Tag: Palestinian national liberation struggle

Iran-Israel Shadow War: Its Role in Mideast Conflict (I)

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Iran and Israel traded direct airstrikes on each other’s territory, for the first time, in a confrontation in April that raised the danger of a full-blown regional war. Both governments, however, stepped back from the brink after Israel chose to launch a limited strike in response to Iran’s large but ineffective rocket barrage aimed at Israel. Having avoided further direct military conflict, both countries returned to their long-running shadow war, in which Iran’s strategy is to arm and direct allied militias such as Hezbollah. These developments also shed light on Tehran’s pretentious “support” for the Palestinian liberation struggle. The clerical regime uses such posturing to prop up its dictatorial hold on power in Iran and its reactionary reach through proxy armies across the Mideast. Many Palestinians in the occupied territories, as well as working people and others in Iran, are beginning to see through such grandstanding and now openly oppose it.

‘For a Just Peace Enabling Israelis and Palestinians to Co-Exist with Mutual Respect’

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Graça Machel published this appeal on April 4, 2024, in Project Syndicate (PS), a magazine in South Africa. Machel is a member of the Elders, “the group of independent global leaders that I co-founded with my late husband, Nelson Mandela,” as she explains. She is also the founder of the Graça Machel Trust, a women’s rights organization based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Machel was born in Mozambique. She is the widow of Mozambique’s former President Samora Machel (1975–1986) and South Africa’s former President Nelson Mandela (1998–2013).

Can Jews and Palestinians Stand Together in Opposing Israel’s War?

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This article, originally published in the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, reports on a debate among those who oppose the decades-long Zionist occupation of Palestinian territories and Israel’s current genocidal war on Gaza, launched in response to the gruesome October 7 attack led by Hamas. It refers to the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. One of the organizations affiliated to this international effort, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), issued a statement on January 25, titled “Standing Together: Serving Apartheid Israel’s Propaganda.” The statement attacked Standing Together, the most prominent organization in Israel — made up of Jews, Palestinians, and others — that has been campaigning against Israel’s war on Gaza, and calling for a ceasefire and an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. The Ha’aretz piece reports on Standing Together’s response.

Protesters March in Tel Aviv, Demand Ceasefire in Gaza

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This is an article originally published in the January 18, 2024, edition of the Israeli daily Ha’aretz. It reports on an important action that day in Israel’s capital, Tel Aviv, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Israeli government launched its war on Gaza with substantial domestic popular support. The war is coupled with extreme Zionist rhetoric, police and mob attacks on many of those who dare to question any aspect of Tel Aviv’s conduct of the war, and a crackdown on the democratic rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel that includes arbitrary firings and indiscriminate arrests. Under these conditions, public protests involving Israeli Jews and Palestinians calling for a ceasefire, and an end to the war or Israel’s brutal military occupation of millions of Palestinians are rare. But they offer a much-needed glimpse of hope for the future.

‘Farha’: The Palestinian Story

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This is a review of “Farha,” a 2021 film written and directed by Darin J. Sallam, a Jordanian of Palestinian descent; 92 min., in Arabic & Hebrew with subtitles, available to stream on Netflix. “Everyone needs to see ‘Farha,’ because it is… my story, it is the Palestinian story,” Leila Giries told CNN. Giries is an 82-year-old Palestinian refugee who survived the 1947-48 Arab-Israeli war, which resulted in the creation of Israel as a colonial-settler state. “Farha” is based on actual events. It is inspired by the story of a young Palestinian girl and the violence she witnessed during the 1948 war, when about 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes by armed Zionist groups in what Palestinians have since called the Nakba or “catastrophe.” It is also a movie Israel tried unsuccessfully to censor.

On the Character of the Oct. 7 Attack by Hamas

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This is a Discussion with Readers column on the character of the October 7 attack on Israel led by Hamas. “I’ve noticed that you keep referring to the Hamas Oct 7 attack as ‘gruesome,’” Meryl Lynn Lombardi wrote. “Why would this be needed in the face of the over 18,000 murdered Palestinians, nothing but genocide and ethnic cleansing. And the wholesale destruction of Gaza.” World-Outlook’s editors explain why they do not think that the attack by Hamas has become less gruesome because Israel — with its exponentially greater military power — has outdone Hamas in barbarity.

‘The Jewish Tragedy Finds in Israel a Dismal Sequel’ (IV)

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In June 1967, following the “Six-Day War” with several Arab countries, Israel emerged victorious. It captured large areas, including Gaza, the West Bank, and two-thirds of the Golan Heights — territories it continues to occupy decades later. At the time, New Left Review — a political journal based in London — conducted an interview with Marxist scholar Isaac Deutscher. Originally titled “On the Israeli-Arab War,” the interview is being republished today by World Outlook. Even though the interview took place more than 50 years ago, many of Deutscher’s insights remain timely and of striking political value in light of the ongoing murderous Israeli assault on Gaza in response to the gruesome October 7 attack by Hamas. This is the last of four installments.

‘The Jewish Tragedy Finds in Israel a Dismal Sequel’ (III)

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In June 1967, following the “Six-Day War” with several Arab countries, Israel emerged victorious. It captured large areas, including Gaza, the West Bank, and two-thirds of the Golan Heights — territories it continues to occupy decades later. At the time, New Left Review — a political journal based in London — conducted an interview with Marxist scholar Isaac Deutscher. Originally titled “On the Israeli-Arab War,” the interview is being republished today by World Outlook. Even though the interview took place more than 50 years ago, many of Deutscher’s insights remain timely and of striking political value in light of the ongoing murderous Israeli assault on Gaza in response to the gruesome October 7 attack by Hamas. This is the third of four parts.

‘The Jewish Tragedy Finds in Israel a Dismal Sequel’ (II)

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In June 1967, following the “Six-Day War” with several Arab countries, Israel emerged victorious. It captured large areas, including Gaza, the West Bank, and two-thirds of the Golan Heights — territories it continues to occupy decades later. At the time, New Left Review — a political journal based in London — conducted an interview with Marxist scholar Isaac Deutscher. Originally titled “On the Israeli-Arab War,” the interview is being republished today by World Outlook. Even though the interview took place more than 50 years ago, many of Deutscher’s insights remain timely and of striking political value in light of the ongoing murderous Israeli assault on Gaza in response to the gruesome October 7 attack by Hamas. This is the second of four parts.

‘The Jewish Tragedy Finds in Israel a Dismal Sequel’ (I)

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In June 1967, following the “Six-Day War” with several Arab countries, Israel emerged victorious. It captured large areas, including Gaza, the West Bank, and two-thirds of the Golan Heights — territories it continues to occupy decades later. At the time, New Left Review — a political journal based in London — conducted an interview with Marxist scholar Isaac Deutscher. Originally titled “On the Israeli-Arab War,” the interview is being republished today by World Outlook. Even though the interview took place more than 50 years ago, many of Deutscher’s insights remain timely and of striking political value in light of the ongoing murderous Israeli assault on Gaza in response to the gruesome October 7 attack by Hamas. This is the first of four parts.

Israel’s West Bank Inferno & the Responsibility of Socialists (II)

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This is the second of a two-part essay that appears in the January/February 2024 edition of Against the Current. The author, Alan Wald, is an editor of that publication and a member of the Academic Advisory Council of Jewish Voice for Peace since 2016. Wald begins his essay as a review of the recently published book “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy” by Nathan Thrall. From that starting point, he addresses some of the most urgent political issues arising from Israel’s increasingly genocidal assault on Gaza in response to the gruesome October 7 attack led by Hamas. Wald’s article will be of interest to anyone opposed to the current horror unfolding each day in Gaza as well as those interested in learning more about the history of the issues posed today.

Israel’s West Bank Inferno & the Responsibility of Socialists (I)

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This is the first of a two-part essay that appears in the January/February 2024 edition of Against the Current. The author, Alan Wald, is an editor of that publication and a member of the Academic Advisory Council of Jewish Voice for Peace since 2016. Wald begins his essay as a review of the recently published book “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy” by Nathan Thrall. From that starting point, he addresses some of the most urgent political issues arising from Israel’s increasingly genocidal assault on Gaza in response to the gruesome October 7 attack led by Hamas. Wald’s article will be of interest to anyone opposed to the current horror unfolding each day in Gaza as well as those interested in learning more about the history of the issues posed today.

No to Israel’s new Nakba in Gaza (III)

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This is the last of a three-part series. The first detailed how Israel is carrying out a mass dispossession of Palestinians in Gaza — like the 1948 “Nakba,” or catastrophe, that led to Israel’s founding as a colonial settler state. The second documented how long-standing Israeli government policy made possible the the October 7 pogrom by Hamas. This concluding part focuses on what may be a way out of these dire conditions.

No to Israel’s new Nakba in Gaza (II)

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This is the second of a three-part series. The first detailed how Israel is in the middle of carrying out a mass dispossession of Palestinians in Gaza — like the 1948 “Nakba,” or catastrophe, that led to Israel’s founding as a colonial settler state. This article documents how the October 7 Hamas pogrom was made possible by long-standing Israeli government policy.