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The January ceasefire in Gaza, while shortlived, signalled a heavy defeat for the zionist settler-colonial regime in Israel and for its imperialist masters in the USA and Britain.
Popular resistance prevails
For over a year and a half, the zionist regime has relentlessly starved and bombarded the people of Gaza, destroyed their homes and infrastructure, killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, and devastated everything necessary to sustain life. Yet for all these horrors, the Palestinians have refused to submit.
Despite the full backing of Nato arms, money and airpower, Israeli soldiers on the ground have suffered devastating losses and failed to hold any territory.
The Israeli regime began its operation with two stated aims: the elimination of ‘Hamas’ (ie, of all armed resistance) and the freeing of Israeli hostages, who had been taken with the aim of carrying out a prisoner swap (tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of them children, languish indefinitely in Israeli torture centres).
Having been fought to a standstill, the Israelis were forced to accept a ceasefire on terms they had earlier said were unthinkable – withdrawing from Gaza, allowing aid to reach its people, and freeing thousands of political prisoners.
Israel also failed to win the war it launched against the Lebanese resistance. Despite assassinating many members of Hezbollah’s leadership, carrying out multiple waves of heinous terrorist attacks and carpet bombing civilians, the IDF was unable to advance more than a few kilometres into Lebanese territory.
As in 2006, the zionist army once again revealed itself to be incapable of defeating Lebanese resistance.
A particularly honourable part has been played throughout this struggle by the people of Yemen, who are blockading all zionist-affiliated shipping in the Red Sea and beyond.
Withstanding repeated attacks from US and British air forces, valiant Yemen has repeatedly forced Israeli, US, European and British shipping out of the Red Sea – in the process shooting down Reaper drones and F-18 jets, hitting aircraft carriers, closing down Israel’s main airport, and shutting down and bankrupting its port of Eilat.
Promising that its blockade will remain in force for as long as the zionists are committing genocide in Palestine, and uncowed by the vicious reprisals of US and British bombers, the Yemeni people have showed the world what true solidarity looks like – thus earning the admiration and thanks of the popular masses everywhere.
In Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen alike, as in the great liberation wars waged by the colonised peoples of Korea, Algeria, Vietnam and Zimbabwe, a liberation movement that truly springs from the masses has proven impossible to defeat.
While the monstrous Israeli regime has destroyed the ceasefire and renewed its genocidal campaign, both in Gaza and across the region, this is not a sign of strength but of weakness and desperation.
Brink of collapse
Facing unsustainable losses and demoralisation in its armed forces, as well as deep economic crisis, a population exodus and social breakdown, the zionist regime knows that retreat spells doom. That is why it has been trying so hard to start an all-out war with Iran and to pull US forces in as direct co-belligerents.
Even with the unlimited backing of the USA and Britain, its chances of survival are looking increasingly shaky. Faced with the loss of this vital colony, the US regime has been casting about for new ways to maintain its regional domination and stop the liberation of Palestine.
President Trump has made crazy statements about “owning” Gaza and evicting the Palestinians, but there is a huge gap between such wild fantasies and reality. In essence, his threats are a desperate attempt to divert attention from an embarrassing defeat.
The USA has done everything it could to bolster the zionist war effort: it sends vast amounts of arms and money, it blocks international action in the United Nations and elsewhere, it manipulates the global media to censor the truth and promote its lies, and it sends its own special forces, pilots and mercenaries to assist on the ground. All to no avail.
The struggle continues
While Palestinians celebrated a tremendous victory in January, they are well aware that their struggle is far from over. It will continue until their land has been liberated from imperialist control and Israel’s fascistic ethnostate has been dismantled. The wider struggle, as the late Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah repeatedly observed, will not be over until all the imperialists have been ejected from the middle east and its peoples are finally able to determine their own destiny.
This is why western governments (including Tory and Labour in Britain) have given such staunch support to Israel through so many months of highly-publicised genocide. The financiers of London and Wall Street are desperate to keep their boot on the throat of the masses in west Asia. That is why the entire Nato war machine was mobilised, and why our government allows supplies to flow to Israel through British air bases.
This genocidal war must be vigorously opposed by British workers. Our actions can make a real difference to the liberation struggle in the middle east – which is exactly why the ruling class has been ramping up repression against those who have dared to take a stand against the genocide.
As a new phase of the Palestinian freedom struggle begins, we need to understand why it matters to us. By stealing the wealth of so many nations, the monopoly financiers who run imperialist society become even more rich and powerful – and this is the secret of their ability to bribe working-class leaders and keep pushing down working-class living standards in Britain.
Genuine solidarity with Palestine is not only a question of common humanity and fellow feeling; it is a vital part of our own struggle for freedom as a class. While we allow our rulers to crush the freedoms of others and grow rich by impoverishing them, we are also enabling them to maintain the strength to do the same to us here at home.
We must therefore demand and organise a mass campaign of non-cooperation with the zionist war machine and everything that supports it, from media lies to the sale of Israeli goods and the myriad links of cooperation between British and Israeli societies.
Of course, if we want to deliver such solidarity to Palestine, we must also defend the right of workers to free speech and free assembly in Britain. Such democratic rights have been under increasing attack as the true nature of Israel’s supremacist ideology, illegal occupation, apartheid state and genocidal war crimes have come to light.
The more that people turn against Israel; the more that hard facts make it difficult for Israel’s backers to justify zionist crimes – the more western nations are using criminalisation and censorship to silence dissent and stop solidarity moves in their tracks.
Our members have been arrested whilst attending Palestine solidarity events. Their crime? Providing information about the true history and current crimes of zionism.
British imperialism is in such a deep crisis that it needs to stop these truths from getting into the hands of workers. That is why we call for all working-class people to join with us and help build the only party that has a consistent record of correctly analysing the crimes of imperialism; the only party with a genuine programme for organising to fight against it.
Only the socialist future can secure peace by ending imperialism once and for all.
Join us in fighting for that future.
