{"id":977,"date":"2019-03-10T15:57:04","date_gmt":"2019-03-10T15:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsm.prolerat.org\/?page_id=977"},"modified":"2019-10-21T01:05:10","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T00:05:10","slug":"the-israel-palestine-conflict","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/the-israel-palestine-conflict\/","title":{"rendered":"The Israel – Palestine conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
October 1998, Canada<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
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Perhaps one of the saddest and longest lasting examples of a working class divided\nagainst itself is the continuing factional struggle between Israeli and Palestinian\nworkers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recently the Israel and Palestine government leaders met under the supervision of\nUnited States President Bill Clinton. An agreement was made to try and stabilize the\nviolent cross-border disputes. Socialists say that this is for naught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The creation of the state of Israel after World War II introduced a new dynamic into\nthe Middle East. Rather than exert a blatant imperialist intervention for control of the\narea as in the past, a new state was formed to ensure a capitalist and state-capitalist\nfoothold. This threatened the moribund quasi-feudal and growing capitalist elements of\nArabic countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Enter into this dynamic a reactionary nationalism, racism and religious animosity,\nskilfully manipulated by political leaders, religious fanatics and vested capital\ninterests on both sides. Zealots from Israel expounded Jewishness as a separate race and\nIslamic fundamentalists did the same. Both looked upon the other side with an irrational\nhatred. This reflected itself in continuous war, forced settlements by Israeli citizens,\nthe evictions of Palestinian workers and the bulldozing of their homes, arrests and\ntorture of those who fought back. Palestinians were swept up in terrorist activities,\nbombings and the reactionary Islamic fundamentalism of “Hamas”. A sickening war\nensued that shattered the lives of many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the establishment of recognized “self-rule” in Palestine many hoped that\nthings would be for the better. The first thing that Palestinian leaders did was to\nimplement a standing police force and army not only to defend their border interests, but\nas a force to preserve capitalism’s new gains against potential class clashes. Yet the\nviolence continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The political leaders of Israel and Arabic countries say that their choices are based\non the vested interests of “the people”. But Socialists take a more critical\nview. “The people” do not exist except as an ideological construct, an\nabstraction manipulated by defenders of a capitalist status quo (through government,\nmedia, schools) to cover up very real class divisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The land, the factories, the oil – none is owned by “the people”, but by a\nsmall group of capitalists who profit very well, safe, many miles away from the violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Socialists have always argued that the workers of all countries have more in common\nwith each other than with those representing the interests of capital. The poor worker\nfrom Palestine and other Arabic countries face the same condition as the Israeli worker.\nBoth are faced with the fundamental problem of capitalism which forces worker against\nworker not for their own interests, but for the interest of profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We ask that workers set aside the reaction of nationalism, religious bigotry, ethnic\nhatred, racism and join together to root out the real problem itself – capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Please email your comments about this article to feedback@worldsocialism.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Back to the Politics Index<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Back to the World Socialist Movement home page<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
October 1998, Canada Perhaps one of the saddest and longest lasting examples of a working class divided against itself is the continuing factional struggle between Israeli and Palestinian workers. Recently the Israel and Palestine government leaders met under the supervision of United States President Bill Clinton. An agreement was made to try and stabilize the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"magazine_newspaper_sidebar_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-977","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=977"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2628,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/977\/revisions\/2628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}