Israel: Articles from the frontline
Date: Monday, August 18 @ 04:23:29 CDT
Topic: Rest of World
Israel: 4 recent articles on so-called Road Map for Peace; Israeli refusniks; and on the class struggle in the Israel and the rest of the region, written by CWI comrades including those fighting on the spot for socialism and class unity in the Middle East
Israel/Palestine
The following article was written before the announcement of a temporary ceasefire by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Al-Aqsa brigades. This ceasefire may have raised hopes that the Road Map could bring about a sharp reduction in the bloodshed for a sustained length of time. However, as the article explains the Road Map gives no answers to the terrible conditions faced by the Palestinians and the huge difficulty of achieving a lasting peace in the Middle East under capitalism. CWI online.
Sharon's deadly assassination squads
ARIEL SHARON appears to be biting the hand that feeds him. The assassination of another leading Hamas activist by an Israeli hit squad has further undermined George Bush's efforts to put a lid on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict through its 'road map' peace initiative.
This apparent wrecking strategy of Sharon comes only weeks after the US Congress approved a massive $9 billion loans package to bolster Israel's faltering economy.
US secretary of state Colin Powell, attending the World Economic Summit in neighbouring Jordan, barely concealed his anger at the Israeli government's action. He said the murder of Abdullah Qawasmeh in Hebron was a "matter of concern" that "could be an impediment to progress". However, Sharon had no regrets, saying the assassination was "a vital action designed to provide security for Israel's citizens".
In fact, such actions will guarantee a retaliatory strike against Israeli citizens by Hamas, which has spurned attempts by Egypt and the US-approved Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Abbas to secure a ceasefire from the various Palestinian militias.
Another indication of Sharon's insincerity is his attitude to the 'illegal' Jewish settlements in the West Bank. These settlements on Palestinian territory have flourished since Sharon became PM in 2001, despite some token dismantling in recent days of some 'hilltop settlements'. Sharon reportedly said last week that the settlers should continue to build, albeit more discreetly.
So it's hardly surprising that most Palestinians are rightly cynical of the road map achieving anything positive, let alone a "viable Palestinian state". What they see is only a continuation of the occupation, oppression and impoverishment as the Israeli government's response to the Intifada.
Many Israelis also remain sceptical of peace under Sharon's leadership. An Israeli newspaper opinion poll found that 40% of Israelis believe that the recent assassination attempt of Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi was a deliberate act to wreck the road map - 67% want these assassinations to stop to enable peace talks.
Not that the road map, with its lack of concrete measures to resolve such issues as the right of return of Palestinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem, the financing of a 'viable Palestinian state' etc. offers a way forward for the working classes of the region.
George Bush's plan is designed to bolster pro-US Arab regimes whose populations are incandescent at the US invasion of Iraq and the continuing national oppression of the Palestinians.
The only viable solution to the wars, national conflicts, grinding poverty and extremes of inequality of the Middle East is the transformation of the region through the building of mass revolutionary socialist movements.
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People's Mojahedin - victims of imperialist rivalry
TWELVE MEMBERS of the exiled Iranian People's Mojahedin (MKO) have set themselves alight in a number of European capitals, including London, in protest at the arrest and detention of 160 MKO members in France.
The French authorities are to investigate 17 MKO members for "conspiring with a terrorist organisation". Eleven are being held in custody including MKO leader Maryam Rajavi.
The MKO is the political wing of the Mojahedin Khalq guerrillas who oppose the Iranian regime. The People's Mojahedin, a curious blend of Islam and 'Marxism', was a prominent force on the left during the early days of the 1978-79 Iranian revolution before being banished under Ayatollah Khomeini's regime (see the socialist 14 June).
Its 10,000-strong militia has military bases inside Iraq and had enjoyed the patronage of Saddam Hussein. These bases were bombed by US forces during operation 'shock and awe'. The guerrillas have subsequently agreed to disarm since the US occupation of Iraq.
The MKO has found itself the victim of inter-imperialist rivalry between the EU, principally the French government and the US. The US has targeted Iran as part of an "axis of evil" that aids and abets terrorism and that is pursuing a nuclear weapons programme. It has opportunistically encouraged regime change during the recent student-led protests against Iran's clerical leaders.
However, the French government is pursuing its own imperialist policy to cultivate its capitalist interests in the Arab and Muslim countries of the Middle East. This includes maintaining friendly trade and diplomatic relations with Tehran, hence the arrests of the MKO members at its Paris compound.
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Imperialist wishes 1
AS THE US-led occupation of Iraq faces mounting opposition, the occupying forces keep up their aim of making the country into a 'free-market economy'. The US wants more privatisation - moving resources and workers from state enterprises to what they hope will be profit-making private-sector ventures.
Paul Bremer, US 'civil administrator' for Iraq, acknowledged that this move would exacerbate social relations - mainly with mass sackings. Bremer made vague promises of some kind of "social safety net", paid for by Iraq's oil!
Who'll gain most if this plan comes to fruition? The oil companies, mainly in the USA, and other big business enterprises, including a few Iraqi fat cats.
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Imperialist wishes 2
TOP MAGAZINES in Britain's construction and civil engineering are running a conference on business opportunities arising from the Iraq reconstruction process.
They will advise big business (or small business wanting to grow fat) on "the realities of doing business in Iraq", on "the challenges of doing business in a country which has been closed to business over the past decade" and other issues such as "developing an effective risk management strategy" in "what will become one of the fastest growing economies in the world".
Well, that's that sorted then. After years of warfare at various levels, years of sanctions which "closed Iraq" to trade and had a devastating effect on the population, big business can see light at the end of the tunnel. For themselves!
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Military big spenders
THE WAR in Iraq pushed global spending on military purposes up 6% last year, says the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Expanding at twice the rate of the year before, it has now grown to $794 billion (£500 billion a year).
US imperialism - responsible for three-quarters of the increase - accounted for 43% of global military spending last year (up from 36%). Washington spent an alarming $336 billion ($210 billion) on arms.
What's more, US defence budget estimates for 2003 showed a planned 32% increase in arms procurement over the 2002-2007 period, in line with ideas of a new global 'Pax Americana' with "full spectrum dominance".
Other world powers find it hard to keep up. Western Europe's arms spending actually went down. Russia overtook the US as the world's biggest arms exporter while China, with imports estimated at growing 18% in 2002, was the biggest importer of arms.
India and Pakistan, which came close to nuclear conflagration last year, both vastly increased their arms imports last year - India's 72% rise in imports making it the world's second largest buyer of arms from abroad.
From The Socialist, paper of the Socialist Party, CWI in England and Wales
Israel/Palestine conflict
Socialism - the only road to peace
The road map to 'peace' in the Middle East is becoming soaked in blood. Since the Israeli army attempted to assassinate the deputy leader of the Islamic Palestinian organisation, Hamas, on 10 June, the number of deaths has again escalated. The toll includes 17 Israelis killed in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem and 18 Palestinians gunned down by Israeli forces in Gaza on two consecutive days.
The road map was never a map with any real routes. It left the major issues of contention unresolved, such as the right of return of Palestinian refugees. Rather it was a desperate response by the US administration linked to promises they made when trying to win support for war on Iraq, to solve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict after the war.
At first, Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, would not sign up to the map, fearful of being pushed towards concessions beyond his right-wing agenda, such as the removal of Jewish settlements from the West Bank. But under intense pressure from the US regime, with its bargaining power of massive funding of the Israeli state, Sharon was forced to pay lip service to it. This was not without substantive qualifications though, such as refusing to use the word 'independent' regarding a future Palestinian state.
Sharon is bound by a right-wing coalition government that strongly supports Jewish settlements in the occupied territories and will not contemplate a genuine Palestinian state. These are views he shares, as do most representatives of the Israeli ruling class on the issue of a genuine Palestinian state.
But there are domestic factors pushing Sharon towards negotiations, particularly the present deep economic crisis in Israel. Recent increases in share values and of the Israeli Shekel against the US dollar have been attributed to the road map negotiations, reflecting the toll the national conflict has taken on the defence budget and the tourist industry. It is also the case that, according to a poll, 62% of Israelis want occupation of the territories ended.
So Sharon manoeuvres between international pressure, domestic opinion and a dire financial situation on the one hand, and the Israeli right-wing and backing for forceful 'security' measures amongst a section of Israeli Jews on the other hand. The Palestinian leaders, on their part, have little room for manoeuvre. As long as the Israeli government continues its brutal occupation of the Palestinian territories along with house demolitions, assassinations and many civilian deaths, they are helpless in the face of demands to reign in the armed activists and suicide bombers of organisations such as Hamas. In any case, their security apparatus has been too weakened by the Israeli onslaught to even attempt it. Understanding this situation, Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, has stated he must negotiate with Hamas rather than trying to disarm them.
Whether the road map folds quickly or has a longer death agony, it is a further graphic example of the inability of the imperialist powers to offer any solution. With next year's US election campaign looming, US President George Bush is more concerned with keeping in with the US Christian right and Jewish lobby who staunchly support the Israeli ruling class than with international pressure favouring Palestinian rights. However, even governments worldwide who argue more forcefully for a Palestinian state, including the Palestinian Authority itself, do not have the interests of ordinary Palestinian people at heart, nor can their pressure lead to a genuine Palestinian state. The national conflict and satisfying the aspirations of both Israeli Jewish workers and Palestinian workers cannot be resolved on the basis of the capitalist system that all these governments represent. Only by building a socialist Israel and a socialist Palestine in a socialist confederation of the Middle East will a real map be laid towards a decent future for all the people of the region.
Judy Beishon
From The Socialist, paper of the Socialist Party, CWI in England and Wales
Israel
National paper interviews CWI refusnik
A well known nationally daily paper in Israel, Ha'aretz Daily, interviewed young immigrants who refuse to be drafted into the Israeli Defence Forces (9 May). We carry the piece, which includes an interview with a CWI member.
CWI Online
The new Russian refuseniks
Some of them are Marxists, and some are simply opposed to the occupation. Whatever the reason, the army doesn't know how to handle the new phenomenon of young immigrants who refuse to be drafted into the Israel Defense Forces for reasons of conscience.
By Lily Galili
Ilya Ginsburg celebrated the 1st of May with the crowds of young people who came to demonstrate in Tel Aviv. He returned enthusiastic about the excited mood of the young members of the youth movements, about the red flags that were raised. He was even supposed to speak at that demonstration, but the order of speakers was changed and he didn't go on stage.
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