International Socialism Project

Israel was defeated and is still being defeated, not because of the fact that at the start of the ninth month of this accursed war, Hamas has not been toppled. The emblem of defeat will forever appear alongside the menorah and flag, because the leaders, commanders and soldiers of Israel killed and wounded thousands of Palestinian civilians, sowing unprecedented ruin and desolation in the Gaza Strip. Because its air force knowingly bombed buildings full of children, women and the elderly. Because in Israel people believe there is no other way. Because entire families were wiped out.

It’s important to remember that high civilian casualties are a conscious objective of Israeli military policy. Israel wishes to force the Palestinian population out of Gaza, and tomorrow the West Bank, altogether. This is a crucial precondition for the long-term Zionist goal of an Eretz Israel. A high death toll makes future Palestinian emigration much more likely and therefore serves Israeli purposes.

After its tumultuous birth in 1948, the Zionist state was regarded as an illegitimate colonial entity by the Arab countries, despite the legitimacy bestowed upon it by the United Nations. The truth is that the international organization was at that time under complete dominance by countries of the Global North ruling colonial empires, while most of the present member states of the organization were under the colonial yoke, lacking representation in international forums.

In this interview with Jaime Pastor from Viento Sur, Rousset discusses the evolution of the world situation in especially turbulent times that pose enormous challenges for the anti-capitalist and eco-socialist left.

Gilbert Achcar, professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, reviews the Israeli attack on April 1st against the consulate in Damascus and analyses the response of the Islamic Republic. He also examines the effects of this renewed tension on the ongoing negotiations to end the war in Gaza.

Rafah is the only significant location in Gaza that has not yet endured a sustained attack by the IDF. The Israeli army has gained at least some ability to function in the rest of Gaza. Therefore, the attack on Rafah would be the culmination of this phase of the Israeli offensive. The countdown to the attack on Rafah forms the background to all other events surrounding the war.

The Palestinian death toll currently stands at 28,858. We should expect that number to increase sharply in the near future. First, fighting in over-crowded Rafah will lead to a large number of civilian casualties. Secondly, deaths from non-combat causes such as hunger, disease, and exposure will begin to mount as people are forced to stay in subhuman living conditions for increasing periods of time.

At the time of writing, the Hamas leadership is considering the latest set of proposals. It’s very hard to read what’s really going on. There is any amount of political posturing coupled with diplomatic intrigue taking place. The significant role of espionage organizations in the negotiations only muddies the waters further.

The Israeli War Cabinet has a very clear objective for 2024, to evict as many Palestinians as possible from Gaza. In so doing, it will hope to take a major step towards its long term objective of creating a land free of Palestinians, “from the river to the sea”.

Hezbollah’s limited intervention in the wake of “Al-Aqsa Flood” has thus backfired, as the party missed the opportunity to force Israel to engage in an intensive war on two fronts whereas Israel is today threatening to launch an intensive bombardment of Lebanon, singling it out after completing its intensive bombardment of Gaza.

The current wave of Palestinian solidarity demonstrations is the biggest opportunity  for rebuilding the revolutionary left in years. It’s no secret that the past decades have been cruel ones for the revolutionary left. Our organizations have divided and shrunk. The dissolution of the International Socialist Organization in this country and the bitter split of the New Anticapitalist Party in France are only the best known examples of our retreat.

Israel is now turning its attentions to the southern part of Gaza. Of course, this is the part of Gaza that the Israeli government urged Palestinians to flee to as a “safe zone”. Now the “safe zone” itself is under heavy attack. This fact alone decisively dashes any illusion that Israel has any concern whatsoever for “civilian casualties”.

The truth is that the current aggression against Gaza constitutes, in the clearest possible form, a genocidal war that includes mass murder and “ethnic cleansing”, two crimes against humanity in the classification of international law. These crimes exceed qualitatively everything committed by the Zionist armed forces since 1949 until today and are comparable to what happened during the Nakba.

The Israeli state wishes to use the current military campaign to make real progress in its long term project to remove all Palestinians from Gaza. It may well not succeed in immediately expelling every single current resident from Gaza; however, Tel Aviv could certainly make important strides towards that end.

There’s no point in trying to prettify the picture. The situation in Gaza is dire. There is, however, one thing we can do. We can show the Palestinians that they are not alone, that there are hundreds of thousands across the world in solidarity with them. Taking to the streets in defense of the people of Gaza is the task of the hour.