Can the Israeli-Palestinian conflict be resolved?

HAMAS’ RECENT election win in Gaza and the West Bank put the final
nail into the coffin of the imperialist inspired Oslo Peace agreement
signed in 1993. Oslo attempted to provide the faade of limited, and
ultimately meaningless, concessions from above to prevent an explosion
of Palestinian mass anger from below.

Kevin Simpson, CWI, London

None of the aspirations of the Palestinians for an end to the brutal
military occupation by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), and a genuinely
independent country with decent living standards, education and medical
services were fulfilled under Oslo. Instead, their IDF occupiers were
supplemented by new oppressors in the form of the corrupt Fatah-led
Palestinian Authority under President Arafat.

Moreover, since Oslo, the number of settlers in West Bank and Gaza
has gone from 125,000 to 436,000. And apart from the odd ritual verbal
reprimand, US imperialism and the European Union countries accepted this
occupation.

This betrayal and the continued oppression of the Palestinians, led
to huge anger which exploded violently in the second Intifada. Over
time, the mass character of this movement receded and suicide bombings
against Israeli targets became more common.

For Israeli Jewish workers, Oslo never fulfilled promises of security
and an end to conflict. Additionally, the Israeli Jewish working class
has suffered vicious attacks on their living standards by the same
politicians who promised them peace and security.

The welfare state has almost been destroyed through privatisation and
neo-liberal policies, while the top five families in Israel have become
fabulously rich and politicians have wallowed in corruption.

As a result, the idea of a peace deal proposed by the politicians,
diplomats, the United Nations and the US and EU powers has been
completely discredited to one degree or another amongst workers and
young people on both sides of the national divide. However, there is
still an ever-present desire to end the conflict.

National struggle

Given the terrible oppression under Israeli occupation and the
desperate poverty in the Palestinian areas some despairing Palestinians
have become suicide bombers for Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

However, this tactic plays into the hands of the Israeli ruling
class, by driving Israeli Jewish workers into the arms of their corrupt
and exploitative rulers. Instead of mobilising mass action against
oppression, suicide bombings rely on individual martyrs who cannot
militarily defeat the Israeli state. International support for the
Palestinian struggle for independence is undermined by suicide bombings.

In contrast, the Socialist Party supports a mass, democratic struggle
by the Palestinian working class and poor peasantry led by accountable
popular committees of struggle to end the occupation and to fight for
genuine statehood. Such a movement will have to be armed to defend
itself against IDF attacks and others, but those bearing arms should be
accountable to the Palestinian working class as a whole.

There is a stalemate in the region. Israeli military repression
cannot crush the Palestinian struggle for genuine statehood. But neither
can the present tactics of the Palestinian struggle force the Israeli
state to give genuine statehood or destroy the national consciousness of
the Israeli Jews.

The history of conflict means that the idea for a single state for
both national groupings would not be supported by the population on both
sides of the divide.

Genuine Palestinian statehood can only be won through undermining the
support of the Israeli ruling class amongst the Israeli Jewish working
class. This of course does not mean that the Palestinian masses must
postpone their struggle until the majority of Israeli Jewish workers and
young people accept their right to genuine statehood.

Socialist movement

Despite numerous UN resolutions; the Israeli ruling class has not
changed its position. Neither are the various major powers that are part
of the UN willing to ensure a genuine independent Palestine and force
acceptance of UN resolutions calling for the withdrawal of the IDF,
whatever their public condemnations are. This would threaten the
interests of capitalism and imperialism in the region.

A genuine Palestinian state with decent jobs, a welfare state and
democratic rights would undoubtedly lead to huge upheavals in the wider
Arab world. A social movement would rapidly spread amongst the Arab
working class and poor peasantry and could lead to the overthrow of the
rotten corrupt Arab elite in the Middle East.

A democratic and socialist struggle against capitalism, imperialism
and feudalism on both sides of the national divide needs to be built.
This would be committed to the overthrow of the rotten dictatorial Arab
regimes and the corrupt neo-liberals that run Israel today.

It means the setting up of a socialist confederation of Middle
Eastern states where all the resources would be under the democratic
control, management and planning of the working class and poor
peasantry.

A socialist Middle East would include a socialist Palestinian state,
with the rights of all religious and ethnic minorities guaranteed. It
would also mean a socialist Israel, a completely new state, which would
answer the security fears of the Israeli Jewish working class and also
guarantee full rights for the Palestinians living there.


Israeli tanks bring Jericho’s walls tumbling down

"IF WE get in, we’ll kill them. If they don’t leave they will be
killed." This blunt ultimatum was delivered to prisoners in the
Palestinian-run jail in Jericho by Colonel Ronnie Belkin of the Israel
Defence Forces (IDF). He wasn’t bluffing as IDF tank rounds, heavy
machine gun fire and an armoured bulldozer, backed up by helicopters,
blasted the jail compound into rubble.

Minutes before this assault, US and British monitors at the jail
hastily abandoned their posts and sped to the safety of Israel. This
apparent collusion with Israel provoked violent retribution on the
British Council offices in Gaza city and led to the abduction of 17
westerners in Gaza by Palestinian militants. All were subsequently
released.

Israel now holds PFLP leader Ahmed Sadaat in their custody, whom they
accuse of killing Israel’s reactionary tourist minister, Rehavam Zeevi,
in 2001 (assassinated in retaliation for the killing of the former PFLP
chief). Under a US/UK brokered deal with Israel and the Palestinian
Authority, Sadaat and five PFLP members were jailed with US and UK
monitors ensuring they remained incarcerated.

However, January’s general election victory for the Islamist
organisation Hamas – which refuses to recognise Israel – meant that
Sadaat could have been released by the new Palestinian Authority (PA).
The US and UK governments didn’t want the embarrassment of having prison
monitors in place if the Hamas-led PA released Sadaat. But their actions
could also symbolise the withdrawal of their previous (lukewarm) support
for the PA.

These events will further enrage the long-suffering Palestinian
population and millions of poor people throughout the Arab world – who
sympathise with the Palestinian national cause and who are also angered
by the occupation of Iraq and by US threats to Iran.

The IDF raid will also further weaken the crumbling authority of
‘US-approved’ Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah
organisation lost the general election to Hamas.

The jail assault once again shows the hypocrisy of the Western
powers. Bush and Blair promote ‘democracy’ in the Middle East but
disregard the result of elections if not to their liking, and then give
the green light to Israel – just weeks away from its own general
election – to re-occupy Palestinian territory at will. Moreover, the US
and UK governments continue to arm, finance and support dictatorial
regimes in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf States to guarantee
oil supplies and secure regional political influence and military bases.