[Marxism] Hamas is hoping for an IDF ground operation

[Jscotlive at aol.com]

S.Artesian
 
Obfuscate the issue? That there is Zionist seizure of property, expulsion  
of the original occupiers of the property, immiseration of that population,  
then using it as a disposable labor force, and throughout using military  
force in the extreme to maintain these conditions are NOT the issues HERE.  
Those are the conditions.

Reply:
 
And so what's your point? The issue for Marxists living in the West and  
elsewhere is how to be as effective as possible in providing solidarity with  
those on the front lines, for reasons as I stated of material necessity not  moral 
outrage.
 
S.Artesian:
 
The issue is how best to reverse, defeat, overcome those conditions. That's  
where analysis and criticism come in-- and play a vital role as expressions  
of actual solidarity, rather than simple endorsement.

Reply:
 
Endorsement? What the fuck do you think this is, some sort of game the  
Palestinians are playing? Let's get this straight - under  conditions in which a 
people's actual existence is under threat, where  their culture and history is 
being murdered, and where they are resisting such  an onslaught with home made 
rockets and suicide attacks, tactics which reflect  not their depravity but 
their desperation, they do not need our approval.  On the contrary, it is us who 
requires their approval for what we do in  solidarity, especially those of us 
living in the US or EU, whose governments  actively support Israel and are 
complicit in its policy of ethnic  cleansing.
 
S.Artesian:
 
If the prospect of defeat doesn't demand critical analysis along with  
solidarity, then Marxism has been stripped of its concrete  practicality
 
Reply:
 
Smug and self aggrandizing are the words that spring to mind reading this.  
As if either the PLO or Hamas can be blamed for the failure of the Palestinian  
cause, as if the courage and indomitability of the Palestinians can  but only 
last so long in the face of one of the most sustained and barbaric  projects 
of ethnic cleansing in human history. Perhaps too the fact that Israel  has a 
per capita GDP of $26,000 compared to a Palestinian equivalent of just  $800 
is signficant.
 
The above remark by you suffers from a complete lack of knowledge of  
conditions on the ground. Ask any member of the ISM why it is, with two notable  
exceptions, they are able to operate with relative impunity in the West Bank and  
they will tell you it is simply because they are not Palestinian, who in a 
very  real sense are viewed and treated as untermenschen by the Israelis. With 
the  West Bank and Gaza split, and the Fatah leadership currently playing a  
collaborationist role, how could a general strike even be considered? Also,  
Israel no longer requires Arab labour in the numbers it used to. It has  succeeded 
in importing its cheap labour from other parts of the world.
 
The point is that the Palestinians can do no more. It is not a case of  
criticising those being slaughtered, it is a case of what we do in  solidarity. 
Imagine criticising the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto as the Nazis  were razing it to 
the ground; imagine criticising the vicims of Guernica? It  is paternalism 
masquerading as solidarity. We recruit more people to our  politics with our 
practice than any amount of Marxist posturing. The call has  gone out from 
Palestinian civil society for a boycott. This is the only  effective and long term 
means by which we as internationalists can bring  pressure to bear on the state 
of Israel. The resistance
 
_http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=3241_ 
(http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=3241) 
 
_http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=3222_ 
(http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=3222)