As we go to press, the death toll in Gaza continues to mount. Latest reports are that over 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and 12,500 wounded.

The Gaza Strip is completely blockaded, with no aid – no food, medicine or fuel – allowed in, and clean water running short. Over a million Gazans have been ‘internally displaced’, with scores being killed by Israeli bombs as they fled. Israeli troops are massing at the border, and a bloody ground invasion appears imminent.

These events come, of course, after the brutal Hamas attack on Israeli civilians on 7 October. Socialism Today completely opposes those killings, and all attacks on Israeli civilians. The hypocrisy of the Albanese government knows no bounds, however. They condemn the killings of Israelis, but back to the hilt the Israeli state’s war on Gaza with the far higher levels of deaths that will result.

Regardless of the disgraceful role of the major parties and the media over the past few weeks there have been demonstrations across Australia. More than 15,000 people took to the streets of Sydney and Melbourne in solidarity with the people of Gaza. They were protesting against the current horrific situation, but also the brutal occupation and repression suffered by the Palestinians up until now.

Demonstrating, however, is only the first step. Politicians representing the interests of the capitalist elite – whether Labor, Coalition, Green, or Teal – will never fight for the rights of the Palestinians, nor for working-class Israelis, any more than they fight in the interests of the working class and oppressed here in Australia. That’s why a crucial way to build solidarity with the Palestinians is to fight to build a mass workers’ party here in Australia that stands for socialism and internationalism.

If you agree – join the socialists!

For mass struggle against war and capitalism!

The current war is the fifth between the Israeli state and the Hamas-led Gaza authority, but the scale of the horror is unprecedented. As we go to press, US President Biden is heading to Israel. He follows hard on the heels of two US aircraft carriers. Both measures are designed to show the support of US imperialism for the Israeli state but are also a desperate attempt to try and prevent the conflict igniting a wider Middle East war. The horror of a full-scale regional war is not in the interests of any of the major world powers or the regimes in the area, but the brutal attack being prepared on Gaza could nonetheless ignite the tinder box of the Middle East.

Netanyahu

The Netanyahu government’s justification for its onslaught on Gaza is the 7 October Hamas assault, which killed the highest number of Jewish people on a single day since the foundation of Israel, plus Israeli Arabs and others. The attack was a huge shock to Israeli society, shattering the idea that Israel’s powerful military can keep the Israeli Jewish population safe. Netanyahu was already very unpopular, but he is now – if anything – even more so, with a majority of Israelis blaming his government for what happened.

Nonetheless, the immediate effects of the Hamas attack in Israeli society, and the horror now being unleashed against Gaza, show why in Socialiasm Today we have always warned against the targeting of Israeli civilians in the national conflict, and oppose such attacks. Such acts reinforce fears of being ‘driven into the sea’ and push Israeli Jewish workers towards supporting brutal retaliation by the Israeli state. However, no matter how extreme the violence meted out against the people of Gaza, it will bring no security for the Israeli population but will only lay the basis for a new round of bloodshed.

Which way forward?

Increasingly capitalism means war and conflict. And on the basis of capitalism there is no prospect of national liberation for the Palestinians or other oppressed nationalities. Western capitalist governments are backing the Israeli state to the hilt, but nor do the Middle Eastern regimes who claim to support the Palestinians have any interest in defending them. Rather, they are driven by defending the wealth and power of their own rich elites.

Nonetheless, there is a force capable of transforming the situation. While the military strategies of Hamas won’t bring about liberation for the Palestinians, decent living standards for them, or an end to the conflict – none of which are possible under capitalism – mass struggle could do so. The way forward for the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank will be through democratically organising mass struggle – a socialist intifada – based on the interests of workers and the poor, independent of those of the rich elites.

Revolutions

The demonstrations worldwide over the last week, and especially in the Middle East, show clearly the solidarity with the Palestinians that exists among the working class and poor, and they too are a force capable of transforming the world.  Just over a decade ago a revolutionary wave swept the Middle East and North Africa, pointing to the potential power of the working class and poor to overthrow the existing order. Those movements were defeated because the working class of the different countries lacked their own parties with a programme for the socialist transformation of society. The task of building such parties is vital in every country.

In Israel the same fundamental issues are posed. It too had mass demonstrations for social justice back in 2011. More recently, we saw the nine-month-long mass movement in Israel against the Netanyahu government which included a general strike. It has now been cut across by the events of recent weeks, but it nonetheless gave a glimpse of the possibility of splitting large sections of the Israeli working class away from their ruling class, the only way the grip of the Israeli ruling elite over society can be broken.

Solidarity

Even now, in this highly polarised situation, there have been examples of solidarity between different communities inside Israel. Israeli Palestinians are now facing greater risk of physical attacks, however there have been reports over the last week, for example, of united Jewish-Palestinian action groups in Haifa and Jaffa, to oppose local sectarian clashes between Israeli Jews and Palestinians, pointing to the kind of democratically organised community defence that is needed.

While the enormous wealth of the region is left in the hands of capitalist elites, who ferment division to continue their rule, no solution is possible. However, by replacing private ownership of the main corporations with public ownership and democratic control by the working class and poor masses, it would be possible to end shortages and poverty for all, laying the basis for building societies free from war, oppression and national tensions. 

• Stop the Israel-Gaza war! For the immediate withdrawal of the Israeli military from the occupied territories
• For democratically organised defence committees in local communities
• For a mass struggle of the Palestinians, under their own democratic control, to fight for liberation
• For the building of independent workers’ parties in Palestine and Israel and links between them
• For an independent, socialist Palestinian state, alongside a socialist Israel, with two capitals in Jerusalem and guaranteed democratic rights for all minorities, as part of the struggle for a socialist Middle East
• No trust in the capitalist politicians, internationally or in Australia. Fight to build a workers’ party in Australia that stands for socialism and internationalism