Israel & Palestine

The change of leadership at the top of the Israeli Labour Party is still sending shockwaves throughout the whole of Israeli society. Now the new leader will come under immense pressure. Sharon with his new party is also manoeuvring. He can play the game of provoking further conflicts with the Palestinians to re-enforce the siege mentality among the Jews and he can try and trap Labour in a new coalition. These are the two dangers facing Israeli workers.

Last week the leader of the Histadrut, Amir Peretz ousted Shimon Peres from the leadership of the Israeli Labour Party. It was like a small earthquake in the political system of Israel, as Peretz has been promising to undo many of the cuts in the welfare state and has threatened to pull the Labour Party out of the coalition with the Likud.

Divisions have clearly emerged between different wings of the Israeli ruling class. These are reflected within the Likud, the main party of the Israeli bourgeoisie. These divisions are important signals of something that is stirring deeper within Israeli society. The ruling class is divided because it can see two dangers on the horizon, the class struggle in Israel and intensified opposition from the Palestinian community.

Israel is a small country. Yet hardly a day passes without it being in the news for some reason or another. Every night there is a new "Affair" on the news. The word "Affair" is a direct translation from the Hebrew, but in English "Scandal" would be more appropriate.

There is clearly a conflict between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. Sharon has an interest in fomenting this further as a divided Palestinian community would be much easier to control. In the past Israel backed the formation of Hamas as a counterweight to the PLO. Now the opposite is the case and Israel is leaning on the PLO to curb the influence of Hamas.

Over the weekend Israeli aircraft have been involved in bombing the Gaza Strip. Israel has withdrawn its troops on the ground but it can bomb the area any time it wants. It shows how false were the ideas of those who claimed withdrawal from Gaza was a step towards a solution to the conflict.

Two days ago Mussa Arafat (the cousin of the late Yasser Arafat) was assassinated after a 45-minute shoot out. While all this was going on no police turned up, which indicates that someone at the top wanted his removal. Who and what is behind this killing?

The withdrawal from the Gaza Strip began last Wednesday and has deeply divided both Israelis and Palestinians. Yossi Schwartz in Jerusalem looks at the Israeli pullout and what it means.

We publish this article by Yossi Schwartz on the War of 1967 to provide some background information to the recent Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Dostoyevsky wrote, “That a country should be judged by its prisons”, and that unfortunately still holds today. But nowadays one should also add, “And its health service”.

Dear Editor,

I read the following on the BBC’s web site: “An Israeli soldier accused of shooting a British cameraman dead has been cleared by a judge of any wrongdoing. James Miller was killed in 2003 at the age of 34, as he filmed a documentary in the Rafah refugee camp. Israel had already said the soldier – known only as Lt H – would not be prosecuted over the death.” Having read the article it made my blood boil so I had to say something.

While the number of Palestinians killed in the present Intifada reaches nearly 300, Arafat is attempting to change the aims of the struggle. He is hoping for some form of compromise with the Israeli government that will allow him to bring the Intifada to an end. But the conditions on the ground do not allow for a quick solution. Now Arafat is placing his hopes in the United Nations. Decades of experience show that this is not a solution. The Palestinian masses can only have confidence in their own ability to struggle, together with the support of the workers of the whole of the Middle East.

The media around the world made a big deal out of yesterday’s summit, saying this time there is a real chance for peace in the Middle East. But everything which was said and agreed to yesterday was more or less the same as the agreements of the past, none of which worked. This summit will end like the others, in failure. It is a film we have seen before.

It is common among some groups on the left to portray Israel as not being a “democracy”. Bourgeois politicians on the other hand say that Israel is the only “true democracy” in the Middle East. None of this serves to understand the real nature of Israel. The Middle East Panorama show on Resonance FM radio (London) sent Yossi Schwartz in Israel a list of questions relating to this issue. Some parts of this were read out on the show. Here we provide the full interview. See also in Arabic: هل إسرائيل دولة...