If the endless cycle of siege and massacre in Gaza tell us anything, it is that winning peace is not a matter of splitting the difference, condemning all sides equally and  calling for a ceasefire.

The road to peace involves identifying and defeating the causes of violence. 

That’s not difficult.  The Israelis ended peace talks. When there were moves towards a unity government for  Palestinians it used the search for three settlers, whom the government knew were already dead, to crush Palestinians in Israel, the West bank and finally Gaza. The violence in Gaza is part of an eight year war of strangulation and   starvation.

On the streets the Israeli settlers call for genocide,   chanting; “the schools in Gaza are closed —  the children are dead!” Netanyahu  explains his peace plans to the  settlers — a West Bank state in control of its own security is “impossible.”  Stories of a “two-state” solution turn out to be lies — weapons that allow Israel to continue unending war. The Palestinians, like many other native peoples are to be disarmed, confined in reservations—at least until Israel want to grab more land.

In the case of Gaza peace involves committing ourselves to dismantling the existing Israeli state -a colonial, settler and apartheid state - and to fighting against the imperialist powers and their agents who give unconditional support to genocide. 

The trade unions and many in the solidarity movement used to be more forthright. The solution to Palestine's problems was a peace process just like the Irish peace process.  The Irish process is delivering penury and sectarian division. The process in Palestine has proved to be a tool of war, serving an endless process of land grab and repression.

Right now the main task is to build the broadest possible protests against the massacre in Gaza. We must also set out set out on the long road of building an anti-imperialist and socialist movement dedicated to  mobilising the   working class and presenting an alternative to the cycle of barbarism.