ISRAEL-PALESTINE, May 21— Another round of warfare between Hamas and Israel ended with a ceasefire, with both Hamas and Israeli capitalists claiming “victory”. But with 13 workers killed in Israel and 258 workers killed and two thousand more wounded in Palestine, it was the working class of both sides, especially the Palestinian working class, who paid the price.
Contrary to both of the romanticized “self-defense” (Israeli propaganda) or “resistance” (Hamas propaganda) narratives pushed by the capitalist media, the cases for this latest massacre were the naked self-interest of the capitalists on both sides. The revolutionary communist Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is the only party that represents and fights for all workers in Israel-Palestine, the Middle East and the world, and the only party organizing for a mass workers’ Red Army to smash the imperialist roots of this conflict once and for all!
Hamas: a movement for millionaires
Why are bosses on both sides claiming victory? Let’s start with Hamas, the capitalists controlling the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Authority, the government claiming to run both the West Bank and Gaza Strip, recently scheduled elections to its Legislative Council on May 22, 2021. Fatah, representing the capitalist Palestinian faction ruling the West Bank, is infamous for its corruption. Many Palestinians support Hamas – the fundamentalist Islamic movement controlling Gaza and seen as the only “alternative.” With a Hamas victory in the West Bank elections clearly expected, the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, indefinitely postponed the elections to keep the Fatah faction of Palestinian bosses in power.
Hamas would have none of that. With their road to power by electoral means blocked, they declared to represent all resistance to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the siege on the Gaza Strip. Their hope was to ignite a third mass uprising (“intifada”) in the West Bank, with themselves in command, which would ensure their takeover of the West Bank. Hamas represents a different faction of Palestinian bosses than that represented by Fatah and are more skilled at robbing workers in Gaza. Claiming to fight for a religious state in Palestine and embracing the sexism of every religious movement, Hamas bosses live in mansions in Gaza City or hotels in Doha. They are funded by Iran, by international aid sent to Gaza, as well as by heavy taxes on the local population and smuggling operations through neighboring states like Egypt (Rose al-Yusuf, روز اليوسف, 2010). While workers live in ruins, building materials sent into Gaza serve Hamas’ military and tunneling industries rather than rebuilding after Israeli bombings..
Thus, the Hamas bosses started yet another round of warfare against Israel, hoping to maneuver themselves into power in the West Bank and expand their control.
Israeli bosses’ rivalry: sharpening imperialism and fascism
Similar political motivations led Israeli bosses to go to war: factional struggles within the Israeli ruling class, as U.S. imperialism’s crisis deepens and inter-imperialist rivalry with China sharpens (see Editorial, page 2). One faction, represented by the old “Labor” Party and its allies, has been in decline for decades and is being dethroned by a newer faction, fueled by a gutter racist, mass fascist base and headed by the corrupt Benjamin Netanyahu.
But the old bosses will not give up without a fight, and Netanyahu’s infamous personal corruption presented an opportunity after Netanyahu’s mediocre electoral performance in the March 2021 elections. The “Labor” Party faction attempted to remove Netanyahu but make no mistake: these opponents of Netanyahu are not on the side of the working class. They include far-right racist capitalists such as Naftali Bennet and Ayelet Shaked, both of whom dream of budget cuts and further attacks on workers.
Sheikh Jarrah, Al-Aqsa: the fuse
Hoping to eliminate any chance of the “Labor” faction’s removal, Netanyahu’s interests for war aligned with Hamas. Netanyahu’s calls for fascist “national unity” and “self-defense” attracted rival Bennet to his side.
With the bosses on both sides building for war, the fascist Israeli police attacks on Palestinian protests against evictions in Sheikh Jarrah and attacks on workers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque lit the fuse. Hamas bombarded southern and central Israel with rockets and mortars, disrupting Israel’s economy and killing several workers. Israel responded with massive airstrikes, killing hundreds of workers and making thousands homeless. While Israel managed to kill many of Hamas’ ground commanders, its very top leaders, as well as the capitalists behind them, remain alive and rich while Israel’s ruling class is equally unscathed.
Palestinian and Israeli workers: unite under the red flag!
Workers in Palestine paid for this war with their lives and homes. Workers in Israel face an economic downturn caused by the war and higher unemployment; one in five workers already live below the poverty line, including almost one million children. Workers of the world must take a side – the working class. Supporting Hamas’ “resistance” means supporting Hamas gangsters and their big-capitalist sponsors in Qatar and Iran. Supporting Israel’s “self-defense” means supporting a mass fascist movement in Israel bent on evicting and slaughtering workers in Palestine.
PLP fights to overthrow all bosses- Palestinian and Israeli. There are no “good” bosses, there is no “national liberation” or “national defense” – all enthrone one capitalist or another on the backs of workers.There is only one solution – communist revolution! Join PLP and help us build a mass Party “from the river to the sea:” from Sheikh Jarrah to Bogotá and everywhere in between!