[Marxism] Israel's true intentions

[Gary MacLennan]

I will be attending the demonstration scheduled for tomorrow here in
Brisbane. Hopefully it will large and militant. What is happening in
Palestine is something beyond horror. Such are the dimensions of what Israel
is doing that we cannot come to a consensus as to their intentions. Part of
the confusion on our side is due to the fact that what Israel intends is so
evil that we doubt the evidence.  there is of course a pall of lies and
misinformation over everything. Thus unbelievably I read of the "peace
process" being suspended or of being in jeopardy.

One of the best bits of teaching I did last year was to bring a headline
into a class and ask them to critique it.  The headline was "Financial
crisis puts war on poverty on hold".  The class were largely stumped about
what to say except for speculation about how deep the crisis was going to
be.

Interestingly when I pointed out that the headline also claimed there was a
"war on poverty" very few in the class actually believed that there was any
such "war".  However the really best part of the lesson was when I got them
to acknowledge that they had simply read a lie and had not commented on it.
So they were not "mindful" of the lies which surround them and indeed all of
us.  Partly of course this is a defense mechanism.  Mindfulness comes with a
price tag - the end of one's comfort zone.
Similarly with what is happening in Palestine.  There is of course no peace
process at all.  There never has been.  There is simply the drive towards a
Greater Israel (drang nach osten) and the conquest of more and yet more
Palestinaian land (lebens raum).

So Carroll is right if we are mindful of what is actually happening it is
indeed logical - but it is the logic of empire and conquest that is at work.

There are of course constraints on what Israel intends.  Above all their
Arab allies - Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan must be kept safe.  A
revolution in any of those three countries would immediately place the
entire Zionist project in danger.  For Israel cannot simply leave the
conquest of Palestine to the IAF.  Politics like the dialectic never dies.
The capacity of Israel for killing Arabs is of course horrifically daunting
but a political defeat for Israel cannot be ruled out.  Nor indeed is a
military reverse out of the question as Hizbollah showed two years ago.

For the moment however it looks like the Israelis have tested the waters
with their initial blitz and discovered that Mubarak and the royal families
of Jordan and Saudi Arabia are still safe.  So they will move to another
level.  There will be incursions into Gaza to test Hamas' military capacity
and to flush out and kill as many militants as possible.

If they get away with that escalation they will then move to stage three - a
full invasion with the aim of eliminating the Hamas leadership and again
killing militants.

I doubt if they have planned much beyond that. As'ad Abu Khalil (<
angryarab.blogspot.com>) seems to believe that Israel seeks to enthrone
Mohammed Dahlan back in Gaza. That of course is a project close to their
hearts - the degeneration of Gaza into Dahlanistan  would be like a return
to the days when Myer Lansky and the Mob ran Cuba.

However the outcome of none of this is assured.  I think much of the
analysis and the response to what is happening is overly governed by a
belief in Israeli invincibility.  But as I have said previously it is the
advent of popular revolution in one of the key Arab countries that will
determine the outcome.  And I suspect that the events of the last week have
done more to hasten that eventuality, than any one of  us dares hope.

comradely

Gary