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NEWS & LETTERS, June 2002
Iranian revolutionary view of Israeli war
by Alireza Ardebili The massacres that the Israeli occupation army has been committing against Palestinian civilians is a repeat of Sharon's 1982 genocidal war against the Palestinian people. Sharon is determined to kill the very idea of peace between Palestinians and Israelis. It is no accident that the targets of his attacks have been in the West Bank where many individuals and organizations who have been active in the peace process reside. Sharon could not launch this assault by himself, without a green light from the Bush administration. It is true that the Israeli-Palestinian war is slowing Bush's war against the so called "Axis of Evil." But in my view, Sharon's version of the "war against terrorism" is copied from the U.S. government's drive for permanent war. Sharon was also helped by the actions of Islamist terrorist groups, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah whose suicide bombings provide daily insecurity for the people of Israel. At the same time, I find it most shocking that nearly 46% of Israelis support evicting the Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza. More than 31% of Israelis are in favor of the racist expulsion of all Arabs from Israel! Many who support Israel blatantly compare Arafat to bin Laden to justify Sharon's "war against terrorism." On the other hand, many who support Palestinians justify suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. They say: "Palestinian people have no guns, no F-16's or Kalashnikovs. The only thing they have is their bodies. It's the last weapon left." There is a half-truth in this statement, but this view forgets that suicide bombings kill innocent civilians. Being against suicide bombings does not mean that one has to support Bush's "war against terrorism," which means attacking anyone who speaks against the U.S. government's drive for permanent war. The Palestinian movement is facing both Israeli imperialism and Islamic fundamentalism. Which is why we need to do everything we can to stop the slaughter of Palestinians and support the Palestinian national liberation movement. It is sad to see that the national liberation movement of the Jewish people was transformed into its opposite, an imperialist state-capitalist country. During the rise of Nazism and anti-Semitism even Leon Trotsky, a Marxist revolutionary who was opposed to nationalism, had to recognize that "decaying capitalist society is striving to squeeze the Jewish people from all its pores; 17 million individuals out of the two billion populating the globe, that is less than one percent, can no longer find a place on our planet" ("Manifesto of the Emergency Conference of the Fourth International," Socialist Appeal, June 29, 1940). Today, however, we have to recognize that the transformation into opposite of the national liberation struggle of the Jewish people happened because it is not enough to be against fascism. Without a concept of genuine human liberation, the mere opposition to fascism will only lead to another half-way house. Today the Palestinian movement finds itself in a world in which there is only one superpower. World capitalism faces a global economic slump and demands permanent war. The absence of a liberatory alternative to capitalism has given religious fundamentalism a free hand to fill this void under the banner of "anti-imperialism." Any international campaign for peace between Israel and Palestine must oppose the war crimes of Sharon and the Israeli government at the same time that it condemns terrorist attacks by religious fundamentalist groups. A peace settlement based on the creation of an independent free Palestine in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, alongside the state of Israel, and not an agreement providing for loopholes and Israeli settlements such as the Oslo Accords, is the solution. Without such an agreement, there will be no solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. |
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