Among the people I talk to daily there is much disgust with the Israeli invasion of the Gaza concentration camp. Mind you, the propaganda about the rockets has had an effect, even with those that are sympathetic. The Israelis say that this will not end until citizens in the southern part of the country can leave in "peace and tranquility."
Sounds very nice. But what is not understood by so many people in the US is that for three years the Israeli's have had a blockade on Gaza. Not only that, according to Gideon Rachman writing in today's Financial Times, the Israeli's prior actually intensified the blockade putting "serious pressure on the supply of food and fuel in to Gaza" So what are they to do?
A guy who sympathizes with the Palestinian side tells me this morning that Hamas is a problem because like a bully, Israel will respond if you provoke them and what do they expect when they send these homemade rockets the Israeli's living in their former homes.
The bias is so great in the US media that the level of damage is often not clearly understood and "doesn't everyone have the right to defend theirselves" But these rocket attacks are defensive meassures. The alternative for the Palestinians is to yield completely to the US and its Israeli proxy, better die fighting that that. Didn't some American say "give me freedom or give me death". And didn't Charlron Heston say "from my cold dead hands". So we should be proud of the Palestinians in that they are still fighting against a very powerful and brutally opressive regime. And lets look at the bodycount, 500 Palestinians and four Israeli's!
You see, this invasion is not about Hamas or anythign else other than the Zionist regime wants to drive the Palestinians from the area. This was its policy from the beggining and remains its policy today. US imperialism which supports the corrupt Arab regimes as well as the Zionists is well aware of the revolutionary potential of the Arab masses and cannot allow a regime to develop in that area that is not under its control.
The article in this mornings FT also reveals how I am sure many Palestinians feel. Rachman describes a conversation he had with a secular educated Palestinian when he was last in the Israeli occupied territories. He was "astonished" that the man voted for Hamas and asked him why.
"Because every day the Israelis find a different way to say 'fuck you'" he told me. "By voting for Hamas I'm saying 'fuck you back'", the man replied.
It's sort of a milder version of a homemade rocket attack that lets the bully know that you are still alive and kicking.
The crisis in this area cannot be solved on the basis of capitalism only through a democratic socialist alternative and the Arab masses will obviously play a major role in this process.
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