Only Communism Can End Racism, Nationalism and Borders
The fascist Israeli government has been expanding Israel’s borders since its establishment in 1948 with the support of British and US imperialism and the backing of the Soviet Union.
In 1967 Israel started the “Six-Day War” against Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. It ended up with Israeli military control over the Gaza Strip, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Jordan’s West Bank, and Syria’s Golan Heights.
Israel later negotiated the return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in exchange for diplomatic recognition. It retained indirect military control over the Gaza Strip. This is a tiny area that is home to nearly 2,000,000 Palestinians. Most of them are descendants of Palestinians expelled from Israel in 1947-48.
Israel annexed the Golan Heights and the eastern part of Jerusalem. It retains military control of the rest of the West Bank. This was the area intended by the United Nations for a future Palestinian state. Jordan’s rulers collaborated by renouncing any authority over the West Bank.
Since 1967, Israel has built many apartment blocks and entire cities in West Bank areas formerly controlled by Jordan. Some 600,000 Israeli Jews now live there, subject to Israeli civil law. Palestinians in the same areas, though, are subject to direct and indirect military occupation. The result is a de facto apartheid state.
Some Israeli liberals and some Palestinian political parties pretended that this apartheid state was a transitional phase to a negotiated “two-state solution.” Supposedly an independent Palestinian state would be carved out of the West Bank.
Now there have been 50 years of United Nations resolutions and rounds of negotiations. But the apartheid state is stronger than ever. No Palestinian state is in sight. Military occupation is
permanent. This is largely because of enormous military and diplomatic support from the United States, under all administrations.
Now many local “peace activists” have concluded that the two-state solution is dead. It is nothing more than a cover for apartheid.
Small groups of Israelis, Palestinians, and joint Israeli-Palestinian organizations have turned to a full range of political solutions called a one state solution. These proposals call for a confederation, a bi-national state, or a secular state in which all citizens are politically equal. Their model is South Africa—where all citizens are NOT equal!
All of the “one-state solutions,” like the imaginary “two state solution,” have three fatal flaws.
First, they all perpetuate a highly unequal capitalist society. Israeli and Palestinian nationalism are used to perpetuate a myth: Despite vast differences in wealth, income, political power, if you are Palestinian or Jewish, your alleged national identity binds you together.
Second, the Middle East, including the areas where Israelis and Palestinians live, is hotly contested by major imperialist powers; the United States, Russia, China, and the European Union. While their alliances ebb and flow, all would viciously oppose the emergence of local communist forces that attack nationalism and capitalism.
Third, no political-social organization that serves workers’ interests can base itself on support from outside imperialists. That includes Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia linked to the United States, or Syria and Iran cozying up to Russia and China. Likewise, no solution can be based on perpetuating permanent inequality through capitalism.
This is why the only real solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be communism. Communism
is the real alternative to proposals based on nationalism – whether one-state or two-state. Workers have to rely on building a mass ICWP to get rid of all the capitalists and imperialists and the borders they have created.
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