En Passant

Israeli policy has two main drivers – to keep the country Jewish and to incorporate the West Bank and Gaza into the zionist state.

The two are related and seemingly contradictory. However Zionism thinks it can square the circle by driving the Palestinians from Palestine.

The establishment of the State of Israel was the first step in this slow genocide. The Israelis drove up to 750,000 Palestinians from their homes.

The incorporation of Israel into the American imperialist project was the second step, a step both sides welcomed.

The economic, military and political support the US gives to its armed wing in the Middle East props up what would otherwise be an unviable regime – much as the support of the West allowed apartheid to survive for over 50 years.

The history of Israel since its establishment has been one of territorial expansion and dispossession of the Palestinians. 

Today this ‘logic’ finds expression in the settlements and wall in the West Bank and the blockade of Gaza.

A year ago it found expression in the invasion of Gaza  supposedly to stop rockets from the territory. In fact this pretext hid the real reason – to show the Palestinians all is lost and they are a defeated people with no right to live in Palestine.

In this case the Israelis were punishing the Palestinians for electing a Hamas Government, one that is not a quisling force like the Palestinian Authority. The message is clear – there is no future in resistance. Accept your fate. Leave.

The war crimes the Israelis committed during Operation Cast Lead against the people of Gaza are the logical expression of this drive for a Jewish state in the whole of Palestine, a state without Palestinians. Even a so-called two state solution – itself an impossibility – is but a step towards, or cover for, this goal.

The blockade of Gaza is one of the long term vehicles for Israeli genocide. It is destroying the people of Gaza and turning them into total supplicants of a weakened UN aid program. It has totally destroyed their economy and means they cannot rebuild after the destruction the invasion wreaked.

Gaza is Israel’s Warsaw ghetto.

As the former Irish President and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson said about Gaza: 

[T]heir whole civilisation has been destroyed, I’m not exaggerating …It’s almost unbelievable that the world doesn’t care while this is happening.

Well, actually it is not so surprising since the ‘developed’ world supports Israel and its genocide for its own imperial purposes. 

For the US Israel is its attack dog which helps it control the region and in particular the flow of oil to other countries, especially China, as it becomes an economic rival.

Only a democratic and secular Palestine can stop the Israeli genocide.

But the Palestinians cannot win on their own. They do not have the economic or military power to smash America’s policeman in the region.

The Arab masses do. If they were to overthrow Mubarak, America’s dictator, the Egyptian working class and peasantry would transform the region and create the opportunity to sweep away the genocidal regime that is Israel and create a rainbow nation for all who want to live in a democratic and secular Palestine.

My apologies. It seems the first post somehow became corrupted a short time after it was published leaving only 80 words or so of misspelt thought bubbles.