“Stand With Palestine” : Anti-War or Pro-War?

11-12-2023: Houthi Brigadier General Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for two strikes on assumed Israeli ships in the Red Sea on December 4. The Yemeni General stated that they will continue to prevent Israeli ships or those associated with Israel from navigating the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden “until the Israeli aggression against our steadfast brothers in the Gaza Strip stops.”[1] Missile and drone strikes were reported on three commercial vessels, the Bahamas flagged bulk carrier Unity Explorer and the Panamanian flagged bulk carriers Number 9 and Sophie II. The USS Carney, an Arleigh Burke-class missile destroyer, claimed that it shot down a drone bearing down on it, and two other drones in response to distress calls by the ships.[2] Not surprisingly, the US government pointed the finger at Iran, despite being claimed by Yemen’s Houthis. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan stated that while the attacks were launched by the Houthis in Yemen, they were “fully enabled by Iran”.[3] These attacks follow the Houthi seizure of the cargo ship Galaxy Leader in the Southern Red Sea, which was reportedly partly owned by an Israeli businessperson, on November 19.[4]

Preparation for war on Iran

While the Islamic Republic of Iran and Hezbollah have not been drawn into militarily responding to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the Houthis appear to have no such qualms. For their part, Iran and Hezbollah have wisely decided against striking Israel in response to its deadly Gaza bombing campaign. If one responds directly to open provocations by US imperialism, one loses the advantage significantly. Arguably, the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel and the inevitable military response from the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) was specifically designed by the US ruling class to provoke at least Iran into a wider war. The October 7 Hamas assault came at the precise time when it became definitively clear that the “offensive” of NATO’s proxy Nazified forces in Ukraine had been defeated, and that Ukraine would never come anywhere close to inflicting major military losses on Russia.

In practice, both Hamas and the Zionist Israeli state are proxy forces which are heavily influenced ultimately by Washington and London. As Thierry Meyssan writes, the narrative and explanation for the events of October 7 given by both Hamas and the Israeli government are full of lies and evasions.[5] It is inconceivable that the Israeli state did not know what was in the pipeline prior to October 7, in the same way that it is scarcely credible that Hamas could have built 500 kilometres of concrete reinforced tunnels without arousing any suspicion in Tel Aviv. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is on record for supporting and financing Hamas terrorists, while the IDF has also recruited ISIS and Al Qaeda mercenaries[6], during the imperialist orchestrated war on Syria. In fact, there is solid documentation which verifies that between 2012 and 2018 Netanyahu gave the Qatari monarchy approval to transfer around one billion dollars, half of which went to Hamas including its military wing.[7] Netanyahu’s actions became too much even for hawkish Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Liberman, who resigned in 2020 after photos of suitcases full of cash going to Hamas became public. Liberman quit his post in protest against Netanyahu’s policy, which he said “marked the first time Israel is funding terrorism against itself”.[8] In addition, Hamas worked with Al Qaeda in Syria[9] for ten years, which therefore means it worked alongside the IDF in the shared goal of overthrowing the Syrian Republic in arguably the worst proxy war involving the slaughter of innocents ever to be conducted.

Covid, Ukraine…Palestine?

The world is approaching multiple trip wires for a global war. It is urgent that working people mobilise and organise to prevent capitalism from setting off an unprecedented conflagration. At the very least, what is required is a genuine anti-imperialist anti-war movement, which pushes back directly against the war aims of the ruling classes of the West and their henchmen in Europe. In these countries, there certainly have been large rallies and multiple demonstrations in defence of Palestine, in an attempt to stop the Israeli state from conducting its carpet bombing in Gaza. Yet these rallies have, in the most part, been led by the same liberal “socialist” parties which were not at all against the designs of imperialism since their gaping capitulations of March 2020. In fact, these self-described “Marxist” organisations in fact merged with the capitalist state during the fraudulent “Covid pandemic”, where the same governments that are now backing Israel’s war on Gaza enacted an unprecedented form of fascism via repressive lockdowns and vaccine mandates. During this time, the Zionist Israeli state was more aggressive than any other in enforcing vaccine mandates on its population, complete with other onerous non-scientific restrictions such as a Green Pass.[10]

These “left” parties, who now claim to oppose Israel as a whole, said nothing about the Israeli state’s Covid repression, even though the Israeli state was doing precisely what it had demanded. Then from February 24, 2022, this supposed “left” switched on a dime to practically march lockstep with NATO in its proxy war on Russia via Ukraine. Of course, lest they be totally exposed as imperialist automatons, some of them claimed to oppose NATO expansion.[11] In practice, however, they could not get around the fact that the US led Western governments were arming Nazis in Ukraine,[12] in the only country in the world in which Nazi battalions formed part of its state. Despite a handful of leftists trying to organise protests against a NATO armed Nazi led war, the liberal left parties who had previously acted as Covid enforcers, fell silent. They could not bring themselves to oppose a blatant war on Russia.

Then, “all of a sudden”, came October 7. The very self-described left parties which had enforced unprecedented state repression in the name of a virus, and waved Ukrainian flags while covertly cheering on Nazis in an escalation which could at any time have led to a nuclear world war, leapt to the defence of Palestine. From “Stand with Ukraine” (which in practice meant “Stand with Nazis”), the Ukrainian flags were replaced, overnight, with Palestinian flags, to become “Stand with Palestine”. While it is undeniable that elementary justice is on the side of Palestine, have the Covid/liberal/opportunist left completely changed their stripes? Have they performed a 180 degree turn from de-facto support for imperialism to sharp opposition to imperialism and its wars? Practice indicates otherwise.

Terrorism is not “resistance”

The former United Kingdom (UK) Home Secretary Suella Braverman described the pro-Palestine demonstrations there as “hate marches”,[13] and attempted to prevent them. No doubt this ruling class figure was defending the UK government’s position of unqualified support for the Israeli state, yet there was a grain of truth in this remark. It was as if we were supposed to simply line up on one side of the Israel/Palestine divide, and hate the other until we are blue in the face, as was cleverly satirised by CJ Hopkins.[14] While the conservative right immediately demanded that everyone “condemn Hamas”, they were doing so in order to absolve the crimes of the ongoing occupation of Palestine by the Zionist Israeli state. The opportunist left parties, however, not only could not bring themselves to condemn the slaughter of innocent Israeli civilians, but many of them also embraced this blatant terrorism as an act of “resistance”. Thus their pro-Palestine demonstrations did not have the character of a genuine anti-war movement, even despite the correct call for an end to the siege of Gaza. Minimising or apologising for the bloodthirsty actions of Hamas, could well be interpreted as a call for more terrorism.

New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg correctly lampooned the liberal left as “edge lord anti-imperialists” for downplaying or even celebrating terrorist murder committed by Hamas.[15] Noted climate justice author and reformist commentator Naomi Klein made the point that justifying and/or hailing the killing of Israeli Jews by terrorists is experienced as anti-Semitism by many other Jews, which in turn fuels Zionism.[16] Klein wistfully calls for a left which is able recognise this. In response, Ben Becker, a leader of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), effectively claimed that liberals who demand the left condemn Hamas are in effect calling for Palestinians to lay down whatever weapons they may have and surrender. He also claims that liberals who call on the left to distance themselves from “resistance” will not be able to build a movement, citing the large demonstrations which have taken place in the US in support of his case.[17]

Even though Ms Goldberg and Ms Klein could be described as liberals, Mr Becker has the shoe on the other foot. It is the PSL and the opportunist left parties who are adopting the liberal position, which is NOT socialist, let alone “revolutionary”. It is a quirk of history that imperialism’s main political ally today is liberalism – which encompasses the opportunist left parties. The conservative right are no longer consistent political allies for capitalism’s needs at this point – witness the Donald Trump phenomenon. And capitalism is so desperate to counter the rise of the non-imperialist BRICS bloc (Brazil, Russia, China, South Africa and others soon to join), that it needs outraged liberals in a near state of permanent mobilisation. This is one reason why the mobilised the liberal “socialist” left for Covid, Black Lives Matter, Ukraine and now Israel/Palestine. However, the Israel/Palestine conflict is being ignited at this point apparently as a cover for a regime change war against Iran, as part of imperialism’s ongoing war preparations against Russia and China.[18] Imperialism is mobilising this faux left for “Palestine” today, as they are probably well aware that this “left” will NOT mobilise against a war on Iran, Russia or China (apart from a few notable exceptions), and may even be allies in such wars.

For a real anti-war movement

The left can agree that the Zionist Israeli state, backed in particular by US and UK led imperialism, is culpable for the daily oppression of Palestinians. However, the only chance the Palestinian working class has of liberating itself from this oppression is by linking with the Israeli working class, many of whom also struggle with the vast inequalities of Israeli capitalism. The Israeli and Palestinian workers are so inextricably intertwined that anything that presents itself as an obstacle to joint struggle must be overcome – however far away that may seem today. For Palestinian workers to have any chance at reaching Israeli workers, they must distance themselves entirely from not only Hamas, but also Islamic Jihad, the Stalinist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Maoist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and other smaller outfits which also carry out indiscriminate terrorism against Israeli civilians. There can be no path to a bi-national Arab/Hebrew workers’ state without this perspective, nor without the basis of an Arab/Israeli Marxist vanguard party. If there is to be any Palestinian “national liberation” it can only do so via the theory of Permanent Revolution.

To some this sounds “ultra-left”, but the struggle against war and the struggle for socialism has been combined many times throughout the 20^th century by necessity. It is an obvious liberal falsehood to struggle against war, then for a supposed democracy, followed by a gradual transition to socialism. Internationally, the left needs to defend Palestine while condemning mindless terrorism, and stridently opposing a US led war on Iran, Russia and China. In one sense, Hamas is one giant false flag, an organisation which claims to be pro-Palestine, but in fact has the mission of destroying secular Arab unity.[19] The term “controlled opposition” is often misused, but in fact Hamas provides a real live working model. Hamas carries out terror attacks which then “justifies” retaliation by the Israeli state, in an endless cycle of violence.[20] There is no doubt that Zionism amongst Israelis is a significant problem, but obviously counter-productive terrorism only fans the flames of this odious ideology.

Unfortunately, what we now experience in the West is a pro-Palestine “anti-war” movement which arguably prepares the ground for more war. In Australia, the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) correctly recognise that the current pro-Palestine movement is being led by Socialist Alternative, Socialist Alliance and Solidarity directly behind the fortunes of the Labor Party federal government and the trade Union bureaucracy.[21] Yet the SEP went way further than the parties they criticise with Covid repression, as it still condemns the Labor Party today (in December 2023) for abandoning Covid “safety” measures![22] What is more, all these parties appear unmoved while the IDF bombed Syria no less than four times[23] in the two weeks following the Hamas attacks of October 7.

The opportunist left parties also neglect to link Israel’s war on Gaza and the Western led war preparations against Russia and China to the war at home. The cost of living is outrageous, basic food is expensive, housing for many is nigh on unaffordable. These and many other costs are being deliberately driven up, as the West wages war abroad. Yet both wars are bound together, and both must be fought together. Justifiable outrage over imperialist backed military assaults, on their own, only goes so far. A real left would link the two of them to a much-needed drive to undermine the pillars of the vastly unequal “free market” madness, and towards a real revolution.

WORKERS LEAGUE

www.redfireonline.com

E: workersleague@redfireonline.com

[1] www.apnews.com/article/red-sea-houthi-yemen-ships-attack-israel-hamas-war-gaza-strip (06-12-2023)

[2] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/4/yemens-houthis-target-israeli-linked-ships-in-red-sea-heres-what-to-know (06-12-2023)

[3] www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12824549/White-House-blames-IRAN-attacks-commercial-vessels-Red-Sea-U-S-talks-allies-appropriate-responses-Tehran-backed-Houthi-rebels-shot-vessels-warship-downed-three-drones.html (06-12-2023)

[4] www.sott.net/article/486179-Video-shows-Yemens-Houthis-seize-cargo-ship-in-Red-Sea-warn-that-Israeli-assets-are-legitimate-targets (06-12-2023)

[5] www.voltairenet.org/article220078.html (06-12-2023)

[6] www.globalresearch.ca/netanyahu-supports-both-hamas-as-well-as-al-qaeda-terrorists/5836901 (06-12-2023)

[7] www.pressenza.com/2023/11/how-netanyahu-funded-built-up-and-made-an-ally-of-hamas-from-2012-to-2018/ (06-12-2023)

[8] www.cbc.ca/news/politics/netanyahu-israel-gaza-hamas-1.7010035 (06-12-2023)

[9] www.middleeasteye.net/news/how-did-hamass-military-expertise-end-syrias-rebels (06-12-2023)

[10] www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/with-boosters-masks-green-pass-israel-sees-covid-19-wave-retreat-2021-10-15/ (09-12-2023)

[11] www.redflag.org.au/article/ukraine-war-russia-out-no-nato (09-12-2023)