[Marxism] the right of the victim to use violence

[Dbachmozart@xxxxxxx]

Fred Feldman wrote (re Hamas) -
 
But I believe they have the unconditional right to continue to
attack  Israeli troops as long as they are stationed in Gaza, and even beyond
if that  proves possible. I think they have a fundamental RIGHT to shell
Israeli towns  and cities as long as their people are being starved and
debilitated  economically and physically by the blockade.  
 
 
 
The tactic of shooting primitive rockets into southern Israel has not been  
politically or militarily productive, and many Palestinians strongly oppose it. 
 But the right of the oppressed to fight against their oppression - "by any 
means  necessary" - is hopefully not up for debate among those calling 
themselves  revolutionaries. 

Gaza: the logic of colonial power

As so often, the term 'terrorism' has proved a rhetorical smokescreen  under 
cover of which the strong crush the weak

Nir Rosen
Monday December 29 2008
guardian.co.uk  

_http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/29/gaza-hamas-israel_ 
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/29/gaza-hamas-israel)  
clip - 
Normative rules are determined by power relations. Those with power determine 
 what is legal and illegal. They besiege the weak in legal prohibitions to  
prevent the weak from resisting. For the weak to resist is illegal by  
definition. Concepts like terrorism are invented and used normatively as if a  
neutral 
court had produced them, instead of the oppressors. The danger in this  
excessive use of legality actually undermines legality, diminishing the  
credibility
 of international institutions such as the United Nations. It becomes  
apparent that the powerful, those who make the rules, insist on legality merely 
 to 
preserve the power relations that serve them or to maintain their occupation  
and colonialism. 
Attacking civilians is the last, most desperate and basic method of  
resistance when confronting overwhelming odds and imminent eradication. The  
Palestinians do not attack Israeli civilians with the expectation that they 
will  
destroy Israel. The land of Palestine is being stolen day after day; the  
Palestinian people is being eradicated day after day. As a result, they respond 
 in 
whatever way they can to apply pressure on Israel. Colonial powers use  
civilians 
strategically, settling them to claim land and dispossess the native  
population, be they Indians in North America or Palestinians in what is now  
Israel 
and the Occupied Territories. When the native population sees that there  is an 
irreversible dynamic that is taking away their land and identity with the  
support of an overwhelming power, then they are forced to resort to whatever  
methods of resistance they can. 
............... 
It is not that, qua Palestinians, they have the right to use any means  
necessary, it is because they are weak. The weak have much less power than the  
strong, and can do much less damage. The Palestinians would not have ever 
bombed  
cafes or used home-made missiles if they had tanks and airplanes. It is only 
in  the current context that their actions are justified, and there are 
obvious  limits. 
It is impossible to make a universal ethical claim or establish a Kantian  
principle justifying any act to resist colonialism or domination by 
overwhelming 
 power. And there are other questions I have trouble answering. Can an Iraqi 
be  justified in attacking the United States? After all, his country was 
attacked  without provocation, and destroyed, with millions of refugees 
created, 
hundreds  of thousands of dead. And this, after 12 years of bombings and 
sanctions, which  killed many and destroyed the lives of many others.  
I could argue that all Americans are benefiting from their country's exploits 
 without having to pay the price, and that, in today's world, the imperial  
machine is not merely the military but a military-civilian network. And I could 
 also say that Americans elected the Bush administration twice and elected  
representatives who did nothing to stop the war, and the American people  
themselves did nothing. From the perspective of an American, or an Israeli, or  
other powerful aggressors, if you are strong, everything you do is justifiable, 
 
and nothing the weak do is legitimate. It's merely a question of what side you 
 choose: the side of the strong or the side of the  weak.

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