[Marxism] GAZA

[Bonnie Weinstein <giobon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Gaza

Socialist Viewpoint Editorial

On the thirteenth day of Israel’s deadly strikes against the  
Palestinian people of Gaza, the number of fatalities reported by the  
New York Times has been readjusted upwards approaching 800  
Palestinian men, women and children, and thousands more wounded—in  
fact it is impossible to keep up with the death toll while Israeli  
casualties can be counted on one’s fingers and toes—and some of them  
caught by their own “friendly fire.” Meanwhile, the relentless and  
indiscriminate Israeli bombings continue on homes, schools, ambulances 
—any Palestinian targets being “fair game!” All Israel need do is  
label them “Hamas.”

Israel’s aerial and ground war is in full swing with no end in sight.  
Palestinian children throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers are met with  
tank and aerial bombardment of their entire neighborhoods by Israel.  
None of this horror could take place without the massive aid the U.S.  
is and has been supplying to Israel even before its birth in 1948.

In a News Analysis written by Ethan Bronner that appeared in the  
Times December 29, 2008 entitled, “Israel Reminds Foes That It Has  
Teeth,” Bronner, reports that while Israel maintains that the reason  
they are carrying out this military operation in Gaza is to force, “… 
Hamas to end its rocket barrages and military buildup.” He goes on to  
say, “But it has another goal as well: to expunge the ghost of its  
flawed 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and re-establish Israeli  
deterrence.” Bronner continues, “…[Israel] worries that its enemies  
are less afraid of it than they once were, or should be. Israeli  
leaders are calculating that a display of power in Gaza could fix that.”

But in another article (also December 29) that appeared in  
Counterpunch, by Joshua Frank, entitled “Obama and the ‘Special  
Relationship’,” the author writes, “Over the last seven years only 17  
Israeli citizens have been killed by Palestinian rocket fire, which  
makes it extremely difficult for Israeli politicians, which are in  
the midst of an election, to argue that their response has been  
proportionate or defensible in any way.”

Not only have the people in Gaza been enduring an Israeli blockade of  
all goods and services, including electricity, water and medical  
supplies and equipment, for over a year; the death toll among all the  
people of Palestine is counted in the tens-of-thousands since before  
the formation of Israel in 1948.

And, as for U.S. intentions in the region from that time on, in an  
article in the March 1995 issue of The Middle East Forum Promoting  
American Interests entitled, “Jesse Helms: Setting the Record  
Straight,” Helms, who was the senior senator from North Carolina and  
the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time  
stated,

“I have long believed that if the United States is going to give  
money to Israel, it should be paid out of the Department of Defense  
budget. My question is this: If Israel did not exist, what would U.S.  
defense costs in the Middle East be? Israel is at least the  
equivalent of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Middle East. Without  
Israel promoting its and America’s common interests, we would be  
badly off indeed.”1

This quote was from 13 years ago. Just think of the buildup of  
Israel’s arsenal funded by U.S. dollars since that time! How many  
aircraft carriers is Israel worth today with its U.S.-stocked nuclear  
arsenal?

This siege on Gaza is not just to throw the proverbial fear of the  
almighty into the people of Gaza but to all who stand opposed to U.S.  
wars and occupations throughout the world, including opposition to  
their funding of Israel’s ongoing and relentless war against the  
Palestinian people.

In fact, Palestine can be viewed as the first front of the U.S. “War  
on Terror.” The U.S. came out on top of the world imperialist heap  
after WWII. And immediately it facilitated the formation of Israel  
with the intention of establishing Israel as a beachhead for U.S.  
imperialist interests in the Middle East. That’s why they have funded  
Israel’s war against the people of Palestine all these years since  
Israel’s formation.

The U.S./Israeli war on Palestine cannot be separated from the U.S.  
War on Terror any more than you can separate the war on Iraq from the  
war on Afghanistan; the attacks in Pakistan; the threat to Iran, etc.  
It is just another front along its designated “Axis of Evil” which  
includes many other targets around the world in Lebanon, Africa,  
Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti, Columbia—anywhere the U.S. meets resistance  
to their imperialist exploitation of workers and natural resources.

It is incumbent upon the American people including the entire antiwar  
movement in this country to stand squarely opposed to these murderous  
assaults against a people pummeled by war for decades, bankrolled by  
the U.S. to benefit U.S. Big Business and maintain its world military  
domination!

The working class of the U.S. must join the workers of the rest of  
the world not only to condemn the ongoing bloodshed and the inhuman  
blockade of Gaza, and demand it end immediately, but it must condemn  
all U.S. funding and aid to Israel and demand that it end NOW!

We must educate people who have been brainwashed by years of lies and  
propaganda justifying the hundreds of billions of dollars this  
bipartisan government has already spent funding the wars to insure  
U.S. domination in the Middle East. And we must point out that Israel— 
the former Palestine—is but one of 725-plus U.S. military bases  
around the globe.

The antiwar movement can make a huge step forward by demanding that  
the U.S. end all aid to Israel now. Palestinian speakers should be  
featured at antiwar rallies.

“End All U.S. Aid to Israel NOW! Not One More Dime for War and  
Occupation! Bring All the Troops and Contractors Home from Iraq and  
Afghanistan NOW! Money for Human Needs Not War and Occupation!”




1 http://www.meforum.org/article/244
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