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Greater Israel in the Fast Lane to Apartheid (Part I):

Mobilize For Communism to Unite Arabs, Jews, All Workers

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The recent political crisis in Israel centers around two interconnected issues.  One is rising economic inequality.  The other is a proposed “Jewish Nation-State” law, another attack on Palestinians. 
This law is similar to European anti-Jewish nation-state laws in the 1930s.  It would resolve the sharpening contradiction in Israel’s claim to be “Jewish and democratic” by shredding whatever appearance of “democracy” that Israel ever had. 
This is a contradiction of capitalism.  Nationalism and democracy belong to class society.  Neither helps workers. 
Nationalism tells us to unite with “our” bosses against other workers.  It sabotages class struggle and sets us up for fratricidal wars.
Democracy is how the bosses manage their disagreements (when possible) without killing each other.  It builds the illusion that workers have a say-so.  In reality we live under a class dictatorship where the capitalists-imperialists run everything.
The international working class must dump this system and build communism.  We, collectively, will make all decisions about production and everything else in the interests of the masses – our own interest. 
That’s what Jews and Palestinians in Israel, and workers everywhere, really need.
Without capitalism there will be no nationalism and no democracy. 

Apartheid:  From Johannesburg to Jerusalem
Israeli rulers increasingly refer to a “Greater Israel” stretching from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River.  This is becoming more and more like the South African Apartheid system that Israel once supported.
In the West Bank, Palestinians are under Israeli military rule.  However, over half a million Israeli Jewish “settlers” are governed by Israeli civil authorities.  Most “settlers” live in heavily fortified urban areas, protected by the Israeli military. 
These “settlements” and the Israeli wall of separation have driven Palestinians off the land.  Growing numbers are forced to work for Israeli companies.  Many can’t get official work permits.  They are subject to abuse and super-exploitation.  All are banned from using Israeli-run public transportation and are constantly harassed at checkpoints. 
Even a Palestinian government minister was recently murdered at a checkpoint.
In besieged Gaza, says the International Labor Organization, “four-fifths of people have to count on humanitarian aid, economic activity has been paralysed, and achieving decent work is an increasingly distant dream.” 
Within Israel’s 1948-1967 boundaries, Arab Israeli citizens are 20% of the population.  They face legal segregation and other racist attacks.  Over half live in poverty.  Salaried urban Arab Israeli workers earn much less than Mizrahi Jews (Asian and African descent), who earn less than European Jews.
This racism drives down living standards for all Israeli workers. 
One third of Israeli households are in poverty.  At least half have trouble affording food, medical care, prescription drugs, and other necessities. 
Who benefits?  The capitalists!  Eighteen Israeli families control 60% of all Israeli corporate wealth, mainly in Israel’s largest industries: banking and insurance, chemicals, high tech, and military.

Communism Will End Poverty and Wealth, Racism and Nationalism
Capitalism forces workers into wage slavery under the threat of starvation.  A government monopoly on legal violence enables capitalists to take the fruits of our labor and throw us a few scraps. 
Communism will end all that!  We’ll produce and share everything we need.
The International Communist Workers’ Party includes workers, soldiers and youth on four continents.  Once our mass party takes power, we’ll erase borders and, with them, the material basis of nationalism. 
The long-term political struggle will continue to resolve ideological contradictions within ourselves and the masses.  For example, we’ll fight the nationalist ideas we were trained to believe and promote the communist ideas that represent our real needs and our future.
The same with racism.  Racism is not “in our genes” or “human nature.”  Capitalism created racism to prevent a united working class from rising up and destroying the tiny ruling class that exploits us all.  Racism attacks the whole working class.  We all need to destroy it!
Capitalism-imperialism continually churns out new variations on racist ideology. It reaps extra-high profits from the lower-paid labor of black, latino/a, indigenous, and immigrant workers.  Communism will destroy this material basis of racism and create the material basis for defeating it through sharp political struggle.
Mobilizing the masses for communism today can build enduring unity of Arab, Jewish, Druze, Bedouin, Christian, and all workers in the Middle East and everywhere.
Next:  Inter-imperialist rivalry and Israel/Palestine

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