[Marxism] Gaza- what next

[Gary MacLennan <gary.maclennan1@xxxxxxxxx>]

We have another rally and march today at noon.  Yesterday evening there was
also a vigil and speakout in the City center. I spoke at that.

I had been struck by the ferocity of the Israeli attacks on Thursday &
Friday morning.  The brutality of the whole Gaza operation is quite
staggering.  I have come to see the deaths in Gaza as "necessary murders" -
the dirty work essential to the Zionist project. That also explains the 94%
public approval in Israel and the crowds of Israelis who have flocked to the
"hill of shame" outside Gaza to clap and cheer as death rains down on the
women and children of Gaza.

The Zionists have always understood that when you steal someone's land you
will have to kill them.

But not even the slickest of propaganda machines has been able to cope with
two salient changes in the mediascape - Al Jazeera had a crew inside Gaza
and also the internet provided a distribution network that Murdoch could not
control.  All this meant that what the Israelis were doing to the
Palestinians could be seen.  Necessary murders are best done in the dark.
But now we all could see the butchers at work.

So it looks like the Israeli war machine is grinding to a halt.  Just as
they dropped a million cluster bombs in Lebanon before they pulled back so
they have carried out as many acts of rabid savagery as they could  and that
possibly before halting.

I clipped the following from <debka.com> (a tainted source is ever there was
one):

*DEBKAfile*'s sources reveal the outline of an evolving ceasefire accord,
dismissed as farcical by a furious Israeli military command: Israel has
promised the US and Egypt to start pulling its troops out of the Gaza Strip
within days and, at some point, open the six border crossings. Israeli prime
minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Ehud Barak and foreign minister Tzipi
Livni, the group running the Gaza war, have approved this arrangement and
will put it before the security cabinet Saturday night, Jan. 17.

It is impossible to say what will happen over the next 48 hours, but it
seems to me that the Israeli offensive is going to be halted and that its
ending without a Hamas surrender is a severe defeat for Israel and also its
Arab backers -Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The Doha summit has also proved a great disaster for Israel.  Their mortal
enemies Hamas and the Iranians were there and sounding very undefeated.
Fatah leader Abbas did not attend and that left the field to Khaled Meshaal
of Hamas.  Also absent were Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The rift between Saudi
Arabia and Qatar is back again. One of the key factors determining the power
balance between them though is that the Emir of Qatar has a television
station that people watch.

In purely military terms it is becoming clearer that there never was a phase
two or phase three planned.  That is there was never going to be on the
ground hand to hand battles between Israeli reservists and Hamas fighters.
The Israelis had in mind the Chechen solution - they were going to flatten
Gaza with their rockets, artillery, bombs by land sea and air.  This was to
be the mother of all shock and awes.

But three weeks later, the Palestinians remain defiant and the nature of the
Israeli state is clearer now to millions all around the world.  Moreover the
Arbas have a new set of heroes to stand alongside Hizbollah. The tyrant in
Cairo must be trembling.

comradely

Gary
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