mardi 13 janvier 2009

'. . . Still occupying/though you forget...'

The Israeli state's present aggression starting with the seige at the latest, is working out pretty well. In all likelihood, the Israeli leadership have got a end point in view - viz. the expulsion of as many Palestinians from Gaza (and who knows where next) as possible, by making their lives intolerable, and for them to end up absorbed in wretched refugee camps scattered all over the Middle East.

This aim is so outrageous that it has to be withheld from MSM opinion for as long as possible, and various pretexts lobbed about. Far from being weak, the Israeli state is too strong. After all they have quelled and/or co-opted the leaderships of all surrounding 'hostile' neighbours. They can do pretty much as they want, (though I doubt they will bomb Iran). Pipes' analysis is therefore as wrong as much else he comes out with. To say "For this reason, I see Israel as a lost polity. . . " is just nonsense. A glance at a map showing the growth of Israel since 1949 shows a state in full rigour, witness the domestic support for the current slaughter, certainly not a lost polity.

This is in no way to condone the appalling Israeli actions in Gaza, but to (try to) reach the conclusion that the current war on the Palestinians is not a war of religion but a war of opressor against oppressed. I do not want to suggest that those under white phosphorous fire as we speak should pray for the coming international working class uprising, but really what else is there if we, we/they/all do not act in this way? There is neither a military alternative nor a bourgeois political solution. In the mean time, the imperative is to protest but not underestimate the nature of the enemy; of which the Israeli working class is not a part.