Bulletin No44 mars 2024 The maneuvers of US imperialism
Agitation of all kinds among US leaders
Anthony Blinken made his umpteenth trip to the Middle East, with a focus on his actions more important than ever. The United States government is in action. He deploys what publicity and propaganda he can to try to attenuate the numerous criticisms to which he is the subject, in the USA and throughout the world, for his role as genocidaire-in-chief.
It is probable that the electoral prospect of the end of the year has nothing to do with the justification of this agitation. The Democratic electorate is cracking and, from now on, we can be certain that some of those who support him will not vote for Biden in November, disgusted as they are by his permanent support for Israel. But we must guard against two erroneous reactions.
First, we should not give more importance than it has to this electoral sequence. Big Capital completely controls the electoral game in the USA and, if it is not Biden, it will be Trump, who is just as much one of its servants. US power needs to save its “organic extension” in the Middle East, by all means, including if the counterpart is, for a clan, losing an election.
The second illusion would be to believe what many media are trying to put in our heads: there would be a clear change in policy on the part of the USA, the growing annoyance with Netanyahu would explain this. However, nothing could be less true! The distancing from Netanyahu is only verbal, no action follows it. Certainly, everything is staged in a very professional manner, from Biden, saying that “ Netanyahu is doing more harm than good to Israel ” to Chuck Shumer, leader of the Democratic group in the Senate, a Jewish personality, for whom “ Netanyahu is an obstacle for peace ” and the coalition in power in Israel “ led by Netanyahu no longer corresponds to Israel’s needs after October 7.” Shumer is calling for new elections in the Zionist state.
The resolution at the security council
But, however well structured the score may be, the music setting struggles to convince. This is because despite speeches and trips to reactionary Arab countries, the USA continues to arm the apartheid state. Moreover, Shumer spills the beans by giving the reasons for his concern; for him, “ Netanyahu is too willing to tolerate the human toll on civilians in Gaza, which is driving international support for Israel to historic lows” and “Israel cannot survive if it becomes a pariah.” And, to reassure Zionist leaders, if they are worried at all, John Kirby, White House spokesman, declared: " We will continue to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself, while doing everything in its power to avoid civilian casualties.” Suffice to say, exactly the speech of the imperialist authorities since October 7.
If the USA really wanted the genocide to stop, they would stop arming Israel, it's as simple as that, without US weapons or ammunition, in three days, the Zionist army no longer has what it takes to wage war.
It is in this window dressing context that the last of the film sequences that the media and imperialist authorities are projecting to us occurred: the submission of a resolution by the United States to the UN Security Council. What have we not heard about this text! Curiously, if our media made a ton about the presence (finally!) of the word “ceasefire” in the said draft resolution, they hardly told us the details. It took vetoes from China and Russia so that we could have a little more detailed information on the content of the text. The resolution states that " Hamas and other terrorist and extremist groups do not represent the Palestinian people " and emphasizes that Hamas has been designated as a " terrorist organization in the same vein, by some member states ." Always this desire of Western imperialists to decide in place of the people what is good and bad for them. The Palestinian people may be colonized, but they are the only ones authorized to say who represents them and who does not.
In the same vein, the American draft text condemned “all acts of terrorism, including the Hamas attacks of October 7” against Israel. This would have been the first time that the Security Council would have specifically condemned these attacks by adopting the discourse of Israeli propaganda, which explains not only the vetoes , but also Algeria's vote against. Another explanation, we learn, from an article in Le Monde , that the text “ does not directly call for silencing the guns ”. The demand for a ceasefire is all the less restrictive for Israel as it is linked to a quid pro quo: “the release of all the hostages ”. The word hostage here refers to the captives taken by Palestinian fighters on October 7.
The Russian Ambassador to the UN, Vassili Nebenzia, specified: “ While Gaza has almost been erased from the map, the American representative, without batting an eyelid, assures that Washington recognizes the need for a ceasefire », denouncing the “hypocritical spectacle” of the United States which tried to “sell the international community a totally different product, a diluted formulation” .
The response of the colonialist leaders
Finally, to fully understand that all these maneuvers do not and will not in any way constrain the occupying state, it is important to refer to a decision taken by the Israeli government on the same day of the Security Council vote, Friday March 22 , and even while Antony Blinken was visiting the Zionist state.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on Friday the seizure of 800 hectares of land in the occupied West Bank, with a view to establishing new settlements. “ While some in Israel and around the world seek to deny our right to Judea and Samaria [...], we are laboriously and strategically encouraging settlement throughout the country ,” Smotrich said. one of the many religious fascists in the Zionist government. As such, it uses the supposedly biblical term Judea and Samaria to designate the West Bank. The lands seized are located in the Jordan Valley. This initiative, which ignores the famous “ international law ”, follows the seizure of 300 hectares of land in the area of the Jewish colony of Maale Adoumim, in the occupied West Bank.
We know that West Bank shepherds and, more generally, land workers, are regularly targeted by settlers, quickly supported by the army. But this is a pre-emption of the State. The Israeli organization Peace Now, which opposes settlements, called the decision a provocation. She added in a statement that Netanyahu and Smotrich " are determined to fight against the whole world and against the interests of the Israeli people for the benefit of the interests of a handful of settlers who receive thousands of dunams¹ as if “there was [1] no political conflict to resolve, nor any war to end .”
All this clearly shows that the Israeli leaders are assured of their impunity as well as that of their genocidal state and that they know full well that the agitation, at the height of dominant imperialism, is only a piece of bad theater.
The mobile port strategy
We think it would be useful to say a word again about another aspect of US maneuvers in the Middle East, those around the famous mobile port. We have denounced several aspects of this scheme. If the United States really wanted to supply a population of Gaza on the verge of famine and deprived of health care, there would be other measures to take, such as imposing a ceasefire by ceasing to arm the occupants, imposing Zionists to let trucks enter Gaza and allow Palestinian fighters to secure them. All the specialists say that the supply by air and sea is absolutely insufficient, that it is enough to let in the hundreds of trucks waiting. And, as far as care is concerned, requiring Israel to withdraw from Al-Shifa hospital, to let the caregivers do their job, would be a first step.
The reality is that US leaders want to put UNRWA out of the game, to erase from the map witnesses to the genocide that their pawn is perpetrating in the Middle East; even worse, they want to justify the permanent presence there of the occupying army.
On March 20, the Palestinian Communist Party published a statement in which it gave its opinion, among other things, on this matter. Here is what he said: “ Our party also takes with great seriousness the approach of the United States of America to build a naval pier whose ostensible purpose is to provide humanitarian aid to the starving people of the Gaza Strip, while its hidden objectives are malicious, starting with the movement or reinforcement of the siege, and the preparation of a possible ground operation in Rafah. So what does this mean for the construction of this naval pier? If it was truly about providing aid to those in need, the Rafah crossing contains thousands of trucks loaded with food aid and medicine, which if allowed into the strip of Gaza, it could have ended the state of hunger among the families and children of our people in the Gaza Strip. This brings us to the plan of the Zionist entity, which is to occupy the Salah al-Din road [2] , in order to completely prevent the entry of aid or any other material through the Rafah crossing, and to control it via the so-called maritime jetty, in order to blackmail our people in the future and limit the entry of any goods, or goods that the entity may consider to present a danger to it, as it claims, as this port will help the entity state form a local force to receive aid and bypass government agencies and international humanitarian organizations in the Gaza Strip. This suspicious measure also aims to hit and liquidate UNRWA and prevent it from fulfilling its role of distributing aid to our people. ".
Mahmoud Abbas' maneuvers
A bad signal
On February 26, the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammed Shtayyeh, leader of Fatah, submitted the resignation of his government to “ President ” Mahmoud Abbas, which the latter accepted. In his statement, Shtayyeh called for the unity of Palestinian organizations. We wrote that this was a glimmer of hope for forming a “ government ” taking into account the various resistance organizations. He spoke of the need for a new policy taking into account “the new reality in the Gaza Strip” and the “urgent need for an inter-Palestinian consensus”.
It must be remembered here that the Palestinian Authority and its leader Mahmoud Abbas are, in fact, puppets in the service of the colonial state, who organize the repression of anti-occupiers demonstrations in Ramallah, who are plagued by corruption and are mainly concerned with maintaining their privileges.
Mahmoud Abbas therefore appointed a new prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. But it is probably not what those who believed (just a little) in a possible gesture of openness towards the resistance of the old cacique were hoping for. Under pressure from the USA (Blinken came to see him recently) and corrupt Fatah leaders who want to keep their place, he chose a prime minister compatible with Israel. This is Mohamed Mustafa, a 69-year-old economist, in short a technocrat and a representative of the Palestinian bourgeoisie.
The newspaper Les Échos , which knows a lot about Bourgeois, gives us his CV: “He studied in American universities, managed the Palestinian Investment Fund in recent years and participated in reconstruction operations for the Gaza following previous clashes between Hamas and the Israeli army. » And added: “ This experience could be very useful to him, while this poverty-stricken enclave is devastated by the war. To achieve this, he hopes to convince notables and representatives of large families from the Gaza Strip to join his future government. ".
Abbas is clinging as long as he can to his power, but also to the possibility of attaching the Gaza Strip to it or at least part of it after the war,” as our media say . Perhaps the USA has given him assurances on this subject, but the government of the Zionist state does not want to hear about it. It is therefore very illusory. All he seems to care about is surviving as head of a pseudo state even as Smotrich implements measures to cut off supplies to the Palestinian Authority. He had a golden opportunity to try and redeem himself a little, he totally missed it.
Some reactions
The appointment of Mohamed Mustafa comes a few days after a meeting between certain organizations (including Hamas and Fatah) in Moscow, which we mentioned recently, highlighting its limits, but saying that it opened a way out. Even if the final text was very vague, the organizations present had announced their intention to get talks back on track to unite their voices under the banner of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Several organizations reacted by saying that they had not been consulted before Abbas' decision, first and foremost, Hamas. The resistance movement declared that this appointment " harms our people and our national cause " and that " Any attempt to exclude us from the political scene after the war is totally illusory ."
The PCP, in its press release, reacted to this appointment. Here are some excerpts of what he said: “ The formation of the new Palestinian government is a step in the wrong direction. It was a coup against the meeting of Palestinian factions in Moscow and its modest results. The tendency of the Palestinian Authority to form a new government to please the Americans and sacrifice Palestinian national unity indicates a narrow horizon. This authority is based on the primacy of its narrow sectarian interests over the general good of our Palestinian Arab people, and the primacy of private interest over the interest of all Palestinians. With this decision, any future dialogue will be doomed in advance to failure . ". The PCP then engages in a more global analysis: “ In front of the world, this measure came at the whim of the fascist Zionist government, which exploits the Palestinian-Palestinian division to market its vision of the Gaza Strip of the West Bank. This irresponsible measure makes it easier for the entity government to separate the West Bank from the Gaza Strip and contributes to deepening the Palestinian-Palestinian divide. ".
The long road to unity
This essential question of the unity of the Palestinian resistance forces, of all the resistance forces, is posed with all the more acuteness since this decision which goes in the wrong direction and further distances the old beards of the Palestinian Authority of the Palestinian people. By making such concessions Abbas will not save his position, which Netanyahu no longer wants, but he is dangerously harming the chances of unity, and first of all within his own party, where supporters of the resistance, like Marwan Barghouti, must not rejoice.
The PCP continues its press release: “ Our party renews its call to all national action organizations in order to form a broad national front to resist the plans to liquidate the Palestinian question and break the current impasse towards liberation and peace. construction of an independent Palestinian state throughout the national territory, “ a state for all its people ”. ".
Since 2006, the unity of Palestinian resistance organizations has taken serious blows. Today, less than ever, achieving this unity is not a posture, but a vital necessity, this is how the PCP and other Palestinian Marxist organizations say.
We must stop the genocidaires
Threats to the life of Marwan Barghouti
Marwan Barghouti was held incommunicado by his jailers. Itamar Ben Gvir, the Zionist Minister of Security, a notorious religious fascist, announced at the end of February: " I am happy that the Israeli security services are implementing my very clear policy towards terrorists in prisons and have transferred today the murderer Marouane Barghouti from Ofer prison to solitary confinement. ". Ofer prison is where Zionist leaders decided to group the most important Palestinian prisoners for their respective responsibilities in resistance movements.
Marouane Barghouti , leader of Fatah, is one of the best-known Palestinian political prisoners, the promoter of a text of agreement signed by prisoners with important political responsibilities in various Palestinian organizations (Ahmed Saadat, the secretary-general of the PFLP, Yahya Sinouar of Hamas, among others). This episode is recounted in detail by Salah Hamouri, who was present at the time, in his autobiography “ The Prisoner of Jerusalem ”. Unlike Abbas and his clique, of whom we spoke above, he leads the Fatah militants who are in favor of uncompromising resistance to the colonizing state. Tried for his leadership role in the two Intifadas, he declined any defense before the courts and refused to recognize the authority of the Israeli court. He always appears first in the list of release requests for prisoner exchanges from Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip.
Several senior Palestinian officials announced that he was in danger in his solitary cell. He was beaten by his guards on March 6 and on March 12, he appeared to have injured one of his eyes.
Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary general of the PLO executive committee, wrote that Barghouti was exposed to " isolation, torture and attempts to coerce, humiliate and beat him, putting his life at risk in danger ". It was Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Commission for Detainee and Ex-Prisoner Affairs, who announced that he had been beaten by Israeli prison guards. He said the mistreatment was part of a broader campaign of repression against Palestinian prisoners that has intensified since the start of the month of Ramadan .
Punitive measures include “ severe beatings, insults, humiliation and confiscation of the Koran from cells .” “ The situation has become more dangerous than anyone could imagine, because the lives of prisoners are truly under threat ,” Fares warned. He added that another high-profile prisoner, Thabet Merdawi, an Islamic Jihad leader imprisoned since 2002, was also facing intensifying mistreatment.
“ We call on the international community, international institutions and organizations to intervene immediately and urgently in order to put an end to the repressive measures taken against our prisoners and our leaders in the prisons of the occupation, to protect them and to release them immediately ", said Hussein al-Sheikh.
It is known that chaotic negotiations are taking place under the aegis of Qatar and Egypt for an exchange of prisoners. It is likely that the Zionist state does not want to release such a prisoner who represents a symbol and hope for many Palestinians. Israeli jailers are accustomed to torture, as the colonizers benefit from total impunity from Western imperialists, Barghouti's death is a possibility from their point of view.
Israel uses US weapons against international law
The NGOs Human Rights Watch and Oxfam accuse Israel of using American weapons in violation of the rules of international law. They sent a report to the American administration and demanded that the United States follow the Canadian example and suspend its arms deliveries to the Zionist state.
“We were able, in some situations, to gather evidence that there was not, for example, a military target in a hospital ,” says Sarah Yager, director of the Washington office of Human Rights Watch. And he continued: “ When Israel assures that it uses US weapons while respecting international law, that is simply not credible. ". The report said ambulances were targeted by guided missiles. White phosphorus munitions supplied by the United States were used against civilians in Lebanon, which is contrary to international law, but also to American law.
An evaluation of the use of US weapons by Israel is scheduled for mid-May before the US Congress of Representatives. But it would be illusory to expect much from it.
Israel is the cause of the problem
We must always return to history to understand and find solutions. But history tells us of an imperialist enterprise, first British, then American, to create and maintain a buffer state in the Middle East which is an emanation, a creature of Western imperialists. It is in the perspective of the completion of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, already very ill, that this project was constructed. This was to ensure the fragmentation of the Arab world in the Middle East, organized by the British and, to a lesser extent, the French, from 1918.
Then came the discovery of riches, first oil; controlling free access for the imperialists was the second mission entrusted to the creature of the West.
Finally, it was necessary to combat Arab nationalism, anti-colonial and sometimes too close to the Soviets, the third mission entrusted to the advanced point of the West in Asia.
But granting territory to emigrants who came mainly from Europe meant depriving those who lived there of it. The Zionists, planned to carry out the mission in 1917 and the "Balfour Declaration", named after the British Minister of Foreign Affairs, justified this theft by the secularization of the Bible, which had become, from a religious text, a historical document while denying the existence of indigenous people before their arrival. Strengthened by their lies and their military superiority, they unilaterally founded their state in 1948, after having expelled 800,000 Palestinians to take their lands.
The whole source of the conflict is there. Purchases of land from Arab or Ottoman squires who settled elsewhere, while their farmers had to leave, in the 1920s and 1930s; the systematic chase of Palestinians from the countryside and cities in 1947 and 1948, the occupation of territories taken from Egypt and Jordan, as well as the Syrian Golan in 1967. Finally, the slow annexation through colonization, the blockade, today today the genocide, of these territories.
As long as the State of Israel lives, as a " nation state of the Jewish people ", as a Zionist state, therefore colonial, practicing apartheid and aiming not to exploit, but to eliminate or expel the legitimate occupiers, no peace will be possible. Peace requires the end of occupation and colonization, the liberation of Palestinians and the common life of Palestinians and former Israeli citizens. A common state across all of former Mandatory Palestine.
This short foray into history allows us to understand why the proponents of shared wrongs, the useful idiots of the pseudo two-state solution, those who choose not to see the occupation, even less the colonial state, those and those who speak of peace without distinguishing between a colonized people and a colonizing state cannot understand in the literal sense of the term what has been happening for 75, or even 100 years in Palestine, and even less what is happening today.
This is why the Communist Revolutionary Party supports the fundamental demands of the Palestinian national liberation movement: an end to Zionist military aggression, the right of refugees to return, the formation of a Palestinian state on the territory of Mandatory Palestine. In this month for the release of G. Abdallah, we firmly associate ourselves with his demand for release and his support for the struggle of the Palestinian people.
[1] Dunams are the Hebrew name for hectares of land.
[2] The Salah al-Din road (named after the famous Saladin) is the main axis of the Gaza Strip, which crosses it from north to south.