In Palestine/Israel, there is war. On the morning of October 7, Hamas launched a “large-scale” surprise attack (always smaller compared to Israeli reprisals) with thousands of rockets, incursions into Israeli territory, and the seizure of dozens of hostages. This is in response to the continuous attacks by the State of Israel against the Palestinian community, including the threat of complete expulsion of Muslims from Jerusalem and the demolition of the Al Aqsa Mosque (the third holiest site in Islam), ongoing arrests, and the establishment of new settlements by Israeli settlers in Palestinian territories.
Many on the left speak of Palestinian People’s Resistance. The term seems correct to us: Resistance because the existence of the Palestinian nation-state is at stake, popular because it is indeed a people’s struggle, a mobilization in which both exploited and exploiting Palestinians are united under the ideological banner of the nation-state, a banner prominently held by Hamas, a religiously fundamentalist organization representing the interests of the most radical wing of the Palestinian Islamic bourgeoisie, an offshoot of the Iranian regional mini-imperialism, and, as its statute states, a fiercely anti-communist force, a political element that is often described as “fascist” in our regions.
In any case, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict initially framed its events in the long-standing East-West confrontation during the Cold War, with repercussions on other regional actors. Today, it equally reflects the inter-imperialist clash involving major and minor powers in the region. The liberation of the Palestinian people always serves as a cover for other, much more important (from an imperialistic perspective) interests.
Problems with an internationalist framing of the ongoing conflict: From a military standpoint, events can only be placed in the broader context of the mounting global war climate. Hamas is armed and financed largely by Iran, a historical regional imperialist power and a longtime enemy of the US and Israel, with significant economic, commercial, and military ties to China and Russia. A more explicit involvement of Iran in the conflict would signify an escalation of imperialist warfare in the region. Moreover, Iran could find in this conflict a reason to rekindle patriotic/religious fervor and distance itself from the internal management difficulties associated with protest movements by significant sectors of workers, particularly in the energy sector, and related to the women’s issue, which primarily affects working-class Iranian women as opposed to bourgeois women in their privileged neighborhoods, who enjoy much greater freedom.
From a political perspective, Hamas, as mentioned, is a reactionary and fundamentalist force that aims to achieve some immediate results through the surprise attack: 1) to compel major Palestinian political forces like Al Fatah, the Palestinian Authority, the PLO (or what remains of it), and the West Bank in general to align with Hamas; 2) to strengthen the Hamas-Hezbollah-Iran axis, possibly dragging Lebanon and Iran into open war against Israel; 3) to force other Arab states such as Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, etc., to take a more decisive stance than they have in recent years, with the prospect of internationalizing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and prompting concrete action by other Arab states; 4) to undermine the historic process of rapprochement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, sponsored by the USA. This would mean the end of Saudi promises of official economic support to the Palestinian Authority with Israel’s consent. The Palestinian Authority would weaken, and Hamas would increase its chances of expanding its influence in the West Bank at the expense of Al Fatah. The same could be achieved by effectively questioning the Abraham Accords of 2020 with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and recent attempts at normalizing relations between Israel, Morocco, and Sudan; 5) to legitimize itself as the sole representative of Palestinian interests before a population afflicted by increasing Israeli oppression and abuses and, as mentioned, extend its influence in the West Bank.
On the Israeli side, there are also gains to be made in this war, which is expected to be long and difficult, serving to unite a particularly divided public opinion over the recent justice reform promoted by Netanyahu. The latter will practically have plenipotentiary powers and could even attempt an invasion of the Gaza Strip under the pretext of freeing the hostages held by Hamas, thereby escalating the ongoing conflict on the Israeli side.
From a class perspective, Hamas aims to close off any potential space for the spread of class consciousness and organization in the region. Most wage-earning Israeli workers are Arabs, and Arab proletarians in neighboring countries (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt) are increasingly caught in dire conditions, including hunger, unemployment, state bureaucrat corruption, intensive exploitation, and the climate crisis. The specter of class conflict has loomed in the region for some time: in the Gaza Strip, state salaries and state spending are only possible due to Qatari funding; Lebanon is mired in a deep political and economic crisis since 2019, the year of bank account freezes and a currency devaluation of up to 200%. Over 450,000 Palestinian refugees live in 12 refugee camps there, etc. The ideological poison of political Islam is the antidote that, from the bourgeois perspective, can keep the exploited away from any class discourse and cover up the misdeeds of corrupt and mafia-like local bourgeoisie (starting with the Palestinian one) in the illusion of a community of interests as a people against the Israeli oppressor. On the Israeli side as well, dissenting possibilities will be minimized, and the war will serve to further develop exploitation, oppression, and control policies against the working class in the region on both sides.
For a class-based approach to the problem: It is essential to start by 1) denouncing the Israeli regime responsible for endless suffering and violence against the Palestinian population, but at the same time, 2) highlighting that Hamas and political Islam, in general, are not part of the solution but rather part of the problem; 3) emphasizing the responsibilities of local bourgeoisie who, outside of Palestine, seek only their own gain; 4) denouncing the reactionary role of Hamas, Al Fatah, and the Palestinian Authority, which, in practice, protect the privilege of a local petite bourgeoisie at the expense of the increasingly dire conditions of the proletarians in the region; 5) indicating that the unity of Arab proletarians is the only viable perspective for combating oppression, both by Israel and their respective local bourgeoisie.
While the few local political vanguards undoubtedly face enormous difficulties in advancing these arguments, caught as they are between the anvil of political Islam and the hammer of Israel, it is up to us, conscious militants and proletarians in the West, to develop these arguments.
In these terms, internationalist solidarity can and must be expressed towards the suffering exploited people in the Middle East and Palestine: through the clarification of a possible liberation perspective based on the defense of class interests, denunciation of developing imperialist games in the region, and the organization of the struggle around the revolutionary perspective of breaking the chains of exploitation and capitalism, against one’s own bourgeoisie, against imperialist war, and against any form of religious ideological poison.
InterLab 