The recent suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that took four more innocent lives remains a nauseating reminder of the brave lengths individuals will go to protest injustices in capitalism, but also remains an important lesson of the futility of protesting them in such violent ways. Israeli Cabinet minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Abbas, the new Palestinian leader, must move quickly. “This time, words are not enough. He has to combat terrorism,” Ben-Eliezer, a former defense minister, told Israel Army Radio on Saturday. Of course, the terrorism that the terrorists are themselves reacting against is never raised in the press, namely the moving of civilians into occupied territory contrary to international law, and thus exposing them to Palestinian attacks? Could it be that the Israeli government does not really care all that greatly about the settlers’ lives too, such as the ridiculously few 500 who live in Hebron out of 200,000 Palestinians who live in the heart of the city? Are they perhaps legitimate state sacrifices for the propaganda victory of the settlements themselves?
The Palestinian suicide bombers may thus be but a mirror image of the Israeli policy, a policy which is both “suicidal” (sacrificing one’s own civilians, which the state has been wont to do since time immemorial) and also involves murderous bombing of Palestianian territory. While the capitalist class of all lands protects territories deemed politically and economically beneficial for its interests, it is not always easy to consider the benefits of even this Israeli policy, in light of the considerably negative international publicity it attracts. But then it is not for us, the capitalist class’ wealth-producing minions to question its motives. It is up to us only to dispossess it of its land so that it may be ours to control and to share. For how long must our Palestinian and Israeli children suffer the murderous insanity of the rich and powerful?
There is no questioning the oppression of the Palestinian people. However, their oppression will only come to an end, on the one hand, when Israeli workers stop supporting politicians of either the left or the right and begin to identify their interests with workers of all lands, putting the interests of their liberation from capital before those of the political and economic interests of their masters. And the same goes, on the other hand, for the Palestinians. They too should be organizing for a society that is post-national, in a sense, since the movement for their own determination is obviously not a real one unless they become the people that actually do the determining, and not merely their own leaders organizing a more peaceful society of Palestinian workers and employers.
The battle of rival capitalists for different sections of land and spheres of political influence should not be supported by any workers, Palestinian or Israeli.
For Palestinians to truly decide their own fate and control their own land, they must live in a society that is democratically organized and in which property belongs to everyone, or no one, depending on how you look at it. Otherwise, they will be supporting a society which is inherently undemocratic and exclusive, based on how much money you have, based on whether you are the person owning the farm or selling yourself to it, owning the factory or merely producing its profits for its owners.
Socialists celebrate instances in which workers begin to work together across national boundaries and within national boundaries to bring about a world worth living in. Away with states, employment, nationalism in all its forms, and money, and long live
the free society of socialism!
Help us make this a possibility in our lifetime! Workers have waited too long for the end of their oppression. We don’t want another century of futile blood-letting in the Middle East! Join us, Israelis and Palestinians, in an international movement of workers from all lands uniting in solidarity to create a world of common ownership that will bring lasting peace to your region and to all regions throughout the world.
Dr. Who (Chicago)
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