Political earthquake as Hamas wins election

Israel/Palestine:

Political earthquake as Hamas wins election

Another setback to imperialism in the Middle East

YET ANOTHER political earthquake has struck the Middle East. Hamas,
standing for the first time in national elections, achieved a massive
landslide victory in Gaza and the West Bank with 76 seats out of 132 in
Parliament.

Kevin Simpson, CWI, London

Fatah which used to be the majority in the Palestinian Authority (PA)
only won 43. Hamas won seats in all the major towns and cities even in
places like Bethlehem where there is a large Christian population, and
in Nablus which was historically a stronghold for Fatah.

This was a crushing defeat for Fatah and particularly for the weak PA
President Mohammed Abbas. But it is also a severe blow and a huge
surprise for both the Israeli ruling class and Western imperialist
powers and their plans for an imposed ‘peace settlement’.

The win is a major embarrassment for the Bush administration’s
campaign to ‘democratise’ the Middle East. Many of the corrupt Arab
elite are also undoubtedly scurrying around their marble-lined,
air-conditioned palaces wringing their hands at what this victory means
for their already shaky grip on power.

The landslide has been accompanied by a torrent of propaganda in the
Western press about "terrorists" winning at the ballot box. But the
hypocrisy of the imperialist powers knows no limits. They have supported
the Israeli capitalist state for decades. This regime has presided over
one of the most brutal military occupations in the world using methods
which can only be described as state terrorism.

Protest vote

HAMAS’S VICTORY was in the main a huge protest vote against the
corrupt Fatah leadership at the head of the Palestinian Authority (PA)
while the Palestinian majority slowly starved or were crushed under
Israeli military occupation.

But the election’s significance is not just confined to the Gaza and
West Bank. It could have profound consequences for the region. Given the
huge tensions in the Middle East and its vital geo-political importance
to US and other imperialist powers, this election victory could
contribute – along with other events – to abrupt changes in
international relations.

The Middle East is characterised by various degrees of grinding
poverty and social collapse, made worse by the implementation of at
least 15 years of ‘neo-liberal’ policies. The collapse in living
standards in the Middle East has in part exacerbated already burgeoning
problems around the national question and the struggle of national
minorities for their rights, particularly the Palestinians. The failure
of imperialism’s ‘peace process’ has actually complicated the situation
further and led to more tension on this issue.

The huge pressure for change from the working class and the poor
peasantry has been reflected, even if in a distorted way, in many of the
political developments that have shaken the region over the last few
months. The election of Hamas belongs to this category.

It is true that political support for Hamas’ ideas has risen amongst
some layers of the poorest and most downtrodden in the vacuum that
exists in the West Bank and Gaza. However, rather than signifying
overwhelming support for Hamas’ Islamist policies, the extent of the
election victory mainly reflects the anger against Fatah.

One Palestinian woman, summed up the mood of many Palestinians,
saying "For 10 years Fatah haven’t done anything for us. We have to try
Hamas. We can’t say if they will be better but we have to try." (The
Guardian, London, 24 January 2006)

"Change and Reform"

HAMAS ORIENTATED its entire campaign around this mood. Running under
the name "Change and Reform", Hamas highlighted the rampant corruption
of the PA and promised a clean-up.

Other organisations seen as being to the left of Fatah, such as the
Peoples Party (Communist Party) the DFLP (Democratic Front for the
Liberation of Palestine) and the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine) stood candidates. However, historically the leadership of
these organisations made serious mistakes by tail-ending the nationalist
approach of Fatah which sought a solution within the confines of
capitalism. Experience has shown this is impossible.

These organisations went into retreat in the 1990s because of the
confusion and demoralisation caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union
in 1989 and they never recovered. In these elections they never really
distinguished themselves from other parties critical of Fatah and as a
result they only won five seats.

When Hamas arose in early 1988 just after the beginning of the first
Intifada, the Israeli state encouraged its development. These tactics
were used by the Israelis to undermine Fatah, which then had majority
support in the Occupied Territories, and prevent opposition to it taking
a ‘left’ character.

Hamas’ aims, expressed in its founding charter in 1988, are to create
an Islamist state on the territory encompassed by Gaza, the West Bank
and Israel. Such a state would be ruled under Shariah law. This would be
an oppressive reactionary society which would be hostile to an
independent movement of the working class in defence of its rights and
socialist ideas. It would also mean the widespread oppression of women.
It would represent a move backwards socially and politically.

The preamble to the Hamas Charter of 1988 states: "Israel will exist
and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it
obliterated others before it." This is taken to mean a call for the
destruction of the state of Israel.

Hamas opposed the Oslo ‘peace agreement’ and also boycotted the first
elections to the Palestinian Legislative Council (Parliament).

While Hamas has organised elements of mass protests during the second
Intifada, these have always been strictly controlled from above and only
used intermittently. One of its tactics has been suicide bombings.

The Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) opposes these
tactics because it drives sections of Israeli Jewish workers into the
arms of the government. This is because they feel they have no option
but to support the government’s oppressive measures as the only
available measure to try to protect their security.

This does not mean the CWI has a pacifist approach. We believe in a
mass, democratic struggle of the Palestinian working class and poor
peasantry to end the occupation. Such a movement will have to be armed
to defend itself against the attacks by the IDF and others but those
bearing arms should be accountable to the working class as a whole.

Even before the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004, the PA leadership was
in reality paralysed and unable to control events on the ground. Arafat
was forced to announce the holding of local elections. They had long
campaigned for this, eager to consolidate its growing base at local
level. Hamas made sweeping gains in these elections last year which
prepared the way for its election victory last week.

Whatever they said publicly, Hamas’ military and political leaders
knew that a campaign of suicide bombings on its own would not defeat the
Israeli ruling class. There was also a certain war-weariness amongst the
Palestinian masses. This forced Hamas to look at the possibility of
entering the political process. Undoubtedly, the entrance of Hezbollah
in Lebanon into Parliament had an effect. Abbas and the PA insisted on
Hamas agreeing to a ceasefire in March 2005 as a precondition to
standing in elections. Abbas took this gamble because he saw it as the
only way in which Hamas might be forced to disarm its militias,
something demanded by the imperialist powers and the Israeli state.

Hamas did not want to win an outright majority in these elections.
They would rather not have taken the responsibility of ruling Gaza and
the West Bank. This is why they spent the first day after the election
appealing to Fatah to join them in government. They are also attempting
to find a non-Hamas MP to be prime minister.

PA funding threat

A new and very unstable situation has opened up in Gaza and the West
Bank. The Israeli government has said that there will be no negotiations
with the PA because Hamas will be part of the government.

Of course, the Israeli regime has not mentioned that it was prepared
to have contacts with local councils run by Hamas and facilitate through
prison officials, negotiations between Hamas prisoners with other Arab
countries as well as their leadership. It has threatened not to pass
over VAT receipts or customs duties to the PA as has been the case
previously.

The Bush administration has said that it will review all aid to the
Palestinian Authority since Hamas is on its list of banned terrorist
organisations. At the moment it donates $234 million a year. But its
first act was to plead with Abbas to stay on as President. Undoubtedly,
one calculation behind this request was to have a non-Hamas member who
could act as an intermediary without it appearing as if they are
negotiating with ‘terrorists’.

The EU (as opposed to its member states) also donates $280 million a
year to the PA. It is less likely they will cut back or halt funding.
But the imperialist powers face a very difficult decision.

On 31 January, the PA will need $100 million, at least, to pay the
wages of its 135,000 employees. Without these wages an explosion of mass
protest could occur. At the moment there is no money and the PA is
bankrupt.

There will be huge pressure on imperialism to find some solution to
this potential disaster – either through channelling the money via Abbas,
the president, or perhaps with some of the Arab regimes stepping in with
emergency funding.

In Nablus, demonstrations have taken place by Fatah members calling
for the resignation of the entire leadership of the organisation.
Members of Fatah militias have announced an "internal intifada" to drive
out the old corrupt leadership.

As far as Hamas is concerned, it is very unlikely that it will
renounce its call for the destruction of Israel or disarm immediately.
This would cause huge divisions. Hamas leaders in the run-up to the
elections did make the point that in return for a withdrawal by Israel
to the 1967 borders, they would be prepared to announce a 10-15 year
ceasefire.

What Hamas may do is formally set up a separate political party from
its armed militias in an attempt to overcome this problem. Hamas may be
looking at the example of Sinn Fein and the IRA as an example to
emulate.

However, in Northern Ireland the ‘peace process’ has foundered. It is
three years since the local power-sharing government collapsed. The
level of violence which characterised the Troubles may have died down in
terms of its intensity but the sectarian polarisation between Protestant
and Catholic communities is as great if not greater, than before. None
of the fundamental problems have been solved.

But in the Middle East the tension, huge social and economic
problems, and the geo-strategic importance of the region mean that
rather than a reduction in violence, a new period of instability and
clashes could develop.

It still remains to be seen whether Hamas can successfully take
control of the PA security forces. Many of them are Fatah members.
Partly this depends on Hamas’ ability to keep on paying their wages. But
there is no doubt that the possibility of episodes of violence, verging
on open civil war is more likely. There have already been armed clashes
between Hamas and Fatah supporters.

Regional repercussions

The Hamas victory will destabilise the capitalist and feudal elite
across the region. Egypt has already seen an increased vote for the
Muslim Brotherhood in the most recent elections.

In Saudi Arabia, more hardline Islamist candidates won ground in the
limited elections that took place last year. There is already a growth
in support for reactionary Islamist organisations, including al-Qa’ida
amongst the population.

Jordan already has a majority of Palestinians living there and the
Muslim Brotherhood is active as an opposition group. In all of these
countries, these forces will be strengthened and the ruling elite
weakened by Hamas’s victory.

The election results in Gaza and the West Bank will also increase
fears that Iran, which has refused to bend to imperialism’s pressure to
close down its civilian nuclear programme, is strengthening its
influence in the region, because of its historic links with Hamas.

The political situation in Israel will also become more complicated
for a time. Fears amongst Israeli Jews have been whipped up as a result
of the Hamas victory. Soon after the election of Hamas, Israel’s Defence
Minister, Mofaz, implied in a media interview, that Hamas leaders should
not think they were exempt from assassination attempts by the IDF
following their election victory.

Ahead of Israel’s general election, and with Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon incapacitated following a stroke, Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu is
keen to attack Sharon’s policy of unilaterally withdrawing Israeli
settlers from Gaza as ‘playing into the hands of terrorists’.

Hamas will now have to deliver the goods – and quickly – to the
Palestinian people. While in power in local councils, although it
cleaned up the worst examples of corruption, it also carried out cuts in
spending and sold off local council land and property, ostensibly to
clear debts which involved paying "non-Islamic" interest payments.

Experience will show the Palestinian masses that only a break with
capitalism and feudalism can begin to offer a way out of the disaster
they face. But disappointment with Hamas rule will not be, in and of
itself, enough to ensure this conclusion is drawn. A clear socialist
alternative as part of an independent working class movement will have
to be constructed for that to happen. The CWI will, along with the most
conscious activists, struggle to make that objective a reality.

This would require a struggle to end mass unemployment and poverty.
But this would only be the beginning – a movement to end the political
and economic oppression by Israeli, Palestinian and Arab capitalism
needs to be built which can put in its place a democratically planned
socialist economy to transform the living standards of the region.

Such a struggle would also include the right of Palestinians to
self-determination, including an independent state with full rights for
all minorities. This would mean the fight for a socialist Palestine and
a socialist Israel, as part of a voluntary socialist confederation of
the Middle East.


The socialist review:

Munich

Directed by Steven Spielberg

FILM DIRECTOR Steven Spielberg should get a gold medal for turning a
pivotal event in world history into a tedious morality play.

Dave Carr

Munich attempts to cover Mossad’s (the Israeli intelligence agency)
revenge of the killing of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic
Games by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September.* They had
taken them hostage to demand the release of Palestinian political
prisoners in Israel.

Two athletes were killed in the Olympic village, the other nine were
massacred in a botched rescue attempt by the West German police.

Following this outrage, Israeli ‘Labour’ prime Minister Golda Meir
secretly set up ‘Committee X’ – whose Mossad agents went after
Palestinian targets under the codename: ‘Operation Wrath of God’.

After every ‘hit’ the widows of the murdered Israeli athletes were
telephoned by the Committee. But many relatives wanted legal justice not
extra-judicial executions.

But this action was more than revenge. After all, within days of the
Munich atrocity Israeli jets blasted Palestinian refugee camps in
Lebanon and Syria killing over 200 people and injuring many.

Operation Wrath was in fact quickly expanded into a campaign to
suppress exiled Palestinian nationalists and militants throughout
Western Europe and the Middle East.

It was aimed at disrupting the various factions of the Palestine
Liberation Organisation (PLO); a ‘war on terror’ that persists to this
day with the Israeli state’s policy of targeted assassinations of
Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The US and western European governments turned a blind eye to
Mossad’s activities but when it assassinated the wrong man in the
Norwegian town of Lillehammer the game was up. The Norwegian police
caught five members of the hit squad and the subsequent court case
exposed Mossad’s murderous campaign.

Committee X was officially wound up. However, Mossad continued its
bloody campaign, finally killing Black September’s main organiser, Ali
Hassan Salameh, in 1979.

Although Operation Wrath was over it had singularly failed to end the
armed struggle for Palestinian national and social liberation. And,
notwithstanding the false methods of Black September and others, the
ongoing Israeli state repression has fuelled a decade-long Palestinian
Intifada. Indeed, the fundamental Palestinian national question
underlying the bloody events of Munich and its aftermath remains
unresolved.

Given the subject matter, Munich is a huge disappointment. Instead of
producing a drama-documentary of events, Spielberg manages a limp
morality play which becomes very tiresome.

In his account the Mossad agents are depicted as decent, home-loving
guys, new to this deadly game. And who, after several ‘hits’, are
wracked with moral doubts. However, there is little evidence for this
version of events. In fact, the Mossad members interviewed in the
recently shown Channel 4 TV documentary Munich: Mossad’s Revenge
expressed no qualms about their role.

On the contrary, Ehud Barak (later becoming Israel’s Prime Minister
and a Middle East ‘peacemaker’) – who was part of the commando team in
the 1973 ‘Beirut bloodbath’ – was positively gung-ho about his role.

Reluctant killers?

Moreover, Spielberg plays fast and loose with the facts to contrive
his view of Mossad agents being ‘reluctant killers’.

For example, when the PLO representative in Italy, Wael ‘Aadel
Zwaiter, is assassinated (despite his reported opposition to terrorist
methods) the Mossad agents in Munich are shown nervously hesitating
before pulling their gun triggers. They then run from the victim’s
apartment block in a panic. In fact, the Mossad agents coolly followed
the target, shooting him dead before the victim could react, and then
they casually strolled out of the building.

Later, to try and explain the Palestinian national cause, Spielberg
concocts a ludicrous scene where Mossad agents and Palestinian
guerrillas end up sharing a ‘safe house’ in Athens but without incident!

If readers want an insightful account of Munich, see the excellent
documentary One Day in September.


Munich, directed by Steven Spielberg, is on general release.
One Day in September ,(1999) is available on DVD.

*The group Black September named itself after the civil war in
September 1970 between the Palestinian Fedayeen and the Jordanian
monarchy when, following a failed uprising, thousands of Palestinians
were killed and driven out of Jordan.