Earlier this year I expressed some dismay that The Militant had adopted
the two-state position on the Israel question. I said that this was a
complete reversal of the position that the SWP had held for decades. I
said that this could only mean that there was a real fight going on
inside the party. Well, the party held a convention in Oberlin, Ohio
this summer and ever since the convention there has not been a word in
The Militant about Israel. That confirmed to me that there was an
internal fight going on and that the convention had changed the official
position. Well, with this issue of The Militant the silence is broken.
This editorial does not explicitly reiterate the decades long position
on Israel, but it does seem to back off from the two-state solution. It
remains to be seen just what the official position is now, but at first
glance I feel a lot more comfortable with this article than I have with
recent ones before this year's convention.
http://themilitant.com/2015/7939/793920.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 79/No. 39 November 2, 2015
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 79/No. 39 November 2, 2015
(editorial)
End attacks on Jews,
brutal Israeli response
The stabbings and other attacks on Jews in Israel, praised by Hamas
and acquiesced to by the Palestinian Authority, and the brutally
disproportionate response by the Israeli regime pose more sharply than
ever the need for a revolutionary working-class leadership in Palestine
and Israel. The Socialist Workers Party calls for an immediate end to
the attacks on Jews and the Israeli government’s murderous response.
The terrorist actions set back the just struggle of the Palestinian
people for national rights and against discrimination. They deepen
divisions among Jewish, Arab and other workers in Israel and politically
strengthen the hand of the capitalist Israeli government.
Neither the reactionary Islamist Hamas nor the bourgeois nationalist
Palestinian Authority has any perspective to mobilize and lead the
Palestinian toilers effectively. Instead they organize and encourage
terrorist actions and provocations — including unconscionable assaults
on civilians — that can only lead to repression and demoralization.
Nor is there any revolutionary working-class leadership in Israel that
fights to unite all toilers in the country to battle side by side in
defense of their class interests. Such a party would campaign against
expanding settlements in the West Bank, for ending the economic embargo
of Gaza and to stop discrimination and brutality against Palestinians
and other Arab citizens. It would oppose deportation of immigrant workers.
A working-class leadership is needed in Palestine and Israel that can
chart a course to increase the confidence and capacity of workers and
farmers to combat Palestinian national oppression and capitalist
exploitation. Toilers in the Middle East have proven their ability to
forge such a leadership, for example in the revolution that brought a
workers and farmers government to power in Algeria in 1962.
Such a leadership can be constructed in the fight to recognize the state
of Israel, demand a contiguous, economically viable Palestinian state,
and advance immediate demands to give the toilers space to live and
organize. These include: End the “collective punishment” and destruction
of the homes of Palestinian families by the Israeli regime! Guarantee
the right of Palestinian toilers to land, water, and the ability to
travel to work! Halt the construction of Israeli settlements in the West
Bank! Oppose Jew-hatred in any form!
Related articles:
Attacks on Jews, Israeli gov’t brutal response deal blow to working class
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home
brutal Israeli response
The stabbings and other attacks on Jews in Israel, praised by Hamas
and acquiesced to by the Palestinian Authority, and the brutally
disproportionate response by the Israeli regime pose more sharply than
ever the need for a revolutionary working-class leadership in Palestine
and Israel. The Socialist Workers Party calls for an immediate end to
the attacks on Jews and the Israeli government’s murderous response.
The terrorist actions set back the just struggle of the Palestinian
people for national rights and against discrimination. They deepen
divisions among Jewish, Arab and other workers in Israel and politically
strengthen the hand of the capitalist Israeli government.
Neither the reactionary Islamist Hamas nor the bourgeois nationalist
Palestinian Authority has any perspective to mobilize and lead the
Palestinian toilers effectively. Instead they organize and encourage
terrorist actions and provocations — including unconscionable assaults
on civilians — that can only lead to repression and demoralization.
Nor is there any revolutionary working-class leadership in Israel that
fights to unite all toilers in the country to battle side by side in
defense of their class interests. Such a party would campaign against
expanding settlements in the West Bank, for ending the economic embargo
of Gaza and to stop discrimination and brutality against Palestinians
and other Arab citizens. It would oppose deportation of immigrant workers.
A working-class leadership is needed in Palestine and Israel that can
chart a course to increase the confidence and capacity of workers and
farmers to combat Palestinian national oppression and capitalist
exploitation. Toilers in the Middle East have proven their ability to
forge such a leadership, for example in the revolution that brought a
workers and farmers government to power in Algeria in 1962.
Such a leadership can be constructed in the fight to recognize the state
of Israel, demand a contiguous, economically viable Palestinian state,
and advance immediate demands to give the toilers space to live and
organize. These include: End the “collective punishment” and destruction
of the homes of Palestinian families by the Israeli regime! Guarantee
the right of Palestinian toilers to land, water, and the ability to
travel to work! Halt the construction of Israeli settlements in the West
Bank! Oppose Jew-hatred in any form!
Related articles:
Attacks on Jews, Israeli gov’t brutal response deal blow to working class
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home