Oscar Parry, South West London Socialist Party
Israeli forces are tightening their brutal medieval siege around northern Gaza, implemented with modern weaponry. Aid is almost entirely blocked from entering, while hospitals and schools are bombed and fleeing civilians shot down, to try to force Palestinians to permanently abandon the area. This new depth of unimaginable horror is taking place alongside the IDF invasion and bombing of Lebanon.
There seems no end to the Israeli government’s intensification of its bloody warmongering. For prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, escalating the war is in part a means to try and remain in power as long as possible, and to attempt to reshape the region in Israel’s interests. The claimed justification, however, is the drive to destroy Hamas, supposedly in order to bring peace to the Israeli Jewish population.
The horror has lasted for over a year, but this has not been achieved. Nor will it be. On the contrary, IDF brutality will inevitably have the opposite effect. Israel’s actions are fuelling a profound rage which, at a certain stage, will erupt in volcanic lava flows throughout the region, shaking the Israeli capitalists, the elites in neighbouring Arab states, and the imperialist powers across the world.
This is understood by a large section of the capitalist class, who want to see Netanyahu gone and replaced by a less reckless representative to act more reliably in their interests. Globally, governments are feeling great pressure from their own citizens against the war. So they are increasingly resorting to largely symbolic gestures to appear to be doing something to uphold ‘humanitarian law’. This is what lies behind the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials. Netanyahu, however, has said he will ignore the court’s ruling and continue with his relentless assault.
It is not just Israeli officials who are complicit in the slaughter, it’s the capitalist system and all its representatives, including Keir Starmer and Joe Biden, keeping the arms flowing and doing nothing to stop the slaughtering of civilians.
So what force in society does have the power to put the whole capitalist system on trial? It’s the potential superpower of the working class and poor masses. The Socialist Party is fighting to build a mass movement that can overthrow not just Netanyahu, but bring an end to capitalist rule across the Middle East and internationally, the only way to achieve a lasting peace.
The Socialist Party fights for
- End the war on Lebanon and Gaza
- A withdrawal of all Israeli military forces from the Palestinian territories, an immediate lifting of the blockade on Gaza and an end to attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem
- Build mass protests internationally in opposition to the war in the Middle East
- Stop funding Israeli state terror – trade union action to stop production and distribution of arms for use by Israeli state forces
- Mass democratically organised struggles of workers and the poor across the Middle East, in opposition to the wars, to fight for national and democratic rights, and an end to poverty and inequality
- No trust in the capitalist ruling elites across the Middle East and internationally. Fight to build and strengthen independent mass workers’ organisations and parties
- The right of national self-determination of Palestinians and other oppressed nationalities
- A socialist Palestine alongside a socialist Israel, as part of a voluntary democratic socialist confederation of the Middle East that defends the democratic and national rights of all the peoples of the region
