The Israeli state’s attacks against the Palestinian people are relentless and the massacres in Gaza are unceasing. The Zionist war machine not only condemns the Palestinians to hunger and poverty with the unrestrained siege it has established, but also squeezes them into a narrower and narrower area in the south and carries out mass massacres whenever it feels like it. Israel does not heed any measure, rule or law. The Zionist regime uses all the shameful methods of cruelty in the history of humanity, including bombing, firing on unarmed crowds, torture, massacre of prisoners, depriving people of food and water, obstruction of health services, deliberate destruction of living spaces, and deportation. As a result of this policy, the Palestinian death toll since the Hamas attack on 7 October has already exceeded 30,000. Nearly half of them are children, a fact that automatically exposes the lie that the Israeli state is fighting “terrorists”. The Zionist war machine does not care hospitals or humanitarian aid tents. All this shows that accusing Israel of genocide is not an agitational exaggeration.
Even the United Nations has passed resolutions and issued reports condemning Israel’s crimes countless times. Moreover, for the first time, Israel was put on trial in the International Court of Justice for possible genocide, and the court ruled that genocide is possible and urgent measures must be taken. However, Israel ignored all these and continued with its own agenda. In fact, it can be said that there is no other state on earth with such privileges. The fact that the state of Israel, as a systematic perpetrator of unbelievable crimes against humanity, continues to do as it pleases strikingly reveals a very general reality. It reveals what kind of a world the world of today is, how billions of labourers are crushed between the wheels of a machine, what kind of power is in the hands of the rulers, how the unorganised masses writhe in despair in the face of this, how empty words like democracy and freedom are. In a way, Zionist Israel is like a summary and symbol of the world situation. It is crying out that the imperialist-capitalist system, which makes the labourers of the world writhing in an ordeal, must be destroyed.
With its propaganda lies, Israel does not refrain from trying to cover up its flagrant massacres in front of the eyes of the whole world with brazen and in most cases contradictory lies. From bombing hospitals and saying “Islamist groups did it among themselves”, to opening fire at people in the aid line with automatic weapons and presenting it as “they attacked us, we defended ourselves”, Israel recklessly serves a thousand kinds of lies. Of course, Israel does not spread these lies to the world on its own. While committing such flagrant crimes, the world media monopolies are mobilised to cover up its crimes. Most of them have organic ties with the Jewish bourgeoisie at home and abroad. Therefore, media lies are becoming operations carried out on a global scale. The bourgeois media fulfils its mission by, for example, ignoring the fact that a soldier on active duty in the US Air Force (Aaron Busnell) ended his life by setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., or by giving only a passing mention in order to defame him, and by attributing this tragic act to “mental health” problems.
The global siege of distortion, obfuscation and intimidation has reached such unprecedented proportions that even world-renowned artists, scientists and writers, who only expressed their desire for a ceasefire, were targeted and fired from their jobs, despite their fame. The fact that those who protest against Israel, no matter how well-known they are, no matter how popular they are, no matter how reputable an institution they are, can be brought down and vilified in an instant reveals the nature of the real power relations in this world. In the face of Israel, which is protected by the most powerful segments of global capital, it becomes evident that even famous people and institutions that are seen on the stage and thought to be untouchable and mighty are powerless.
What is Israel trying to do?
It would be wrong to see Israel’s reckless policy as driven by a raving madness. It is true that Israel has had the most right-wing government in its history in power for some time, that this government is a coalition of fascist parties and politicians from different branches, and that among them there are those who advocate “crazy” positions. But as a whole, the policy pursued by the Israeli rulers is not an uncalculated “madness”. This policy is consciously and deliberately aimed at destroying the Palestinian people as much as possible, but more than that, it is aimed at deporting them by any means necessary, rendering them unable to live on Palestinian land. It is true that Zionism has always aspired to this as a general and evil ideal, but it was not concretely conceived as a final plan and the last great blow. Nor is it correct to see the present plan as the final implementation by Jewish religious fanatics of the restoration of an imaginary country constructed from mythological narratives of the past. What is at stake here is not the realisation of religious superstition or dogma.
A new imperialist world war is underway and everything is taking place in this context. In this conjuncture, the Israeli rulers are orientated towards cutting off the Palestinian question once and for all. Mass murder, deportation and genocide are the expression of this. Despite all the reactions from the world, this is the path that has been taken with recklessness. According to plan, the issue of a Palestinian state will be eliminated, Palestinians will be expelled to other countries, and Israel will be provided with a “safe” territory and borders. The neighbouring Arab states will also be permanently made part of this status quo. It is seen that this is the concrete plan that is being tried to be put into practice. Israel, which was founded with an imperialist world war, wants to fully secure its existence by expanding with the imperialist world war that is currently going on.
To what extent this plan is realistic and to what extent it will be successful is another matter. This deportation part is still a subject of work for Israel, the USA and collaborating regional states. They are working on where and how such a thing can be done with all possibilities and details. This is the most important and challenging agenda item of the numerous negotiations and talks. For this, even billions of dollars of bribes are allocated to Egypt. Lucrative IMF packages seem to have been put in place to reward the Egyptian rulers for such a service.
Nevertheless, despite all these plans, it must be said that the chances of success are not high. For this, not only Gaza but the entire Palestinian territories must be cleansed of Palestinians, which is not an easy task. The century-old Palestinian question has passed through many difficult bottlenecks so far, the Palestinian people have suffered unspeakable pains and losses, but the problem could never be eliminated. In the midst of the historical crisis of capitalism and in the midst of an imperialist world war, it is unthinkable that one of the most complicated political problems of the century, i.e. the Palestinian question, can be solved by cutting and slashing. At the very least, the Palestinian problem will cease to be a Palestinian problem in the narrow sense and become a Palestinian problem, a problem of the Arab peoples, which at least deeply encompasses the neighbouring Arab countries.
“Ceasefire” and hypocrisies
In recent weeks, negotiations for a ceasefire have been intensively conducted in various centres (especially in Cairo). Under the pressure and reactions of the peoples of the world, states that want to be seen to be doing something are trying to restrain Israel to some extent. They are pushing for a ceasefire that will last at least for the month of Ramadan. But all this “effort” is essentially a distraction. An agreement cannot be reached because Israel consciously imposes unacceptable demands. Israel’s concern is not that its demands are met, but that they are not met and the process is blocked or dragged out. So that the Zionist war machine can continue its campaign to ravage Gaza and the West Bank and to intimidate neighbouring countries such as Syria and Lebanon.
The states that are directly or indirectly involved in all the negotiations in this latest process, whether they are about a ceasefire or not, are acting hypocritically. Turkey, which poses as the so-called protector of the Palestinian cause, and most of the Arab and Islamic countries are in reality busy stabbing the Palestinians in the back. None of them take any action against Israel that would put their hands in the fire. Each of them is trying to benefit from the problem in line with their own interests or to ensure that the problem does not spread to them. For this purpose, they receive perks from the global imperialist powers under various forms and seek to protect and expand their economic and political interests. The behaviour of the Turkish-Islamic fascist regime ruling in Turkey is also exemplary. From the days of the “One Minute” poses, we have come to the present day when even the barbed wire used against the Palestinians is exported to Israel. Economic relations have been developed from all four corners, ships have been running at full speed, and the pro-government capital faction has filled its pockets many times over. They tried to hide these, but they failed. When they were exposed, they did not back down, on the contrary, they attempted to defend their hypocrisy in a brazen manner. However, this was not enough, even the sects were brought into the picture, and, in a religious guise, they are trying to justify the trade with Israel, which cannot be hidden and which is causing an increasing amount of discontent.
Another hypocritical aspect of the government’s policy is that in public speeches and statements, criticism is mainly directed at Netanyahu. It is as if everything is being done by Netanyahu and the current Israeli government. They even express their hopes that Netanyahu is on track of being swept away. Netanyahu is a clear diversion. The state of Israel, the Israeli rulers, Zionism, US imperialism, other imperialist powers and collaborator Arab states are hardly mentioned. Moreover, there is not much mention of the plots against the Palestinians. Even the country that filed a lawsuit against the International Court of Justice for genocide was neither Turkey, nor an Islamic country, nor an Arab state. It was the Republic of South Africa under the ANC (African National Congress), which has been in mutual solidarity and connection with the Palestinian cause since the times of struggle against the Apartheid regime. The fascist regime in Turkey, in order to get away from this shame and to grab a desperate share of the honour for itself, made a statement saying “we are also providing documents to the court, we support it”.
One of the realities that this whole scene points to is the hollowness and deception of the phrase “Muslim has no friend but a Muslim”, which has been inculcated in many labourers. It has once again become strikingly evident that general categories such as “Islamic world”, “Muslim countries” have almost no validity in terms of unity, fraternity and solidarity, and that what is real is the interests of different national capital groups. States are the states of the bourgeoisies, regardless of their religion, and they follow whatever the economic, political, geostrategic, etc. interests of those bourgeoisies require.
On this occasion, it must be said that beyond the issue of “Islamic countries”, the great imperialist powers and regional powers, which are part of the ongoing global hegemony war, in reality act only in their own interests. They are not interested in the Palestinian cause, they want to gain positions in the war for hegemony, to come out on top, to push back the rival powers. This is the main motive guiding the policies pursued by Russia, China and Iran, which today seem to be on the side of Palestine.
All these events show that there will be no friends from the bourgeoisie and the rulers, and that the friends of the labourers and the oppressed are again the labourers. Today, all over the world, regardless of religion, sect, language, nationality, gender, it is the labourers who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. State propaganda on an unprecedented scale, media blackout and manipulations cannot lead to a widespread darkening of conscience to the extent desired by the rulers. The peoples of the world have largely condemned Israel’s crimes in their hearts. Despite the attitude of the states, giant capital groups, all kinds of institutions, the propaganda activities of the global media monopolies and the general disorganisation of the working masses around the world, demonstrations, actions and events are being held in many countries of the world against the atrocities committed by Israel and in support of the oppressed Palestinian people. Neither the truth can be completely hidden nor consciences can be completely silenced. Reaction against Israel’s atrocities is rising, even to tragic examples such as the US soldier setting himself on fire. Even at the recent Hollywood awards ceremony, actors voiced their demand for a ceasefire.
Even in the Israel’s staunchest defender, i.e. United States, where pro-Israel propaganda is most intense, recent opinion polls show that more than half of the people think that Israel has gone too far. It is also noteworthy that pro-Israel sentiment among younger generations is much lower than among the general public. The very fact that a genocide trial has been held at the International Court of Justice is a condemnation of Israel and the mechanisms of global domination that it represents, even if the result is not an outright conviction. In the eyes of the peoples of the world, Israel and the imperialist powers siding with it have suffered a great loss of credibility.
The just cause of the Palestinian people, beyond being a national question in general, touches the global domination system of imperialist-capitalism to a much deeper extent today, due to the specific concrete conditions in which it takes place. This is the reason why the bourgeoisie has organised an unprecedentedly rabid campaign of attack to prevent global solidarity. That is why solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people has become even more important for the labourers of the world today.
link: Levent Toprak, Zionist Machine of Persecution and Real Friends of Palestinian People, 21 March 2024, https://en.marksist.net/node/8223
Globalisation: Uneven and Combined Capitalist Development /5