Friday, January 30, 2009

Power Struggles

In the Guardian today we get reports of a wave of reprisal attacks and killings inside Gaza that have left dozens dead and more wounded in the wake of Israel's war.
During and after the war, there have also been attacks on security officials from Fatah, the bitter rival of Hamas, the Islamist movement in control of the Gaza Strip. One witness told the Guardian how her brother, a Fatah military intelligence officer, was shot three times in the legs in an apparent punishment attack by gunmen from Hamas's armed wing.

While undoubtably, some of this is spontaneous even personal, ,some of it is Hamas trying to reassert its control, a part of an on going power struggle inside Gaza between Hamas and Fatah.It is worth remembering too,when Hamas was encouraged to take on Fatah at the time it was in Israeli interests to do so.'Twas ever thus.

A correspondent comments in this blog, in respect of the blockade of Gaza,"I read somewhere recently that an adviser for the Israeli Prime Minister had at some point stated that the Gazans were to be "put on a diet". Not much compassion for fellow humans there." This anecdote may or may not, be true, an unguarded comment from an agent of the Israeli state.

It is the same old arrogance,but we have to remember capitalism and its methods, dehumanises and we can feel rightly angered by this and the, probably normally kindly,old individuals ,dancing in New York as the jets struck woman and children in Gaza, but socialist analysis requires,demands even, a cool head.Some of these stories are propagandist grist to the mill, as all the different sides put their gloss on events to justify and excuse their own methods and reactions.The first casualty is truth .We need to be vigilant and not be used.It is worth remembering in all of this there are courageous individuals, some very young ,refusing to do their masters bidding. Some of their solutions may be flawed, naive even , but their courage and determination to remain humane and not add to the carnage, at considerable risk of personal ostracism has to be acknowledged.

World socialists are revolted by the violence of the Gaza conflict. We condemn both sides and denounce the senseless killing of our fellow workers. History shows that in times of war, working-class interests are never served by workers throwing in their lot with nationalist or other political leaders of capitalism, whether they are well-funded like the Israeli state, or weaker like Hamas. The slaughter in Gaza underlines yet again the urgent need to work for a world without nations and nationalism, bosses and workers. Instead of a “two-state” solution, world socialists offer the “no-state” solution as the only one that can ever give the Middle East lasting peace.

1 comment:

Clif 🤵🏻 said...

As much as a utopian borderless world may seem like a great idea at some point in the distant future, it doesn't address the current situation in Gaza and the war crimes being committed against cibiliams who are mostly children.The genocide supported by Western governments continues and now we enter a starvation phase. Protests and lobbying governments may be our only way to put pressure on a forcing an end to the untethered genocide and hence why speaking up and protesting is so important. It is far too easy to say thatvyouvare anti warning do nothing. Of course we are all anti war but it is a time to stand up and be counted.