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Zionism grew up in Europe at a time when the
revolutionary working class movement had resulted in a great growth of
socialism. The socialist (Marxist, that is) solution to the Jewish question was
in general similar to its solution to all antagonisms namely, the overthrow of
capitalism which used the national question to divide the working class on the
basis of religious differences, instead of unifying the workers; irrespective of
creed or colour, to overthrow their oppressors, the capitalist class.
Nevertheless, Marxists fought for all the demands of political democracy even
within imperialism, includmg the right to the self-determination of nations —
i.e., independence.
A so-called ‘Jewish
State’
By contrast Zionism was from the beginning a
bourgeois national movement. It claimed that the only real protection for
Jews worldwide was the establishment of the Jewish state. Early in its history,
the Zionists would have gladly accepted settlement in any tolerable territory
made available to them by one or other bourgeois government. None was offered
them. So they utilised religion to try to influence the western bourgeois world
to allow them to settle in Palestine.
At the close of the nineteenth century they were
active collecting funds to buy land in Palestine, hoping in time to get enough
bought to give the Jews political power, with Palestine (as it was then) as a
Jewish state.
Imperialism at work
In Russia, many Jewish workers belonged to an
organisation called ‘The Bund’. In the Social-Democratic Party which was based
on Marxian socialism and led by V I Lenin, they had a considerable amount of
autonomy. However, they used this to oppose and agitate against the unity
of all Russian workers for the overthrow of Tsarism. As a result, they
were expelled.
While the Zionists kept up their land buying, the
Palestinian Arabs — the main body of the population became aware that they were
losing their country. This tendency gathered strength after World War I, when
the Anglo-French imperialists seized Palestine — with great help from the Arab
armed forces who were promised Palestine for themselves once Turkey was
defeated.
Betrayal, plus
‘divide and rule’
This promise was callously betrayed. Playing their
long-practised imperialist game of divide and rule, Britain and France secretly
signed a promise to the Zionists to ‘establish a national home for the Jews
in Palestine’, and shortly afterwards secretly signed the ‘Sykes-Picot
Agreement’ promising Palestme to the Arabs in return for a revolutionary
Arab liberation war against the Ottoman Empire (Turkey); which war in fact
largely won the war in the Middle East for the Allied Powers.
What became Palestme was actually only a part of
the original territory. The newly-formed ‘League of Nations’divided that
territory between Britain and France, the latter getting Syna and Lebanon while
Britain got Iraq, Palestine and semi-colonial rule over Jordan. The so-called
‘mandates’ handed by the League to Britain and France over these lands were
simply the transfer of colonial rule from Turkey to Britain and France. These
were the spoils of the imperialist world war. The Arab peoples got absolutely
nothing except lies.
In Palestine, Britain played up to both Jews and
Arabs. In 1924 Sir Alfred Mond, head of the armaments combine Brunner Mond,
(later to become Imperial Chemical Industries) wrote to the British Government
promising that Britain would have a loyal ally m Zionism in the Middle East.
Growth of the Arab
National Movement
Britain welcomed this with the ‘Balfour
Declaration’, knowingly inflaming Arab nationalism by its promise of a
‘Jewish National Home’. At that time the Arab national movement was a force
to be reckoned with in the Middle East. Much of British policy was designed to
weaken it in order to hold on to the Suez canal. For that reason, while keeping
the Arabs at arm’s length, Britain kept the Zionist settlement in Palestine
within limits. A rightwing group of Jews took up a ‘terrorist’ struggle against
British forces. Ex-premier Shamir was a prominent leader and proudly proclaimed
his terrorist past.
They did not at all mind using terrorism to seize
Palestine and throw out the British. However, when Palestinians fought against
Israel for their land — theirs for centuries past, they were denounced as
terrorists.
Israeli expansionism
and land grabs
When the United Nations partitioned Palestine
between Israel and its Arab occupants, war broke out in 1948 between Israel and
neighbouring Arab states. With imperialist backing, Israel annexed a large swath
of Arab land, expellmg the Arab inhabitants. There have been five Arab-Israeli
wars, each won by Israel. Each time Israel has annexed more Arab land. All this
has only been made possible by Israel receiving full backing of the main
imperialist powers. At first these were mainly Britain and France. Later, after
the failure of a combined British, French and Israeli attack in 1956, the US
became top dog which it has been ever since. It has kept Israel supplied with $4
billion of aid a year and also the latest in high-tech weaponry. In return,
Israel plays the role of defender of US strategic and oil interests in the
Middle East. Ofcourse, periodically, as in the Gulf War, these mterests become a
single strongpoint for oil magnates and the military.
Zionism — an
anti-working class, pro-imperialist movement
Thus, even before the state of Israel was
established, Zionism proved itself a force hostile to the interests of the
international working class. It’s aim was to turn Jewish workers away
from the class struggle for socialism. It co-operated fully with Anglo-French
imperialism, and then particularly with US imperialism.
Israel, once established, small as it was, itself
became an imperialist power, seizing Arab territory by force and expelling its
inhabitants in order to expand its control over the region. Thanks to
imperialist control over the world’s media an enormous brainwashing exercise has
taken place with Israel the hero and Arab nationalists the villains. In reality,
while there are many shortcomings in the Arab world, the boot is on the other
foot.
Lack of working class
leadership the main Arab fault
As to the Arab national movement, after its
betrayal by Britain and France following World War I, it has tended towards
anti-imperialism. This still remains a potent force among the Arab masses of the
Middle East and North Africa, heightened by the 1991 US-led imperialist invasion
of Iraq. However, while it is anti-imperialist, the movement has suffered from a
succession of bourgeois nationalist leaders who regularly led the masses to
costly failures.
The problem has been the lack of working-class
leadership of the liberation movement and in particular, the lack of a
proletarian revolutionary party capable of uniting the masses under proletarian
and not bourgeois or religious fundamentalist, leadership.
Both Nasser and Saddam Hussein began with the aim
of securing a secular Arab state. As a bourgeois to his bones, Nasser suppressed
the Communist Party by jailings and torture. This foul record did not stop
Khrushchev — to his eternal disgrace — from awarding him the Order of Lenin. In
Iraq, the Communists were crushed by the Baath Party. Such ‘secularism’ was
certainly opposed to Moslem fundamentalism, but it equally certainly did nothing
for united struggle against imperialism.
Arafat and the PLO
Let us consider the role of Arafat and the PLO. For
years, they were considered Israel’s main enemy, with some justification They
refused to recognise Israel’s right to exist as a state on the basis of Israeli
seizure of Palestinian land and forcible expulsion or enslavement of its
inhabitants. The PLO carried on guerrilla warfare, invariably called terrorism
by the West, for the restoration of Palestinian sovereignty. Most Arabs agreed
with this stand, and the PLO was recognised by them as their spokesman. However,
the increase in development by the Arab states of their own national interests
and economic concerns steadily weakened support for the Palestinian cause,
despite periodical upsurges. Nonetheless, the Arabs of Gaza Strip and the West
Bank of Jerusalem have courageously fought against Israel’s concentration camp
treatment. In 1987 they began the Intifada or uprising, despite being
without weapons other than stones. This was met under both the Shamir and Rabin
regimes by ruthless brutality which sickened many who watched it on television
screens round the world.
(Later,
Arafat and the PLO leadership turned into imperialist stooges, betraying the
cause of the Palestinian people. — Editor)
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