22 juillet 2006
JEWS SPEAK OUT AGAINST ISRAELI AGGRESSION
Leaflet issued by the Jewish Socialist Group, 22 July 2006 :
END THE KILLING IN GAZA, LEBANON AND ISRAEL!
The Jewish Socialists’ Group unreservedly condemns Israeli military aggression in Gaza and Lebanon, the appalling loss of civilian life on all sides in this conflict, and continued imprisonment without trial of thousands of Palestinians whose “crime” is to oppose Israel’s occupation.
When Israel commits acts of aggression, it does so in the name of its government and military command and not in the name of Israeli civil society or of Jewish people in the Diaspora. Israel does not speak or act in our name, nor in the name of its own civilians whose life it endangers.
This is not a religious conflict of Jews against Muslims but a question of human rights, social justice and freedom from occupation. It suits the Israeli government very well to define the conflict as “us” v “them”– Jews v Muslims – as this undercuts opposition within Israeli society and among Diaspora Jews and divides the Palestinians. The anti-war movement here and in the Middle East must unite under the secular banners of social justice, democracy and human rights and oppose any attempts to draw lines on religious grounds.
In Israel there are protests against the aggression calling for a just, negotiated solution.
Increasing numbers of civilians are refusing military service in Lebanon or in the Occupied Territories.
We express our support and solidarity for them. The Israeli government is imposing media restrictions on reporting from Gaza. The international media are imposing their own blackout on the protests within Israel led by groups such as Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc). It is vital that the anti-war and pro-Palestinian movements do everything to strengthen the opposition within Israel and within Jewish communities.
In Britain 300 Jews signed a whole page advert in The Times condemning Israel’s collective punishment of the people of Gaza. The Jewish people and Israeli civilians are not at war with the Palestinians. The parents of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers have said that Israel should be prepared to negotiate an exchange of prisoners – but Bush and Blair disagree. They are encouraging Israel’s aggression and threatening to draw Syria and Iran into the conflict.
Jewish Socialists work for a negotiated solution to the Israel/Palestine conflict to bring about a peaceful future in the region. This must be based upon equality not discrimination, democracy not theocracy, and human rights for all.
Join the Jewish Socialists’ Group. Read Jewish Socialist magazine. Support European Jews for a Just Peace www.ejjp.org
JSG BM 3725 London WC1N 3XX www.jewishsocialist.org.uk
Zionism: Israeli war drive fuelled by murderous doctrine
The latest attacks on Lebanon and Gaza are rooted in a fatal combination of Zionist ideology and Western imperialism, writes author John Rose
In less than five days last week, US equipped Israeli war planes wrecked the infrastructure of Lebanon’s society - with Lebanese civilian deaths running at over ten times the number of civilian deaths in Israel.
What we see here is the blood-stained application of a Zionist doctrine known as the “Iron Wall” philosophy. This was pioneered in the 1920s by Zeev Jabotinsky, founder of the far right “revisionist” school of Zionism. It argued that Zionists should use overwhelming force to defeat their Arab foe.
As the progressive Israeli historian and Oxford University professor Avi Shlaim showed in his book The Iron Wall - a brilliant modern history of Israel - nearly every Israeli leader has signed up to this murderous doctrine. Today’s Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is no exception. ...
Tony Cliff on the roots of Israel’s violence
In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon and carried out massacres of both Lebanese and refugees Palestinians. Revolutionary socialist Tony Cliff, who died in 2000, wrote this explanation of why Israel acts in a violent and expansionist way
Looking back on my own experience in Palestine I can see how today’s horror grew from small beginnings. Zionism, Jewish separateness and the belief in a Jewish homeland, have developed into state violence. My parents were pioneering Zionists, leaving Russia for Palestine in 1902 to join a total Zionist population of a few thousand. ...
Une initiative 100% israélienne : Les bombardements quotidiens israéliens à Gaza sont la cause de la guerre - une guerre globale de recolonisationpar Michel WARSCHAWSKI (18 juillet 2006)
No Peace Without Justice, No Justice Without Truth, by Montreal-based writer David Himmelstein
"Whether or not it has reached critical mass, there exists a heterogeneous agglomeration of Jewish people around the world-- e.g., moi--for whom the state of Israel has come to represent an 800-pound albatross that needs to be pried from our necks before it drags us over a cliff. A sense of urgency is propelled by the U.S.-sanctioned bloodletting in Lebanon and Gaza (which now seems to have been planned in advance) and the evident flimsiness of its official justification. With Israeli adventurism on the march, there are well founded fears concerning the general threat that country poses to the peace of the world. ..."
UNION JUIVE FRANÇAISE POUR LA PAIX : Bombardement de la Palestine et du Liban - sanctions contre l’Etat d’Israël ! (4 août 2006)
America’s watchdog in the Middle East : Israel, the hijack state
by Rick Kuhn, member of Jews Against Oppression and Occupation and Socialist Alternative (Australia)
Malgré son nom, le blog britannique Jews sans frontières est en anglais.
In an interview given to Socialist Worker''s Mathew Cookson, longtime Israeli socialist Moshe Machover analyses the current situation and concludes thus :
“As far as Israelis are concerned, world public opinion is the US. ... The rest of the world doesn’t count - they have the world’s sole superpower as their backer. Israel is not under international pressure. That is why it is so important to campaign to boycott Israeli goods.
Any long term solution must be based on equal individual rights to all, and equal national rights for the two groups involved, including the right of return for Palestinians. Whether there is one or two states is less important than this.
A resolution can only take place when the Arab east is transformed and the balance of forces is different. It cannot be confined to just Palestine-Israel.
The problem can only be resolved in a socialist union of the whole region. Marxists have always thought of the region as a whole. We need to think big.”
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