the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
May 24, 2021
During the war on Gaza, U.S. President Joe Biden, representing the U.S. ruling class, made it clear that the government of the United States stood on the side of Israel. When the Israeli military bombed heavily populated Gaza, killing over 240 Palestinians, including 65 children, and destroying or damaging 17 hospitals and medical clinics, wiping out much of the water and sewage infrastructure in an already impoverished land, he did not change his position. He simply kept saying that “Israel has the right to defend itself.” As if that explained away the air strikes by Israel.
Biden’s support of the Israeli government followed the support of the Trump administration, which stood by while right-wing Jewish settlers attacked Palestinians and stole their land and took their houses! In fact, Biden’s and Trump’s policies are one and the same, and have been followed by the U.S. government since 1948.
The state of Israel was founded on the massacre and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the lands they had lived on for centuries. Wars by the Israeli government and land takeovers by Israeli settlers have further pushed the Palestinians to live as refugees without a homeland. Israel did this with the approval of the U.S. government, and with weapons and money provided by the U.S.
Why does the U.S. government continue to provide this support to Israel? Why have they bankrolled the building of one of the most technologically advanced militaries in the world?
U.S. imperialism pays this military state to be its policeman in the Middle East, using Israel as a hired cop to help it keep its hands on the resources of the Middle East and to protect the profits of U.S. corporations, first of all, for the big oil companies. Israel helps U.S. imperialism to continue its political and economic domination over the Middle East, a key region at the crossroads of three continents.
U.S. domination of the economies and resources in the Middle East has meant poverty for most of the people who live in this region. Many millions are living lives of desperation.
U.S. imperialism maintains its domination over these populations, using strategies to divide populations in the Middle East along ethnic and religious lines. They make deals with the rulers of Arab states, as well, to control their own populations. For example, they support the alliance between Israel and Egypt to enforce the blockade around Gaza. They pit one Arab state apparatus against another when convenient. But when all else fails, U.S. imperialism has its own personal “policeman” to maintain order.
U.S. imperialism is not all powerful. The Palestinian population has never accepted their displacement and oppression. Since 1948, time after time, Palestinians have protested, they have fought “intifadas”; they have fought wars against the Israeli military; they have fought wars in the street against the Israeli police and right-wing Israeli settlers.
This current war on Gaza was sparked by continued protests of Palestinians against the displacement of more Palestinian families in Jerusalem. Hamas leaders in Gaza, trying to promote themselves as the leaders of the developing revolt, fired rockets at Israel. And as Israel bombed Gaza, Palestinians organized a general strike of Palestinians on the West Bank, in Jerusalem and in Israel itself.
Even after the cease fire was declared between Hamas and Israel, young Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank fought in the streets against the Israeli police. Their fight continued.
The Palestinian population today is dispersed throughout the Middle East, including in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and other countries. The Palestinians live among the millions who are oppressed by their own regimes and who live in poverty enforced on them by U.S. imperialism. The fight of the Palestinians for a better life provides a hope for other peoples who are oppressed, a fight that one day could spark a revolution in the Middle East.
As for the working class in the United States, we live in the home base of imperialism. The U.S. corporations and the U.S. government that dominate and impoverish the Middle East are the same corporations and government that attack the working class of this country. When the Palestinians fight for a better life, they fight the same enemy that oppresses us here in the U.S.
The fight of the Palestinians is our fight.