer started this blog (see below) in February, 2006 his intention was mainly to review books and make very occasional commentary that might be of interest to militant leftists in the struggle to change the world for the better. The events of the past several months have tended to reverse his priorities as an already dangerous world has only become more dangerous. As Karl Marx in the 19th century once remarked- men (updated in the 21st century for political correctness to mean humankind) make their own history although not always rationally or to their liking. Well, the events of this summer of 2006 are certainly not to this leftist’s liking. Here are some points leftists should ponder. Be forewarned. They aint pretty.
There is no need to go into the details of the current Israeli-Lebanese war. If any one reading this is not familiar with the events of the last several weeks in this Middle Eastern hotspot then nothing I can say here would aid those individuals. Informed leftists, however, need to take a position on the developments in the region. Leftist do not base their analysis of a war on who started it. Christ, if we had to do that here we would have support both sides or neither side because every nation state(or quasi-nation state as in the case of Hezbollah) can come up with more than ample ‘evidence’ that it is only acting in self-defense, expressing its right to self-determination etc, etc.. In short, the other guy started it.
Nor in this particular case are we concerned about a ‘proxy’ war being fought by Hezbollah on behalf of Iran and/ or Syria. Or Israel as a 'proxy' for American imperialism. These opponents have their own scores to settle. While Hezbollah has apparently long been supplied by Iran and/or Syria the forces on the ground are a substitute for a Lebanese national army in South Lebanon. This is in fact an old fight between these opponents. Only now it appears, one way or the other, it is going to be fought to the finish.
Israel is a modern, sub-imperialist capitalist state which has overwhelming military superiority in this contest. Lebanon, after the destructive events of the past 30 years, is barely a nation-state. Hezbollah’s militia, for all intents and purposes, stands in as the Lebanese national army in South Lebanon. Given the vast disproportion between the forces in dispute leftists are duty bound to stand in defense of the weaker force here- Hezbollah’s militia. A military victory here for Israel is not in the interest of the oppressed of the world, including Israel’s own working classes. As a practical matter militant leftists here must call for the American and other governments to stop military shipments to Israel. Now! I told you it wasn’t pretty.
I hope that I am not the only militant leftist who is feeling squeamish about the duty to defend Hezbollah’s militia against the Israeli onslaught. They are not even making a pretense that their actions are a ‘second front’ in aid of the beleaguered Palestinian people who are in desperate straits in Gaza and the West Bank. That would, at least, give us a little something to hang on to in defense of them. Moreover, Hezbollah, as I understand it, in Arabic means “Army of God”. Hell, militant leftists are in a bad way in the Middle East when the “Army of God” is the ‘progressive’ side in a conflict.
When the deal goes down Hezbollah is eventually the same force we will have to fight if we want to see a desperately needed socialist solution in the Middle East, as hard as that solution is to imagine today. If anyone needs a quick history lesson on this remember the kindred spirits of Hezbollah who, gladly assisted by the American government, fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980’s. Most of those fighters went on to form the Taliban. No, these are definitely not our people. However, that is another fight for another time. Right now in this situation this is what we are up against. Yes, we make our own history- but, damn, let’s start to set the terms of engagement around so we can at least support forces that can see past the 8th century. Enough said.
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