Leaflet: Time for a new mobilisation, a new movement
The West shamelessly endorses genocide
21 October 2023
Protest at BBC, Belfast 21/10/23
The Israeli genocide in Gaza is horrifying but not surprising. Israel is not reacting to Hamas but hoping to accelerate the government's policy of slaughter and ethnic cleansing.
What has changed is the policy of the West. Before they would have defended Israel but had a cover of pleading for restraint and pointing to the "two-state solution" as the way to peace. Western unity behind the US in the Ukraine war has led to a new mobilisation behind a new policy of endless war.
Today there is no "two-state solution". The new US policy is the Abraham accords - Israel as the supreme military power, signing economic deals with Arab states while forcing Palestinians out of the territory of a new Greater Israel.
That's what's new. Not Israeli barbarity and genocide, but it's open endorsement by Biden, the US and Europe. The carte blanche support for Israel has come at a cost. Even The PLO puppet Abbas and client Arab regimes found it impossible to meet Biden. The Abraham Accords are dead for now.
What's left is genocide. However, the military position of Israel is weaker than is presented. They suffered an astounding intelligence and military defeat in the initial Hamas attack, and they are unwilling to suffer the casualties of a direct assault, settling on a non-nuclear Hiroshima from the air.
The US also overestimates its military power. It has clearly lost in Ukraine and does not have the forces available to do anything but attack with missiles.
In the meantime, both China and Russia are gaining influence in the Middle East. This simply increases the desperation of the West.
In the Palestine Solidarity movement, we must recognise that the war has come home. The press pumps propaganda, democratic rights are suppressed, and serious efforts are being made to outlaw protest.
The movement in support of Palestine has revived, but it will need to reorganise. This is not a fight against Apartheid, but a fight against genocide. This is not a time to simply shout freedom slogans, but a time to realise that the genocidal state must be replaced by a democratic state, and this means opposing the Arab regimes attempting to co-exist with Israel and building new anti-imperialist and socialist movements.
This a time to realise that the war has come home and that we must fight for our own democratic rights and the growing militarisation of our society underneath the umbrella of the US, EU and NATO.