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On the Israeli war in Gaza

category mashriq / arabia / iraq | the left | opinion / analysis author Thursday January 01, 2009 23:30author by Mazen Kamalmazauthor email mazen2190 at gmail dot com Report this post to the editors

Anarchist communist analysis from Syria

The majority of the Arab masses can just observe what is going on, filled with outrage and anger. This is due mainly to the general atmosphere of fear and their marginalization, strongly maintained by the ruling elites. Only a small minority of politically active individuals are participating in protests on the streets. [Nederlands] [Ελληνικά] [Castellano] [Türkçe]
jihadmassaker_1.jpg


On the Israeli war on Gaza


The number of Palestinian casualities is so high compared to previous Israeli attacks - 385 killed and more than 1,750 injured (these figures are valid as of 31 December). The majority of the Arab masses can just observe what is going on, filled with outrage and anger. This is due mainly to the general atmosphere of fear and their marginalization, strongly maintained by the ruling elites. Only a small minority of politically active individuals are participating in protests on the streets. They are mainly Islamic activists.

This can be understood in two ways: Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the biggest Islamic organization that enjoys an influential presence in the largest Islamic countries, usually in an illegal way. On the other hand, the left in Arab and Islamic countries has changed profoundly since the fall of the Soviet Union: a large part of it shifted from the traditional reformist policies of Stalinist parties to embrace the neo-liberal policies of the mainstream tendency of globalization, but have kept the same old tactics: looking for compromises with ruling elites, or promoting "democratic" change based primarily on neo-liberal policies and accepting American, or in general Western, intervention as the main way of imposing such "change".

To be fair, there is a tendency to create some influence by Trotskyism and, to a lesser extent, Anarchism; but these new tendencies are still very weak and elitist and lack any important presence or influence on the grassroots movements of the masses. In fact, the Arab masses are left to the propaganda of the Islamists. Liberal and the majority of former leftist intellectuals have opted to support the policies of pro-American "moderate" governments; while those leftists who consider themselves anti-imperialist have acted as mere supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah; they have failed to distinguish themselves from these Islamists, or even worse, failed to promote a real democratic and progressive approach and understanding of the ongoing fight.

It is clear that despite the promises of Hamas that are attributed to their Islamic religious teachings not to the facts on ground, Israel enjoys the upper hand and its forces, with their determination to inflict as many casualities and as much damage as they can on the one and half million poor residents of Gaza, can defeat the resistance in Gaza.

Pro-American regimes, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, are doing everything they can to make the mission of Israeli forces as easy as possible; for example, the Egyptian regime is keeping the crossing points of Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip closed to humanitarian aid, in order to keep the people of Gaza facing hunger, darkness and cold, which can weaken their resistance and create resentment against the Hamas leadership. These corrupt dictatorships have today become the symbols of "modernity" with neo-liberals as their masters - the Bush administration and its first ally in the region, Israel, the butchers of Gaza; this proved to be the best propaganda that the Islamists have received in these days.

Of course, Islamic fundamentalists do not have real solutions, nor a democratic one, to the crisis, or even to the issues of fighting poverty or social injustice; but due to the weakness of the left here and its vague understanding, and of their proposed alternative for these issues due to the strong influence of Stalinism and reformism, these Islamists are now in the front line of the demonstrations against the American-backed Israeli aggression. This only reaffirms the importance of organizing anarchist propaganda and activities that can, by word and deed, demonstrate a new, libertarian alternative to both neo-liberalism and fundamentalism.


Mazen Kamalmaz

author by Danny - Israeli Uncensored Newspublication date Fri Jan 02, 2009 22:38author email nospam at samsonblinded dot orgauthor address author phone Report this post to the editors

PA is a state, Israel is a state, what's your business in there? They should be both equally evil to you. Decide for yourself, anarchy or nationalism.

author by Kevin S.publication date Sat Jan 03, 2009 13:09author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The question "Why would anarchist be concerned?" is idiotic for too many reasons to count. Why would anyone be concerned? Because we are human, because we are not only self-interested (i.e. selfish), and because we are not absolutely cynical. Anarchists, as people, are as concerned as anyone else for such an extreme humanitarian crisis as exists in Palestine. Furthermore, anarchism is an ideal based upon solidarity, or else its conception of freedom would not make any sense -- so of course we are concerned!

But beside that, the specifics of Danny's are especially ridiculous given the content of the article on which he is commenting -- "PA is a state" (correct!), "Israel is a state" (of course), "what's your business in there?" Anyone can tell you that any serious, intelligent anarchists is just as opposed to the Fatah-PA thugs as well as the super-authoritarian fundamentalist Hamas as they are to the Israeli State.

I will concede, in fact I will offer my own criticism of this fact, that there is not nearly the level of international anarchist or leftist outrage at the crimes of Hamas against Israeli civilians -- equally criminal to the Israeli terror -- as there is at the latter. The usual response to this criticism, which has merit only in describing the present concrete level of humanitarian crisis under which the Palestinians suffer, is that Palestinian deaths far outnumber Israeli deaths. That is only true thanks to the overwhelming superiority of Israeli military might, due to a combination of foreign support along with a long background of military experience plus nearly total militarization of Israeli society, which has meant historically that even in occasional defeat Israel has held a steady upper hand against the Palestinian resistance.

So, it is clear enough that the reasons for Israeli oppression of Palestinians require some serious, empathetic and critical historical consideration from the standpoint of an anarchist response, and current protests from the left should underscore the criminal terror imposed against Israeli-Palestinian society from both ends of the conflict. It is also clear enough that the criminal thugs of Hamas, Fatah, the would-be Palestinian State do not have either a humanitarian solution to the war, and also ought to be denounced as much for their thuggery as the Israeli armed forces etc. (For that matter, Hamas is in large part also to be blamed for the present war in Gaza for its ongoing attacks before and now against the Israeli population -- together with the program of Hamas there is little question that the Hamas is a mass-murderous organization as bad or worse than the Israeli military.)

But that does not detract from the criminal terror of the Israeli State, it only points to the urgent necessity of a mass movement of Palestinians and Israelis to oppose all imperialist, state and fundamentalist tendencies. The "Anarchists Against the Wall" group is an encouraging and admirable, but nonetheless limited first step in this direction. It does no good to respond, as many sincerely frustated or cynical individuals do, by throwing one's hands in the air and saying: "They are all terrorists, there is no good solution!" It would be especially nonsensical for anarchists in the region (e.g. the author of this article, who claims to write from Syria), for whom the crisis is of especially direct consequence, not to attempt a hard response. This particular article, in my opinion, is an excellent reflection and a valuable contribution toward the developing anarchist political line in the region.

author by coyote - wsa capital terminuspublication date Fri Jan 09, 2009 01:17author address author phone Report this post to the editors

your site seems to defend shooting at immigrant workers, executing "traitors" and criminalization of homosexuality. Would you care to explain to us how we're to distinguish you from garden-variety fascists?

author by Anarkismopublication date Sun Jan 11, 2009 04:40author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The link to Dany´s website under his comment, was removed as anarkismo.net does not promote, under any circumstance, any website which calls to violence against minorities or which promotes racist ideas and race violence.

 
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