The attacks on Gaza must stop now!

Statement by a solitary American patriot and socialist

Gaza,  October 9, 2023 (Reuters)

     I have observed that there has emerged in recent days an international chorus from governments and the organizations of civil society in all regions of the planet.  It is a chorus of denunciation of Israel for its continuing violence against the people of Gaza.

     To cite one example, Gerardo Peñalver Portal, Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations, declared on October 20 at the UN that “Israel's indiscriminate bombardment of the Palestinian population and the destruction of homes, hospitals and civilian infrastructure, as well as the deprivation of water services, electricity and fuel to the Palestinian population, must be stopped immediately.”  He called for strict respect for the Charter of the United Nations, and he asserted that nothing can justify such action, which constitutes a serious violation of international humanitarian law.

     I must join in this world clamor demanding an immediate cessation of violence against the people of Gaza.  And I join in the call for the USA and the UN to use all their diplomatic and economic resources to attain this end.

     The air attacks against Israel launched by the Movement of Islamic Resistance (Hamas) on October 7, 2023, ought to be viewed in their context.  The air attacks were part of a larger military operation that included the infiltration of Israeli territory by land; and the military operation itself occurred in the context of repeated Israeli violence and violation of the right of self-determination against the people of Palestine. 

     Nevertheless, according to initial reports in the Cuban press, the Hamas military operation included the launching of three to six thousand rockets against Israel, which resulted in the deaths of at least 600 persons, with more than 2,000 injured.  Thus, the launching of the rockets appears to have been conducted without sufficient regard for the loss of civilian life, and as such, this aspect of the Hamas military operation ought to be condemned.

     I define terrorism as violence directed against civilians with a political intent, whether or not it occurs in the context of a war declared by a state.  And I believe that terrorism is never justified, under any conditions or situation.  The decades of persistent violence against the Palestinian people and the systemic violation of its right of self-determination does not justify air attack against civilian populations in Israel, because nothing could justify it.

     Cuba also has spoken against the October 7 Hamas air attacks against Israel, although in subtle and carefully chosen language.  The Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs declared that “the Ministry rejects, and has always rejected, the killing of civilians and innocent persons on all sides involved in this conflict, regardless of ethnicity, nationality or religious faith, and condemns in the strongest terms the killings of civilians, especially women, children and humanitarian workers of the United Nations system.” 

     Cuba takes this position because of its own experience.  Cuba has been invaded and attacked by air by the United States, and it has suffered greatly as a victim of terrorism, nearly all of it directly or indirectly supported by the United States.  Therefore, Cuba has persistently called for the peaceful resolution of conflicts; and rejecting any distinction between “good terrorism” and “bad terrorism, Cuba has condemned “terrorism in all its forms.”

     I would like to make clear my belief in the right of Israel to exist as the Jewish state in the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people.  The right of a modern homeland for Jews was established by the special circumstances of Jewish history, which included centuries of marginalization in Europe, culminating in the extermination of millions in death camps, during the Nazi regime in Germany and its military occupation of much of Europe.  Following the war, some reasonable resolution of the Jewish question had to be developed.  Jews themselves focused on settlement in the homeland of Jews in ancient Israel, whose story is told in the sacred texts of the Jewish people, repeatedly recalled in its religious practices. 

     In the post-World War II political context, the United States had a particular obligation to support the creation of a Jewish state.  When the United States entered World War II and emerged as the most powerful nation by far, it was assuming responsibility for addressing all pending related questions, such as the resolution of the Jewish question, and it had the necessary economic resources and world prestige to do so.  Moreover, Jewish Americans are among the peoples of the United States, and they have the right to expect of the U.S. government responsible treatment in relation to Israel, just as U.S. citizens of African and Irish descent have the right to demand, and have so demanded, responsible U.S. conduct in relation to Africa and Ireland.

     However, the resolution of the Jewish question through the creation of a Jewish state in modern Palestine requires reasonable attention to the rights of the Palestinian people and nation.  The establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine unavoidably meant the loss of some territory by Palestine.  All Palestinian individuals and families displaced by this process should have been well compensated, similar to the way in which governments compensate families who must relocate due to the construction of highways.  In addition, the nation of Palestine should have been well compensated and supported from the outset, in the form of backing for projects of development that are formulated by an independent and autonomous Palestinian state. 

     The United States, however, had no orientation to supporting Palestine, or any other Third World nation, in its just quest for economic development.  The U.S. approach has been to use Israel as a proxy for its economic interests in the Middle East.

     In recent decades, the peoples of the Global South have increasingly come to the support of the rights of the Palestinian people.  The South tends to see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the Third World perspective of the colonized, in which Israel is seen as a European settler society that systematically denies the rights of the indigenous population.   The Global South repeatedly calls, in a wide variety of international forums, for the implementation of the two-state solution, with pre-1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.  Israel, however, has refused to accept the two-state solution in practice.  It has repeatedly settled and militarily occupied Palestinian lands.

     Israeli practices in recent decades have led some commentators to maintain that the two-state solution is no longer viable, due to Israeli de facto incursion and possession.  Yet there is no other solution.  It is the single solution that is repeatedly put forth by the Global South in international forums. 

     It seems to me that the two-state solution would be viable, if two conditions were met.  First, if the USA and international community were to pressure Israel to accept the two-state road. And secondly, if the USA and the international community were to support Palestine, not only with respect to its right to political control of the territory of the pre-1967 borders, but through support for projects of economic and social development formulated as priorities by an independent Palestinian state.  These two pillars would constitute the foundation for permanent and lasting peace, because they would reduce the social sources of extremist rhetoric and action from both sides.

     There are few signs that the U.S. political establishment is prepared to undertake a mission of support for peace and economic development in Palestine.  This is one of many reasons why the people of the United States have the duty to form a people’s movement and alternative political party that seeks the taking of political power, so that the United States would be able to act with responsibility in the fulfillment of its historic and current obligations with respect to Israel and Palestine.  Sadly, efforts in this direction are undeveloped in both theory and in practice.

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