The Fourth Gaza War Ended in a Historic Victory for the Palestinians!
Joint Statement of the Liaison Committee of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) and Convergencia Socialista (Argentina), 21 May 2021 (UTC: 10:00), https://convergenciadecombate.blogspot.com/ and www.thecommunists.net
Introductory Note: This is a brief emergency statement on the ceasefire in Gaza a few hours ago. It focuses only on the assessment of the immediate outcome of the war and not on the long-term and international implications. These issues will be dealt with in a separate document which we hope to publish very soon.
1. After eleven days, the Fourth Gaza War ended with a historic victory for the heroic Palestinian people as well as for the international working class! In this war between David and Goliath, Israel succeeded in killing 243 people – a large proportion of them civilians including 66 children, 39 women and 17 elderly men. In Israel, 12 people were killed. But despite having one of the most-modern armies in the world, the Zionist state did not dare to invade Gaza. It did not even venture to mobilize its army at the border to the enclave. It is evident that its deterrence effect is smaller than ever before. In fact, it was Israel which came under pressure – also because of the massive international pro-Palestine mobilizations – and had to publicly accept a one-sided ceasefire before Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad agreed to it.
2. The fact of the Palestinian victory is recognized within both camps. The Palestinians in all corners of historic Palestine – in Gaza, in Westbank, in East Jerusalem as well as within the Israeli state – are holding enthusiastic celebrations on the streets. Likewise, international supporters of the Palestinian liberation struggle are jubilant. Pakistan already announced to hold a ‘day of solidarity’ with Palestinians.
3. In contrast, nobody among the Zionists celebrates. Mayors of cities in Southern Israel slam the government (“It seems like nobody wants to defeat Hamas”, mayor of Sderot) and opposition politicians denounce Netanyahu (Gideon Sa’ar calls the ceasefire “embarrassing”, and the fascist leader Ben Gvir characterizes it as “a grave capitulation to terror and to Hamas’s impositions”). The government tries to reassure the public by claiming that it destroyed large parts of the defensive tunnels in Gaza. However, as everyone could see, Israel failed to weaken the Palestinian armed forces as it was capable to fire rockets and mortar shells against Israel until the very end of the war (more than 4340 rockets according to the Israeli army). Tellingly, there are no public celebrations even among the most fanatic supporters of Netanyahu.
4. One does not need to be Clausewitz to understand that the outcome of a war is not determined by tones of destroyed concrete but by the political consequences. And these consequences are clear: Israel is more isolated than ever, support for Israel in the U.S. – the strongest backer of the Zionist state – is weaker than ever, and the global solidarity with the Palestinian people stronger than ever before!
5. The Liaison Committee of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) and Convergencia Socialista (Argentina), including our comrades in Occupied Palestine, called for the military victory of Gaza and the defeat of the Zionist state from the very beginning. We welcome the triumph of the Palestinian resistance as an important factor contributing to the enhancement of the Third Intifada in all parts of historic Palestine, of the Arab Revolution as well as the global struggle of the working class and the oppressed peoples!
David venció a Goliat en Gaza / Declaración Comité Enlace CCRI-CS
Declaración de urgencia Comité Enlace Corriente Comunista Revolucionaria Internacional/CS, el mayo 21, 2021
Nota introductoria: Esta es una breve declaración de emergencia sobre el alto el fuego en Gaza hace unas horas. Se centra únicamente en la evaluación del resultado inmediato de la guerra y no en las implicaciones internacionales y a largo plazo. Estos temas se tratarán en un documento separado que esperamos publicar muy pronto.
1. ¡Después de once días, la Cuarta Guerra de Gaza terminó con una victoria histórica para el heroico pueblo palestino así como para la clase obrera internacional! En esta guerra entre David y Goliat, Israel logró matar a 243 personas, una gran proporción de ellos civiles, incluidos 66 niños, 39 mujeres y 17 hombres ancianos. En Israel, 12 personas murieron. Pero a pesar de tener uno de los ejércitos más modernos del mundo, el estado sionista no se atrevió a invadir Gaza. Ni siquiera se atrevió a movilizar su ejército en la frontera con el enclave. Es evidente que su efecto disuasorio es menor que nunca. De hecho, fue Israel el que estuvo bajo presión, también debido a las masivas movilizaciones internacionales a favor de Palestina, y tuvo que aceptar públicamente un alto el fuego unilateral antes de que Hamas y la Jihad Islámica Palestina lo aceptaran.
2. El hecho de la victoria palestina se reconoce en ambos campos. Los palestinos en todos los rincones de la Palestina histórica, en Gaza, en Cisjordania, en Jerusalén Este y dentro del estado de Israel, están llevando a cabo celebraciones entusiastas en las calles. Asimismo, los partidarios internacionales de la lucha de liberación palestina están jubilosos. Pakistán ya anunció la celebración de un "Día de Solidaridad" con los palestinos.
3. En contraste, nadie entre los sionistas celebra. Los alcaldes de las ciudades del sur de Israel critican al gobierno ("Parece que nadie quiere derrotar a Hamas", alcalde de Sderot) y los políticos de la oposición denuncian a Netanyahu (Gideon Sa'ar califica el alto el fuego de "vergonzoso", y el líder fascista Ben Gvir lo caracteriza como “una grave capitulación ante el terror y las imposiciones de Hamas”). El gobierno intenta tranquilizar al público afirmando que destruyó gran parte de los túneles defensivos en Gaza. Sin embargo, como todos pudieron ver, Israel no pudo debilitar a las fuerzas armadas palestinas, ya que fue capaz de disparar cohetes y granadas de mortero contra Israel hasta el final de la guerra (más de 4340 cohetes según el ejército israelí). Es revelador que no haya celebraciones públicas ni siquiera entre los partidarios más fanáticos de Netanyahu.
4. No hace falta ser Clausewitz para comprender que el resultado de una guerra no está determinado por trozos de hormigón destruidos sino por las consecuencias políticas. Y estas consecuencias son claras: Israel está más aislado que nunca, el apoyo a Israel en los EE. UU., el patrocinador más fuerte del estado sionista, es más débil que nunca, ¡Y la solidaridad global con el pueblo palestino más fuerte que nunca!
5. El Comité de Enlace entre la Corriente Comunista Revolucionaria Internacional (CCRI) y Convergencia Socialista (Argentina), incluidos nuestros camaradas en la Palestina Ocupada, se movilizaron a favor de la victoria militar de Gaza y por la derrota del estado sionista desde el principio. ¡Damos la bienvenida al triunfo de la resistencia palestina como un factor importante que contribuye al fortalecimiento de la Tercera Intifada en todas las partes de la Palestina histórica, de la Revolución Árabe, así como de la lucha global de la clase trabajadora y los pueblos oprimidos!
4차 가자 전쟁이 팔레스타인인의 역사적인 승리로 끝났다!
혁명적 공산주의인터내셔널 동맹 (RCIT) & 사회주의통합당 (CS 아르헨티나) 연락위원회 공동성명, 2021년 5월 21일, https://convergenciadecombate.blogspot.com/ and www.thecommunists.net
[주] 이 성명은 몇 시간 전에 발표된 가자 지구 휴전에 관한 긴급 성명이다. 이 성명은 전쟁의 직접적인 결과에 대한 평가에 국한한 성명으로, 장기적이고 국제적인 함의는 다루지 않는다. 이 부분은 우리가 곧 발표할 별도의 문서에서 다룰 것이다.
1. 11일 만에 4차 가자 전쟁이 승리로 끝났다. 영웅적인 팔레스타인 인민에게 뿐만 아니라 국제 노동자계급에게도 영웅적인 승리다! 이 다윗과 골리앗의 전쟁에서 이스라엘은 243명을 살해하는데 성공했는데, 그 중 다수가 민간인으로 아동 66, 여성 39명, 노인 17명이다. 이스라엘에서는 12명이 목숨을 잃었다. 그러나 세계에서 가장 현대식 군대를 가지고 있음에도 불구하고 시온주의 국가는 감히 가자 지구를 침략하지 못했다. 그 접경지대에 군대를 동원할 엄두조차 내지 못한 것이다. 그 억제 효과가 어느 때보다도 작다는 것이 명백했다. 실제로 압력을 받은 것은 ㅡ 대대적인 국제적 친 팔레스타인 대중시위 때문에라도 ㅡ 이스라엘이었다. 이스라엘은 하마스와 팔레스타인 이슬람 지하드가 동의하기도 전에 일방적으로 휴전을 공개 수용하지 않으면 안 되었다.
2. 양 진영에서 모두 팔레스타인의 승리 사실이 인정되고 있다. 가자지구와 요르단 강 서안, 동예루살렘뿐만 아니라 이스라엘 국가 내 팔레스타인 자치구 모든 곳에서 팔레스타인인들이 거리에서 열렬한 축하 행사를 벌이고 있다. 마찬가지로, 팔레스타인 해방투쟁의 국제 지지자들도 기뻐하고 있다. 파키스탄은 이미 팔레스타인인과의 '연대의 날'을 갖겠다고 발표했다.
3. 대조적으로, 시온주의자 중에는 아무도 축하하지 않는다. 남부 이스라엘의 도시 시장들은 싸우려는 의지가 없다며 정부를 규탄하고, 야당 정치인들은 테러에 심각하게 굴복했다고 네타냐후를 비난한다. 정부는 가자 지구의 방어 터널을 상당 부분 파괴했다고 주장하는 걸로 대중을 안심시키려고 애쓴다. 그러나 누구도 알 수 있듯이 이스라엘은 팔레스타인 무력을 약화시키는 데 실패했다. 전쟁이 끝나는 순간까지도 팔레스타인 무장군은 이스라엘을 향해 로켓 (이스라엘 군에 따르면 4340 기 이상의 로켓)과 박격포를 발사할 수 있었다. 정말이지 네타냐후의 가장 열광적 지지자들 사이에서도 공개적 축하 행사는 없다.
4. 전쟁의 결말이 콘크리트 몇 톤이 파괴됐느냐가 아니라 정치적 결과가 무엇이냐에 의해 결정된다는 것을 이해하는 데 클라우제비츠가 되어야 할 필요는 없다. 정치적 결과가 무엇인지는 분명하다. 이스라엘은 그 어느 때보다도 고립되어 있고, 시온주의 국가의 가장 강력한 후원자인 미국에서도 이스라엘에 대한 지지는 그 어느 때보다도 약하며, 팔레스타인 인민과의 국제 연대는 그 어느 때보다도 강하다!
5. 점령지 팔레스타인의 동지들을 포함하여 혁명적 공산주의인터내셔널 동맹 (RCIT)과 사회주의통합당 (CS 아르헨티나) 연락위원회는 시작부터 가자 지구의 군사적 승리와 시온주의 국가의 패배를 내걸었다. 우리는 팔레스타인 저항의 승리를 환영한다. 이 승리로 역사적인 팔레스타인 전 지구는 3차 인티파다 전진에 큰 걸음을 내딛었다. 나아가 아랍 혁명과, 그리고 전 세계 노동자계급·피억압인민의 투쟁도 이 승리에 고무 받을 것이라는 것을 우리는 의심하지 않는다. 단결/투쟁/승리!
Who Won this Round in the Struggle Against the Zionist Apartheid State?
Statement by the Internationalist Socialist
League (RCIT Section in Israel / Occupied Palestine), 21 May 2021, http://the-isleague.com
From the very beginnings of this military round there was not a doubt that Hamas and the Islamic Jihad by themselves could not defeat Israel, which has the fourth or the fifth strongest army in the world. However, the fact that Israel could not destroy the fighters of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, nor disarmed them or occupied Gaza is a victory for the Palestinian resistance. There is no question that in the account of killing and injuring people, Israel killed and maimed many more people. Israel killed at least 232 Palestinians, including 65 children, in the bombardment. On the Israeli side, 12 people, including two children, have been killed. There is no question that Israel destroyed many more houses, as at least 72,000 people do not have a home to return to in Gaza.
Thus, from a purely military aspect Israel has inflicted much more pain on the Palestinians in Gaza than the pain inflicted on the Israelis, for this reason 70% of the Israelis wanted to continue the war and kill many more Palestinians in order to break the struggle against the repression of the Palestinians. Yet Israel could not destroy the resistance and missiles continued to land on Israel until two hours before the cease fire came into force in the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Friday morning.
And when the ceasefire came into force you could not see any celebrations in Israel while the people of Gaza celebrated. "Thousands of people in Gaza and the Palestinian territories poured onto the streets to celebrate the ceasefire, waving flags and flashing ‘V’ signs for victory." (1)
"Celebratory demonstrations took place in the Gaza Strip and West Bank as well, following the ceasefire. Fireworks, singing, and parades down the streets could be seen in uploaded footage shared on social media, accompanied with the hashtag #Palestine_Victorious. On the Temple Mount, thousands of Palestinians launched fireworks and waved Palestinian flags. Video reportedly showing crowds entering the complex, showed Palestinians chanting and throwing objects at Israeli police who stood along the side." (2)
The last time the Israelis celebrated was in 1967, in 1973 they hardly won the war, in 2000 Israel had to escape Lebanon and in 2006 it could not win against Hezbollah. Thus, in spite of the hundreds of billions of dollars the American and the European imperialists have invested to fortify Israel as the front line of imperialism, its usefulness for these imperialists is in decline. Add to it the fact that the USA, the closed ally of Israel, itself is in decline and you do not have to be a genius to understand that Israel is in the process of being thrown into the garbage bin of history. When this will happen the best friends of Israel will be the worst enemies of the Jews.
No doubt the Israeli government will tell the Israelis that Israel won and Hamas will not dare to provoke Israel in the coming years. If you believe the story of Cinderella and red hood you may believe the Zionist government. Especially when it is not clear at all what were the political aims of Israel in this war. "War is a mere continuation of policy by other means” wrote Carl von Clausewitz and if the political aim of Israel was to terrorize the Palestinians to submission it failed. The Palestinians feel stronger than before. It was manifested in the struggle against the Zionist apartheid in the Jerusalem, the Westbank and in Israel itself in the forms of demonstrations, clashes with the police and the fascists and in the political general strike. The Zionist polices of dividing the Palestinians into Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, the "Israeli Arabs" and the Palestinians in the diaspora have been crashed as the Palestinians feel as one nation in contrast to the Israeli Jews divided along ethnic and the different religious sects. Not only this but the myth that all the Jews are one world nation has suffered a real setback with the growing American Jews who distance themselves from Israel.
It is clear that Netanyahu wanted to continue the war but he had to give in to the pressures coming from the USA and Europe, the same states that support Israel and its aim to subdue and subjugate the Palestinians. This is the result of the strong opposition coming from the Arab, Muslims and local Europeans to Israel in these countries and even more in the Arab countries where their local ruling classes who serve the imperialists were forced to denounce Israel. Even the Gulf states fearing a new wave of the Arab revolution were forced to condemn Israel and announce their support for the Palestinians.
Hezbollah that did not intervene in the war congratulated Hamas on Friday for what it called a "heroic round," saying that Palestinian groups had managed to establish "new rules that will pave the way for the next great victory, and restore life to the Palestinian cause. This victory, which was achieved today, will have very important strategic, political and cultural implications for the future of conflict in the region," added Hezbollah, calling Israel "weaker than spider's web." (3)
The isolation of Israel in the world is growing while the support for the Palestinians is further on the rise. Not only this, but the direction of the political solution is manifested in the popular slogan we have seen in the demonstrations in the USA and Europe: "Palestine free from the river to the sea!"
The Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Networks accurately summed up the situation: "While the Israeli war machine, armed and funded by the United States and the arms sales of Europe, Canada and elsewhere, was humiliated by the Palestinian resistance, the ceasefire does not end the ongoing Nakba of the Palestinian people, the project of Zionist settler colonialism for the past 73 years. Palestinians are continuing to resist land confiscation, home demolitions, siege, mass incarceration, extrajudicial killings, the denial of the right to return: the entire colonial project in Palestine, on the road to return and liberation, from the river to the sea. At this moment, it is more critical than ever to support Palestinian steadfastness, resistance and revolutionary struggle with global solidarity and action."
Even the so-called opposition to Netanyahu who attacked him from the right say that Israel has failed. "Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid took Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to task on Friday on the outcome of Israel's latest operation in Gaza, saying it failed to bring about any major change. “The defense establishment, first and foremost the defense minister, the chief of staff and the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, conducted a high-quality, precise and ethical military operation. Alongside them, however, there was a weak prime minister without policies, responsibility or strategy,” Lapid wrote on Twitter. “The citizens of Israel, in particular the citizens in the Gaza border communities, took heavy fire and, in return, received neither achievements nor change in their reality. Netanyahu’s failures stretch from Mount Meron to Gaza, from the Temple Mount to Lod. The time has come for him to go.” (4)
“Lapid’s remarks were echoed by Gideon Sa'ar, leader of the New Hope Party, who came out on Thursday against the security cabinet’s decision to approve a cease-fire with Hamas without conditions. “Ending the fighting with Hamas unilaterally deals a blow to Israel’s deterrence against Hamas and not only against it,” Sa'ar said Thursday night. “Ending Israel’s military operations without imposing any limits on the strengthening and rearming of Hamas, and without the return of soldiers and civilians being held in Gaza, is a political failure whose price we will pay with interest in the future.” (5)
It is not by chance that the masses of the workers and the poor peasants struggling against the Bonapartist regimes that the capitalists had installed using the Covid 19 excuse see the Palestinians struggle as part of their struggle because Israel is selling weapons to the most oppressive regimes. It also trains the American police against the black people and pushes for Islamophobia everywhere it can.
There are reports of growing number of Anti-Semitic incidents around the world. The problem with these reports by Zionist reactionary organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, is that it purposely confuses Anti–Zionism and Anti-Semitism. As the interest of the international working class is to oppose real Anti-Semitism we must differentiate between Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism. The hate of Zionism and Zionists and especially those who demonstrate in support of the Zionist apartheid state is progressive, attacks on Jews simply because they are Jews is reactionary. Thus, beating up Zionists in the clashes between the Anti- and the Pro-Zionists is justified, while beating up Jews in a restaurant simply because they are Jews should be stopped. It is true that the Zionist repressive state is responsible for the rise in real Anti-Semitism and the closest friends of Israel are at the same time the worst Anti-Semites but this form of racist attitude is damaging to the heroic struggle of the Palestinians. The more Jews will join the struggle of the Palestinians the easier will be the elimination of Anti-Semitism in the pro-Palestinian camp.
"Pro-Palestinian activists and organizers, meanwhile, maintain that their solidarity with Palestinians does not amount to anti-Semitism. After a man was capture on video blasting anti-Semitic language through a megaphone at a weekend pro-Palestine march in Britain, the demonstration’s organizers released a video strongly condemning anti-Semitism, saying: “There is no place in the Palestinian freedom movement for any type of hate crimes.” (6)
Footnotes
1) https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/20/death-destruction-in-gaza-as-israel-defies-truce-call-live
3) Ibid
5) Ibdi