 Since October 7th, 2023, many have written about Palestine and Israel to explain the genesis of the War on Gaza, to document the suffering of Palestinians and bring to light the worst example of genocide in the 21st century, in which hundreds of thousands of people, mostly women and children, have already perished. Many have also captured the indomitable spirit of the Palestinian Resistance, the hearts and fists of Gaza who have lost everything material with the onslaught of Israeli tanks and bombs, yet continue to fight fiercely for their future, for their sovereignty, for their faith, and for their honor. The story of Palestinian resistance, which embodies the highest form of heroism, where young men, often wearing no more than sandals, joggers, and t-shirts, repeatedly go face-to-face with Merkava tanks as they avoid bombs from fifth-generation fighter jets, goes far beyond the current iteration of the War on Gaza. In fact, the cause Palestine goes even beyond the creation of the occupying entity known as Israel. The cause of Palestine goes at least as far back as the far-flung European colonialism which engulfed the new world, divided Africa and plundered the riches of Asia. Indeed, the advent of Zionism and the State of Israel was a handle created by the colonial powers to maintain control so it can continue to suffocate the heart of humanity, but in the process has stimulated a Palestinian resistance, which has become the fulcrum at which the Western imperialist world is losing its decisive grip. The system of world imperialism came into full form in the early 20th century, which Lenin charted and explained the logic of in “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism.” The imposition of “Israel” came at the height of this global imperialist system, which, in the aftermath of World War Two, was rapidly shifting from the administration of the ruling class of Britian to that of the United States as its dominant principal. In a sign of the shifting center of global authority, the British, occupying Palestine, constantly looked toward the United States for advice and consent on issues related to Palestine and the imposition of a “Jewish” state. In May 1946, Truman announced his approval of a recommendation to admit 100,000 displaced persons into Palestine and in October publicly declared his support for the creation of a Jewish state. Truman would later turn the burgeoning U.S. imperial war machine on Korea to snuff out and destroy Communism on the Korean peninsula, burning every town and destroying every building to prevent a sovereignty which would challenge those seeking riches through enslaving Korean hands—an ominous warning for what was to come to Southwest Asia decades later. The height of the global power for Western elites corresponded with the elevation of its arrogance and hubris, and on May 14, 1948, David Ben Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the State of Israel as the next evolution from of British occupation, signifying the culmination of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which had laid out the vision of the Western imperialists to ultimately create a Jewish State in Palestine with the full endorsement and recognition from the government of the United States. From the very outset, U.S. political elites saw in “Israel” the continuation and expansion of their power. Just minutes after the formal establishment of “Israel,” President Truman declared, “I believe it has a glorious future before it, not just as a sovereign nation but as an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization.” The guns and bombs began to flow in, first as a trickle, then like a raging river. Make no mistake, absent the unipolar domination of the Western European and U.S. powers post-World War Two, which assumed the legacy of a bloody, rapacious, and racist colonialism, the state of “Israel” would’ve never come into being, and absent a policy of disproportionate violence condoned and supplied by the hegemonic power, “Israel” would not have persevered. In this period, the power center based in Western Europe and the United States had a challenger, primarily in the form of the Soviet Union, which constituted the core of the socialist bloc, which aided anti-imperialist struggles all over the world, both those explicitly communist, and those efforts toward national liberation. This period is presented to us as a bi-polar period. Capitalism vs. Communism. But this is a misunderstanding. The reality is that an incipient, embryonic experiment of Communist governance was taking place within the dominant social order of capitalism and world imperialism of the dominant Western elites. The GDP of the US alone dwarfed that of the USSR and the entire “socialist bloc” put together. And not only that but the United States and the collective West dominated not only the market, trade, and global economy, but also the international institutions and legal venues, and of course, if the preeminence in this area wasn’t enough, the far-flung empire of US military bases, and defense budgets of world conquest proportions was reliably employed as backstop. In all these areas, except for nuclear weapons, where the Soviet Union established a parity with the US to ensure mutual destruction in the case of a nuclear exchange, except for this critical area, the US and the collective West had overwhelming power and influence over the world, and all human society was developing within the context of this dominant world order. So now we begin to see the way in which the fate of the early Socialist governments and the experience of the Palestinian resistance have been intertwined. In the same way the first Communist governments came out of the of the full realization of Capitalism and Imperialism, the steely and profound spirit of Palestinian resistance emerged out of the wake of Zionism and Occupation, which was but only one unique and bitter flavor of imperialism which was applied in the Holy-Land, creating a sense of something deeper and much more profound than simply imperialism, yet in reality was nothing more or nothing less. In fact, the connection between the Palestinian resistance and Communism was also overt and explicit. Popular front for the liberation of Palestine. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization -Stats for how socialist governments and communist parties supported Palestine. The Soviets helped the Arab activists create the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and even provided the blueprint for its charter, which advocated for Israel's destruction through armed struggle. After the Six-Day War in 1967, when Israel captured territory from its Arab neighbors, the Soviets were furious. They stepped up their support for the PLO. There are a multiplicity of other examples, both past and present, of socialist governments supporting the Palestinian resistance, such as the DPRK today, which takes one of the most militant lines of support of any country outside the Islamic world. But beyond these examples, we see that Palestinian resistance as a form of proletarian consciousness. The bonds of organic sociality which reassert themselves as the empire begins to crumble and collapse, and the system of capitalism no longer can justify and recreate itself. In Palestine, we’ve seen the imperialist world, through the entity known as Israel, push the furthest boundaries of how capitalist imperialism in the modern era can destroy and interrupt organic civilization through sheer force, and in the sands of Gaza we see it finding its limit In this way, Palestine is the Stalingrad for the entire Imperialist world. Where the idealism of historically antiquated ideologies which contradict present realities run into the iron truth of the people, which no real or perceived marshal superiority in firepower can overcome. In the unyielding resistance of Gaza, which fights on against all odds, we see the proof of Marx and Lenin’s theories and the materialist conception of history, in which the system of capitalism and imperialism eventually crumbles under the weight of the new bonds of sociality that it itself created. In this case, the growing Islamic resistance for Palestinian liberation. Palestine is the Red Cause. The essence of Communism permeates throughout the Palestinian struggle. AuthorJohn M. Jenkins is a policy professional and political commentator with degrees in Political Science from the University of Colorado and is a Graduate of Denver University College of Law. Since graduating, John has worked on issues of environmental protection, campaign finance law enforcement, and Medicaid/Medicare expansion. John has a passion for covering international politics on twitter and examines the emerging multi-polar world through a Marxist lens. Archives September 2024
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RR
9/18/2024 07:38:43 pm
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