Firstly, it is important to say that unity in struggle against the Israeli military aggression, the brutal occupation imposed on Gaza, and the attacks in the West Bank strengthens the struggle for Palestine.
It is important that parties such as the Socialist Party have condemned Israel for slaughtering the Palestinian people. But this cannot mask our differences.
The Socialist Party, and its international, the Committee for a Workers International (CWI), argue for a “two states – a socialist Palestine and a socialist Israel” solution. In Liverpool, for example, theirleaflet advocated a negotiated solution to the genocidal Israeli massacre and, as a final solution, the existence of a socialist state of Palestine and a socialist state of Israel in the region.
We do not agree. Firstly, there is no possibility of negotiated solution with Israel. On the contrary, to destroy the ongoing negotiations with the Palestinian Authority was the immediate reason for Israel’s attack, under the pretext of the murder of three Israeli children by Palestinians, which has never been proven.
Military Israeli leaders say openly their aim is to turn the Gaza Strip to dust. Arnon Sofer, one of the leading demographers of the country, on forecasting the demographic imbalance between Palestinians and Jews in the territory of historic Palestine stated that “if we want to remain alive, we have to kill and kill and kill, all day, every day. If we don’t kill, we’ll cease to exist”. That’s what Israel does.
It seems that the SP reflects the position of the Israeli left, who called the demonstration on July 26 in Tel Aviv with the following words: “We must end the war and start talking with the Palestinian Recognized leadership of the West Bank and Gaza … Instead of being drawn again and again, into more wars and more military actions, it is now time to lead the way to dialogue and political settlement.”
The problem is that the Israeli Left defends the two-state solution, with a few concessions to the Palestinians. But there will be no peace without justice. If the so called Zionist left really seeks peace, it must break with Zionism and side with the Palestinians inside and outside the borders of 1948 to fight for a single state in the historic Palestine.
Two socialist states side by side?
Defending two socialist states in the region in the future, is defending a two-state solution now, because for two socialist states to exist in the future it is necessary that they exist – as capitalist states – before being transformed by revolutions.
This is also are wrong in the long run. The SP calls for two socialist states, that is, two separate states, existing side by side with each other. But if they are socialist states they would have no border between them. There can be no boundaries between socialist states, except if one defends the farce of “socialism in one country” advocated by Stalin.
Peter Taafe further says that the “Palestinian and Jewish peoples have decided that they could not live together in one state”.
Where the Palestinians decided this is not stated. The Palestinians are the ones facing genocide, it is not they who are deciding who they should or should not live with. Otherwise,, Taafe should be mentioning the treacherous position of the Palestinian Authority (PA), expressed in the Oslo agreements, that were never submitted to a democratic decision by the Palestinian people, inside and outside the current borders.
SP against Boycott, disinvestment and sanctions (BDS)
The SP are against BDS campaign. They say in relation to boycott campaigns, “if threatened with destruction, the Israeli population will fight”. Seven weeks of slaughter supported by a large majority of Israel’s population proves that Israel’s war threatens Palestine with destruction. On the other side, the Israeli population’s fight against BDS is entirely reactionary; is the same as the fight of the white minority in South Africa, and shouldn’t be supported.
Judy Beishon in Socialism Today (No.169, June 2013) argues that there “are the limits on what boycotts are likely to achieve”.
But international support from the US, the EU, South Africa and across the world is mounting. There are a lot of examples that can’t be mentioned in this article, but they show that the actions carried out by the youth and the working class all over the world might force the Israeli’s government to get down its knees, how it happened, in that time, with the white minority’s government in South Africa. It means that the international struggle and solidarity is key for Palestinians.
Without the struggle for a single state of Palestine, Zionism will maintain its genocidal policy. Therefore, both in the present struggle and in the future, the only solution is a single, secular, non-racist Palestinian state.
