Anti-Zionism is not anti-semitic
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Iran has sent warships to the Red Sea. This is not a conflict about religion, romantic bourgeois slogans, national pride, and patriotism, this is a conflict among capitalists
Every day makes it clearer that the Gaza War is an aspect of a wider conflict of economic interest in the Middle East over oil and trade routes.
Israel has bombed Beirut in Lebanon and Damascus in Syria and now the US has bombed Baghdad in Iraq and is planning to bomb Yemen. All making it clearer that this is not just a question of Israel seeking to exterminate Hamas (with hundreds of thousands of civilians as collateral damage) but that the issue at stake is wider.
At the moment this wider conflict is a low-intensity war with each side — the US and Iran — pulling its punches but still a war resulting from the conflicts of economic interest between capitalist states that is built into capitalism.
Like we say in the editorial in this month’s Socialist Standard, if you want peace, prepare for socialism.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/01/03/hmtv-j03.html
This is a pack of wolf. Gangsters against gangsters. It looks that this conflict at the present time is even more important than Ukraine, and it is getting wider . It is about oil and routes.
PS: In Ukraine the USA killed two birds with one shot
Looks like we’ve reached the filtration camp stage[/url] (Wikipedia doesn’t use that term, it seems Internment is preferred, although there is, curiously, a redirect on Filtration camp entirely referring to Russian Activities, interesting.
Anyway, “More than 660 Palestinians from Gaza are currently known to be detained in Israeli prisons — most of them in Ketziot Prison in the Naqab/Negev desert. An additional number, which the army refuses to reveal but could be as high as several thousand, are being held at the Sde Teyman military base near Be’er Sheva, where much of the abuse of detainees is alleged to be taking place.”
Then there’s things like: “According to testimonies, the most common punishment was being tied to a fence and having to raise their arms for several hours. Whoever lowered them was taken away by the soldiers and beaten.” The British routinely used ‘stress positions’ like this in Ireland, and the infamous ‘Hooded Men‘ case that allowed ‘enhanced interrogation’ under international law.
The government here is beginning to realise the potential impact on the price level here as a result of a consequence of the war in Gaza. They may be preparing to use this as an excuse if they don’t get the rate of increase in the price level down to 2 percent. It will be “we were blown off course by outside events” again. Which won’t be untrue, but they contributed to these outside events by supporting the continuation of the Israeli attack on Gaza.
Divisions in the Israeli government
“Weiss’s position – and the aspirations of the settler movement – appear to have been dealt a setback by Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, who has presented his plans for Gaza after the destruction of Hamas.
“On January 5, he said: “Gaza residents are Palestinian, therefore Palestinian bodies will be in charge, with the condition that there will be no hostile actions or threats against the State of Israel.” Gallant further proposed that there should be no Israeli civil presence in Gaza.”
Likud wants the status quo pre-war, Palestinian day to day administration of a reservation/Bantustan. The issue is if the genocidal faction can bring the government down.
Motives in the middle east
There is no guarantee that Operation Prosperity Guardian (fucking really?) will succeed, yesterday we got full bore propaganda that all the drones were shot down, “The naval response, meanwhile, is costly for participating nations. Given the cost of surface-to-air missiles used by western navies to destroy much cheaper Houthi drones, the cost-benefit ratio is negative, although this does not account for the cost of a ship and its cargo.” At the minimum, the insurance rates will go up, inflating all prices of goods going through that route. “Interestingly, instability in the Red Sea is neither in China’s interest nor in the interests of any other non-western large trading nations because their economies are strongly and undeniably dependent on the global maritime supply chain.” I suspect that ‘national self reliance’ may well become the trend, and more regionalised economies.
Also, today marks the beginning to South Africa’s court case against Israel: I don’t hold much hope, but it could be make or break for international law, if the ruling is against Israel, Britain and the US would have to make some tough choices. There may already be some effect, as apparently Netanyahu has made a public statement that Israel does not intend to fully occupy Gaza, nor displace the Palestinians.
I watched South Africa puts its case this morning before the International Court of Justice about Israel carrying out “genocide” in Gaza. Pretty impressive. At this stage what South Africa is asking for is a sort of injunction to stop Israel from continuing what it is doing pending the Court hearing and ruling in the facts of the case.
South Africa had to make out at least a prime face case that Israel intended to collectively punish the people in Gaza. It produced plenty of evidence from Israeli politicians and military commanders that this was the case.
I can’t see how the Court can do nothing. Up to now it has granted injunctions against Serbia, Burma and Russia, even if to no effect. But these were cases where the US and the West were in favour. This time, it would be against America’s pet and a state supported by the West. Israel’s actions are more extensive and damaging to people and infrastructure than all that Serbia, Burma and Russia put together did.
If the Court let Israel off the hook then it might as well rename itself the International Court of Hypocrites. If they rule against Israel this won’t make much difference on the ground but Israel’s reputation will be in tatters, branded what it called the UN — “a moral stain on humanity”.
Israeli Jewish MP who is backing South Africa at the ICJ (and supports neither Ukraine nor Russia in *that* war):
The US and Britain escalate the war by attacking Yemen which has taken the Iran side in the conflict of economic interest between the US and Iran over who controls the oil (and more recently gas) in the Persian Gulf and the trade routes to get it out.
The weapons deployed were significant;
As we have always said, wars are fought over economic issues like control of sources of raw materials, trade routes, markets and investment outlets. This time the military action is over a trade route which has become more vital for European countries since they switched from Russian oil to Liquified Natural Gas from Qatar, a change made for non-economic reasons that they may be regretting.
Meanwhile, as usual, ordinary people in Europe will suffer in terms of the rate of increase of prices going up again. In Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and now Yemen they suffer death and destruction at the hands of the US and its proxy Israel and in Israel at the hands of a group backed by Iran.
Another addition to the charge-sheet against capitalism.
I watched Israel’s defence this morning. Their arguments were mainly technical and procedural (South Africa had no right to bring the case, it had not followed the proper procedure, the terms of the requested injunction were flawed, the court has no jurisdiction in the matter).
They explained away the references to Gazans as “human animals” and the appeal to smite the Amalekites (one of the many tribes in biblical times that the Jews’ tribal god ordered them to kill every man, woman and child as well as their servants and asses) as understandable anger immediately after the Hamas atrocity of 7 October or as unauthorised statements by ministers not in the war cabinet exercising their right to free speech.
They also argued that, even if there were excesses in their military campaign, this wouldn’t amount to genocide which implied “intent” to kill members of a group as such, but only to a crime under international humanitarian law. A bit like arguing they should have been charged with manslaughter rather than murder.
Personally I don’t think they are guilty of “genocide” (as defined by the convention on the matter). They don’t want to kill off Palestinians just to rule over and oppress them.
Not sure what the International Court of Justice will make if it. I can’t see them ordering Israel to stop the war, but, to maintain their credibility, they will have to come up something. Some of the judges may feel embarrassed about the precedent they might have set in ruling in March 1922 “that Russia must ‘immediately suspend the military operations’ in Ukraine, while waiting for the final decision on the case.”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine_v._Russian_Federation_(2022)
We will know within a few weeks.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-67954799.amp
Sunak claims that Britain bombed Yemen in self-defence. That’s absurd. Everyone can see that the US and Britain attacked Yemen on their own initiative but unless you want to violate the UN Charter, piece of paper that it is, you have to invoke self-defence to wage war.
Note:
“The strikes have also been backed by Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer, who was briefed by the government on Thursday night.”
The Liberals and the Scots Nats, on the other hand, and, rather daringly for a Labour MP, John McDonnell, have demanded a vote in the House of Commons as the body to authorise a war.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/01/12/bafr-j12.html
Our case always holds water. More capitalists groups intervening in the Gaza conflict. It is not a conflict between the so called Palestinian peoples and the Israel Zionists according to the view of the bourgeois nationalists and patriots
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/4405820-biden-says-us-iran-not-in-proxy-war/amp/
He would say that, wouldn’t he? Of course the US is involved in a proxy war with Iran and vice versa. Its asset in the region, Israel, has bombed pro-Iran militias in Lebanon and Syria on many occasions and has carried on raids and assassinations in Iran itself. The US has also bombed Iranian proxies in Syria and Iraq and now in Yemen.
It is possible that the old fool and ex-lesser evil (for lefties) does not know what a proxy war is as he went on to say that “Iran does not want a war with us”. Precisely, it does not want a direct war with the US. That’s why it is waging a proxy war, ie using proxies to fight. It’s the same with the US. It is fighting Iran’s proxies, not Iran itself.
The stake in this proxy war between the US and Iran is of course oil and trade routes.
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