Which Strategy for the Palestinian Resistance?

Palestine-stone-throw

23-10-2023: The outbreak of a new wave of hostilities between Israel and Palestine has once again thrust this still unresolved conflict onto centre stage. Arguably, this was by design, given the fact that US imperialism’s proxy war on Russia via Ukraine had come to a grinding halt and could go no further. Even though the Israel/Palestine conflict has been simmering for some 75 years, the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7[1] perhaps set a stage which was predetermined. Nevertheless, the potential for a new regional or world war once again arises, to which working people the world over must respond. Imperialism cannot be allowed to continuously provoke and start wars which could cause a global catastrophe. Demonstrations have taken place throughout the globe, as millions in the “Global South” and the “Global North” march in defence of Palestine which is unquestionably the victim of a historic injustice. At the same time, the actions of Hamas have yet again raised the question of which tactics should and should not be used to redress the deepest forms of political repression.

Hamas

The conservative right label Hamas as terrorist in order to alibi the millions times worse state terrorism of the Israeli state against Palestinians. Yet it cannot be denied that Hamas uses terrorism, and that the October 7 attacks were some of the worst terrorist acts yet seen. Yes, Palestine has a right to resist occupation, a right to defend itself, and a right to an armed struggle. Yet which is the best strategy for the Palestinian resistance? The Palestinian Authority (PA) has blatantly acted as a subcontractor for the Israeli state, and it has monstrously betrayed the Palestinian masses for decades. It cancelled elections in 2021, leading to mass dissatisfaction amongst the Palestinian resistance.[2] Mahmoud Abbas is President of the Palestinian Authority, and head of both the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Fatah, its largest faction. Yet he is now 88 years old, and has acted to sideline any succession plan,[3] even as the end of his tenure must soon arrive.

Hamas is not a part of the PLO, and as libertarian US Congress member Ron Paul stated in the House in 2009, it was in fact the state of Israel which “encouraged and started Hamas”.[4] Indirectly, the US government, along with then Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir,[5] helped construct Hamas as a counter to the secular PLO headed at the time by Yasser Arafat. It then became an issue for the US state when Hamas won elections in Gaza in 2007. From the beginning, Hamas (Harakah al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah or Islamic Resistance Movement) was nursed and remotely run by Mossad (the national intelligence agency of Israel) while being funded by successive Israeli governments.[6] Today, the largest financial backer of Hamas is the Qatari monarchy, although some financial support also arrives from Türkiye and Iran.[7] However the most influential force within Hamas is the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s first official visit outside Gaza after being elected was to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in Cairo’s Moqattam district.[8] In 2017, Hamas apparently dropped its association with the Muslim Brotherhood,[9] though not everyone was convinced. Also in that year, apparently under pressure from the Egyptian government, it moderated the section in its charter which contained the traditional call for the destruction of Israel.[10]

The most significant marker of what Hamas is came during the US led war of regime change on Syria, from 2011 to the present day. Hamas declared itself with the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) and Al Qaeda terror campaign against Syria in 2012, and sent fighters there. During this time, Hamas was fighting with the Israeli state against Syria, in a major imperialist war. Thus, the notion that Hamas is “anti-Israel” needs to be taken with a large pinch of salt. Some have reported that there is no difference in practice between the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and ISIS[11] – and therefore Al Qaeda. Indeed, there may very well be an exchange of personnel between these terrorist entities, which ultimately serve the interests of US imperialism. Iran cut off its funding for Hamas in 2012, when it entered the regime change war on Syria on the opposite side, but then reportedly re-started it in 2017.[12]

Ten years after Hamas fought with ISIS, Al Qaeda and the Israeli state against Syria, they eventually normalised ties with Syria in 2022.[13] Though this was an expedient move on their behalf, as by this time Syria, with the help of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, had decisively defeated the US and European imperialist led war against it. The war on Syria was perhaps the most underhanded in history, as the Western powers brazenly armed and funded ISIS and Al Qaeda who carried out unspeakable atrocities to take down an independent Middle Eastern country.[14] Hamas, ISIS, Al Qaeda and the Israeli state fought together – all as effective proxy forces of Washington. Despite what has happened since then, Hamas is still used as a proxy force, and in practice still aids and assists the Israeli state. Its terrorist attacks on Israel provide Tel Aviv and Washington with an ongoing pretext to arm Israel to the teeth, against not only Palestine but the broader Middle East.

Non-PLO organisations

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) sits outside the PLO, as does Hamas. It was founded by Fathi Shikaki, a Palestinian nationalist inspired by the Islamic Revolution in Iran. He sought to attract Palestinian nationalists disillusioned with secularism and Islamists disenchanted with what they saw as moderation by the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood. PIJ has a singular focus on militarily fighting Israel, has an operating base in the West Bank, and has attacked Israeli civilians.[15] It is apparently receives funding from, and thus has some ties to, the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, it has forfeited any possibility of ever engaging with Israelis by carrying suicide bombings against civilians in Tel Aviv.[16] The International Crisis Group claims that the Jenin Brigades have around 200 members, and are drawn from disgruntled members of Fatah, some members of the PIJ and the Lions Den in Nablus.[17] The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) are a loose grouping of armed factions in Gaza. After Hamas and Islamic Jihad, they form the third largest armed force in Gaza.[18] They seem to focus on Fatah members fed up with the corruption and betrayals of the PA. In 2005, they claimed responsibility for dragging Moussa Arafat (a cousin of Yasser Arafat) from his house and “liquidating” him. The PRC claimed that Moussa Arafat was corrupt and had ordered assaults and killings of its fighters.[19]

PLO Groups

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is the second largest faction within the PLO, and the main opposition to Fatah. It was founded in 1967 as an umbrella organisation for so-called “Marxist-Leninist” and Arab nationalist groups.[20] In reality, its politics are Stalinist, which is a woeful distortion of both Marxism and Leninism. The PFLP opposes a two-state solution and instead calls for the creation of a democratic state in all of historic Palestine through armed struggle.[21] Between 2002 and 2004, the PFLP carried out five suicide bombings during the second Palestinian intifada.[22] In 2014, there was an attack on a Jerusalem Synagogue which killed five Israelis. The PFLP issued contradictory statements justifying it, explaining it, owning it and disowning it at the same time.[23]

The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) was formed in 1969 and is another “Marxist-Leninist” (read: Stalinist) organisation, which has been responsible for attacks against Israeli targets, including civilians. Unlike the PFLP and other groups within the PLO, it supports a two state solution.[24] Taysir Khaled, a senior PFLP official, ran for President of Palestine in 2005.[25] To get an idea of just how liberal Stalinism can be in a political sense, the PFLP Department of Foreign Affairs released a statement to international allies, in which they requested its supporters “pressure” their (capitalist) governments to adopt positions based on international resolutions and covenants, and to call on your (capitalist) governments to support a Palestinian delegation and its movements at the United Nations (UN) ![26]

This is an affirmation of the twin Stalinist polices of “socialism in one country” and “peaceful coexistence with imperialism” rolled into one. Instead of calling on the international working class to engage in class struggle actions (demonstrations, strikes etc.) to force its will against a government collaborating or enacting imperialism, the Stalinists call for the lobbying and pleading with “your own” ruling class to adopt a slightly more liberal position, and cast votes in the UN. How revolutionary! The Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) is a minor PLO group with historic ties to Iraq’s Ba’ath Party. It gained notoriety for the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro, an Italian cruise ship in the Mediterranean.[27] They took hostages and demanded the release of 50 prisoners held in Israeli jails. Many of the passengers on board were elderly, and the majority were European holiday makers.

Which way forward?

This non-exhaustive list of the Palestinian resistance contains but a brief overview of Palestinian politics. It is clear, however, that secular, Stalinist and Islamist nationalism offer no way forward. After 75 years, the various types of nationalism have only led to defeat, and a worsening situation. Whether in the form of secularism, Stalinism or Islamism, the combination of various classes waving the Palestinian flag against the Israeli flag leads to a dead end. The fates of both Israel and Palestine are inextricably intertwined, no matter how this has come about historically. The Zionist Israeli state must be overcome, but it must be recognised that this state is a capitalist state above all. Israel is a state with massive inequality between rich and poor. It can only be removed via a class struggle culminating in a socialist revolution. This directly implies that there must be joint struggle between Palestinian and Israeli workers, for an end to conflict and for socialism.

Palestine is also a capitalist state, though one which is of course of a much smaller size. There is a Palestinian ruling class, exemplified by the loathed and despised Palestinian Authority. There is a vast basis for a joint class struggle for impoverished Palestinian workers and many Israeli workers who are only marginally better off in some senses. Yes, Israeli workers must be convinced that Zionism is not, and can never, benefit them. Yet obviously, the taking of hostages, suicide bombings and other purely military attacks are totally counter-productive and will only drive Israelis deeper behind their own government and their own state – which cares not a whit about them in reality. To even begin to reach out to Israeli workers, Palestinians must reject Hamas and even dismantle it. In addition, all the armed groups which utilise innocent life taking terror – whether secular, Stalinist or Islamist – must likewise be disassembled. A military only strategy is one of total defeat. While there will necessarily be a military component to a liberation struggle, it must be totally subordinate to the political struggle.

The current situation after October 7, however, is bound up with the international geopolitical clashes brought on by the ruling classes of the imperialist West and its hopeless bid to stop the rise of the Eurasian powers, and the new expanded BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) bloc, which from 1 January will include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates. Anchoring BRICS is the powerful socialistic economy of the People’s Republic of China – the most powerful of the remaining deformed workers’ states. The BRICS bloc is a non-imperialist bloc, and thus it does not seek war, regime change, colour revolutions and other hostilities anywhere in the world. This is in stark contrast to the West, headed by the US and European former colonial powers. Their capitalist imperialism is economically collapsing – and so murderous conflict is its only way out.

What is required is a bi-national Arab-Hebrew workers’ state as part of a socialist federation of the Middle East. This presupposes the overthrow of capitalism in the region. While this seems far away, it is the only way to stop the current war and resolve the 75-year conflict. While the Palestinian resistance should utilise the efforts of the BRICS states to broker peace, at the same time the BRICS governments will not lead any combined efforts at class struggle in the East or the West. US and European led imperialism has driven itself to an impasse and is now planning to launch a three-front war against Russia, Iran and China. Obviously, this is the World War III that everyone was dreading. But workers should not despair, as the objective path of history is on their side and is not on the side of a fading and withering Western capitalism. All methods of class struggle internationally need to be employed, especially the hot-cargoing of weapons shipments to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. Strikes and demonstrations against a world war need to raise demands for not only a “multi-polar” world but a just international order. Key to this perspective is the forging of internationally linked Marxist vanguard parties which drive forward the permanent revolution to the world victory of socialism.

WORKERS LEAGUE

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@protonmail.com

[1] www.edition.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/al-aqsa-storm-militants-infiltrate-israel-after-gaza-rockets-10-07-intl-hnk/index.html (18-10-2023)

[2] www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17502977.2015.1020738 (18-10-2023)

[3] www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/east-mediterranean-mena/israelpalestine/238-managing-palestines-looming-leadership-transition (18-10-2023)

[4] www.wltreport.com/2023/10/08/flashback-ron-paul-hamas-was-started-israel/ (18-10-2023)

[5] www.globalresearch.ca/hamas-is-a-creation-of-mossad/1818 (18-10-2023)

[6] www.globalresearch.ca/hamas-creation-israel/5835878 (18-10-2023)

[7] https://www.ibtimes.sg/how-was-hamas-formed-who-funds-it-supplies-rockets-heres-everything-about-militant-group-57596 (18-10-2023)

[8] www.islamicity.org/4604/hamas-and-the-brotherhood-reanimating-history/ (18-10-2023)

[9] www.reuters.com/article/us-palestinians-hamas-document-idUSKBN17X1N8 (18-10-2023)

[10] www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/12/what-is-hamas-the-militant-group-that-rules-gaza (18-10-2023)

[11] www.weeklyblitz.net/counterterrorism/there-is-no-difference-between-muslim-brotherhood-hamas-and-isis/ (18-10-2023)