For Julio was Re: Palestine:The Lessons of Bantustan Nationalism

[Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 01:51  10/09/00 -0400, you wrote:
>    Today Yasser Arafat imprisons Palestinian militants through summary
>trials, for daring to defy the Zionist occupation authorities. Tomorrow,
>after he's concluded his deal with Barak, he'll create death squads
>(assuming he hasn't done so already) to weed out potential opponents. I
>suspect a post-independence Palestine will resemble Ireland in the 1920s: a
>bifurcated state beholden to imperialism, with civil war breaking out and
>the "winners" eliminating the losers, much as de Valera had Michael Collins
>assasinated.
>Send messages of support for the release of Mujahid Mahmud Abu Hannud to:
>hamas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>Julio Cesar
>
>Dear Julio,


In broad terms I think the resemblance between Palestine and post 1922
settlement Ireland may be correct.  Certainly the hammer will descend on
Arab dissidents and Arafat or some stooge will wield it.

But in the detail on Ireland you are somewhat incorrect if I may say so.
Forgive me for assuming that your analysis is influenced by Neil Jordan's
film on Collins.  In any case a major difficulty with the movie is that it
sets up the false opposition of 'De Valera versus Collins' and suggests
that De Valera was involved in his killing.  There is for a start no
evidence at all that Collins was killed on De Valera's orders.  Some have
speculated that he may have been assassinated or at least sent into danger
by his own party.  What ever the case the facts are that Collins was a
militant who moved to the right and signed the Treaty with the British.
Like Arafat acting on Barak's orders, Collins subsequently moved against
the anti-settlement militants after pressure from Winston Churchill.

De Valera was not Collins' opposite.  He can best be understood as a
Machiavellian centrist who maneuvered against those who threatened his
leadership. He was a much shrewder politician than Collins.  The Left
counter to both De Valera and Collins was arguably Liam Mellows, who was
assassinated in prison by orders of the  Irish Government after Collins'
death. Mellows' fate was like that of Chris Hanni's in South Africa a
classical necessary murder. It left the movement without an alternative
leadership focus. It also meant that De Valera could pose as the true
representative of Republican militancy and Irish independence. This
independence was one where James Connolly's attempted synthesis between
Irish Nationalism and Marxian socialism could be ignored.

regards

Gary