Judy Beishon, Socialist Party Executive Committee
For the ultra-right Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Gaza ceasefire agreement didn’t mean an end to war on the Palestinians. Hundreds have been killed in Gaza in recent weeks along with further destruction of whole neighbourhoods. Gaza’s Palestinians – mostly displaced – continue to suffer intolerable conditions.
The Israeli regime is trying to impose new ‘facts on the ground’ – currently maintaining direct control of over half of the Gaza strip. A US official said that reunion of the strip is only “aspirational”. The Trump-led peace plan is for an authority to be imposed on Gaza from outside, which even a Guardian editorial admitted “looks like a colonial authority”. The authority would be enforced on the ground by an International Stabilisation Force consisting of troops from whichever countries will supply them – but none have been readily committing to it as they fear those troops will be viewed as aiding the Israeli regime’s agenda.
They would for sure be aiding that agenda, because while the Palestinians in Gaza have been desperate for an end to the war, the whole ceasefire deal is fundamentally in the interests of the world’s imperialist powers and Israeli capitalism. It doesn’t even promise Israeli military withdrawal, never mind a Palestinian state; instead posing those Palestinian rights as vague prospects loaded with caveats.
The United Nations Security Council agreed the plan without any of its 15 member countries applying a veto – a sign of less tolerance of the Israeli regime’s atrocities. That isn’t due to concern for the Palestinians, but rather is concern over the anger being expressed from below globally, the added instability across the Middle East caused by the war and other Israeli state aggressions, and the damage the imperialist powers see Israeli capitalism as doing to its own interests.
Workers’ struggle
In Italy in October, mass anger surfaced in a general strike in support of the Global Sumud flotilla that was trying to deliver aid to Gaza. In the US, there has been a marked shift of opinion against the war, with one poll showing 43% of people believing that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza and another indicating that a majority oppose sending additional aid to Israel.
Despite the tenuous ceasefire, anger in Britain and globally remains high, not only on the nightmare situation in Gaza but also against the ongoing Israeli state aggression and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and the recent stepping-up of military attacks on Lebanon. Demonstrations and workers’ actions need to continue and escalate, demanding an end to all the Israeli state slaughter – and in support of democratically organised struggles by Palestinians for defence and towards liberation.
The growth of socialist ideas in that struggle is essential. Only through building workers’ organised strength with the aim of removing capitalism in Israel-Palestine will an independent, socialist Palestinian state be possible, alongside a democratic socialist Israel, as part of a voluntary, equal socialist confederation in the region that can end war, oppression and poverty.
