Ali Mansfield, Yorkshire Socialist Party organiser
The ‘ceasefire’ agreed by the Israeli government is already under huge strain. The Israeli military has carried out a series of fresh air strikes across Gaza.
Eleven members of a single family were killed in an Israeli military tank shell attack on a bus in Gaza City. The Israeli regime is severely curtailing aid from being delivered into the strip.
It was always the case that the ceasefire was unstable. Right-wing Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continued to deny the possibility of a Palestinian state.
With the Israeli military maintaining direct control of around half of Gaza, the potential is there for isolated fighting to break out. The fragile basis of the current ceasefire holds the potential for further escalation.
On the other hand, Netanyahu is feeling the pressure from Trump in the US and other capitalist governments worldwide – they’re motivated by their own geopolitical interests, and fear mass protests against the war. Netanyahu has also been under pressure from an increasing number of Israelis wanting the war to end.
Even if the ceasefire holds, the task of rebuilding Gaza is immense, beginning with clearing more than 60 million tonnes of rubble. The UN estimates that more than 280,000 homes have been destroyed in Gaza, along with severe damage to infrastructure – sewage, water, hospitals, and roads.
In the immediate term, the interests of US imperialism are best served by a ceasefire in Gaza. But, the ‘transitional authority’ put forward by US President Donald Trump – prominently featuring the UK’s former Labour prime minister Tony Blair, who wrought devastation across the Middle East by assisting in the 2003 invasion of Iraq – cannot be remotely trusted.
Hundreds of thousands of people marched through central London on 11 October, the day after the ceasefire agreement took effect, despite being told by capitalist politicians and media not to protest. This showed people’s clear distrust in the international political establishments.
As imperialist powers look to impose ‘technocratic’ colonial control over Gaza, capitalism is unable to meet the needs of Palestinians, or to deliver any kind of stable peace. Alongside death and destruction in Gaza, military and settler violence continues in the West Bank. The anti-war movement must continue to struggle.
Genuine self-determination for the Palestinians is possible on the basis of their own mass working-class struggle, independent of capitalist interests and armed with a socialist programme. The international anti-war movement has pressured world leaders towards supporting a ceasefire and can develop further to support that struggle for full liberation.
The mass workers’ strikes in Italy against the war on Gaza marked an important escalation, showing that the trade unions and organised working class can play a leading role in the anti-war movement.
Read more socialistworld.net
