New Palestine solidarity movement mobilizes against the Israeli offensive

Two conflicting images have dominated the world’s television screens. One image is of barbarism, the Israeli offensive bombing Gaza and its people into the abyss. The other image is one of hope and of the future. It is, of course, the vast international mobilization in support of the Palestinian people. More than 100,000 marched in Washington on November 4, showing the breadth of this new movement. The International Socialism Project website stands in full solidarity with these marches. The purpose of this article is to discuss the context in which these demonstrations take place.

Where does the war stand today?

Trying to peer through the fog of war, here is where the situation appears to stand as of November 6.

Israeli forces have encircled Gaza City in the north. Heavy fighting is already taking place on the outskirts of the city. The Israeli Defense Force has cleaved Gaza in two by reaching the sea near Al Zahra.
The Palestinian death toll has reached a horrific 9,700. This figure includes 4,800 children. The casualty count has been increasing by about a thousand deaths per day. However, these numbers are likely to increase dramatically as the full effects of the lack of medical supplies, collapse of hygiene, spread of disease, and lack of food are felt.
Hamas and the Israeli army are now locked into slow moving urban house-to-house warfare, reminiscent of Stalingrad or Mosul.
There is escalating violence on the West Bank. 133 Palestinians have been killed by either the IDF or settler pogroms.
There has been a serious increase in military activity along the northern border with Lebanon. However, there is not a full war with Hezbollah.
Benjamin Netanyahu may be riding the patriotic tide for now. However the facts that the attack occurred on his watch, that he blamed everyone but himself for the intelligence breakdown, and that he’s shown so little concern for the lives of the more than 220 hostages could well be his eventual undoing.
The United States does not wish to see the Middle East go up in flames. Such a wave of instability would have serious repercussions. This puts the Biden administration in the difficult situation of generally supporting Israel, but simultaneously attempting to rein in Tel Aviv’s worst excesses. The Biden administration’s diplomatic initiatives have not prevented it from continuing to be one of Israel’s greatest supporters and source of military supplies. Palestine solidarity activists in this country have been right to condemn this and call for an end to US aid.
The Palestinians have great support throughout the Arab East. There is the potential that outrage at the massacre in Gaza could couple with simmering anger at the ongoing misery of daily life to produce a new Arab Spring. The local regimes therefore have generally repressed the wave of solidarity demonstrations fearing what they could lead to. In Turkey, however, Erdogan has attempted to turn the pro-Palestinian sentiment into demonstrations of support for the government.
Huge pro-Palestinian demonstrations have taken place in Europe and North America. These demonstrations have mobilized tens of thousands of young people as well as the Palestinian community. This youth mobilization is a new and very positive aspect of the situation. The mobilizations have been met with a reactionary onslaught of accusations of antisemitism and acts of repression, particularly in Europe.
A number of factors will weigh on the future evolution of the situation in the Middle East. How will the military situation unfold in the context of urban house-to-house fighting where it is harder for Israel to bring its vast technological and military superiority to play? Will Netanyahu continue to maintain domestic support if the hostages are not rescued, the carnage in Gaza mounts, and his domestic political problems, put on the back burner after October 7, return? Will events unfold in such a way that Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Iranians feel compelled to intervene? In recent years, there has been a marked increase in inter-imperialist rivalry. This rivalry will now take place in the context of the Gaza war. How will Russia and China seek to take advantage of the United States being seen as Israel’s backer by much of the Global South. How will the Saudis and the Gulf States maneuver in this situation? It’s clear we’re entering a very unstable situation.

October 7

The immediate cause of the war was the Hamas October 7 Al Asqa Flood attack. This attack killed 1,700 Israelis and led to more than 220 hostages being taken. It completely changed the situation in the region.

Marxists are opposed to individual terror, the killing of civilians, and the seizing of innocent hostages. These methods do not strengthen the activity and consciousness of the working class. We therefore fully condemn the October 7 attack.

The results of the Hamas operation are clear. The fallout from the attack allowed Netanyahu to partially politically rehabilitate himself. It swung Israeli opinion decisively against the Palestinians The new situation gave Israel international support and backing. It created exactly the momentum that the Israeli government needed to take its long running battle with the Palestinians to a new and higher stage. The current Israeli destruction of Gaza would have been politically impossible before October 7.

All of this was completely predictable. It means that the Hamas operation has led to a colossal setback for the Palestinian people.

What is the Israeli endgame?

What does Israel hope to accomplish in this war? There is obviously a lot more involved than just revenge for October 7. The Israeli government wishes to use the domestic and international support created by the Hamas massacre to further its long term Zionist goals.

This point requires some explanation. Today’s great solidarity demonstrations frequently have banners comparing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians with South African apartheid. The sentiment behind these banners is right. Israel has treated the Palestinians in the same racist and repressive way as Pretoria treated South African Blacks.

However, there’s a significant difference in the way these two regimes oppress their people. South African apartheid was based on the need of South African capitalism to exploit Black labor. This meant keeping Black people subjugated and repressed, but physically close by so that they could work in the South African economy. Israel’s central desire is not the economic exploitation of Palestinian labor, but the expulsion of all Palestinian people from the area. The aim is not to keep close by and exploit the Palestinians, but to entirely remove them from the whole country.

Such a sweeping project cannot be achieved in one swoop. The Nakba of 1948 was a major step in that direction. Taking over more territory after the 1967 war was another move in that direction. The Israeli government cannot just do whatever it wants. It is sometimes constrained by what domestic and international politics will allow. The new situation has allowed Tel Aviv the possibility of furthering their long term agenda.

Israel will not be able to expel all Palestinians from “the river to the sea” in the current situation. They, however, could take significant steps toward that end.

The international press has discussed a number of ways that Israel could use the post-October 7 momentum to further its long term objectives. The most extreme step would be the expulsion of all Gazans. This option has been contemplated by a number of Israeli strategists. Another possibility would be the complete sealing off of Gaza from Israel and ending all electricity, water, communication, and border crossings. This could be coupled with the creation of a large “defense buffer” similar to the Berlin Wall or the Korean DMZ.

If Hamas is destroyed and if Gaza continues to exist as a separate entity, there must be some form of administration. A number of options have been put forward concerning what Israel might seek to impose. One possibility would be placing Gaza under the jurisdiction of the pro-Fatah West Bank Palestinian Authority. Another course of action would be to find a Gazan analogue to the PA. This would be an alternative to Hamas that Israel could collaborate with to run Gaza. There has been some talk of a United Nations peacekeeping force administering Gaza.

Another terrible option seems possible. Israel would aim to pummel Gaza. Bombardments would destroy the water, electricity, sewage, communication, and civil infrastructures. The housing stock would be reduced to rubble. There would be a high number of casualties. Daily life would become impossible for the surviving Palestinians.

These events would in turn create a large new wave of Palestinian migration. Thus, Israel would take another step towards its long-term objective of the removal of all Palestinians from the area.

How can the Palestinians win?

Being in solidarity with the Palestinians is obviously the indispensable first step, the pre-condition, for revolutionary socialists. In that framework, a question needs to be discussed. How can the Palestinians win?

The current war makes clear that the international community will not be the savior of the Palestinians. The United States, the European Union, the United Nations, and the Arab regimes have not risen to the occasion during the current severe crisis. If they have not stepped forward in today’s emergency, there’s little reason to believe that they will do so in the future.

A long term Palestinian military victory is not on the cards. Israel could be defeated in certain specific situations for a certain time. But the military imbalance is so extreme that a lasting Palestinian victory over the entire Israeli military is ruled out.

If the diplomatic and the military options are ruled out, how could the Palestinian people eventually be victorious? Israeli capitalism and its state apparatus are extremely powerful institutions. It would require the mobilization of broad social forces to defeat them. This means turning the struggle into an anticapitalist struggle. This would bring into action the class forces that have an objective, long term, interest in the defeat of Israeli capitalism. It would bring into play the potential allies of the Palestinian people. It would mean seeing the struggle not just as one against the Israeli bourgeoisie, but as one against all the ruling classes in the region.

The Palestinian struggle should be seen in a regional context. Palestine is part of the historical Arab nation. The Arab nation provides the framework in which the Palestinian revolution can develop. The Palestinian struggle needs to be understood from the perspective of the theory of permanent revolution. This means seeing it from a socialist and regional perspective.

From this standpoint, we can identify four forces that can be mobilized against the ruling classes of the Middle East.

One, the self-activity of the Palestinian masses themselves. This means bringing to bear the full mass action and strength of the Palestinians in the form it took during the Intifada, struggles involving thousands. It would require building organizations that could lead the necessary process of mass action and self-organization.

Two, the Egyptian proletariat. The process of permanent revolution obviously requires a concentrated working class to lead it. Egypt has a large factory working class with a proud history of struggle. This working class can provide a center of strength and struggle throughout the entire Arab East, not solely inside of Egypt’s borders.

Three, a new Arab Spring. The Arab East is no stranger to mass action and activity. During the Arab Spring of the 2010s, there was a surge of struggle against the local Arab ruling classes. It’s clear that the regimes fear the reaction of the “Arab Street” to the massacre in Gaza. It’s certainly possible to envisage protests at the miseries of daily life merging with solidarity with the Palestinians into a new wave of struggle.

Four, the Israeli working class. It may seem outlandish to see the Israeli working class as a potential future ally of the Palestinians. But a social polarization inside of Israel is the only way the Palestinians can win. Israel is a class society. It can be divided. The Palestinian revolution cannot win against the opposition of the mass of Israeli workers. Winning Israeli support for the Palestinian struggle is certainly an extraordinarily hard and long term struggle. But it’s not impossible, the experiences of the human rights and antiwar movements in Israel show this.

For this project to work, revolutionaries have to stress that a future united socialist Middle East would guarantee full democratic and human rights to the Jewish people and let them determine their own future.

The perspective of a regional, Arab socialist revolution may seem far-fetched today. However, it’s the only way that the Palestinians could win in the long term.

Solidarity with the Palestinians!

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.