Imperialists Pit Arab Against Jew In Mid East War

 

Imperialists Pit Arab Against Jew In Mid East War 

From Bulletin, June 19, 1967

In seeking to understand the present Middle Eastern crisis we must look beneath the surface appearances and recent events. No understanding or solution is possible based upon the public statements and position of the contending sides, or the revolting hypocrisy on daily display at the United Nations. 

The official Israeli version of the conflict is openly chauvinist and reactionary. There is no distinction made by the Zionists between the Arab masses and their leaders. Nor are they interested in linking the destiny of Israel to that of its Arab neighbors. There is no justification, nor can there be, for the uprooting of one million Palestinian Arabs, for the Israeli collaboration with the Anglo-French Suez adventure of 1956, or the overall policy of alliance with Western imperialism on the part of Israel. This policy has gone so far that the respectable Zionist Organization of America asks the U.S, government, page newspaper advertisements, not to allow the Middle East to become a "red lake'', but to apply to the Middle East the same firm policy the U.S. is now applying in Vietnam! Notwithstanding all this, the bourgeois Zionist leadership would have everyone believe that they simply want to be left alone by their Arab neighbors. Such a wish, even if it were sincere, is utterly utopian and reactionary. 

The official Arab version is just as phony as its Israeli counterpart. It plays upon the revolutionary aspirations of the Arab masses, upon their justified hatred of imperialism and of Israel's role as a pawn of imperialism, to channel this hatred and revolutionary anger into a completely nationalist path. In just the same way the Zionists use the Nazi holocaust as well as the continuing threat and existence of anti-Semitism to justify their own nationalism and to dismiss all criticism. The Arab masses are not told, of course, that imperialism is the main enemy and that a socialist revolution in alliance with workers everywhere, including the Jewish workers, is necessary. They are told to hate the Jewish workers and to trust and support their own bourgeois rulers. Nasser's interest in the present confrontation is to strengthen his position. He keeps the real issues hidden by his demagogic appeals to nationalism. Pan-Arabism is necessary, but only realizable within a revolutionary context. Pan-Arabism to Nasser means unity of the various bourgeois regimes behind his leadership, not unity of the working-class of the whole region to end landlordism and imperialism forever. This is why Nasser has moved so quickly to re-establish his alliance with the openly pro-Western Jordanian monarchy. 

Source

The real source of the Middle East conflict lies much deeper than the present policies of the Arab and Israeli regimes. It is the strategy of imperialism which must be seen and understood behind the present situation. This strategy, in the Middle East as elsewhere, is the strategy of divide and rule. Just as in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, artificial geographic divisions make the task of continued imperialist domination much easier once formal independence has been "granted" to colonial peoples. Pan-Arabism is progressive in so far as it fights against these divisions, but it must not omit Israel. If the Arab masses vent their hostility on the Israeli workers instead of on the imperialists and their own capitalist rulers, they are in reality playing into the hands of the imperialists, and of the Arab and Israeli capitalists as well.    

The imperialists need racialism and communalism. They encourage these tendencies, not simply in the Middle East, but in Ceylon, Ireland, Nigeria, the U.S. itself and elsewhere. In Ceylon the Singhalese majority is whipped into a frenzy against the Tamil minority, and the Tamils are cut off as much as possible from the Singhalese. In Nigeria tribal antagonisms are played up, and in Northern Ireland demagogic anti-Catholicism (Paisleyism) keeps the workers apart. The situation in the U.S., the fostering of antagonism between black and white workers is part of this same pattern. Out of these festering divisions fascist movements can and have developed. The imperialists combine hypocritical statements on brotherhood with actual policies which encourage disunity of the working class. This disunity is not simply a reflection of the ignorance or backwardness of human nature. It can and has been overcome. It is capitalism which consciously encourages it, for specific class aims. 

Everywhere, whether or not racial or national oppression or antagonism is involved, class oppression is the dominant fact of life and only through ending the system of class oppression can the racial and national diversions be overcome. Almost everywhere nationalism plays a reactionary role in the world today, holding the workers back from a struggle against their real enemies. 

Soviets 

Soviet policy in the Middle East suits only the foreign policy needs of the bureaucracy. Now the Kremlin builds up the bourgeois national leaders, refrains from any criticism of them while they jail and even murder Communists by the thousands. The Chinese also refuse to take an internationalist position. Thus the Stalinists per - form their usual role of channeling revolutionary sentiments into support for capitalism. It is no accident that only the Fourth International can explain that a revolutionary party and the unity of the Arab and Jewish workers is required. 

A revolutionary policy for the Middle East only appears unreal to those who ignore or are afraid of the working class acting in its own interests. The basis for a revolutionary policy exists right now. The Arab masses are growing increasingly impatient with their present conditions of poverty and mass unemployment. All the so-called radical measures of state intervention taken in the last 10 years remain within a capitalist framework and are unable to lift the standard of living of the masses or accomplish appreciable industrialization. Indeed, this continuing crisis is what leads the Arab regimes to solidify their positions via dramatic confrontation with Israel. 

Crisis

But the growing intensity of class struggle is not confined to the Arab countries. In Israel there has been a tremendous upsurge of struggle in the last year. The Zionists point to the progress of Israel surrounded by its supposedly backward enemy. This progress is completely bound up with aid from the imperialist countries and cannot solve the basic problems of the region, which Israel cannot separate itself from. In addition, the very connection of Israel to imperialism now produces an economic crisis in Israel similar to the one affecting Great Britain. Thus unemployment and wage freezing have been used in the efforts of the Israeli capitalists to solve their crisis. As in Britain and elsewhere, the crisis has forced the capitalists to mount an attack upon the working class, an attack which the workers have answered. Just three months ago thousands of trade unionists in Tel Aviv demonstrated against the government. 

Thus we see that economic struggles are being forced by the logic of the crisis toward political struggles against the government which supports the bosses. The Zionist propagandists would like the facts of the class struggle in Israel to be forgotten, but the workers themselves will not allow them to be forgotten. 

Class 

Just as in the case of the Arabs, the Israeli regime's policies in the current crisis are closely connected to its internal crisis. The confrontation with the Arabs has led to the appointment of Dayan as Defense Minister, in a Cabinet shuffle which marks a sharp shift to the right. The regime now speaks of a government of national unity. The hostility of the Arabs is needed just as the Arab leadership needs an Israeli scapegoat. 

One word must be said about Mapam, the left-socialist Israeli party. This party plays a role similar to that of the “lefts” in the British Labor Party. It is part of the Cabinet, and therefore bears full responsibility for the criminal policies of the capitalist government. Mapam's talk of socialism and even of Arab-Jewish brotherhood are meaningless because of its acceptance of Zionism and its classical centrist refusal to fight its own bourgeoisie. The Israeli working-class will have to build a revolutionary leadership in spite of and against the policies of Mapam. 

The workers of the Middle East, both Arabs and Jewish, will be heard from again. Nasser's successful diplomacy and the Israeli cabinet shift are responses to fundamental class struggle. These moves only strengthen the capitalists temporarily. They also show, more importantly, the instability of the capitalist regimes themselves. They are all forced to rely upon chauvinist hysteria. Notwithstanding the current orgy of chauvinism and nationalism, the workers can and will unite to overthrow capitalism and imperialism. For that, however, a revolutionary party must be built and that is why the struggles of the International Committee of the Fourth International are so crucial.