—Fabio Bosco, Unified Socialist Workers’ Party (PSTU) Brazil
March 1, 2025. According to Israel’s Channel 13, the government had decided to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza to force the Palestinian resistance to surrender. The State of Israel had decided to use starvation as a weapon of war on a large scale.
On the 18th, shortly thereafter, Israel broke the ceasefire, invaded, and seized 75% of Gaza. They carried out indiscriminate bombings of schools, hospitals, and homes. Four hundred Palestinians died in the first few days alone.
In April, Israel excluded United Nations (UN) agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from humanitarian aid distribution and hired GHF to distribute food in Gaza. GHF and the Israeli army turned the six distribution points into death traps.
By August 17, Israel had killed 1,938 Palestinians and wounded another 14,420 in food line attacks. Additionally, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, the Zionist state has starved 258 Palestinians, including 110 children.
They are preparing a brutal forced diaspora
Simultaneously, Israel has contacted other countries to persuade them to accept Palestinians expelled from Gaza. In addition to negotiating with Sudan, South Sudan, and Somaliland, Israel is negotiating with Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah of western Libya. Dbeibah would accept hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in exchange for the release of $30 billion that has been blocked abroad since 2011.
Israel is also negotiating with General Khalifa Haftar, who dominates eastern Libya, to accept Palestinians in exchange for a greater share of the country’s oil production.
In the West Bank, Israel is preparing to annex the entire territory. It has armed 700,000 Israeli settlers to attack and expel Palestinians together with the army. Additionally, Israel has taken over the area known as “E1,” which divides the West Bank into north and south and separates it from Al-Quds/Jerusalem.
According to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the goal is to bury the two-state solution — and the idea of a Palestinian state — once and for all.
The dispute over control of the region
Israel also seeks to establish itself as the sole regional power. It currently occupies Lebanese and Syrian territories, regularly attacks Yemen, and is preparing new attacks against Iran. Its plans are advancing in Lebanon, where the new president and prime minister—allies of the United States and Saudi Arabia—were elected and are pressuring Hezbollah to surrender.
In Syria, the Zionist plan to divide the country was facilitated by the Sweida massacre, in which interim government forces executed hundreds of Druze and pushed them to Israel’s side, fueling toxic divisions between religious communities — contrary to the goals of the revolution.
In Yemen, the Houthis (Ansar Allah) are strengthening their control of commercial traffic in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea, as well as their ability to paralyze Saudi Arabia’s oil production, as they did in 2019.
In Iran, a new nuclear agreement is being negotiated with the United States. At the same time, however, the production of defensive weapons, particularly ballistic missiles that have successfully penetrated Israel’s air defenses, is resuming. Additionally, the reconstruction of its nuclear program is underway.
U.S. support for ethnic cleansing
None of these Israeli plans would be possible without U.S. support. The U.S. supplies 70% of the weapons used by Israel. The U.S. also provides political and diplomatic cover for the genocide in Gaza.
For example, Trump imposed sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the UN rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, as well as on two judges and two prosecutors of the International Criminal Court (ICC). This paralyzed the Tribunal and the International Court of Justice. He did all this to protect Zionist criminals.
Trump’s policy directly benefits the U.S. arms and oil industries. Additionally, Trump has strengthened his relationship with Christian Zionists who support his “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement.
Neither European imperialism nor the BRICS are alternatives
While U.S. imperialism openly supports genocide, European imperialism seeks another way to support Israel.
In September, France and Saudi Arabia sponsored a UN conference to recognize a “Palestinian state.” However, this “Palestinian state” would be formed on the condition of the Palestinian Resistance’s surrender and would be demilitarized to guarantee Israel’s “security.”
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) participated in the conference and advocated for the disarmament of Hamas and the Palestinian resistance.
In turn, British imperialism pledged to support this French policy if Israel did not mitigate the genocide in Gaza. Neither, however, spoke about what would really be necessary: a military embargo and the severing of trade and diplomatic relations with Israel.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced a partial arms embargo but stopped short of taking further action. These misleading announcements seek to “distance” responsibility for the genocide and appease the massive wave of pro-Palestinian protests in Europe.
Unfortunately, the situation is no different among the BRICS alliance, initially formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and now including several North African countries, such as Egypt and Ethiopia, as well as Middle Eastern countries, such as Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
India is an unconditional ally of Israel. China is Israel’s primary export market. Russia is a historic ally of Israel and a supplier of oil to its war machine. Brazil and South Africa have protested the genocide but continue to export oil and coal to Israel, respectively.
Hamas supports a ceasefire without surrender
After 22 months of unequal struggle against the Zionist genocidal forces, the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza, led by Hamas, is weakened. Nevertheless, Hamas refuses to surrender or disarm, nor will they accept the Israeli occupation of Gaza.
Conversely, Hamas supports the proposal for a 60-day ceasefire with a comprehensive prisoner exchange and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Historical experience supports the Palestinian resistance. Disarmament has always led to the massacre of Palestinians, as in 1982 in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon.
An extraordinary wave of international solidarity
The genocide in Gaza has been condemned by people around the world. Public opinion polls indicate the highest level of support for Palestinians ever recorded. This rejection of genocide is evident in various acts of solidarity, including marches that bring together thousands of people, as well as protests at universities, cultural events, and sporting events.
Links between the struggles in Palestine and Ukraine have also begun to emerge. In Kyiv, left-wing activists demonstrated in support of Palestine in front of the Holodomor Memorial, which is dedicated to the millions of people who died of starvation in Ukraine in the 1930s due to Stalin’s policies.
What has not yet happened on a large scale is the necessary unity among workers to stop the export of military equipment to Israel.
Protests in Israel and their limitations
Last week, hundreds of thousands of Israelis protested, demanding a ceasefire and prisoner exchange. Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews also protested compulsory military service for believers.
These protests are important because they pressure Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to accept the ceasefire. However, it is important to understand their limitations. The vast majority of Israeli Jews support expelling Palestinians from Gaza and colonizing the West Bank.
The prolonged genocide is impacting the already-in-recession economy and affecting the lives of Israelis who do not want to be killed in Gaza by the Palestinian resistance. Additionally, Israel’s international image has been severely damaged.
The majority of the Israeli Jewish population, including the working class, is not allied with the Palestinians. On the contrary, they benefit from the theft of Palestinian land and homes. Because of these material benefits, Israeli Jewish workers support the Zionist enterprise, which goes against the interests of Palestinians and workers around the world.
Only demonstrations by Palestinians of 1948—Palestinians living in the territories captured in 1948 on which the State of Israel was formed—mainly in the city of Umm al-Fahm, demand an end to the genocide in solidarity with their brothers and sisters in Gaza.
Unconditional support for the Palestinian resistance! Let us strengthen international solidarity!
The PSTU unconditionally supports the Palestinian Resistance. While we do not have a programmatic agreement with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), we stand firm against Israeli genocide.
We support the Palestinian Resistance’s decision not to surrender its weapons and to continue its actions against the Israeli army, however limited they may be.
While the Palestinian resistance plays its role in the struggle, the working class and youth around the world must also play theirs.
In Arab countries, a new “Arab Spring” is needed to overthrow collaborationist regimes. In other countries, we must mobilize to force governments to sever trade and diplomatic relations with Israel. We must involve the working class in direct action, such as boycotting the shipment of weapons and other goods to Israel.
We will build the road to the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea, and to the end of the racist state of Israel in the heat of the struggle against genocide. This is the only solution for peace in the Middle East.
