[Marxism] Hamas & apologies

[Ruthless Critic of All that Exists]

On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 12:36 AM,  <sobuadhaigh at hushmail.com> wrote:
>
> I am absolutely committed to secularism as a
> fundamental
> principle of revolutionary struggle. If this means to you that
> I am betraying the Palestinian people then I strongly encourage
> you to investigate more closely the variety of resistance forces in
> Palestine today.

Wikipedia says:

"The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)  is a
Marxist-Leninist, secular, nationalist Palestinian political and
paramilitary organization, founded in 1967. It has consistently been
the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation
Organization (the largest being Fatah). It has generally taken a hard
line on Palestinian national aspirations, opposing the more moderate
stance of Fatah. It opposed the Oslo Accords and was for a long time
opposed to the idea of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, but in 1999 came to an agreement with the PLO leadership
regarding negotiations with Israel. It has been designated as a
terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union,[1]
Canada,[2] and Israel. The military wing of the PFLP is called the Abu
Ali Mustapha Brigades.

"The PFLP grew out of the Harakat al-Qawmiyyin al-Arab, or Arab
Nationalist Movement (ANM), founded in 1953 by Dr. George Habash, a
Palestinian Christian, from Lydda. The 22-year-old Habash went to
Lebanon to study medicine at the American University in Beirut,
graduating in 1951.[3]

"In an interview with American journalist John Cooley, Habash
identified the Arab defeat by Israel as "the scientific society of
Israel as against our own backwardness in the Arab world. This called
for the total rebuilding of Arab society into a twentieth-century
society."

"After the eruption of the First Intifada and the subsequent Oslo
Accords the PFLP had difficulty establishing itself in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip. The boycott of the 1996 elections gave many the
impression that the PFLP was irrelevant to developments inside
Palestine. At that time (1993–96) Hamas enjoyed rapidly rising
popularity in the wake of their successful strategy of suicide
bombings devised by Yahya Ayyash ("the Engineer"). Also, the fall of
the Soviet Union together with the rise in the Arab world of
Islamism—and particularly the increased popularity of the Islamist
groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad—disoriented many left
activists who looked towards the Soviet Union, and has marginalised
the PFLP's role in Palestinian politics and armed resistance. However,
the organization retains considerable political influence within the
PLO, since no new elections have been held for the organisation's
legislative body, the PNC.

"As a result of its post-Oslo weakness, the PFLP has been forced to
adapt slowly and find partners among politically active, preferably
young, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, in order to compensate
for their dependence on their aging commanders returning from or
remaining in exile. The PFLP has therefore formed alliances with other
leftist groups formed within the Palestinian Authority, including the
Palestinian People's Party, the Popular Resistance Committees of
Gaza."

"The PFLP is powerful politically in the Ramallah area, the eastern
districts and suburbs of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, the primarily
Christian Refidyeh district of Nablus, but has far less strength in
the rest of the West Bank, and is of little or no threat to the
established Hamas and Fatah movements in Gaza.

"The PFLP participated in the Palestinian legislative elections of
2006 as the "Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa List". It won 4.2% of the popular
vote and took three of the 132 seats in the Palestinian Legislative
Council. Its deputies are Ahmad Sa'adat, Jamil Majdalawi, and Khalida
Jarrar. In the lists, its best vote was 9.4% in Bethlehem, followed by
6.6% in Ramallah and al-Bireh, and 6.5% in North Gaza."