Avigdor Lieberman has just been appointed Minister of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Israel, confirming what the international press qualifies as “the most right-winged government in the history of this country”, and alerting about the possibility of an “extreme-right turn” in the country.
By Alejandro Iturbe.
We present the character: Avigdor Lieberman was born in the former URSS in 1958, and he migrated to Israel with his family in 1978. Since the capitalist restoration, hundreds of thousand of Russian Jewish followed the same road, running away from the socio-economic consequences of the restoration, encouraged by Israel’s policy of strengthening the “Jewish nature” of the population in the country.
Most of them were installed in colonies built on areas that were taken away from the Palestinians, in West Jerusalem and the West Bank. They live comfortably thanks to the important subsidies of the Zionist State and to the exploitation of Palestinians as semi-slave workforce, including numbers of children.
It is not by chance they became the most fervent defenders of the Zionist State, and the base of the most aggressive policies against the Palestinian. They are some type of “frontline”, committing constant aggressions against the people they oppress.
On this social, electoral base, Lieberman organized the extreme-right Yisrael Beiteinu [Party], which has been obtaining several deputies to the Knesset [Parliament] in every election. Like this, they became an essential ally of Netanyahu (together with the ultra-religious parties) for him to create and maintain his governments. This is not the first time Lieberman rules Ministries, but now he leads a central one to Israelian governments.
Most left tendencies of the world support the Palestinians struggle and denounce Israel’s crimes and aggressions. However, there is a deep debate on what is the solution to this conflict, as most part of the left supports the alleged “two-states” proposal, one of Israel and the other one of Palestine, coexisting side by side, in peace. For that to happen, Israel’s would have to turn to a more tolerant and open position.
We think this a utopian proposal, reactionary at the same time, because of the nature of Israel State. It was born in 1948, supported by a UN resolution driven by the U.S. imperialism and the Stalinist bureaucracy, back then governing the former URSS. The so far property of the British Mandate of Palestine colonial territory was divided, giving most part of the land to the new State of Israel, despite the population was clearly less than the vast majority of the historical Palestinian population.
Once Israel was created, the armed bands of Zionism expelled most of the Palestinian population through extremely violent methods (including the murder of women, elder and children), expanding their domain over the territory that was left to them.
It is what the Palestinians and Arabs recall as the nakba (catatrophe). Since then, the Palestinian people has been divided into three groups: the ones who live oppressed on Israelian ground, the ones living in the so called “Palestinian territories” (today under the colonial administration of the NPA [National Palestinian Authority], submitted to Israel), and the ones in exile. Since then, the Palestinian people struggles to take back the entire territory that was usurped from them, so they can build their own State.
We affirm Israel was born and exists as an imperialist military enclave, built on usurped territories, with a population artificially created, and whose only meaning is to be some kind of “advanced army” of the imperialism to commit aggressions against the Arab people, especially the Palestinians. And this is just to defend their own interests around the region. The entire history of Israel (full with wars and invasions against their Arab neighbors and constant attacks and crimes against Palestinians) proves that. As the old say states: “it is on its nature”.
We said the ‘two-states’ policy is utopian and reactionary. It is reactionary because it legalizes once again the usurpation of 1948, and condemns the millions of exiled Palestinians to never return to the lands that were stolen from them.
It is utopian because it expects Israel (an aggressor State by nature) “to behave”, thanks to a future “turn to the left” on its political life. But this is impossible: the vast majority of Israel’s population is aware their situation and their privileges depend on the nature of the State of Israel and its aggressive character. This is why they turned more and more to the right, leaving aside the “progressive” and even the “socialist” face they tried to show, initially. Netanyahu and his ally Lieberman dominate the political scenario, nowadays; there is no such “extremist turn”, but the confirmation of an inevitable political dynamic.
This is why, to us, the only true solution is the destruction of Israel’s state, and the construction of a Democratic, Unified, Non-Racist Palestine in what used to be all of its historical territory, where the exiled Palestinians can go back to, and the Jewish willing to coexist in Peace can stay.
We said most left tendencies of the world support the Palestinian struggle and condemn Israel. Although, there are exceptions of people who call themselves “leftist” yet support Israel. One of them is the Democrat U.S. politician Bernie Sanders, who traveled to Israel several times during his youth to work in kibutz (agrarian exploitation), and as a legislator in his country he voted all in favour of Israel and against Palestine. Another one is the Brazilian Jean Willys, national deputy by the PSOL, who recently traveled to Israel and supported the country saying it was “democratic” in “a region where there is not much democracy”. So far, the PSOL as a party has never criticized him for these statements.
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Translation: Sofía Ballack.
