Left Unity condemns Israeli war on Gaza

4 comments

4 responses to “Left Unity condemns Israeli war on Gaza”

1. Bazza says:

   August 4, 2014 at 5:57 pm

   After reading a report of a public meeting in Leeds with George Galloway – the best idea he seemed to have was apart from boycott of goods to stop paying your TV licenses because of the BBCs coverage! I needed a brighter writer and you can usually rely on Tariq Ali – he pointed to the Bannerman report of 1907 which seems to show the capitalists had a plan to plant a state there n to divide the Middle East and divide and rule. Of course the right deny this as if capitalism is neutral. And here”s me thinking US politicians aren’t in hock to the corporations and they have nothing to do with the US sustainsing Israel with £3b a year! Need to support democatic socialist forces on all sides in the Middle East and its ime for a US Labor! Tariq also pointed out how the Palestinian Authority was powerless and a 2 state solution would mean 80% for Israel and 20% for Palestiinians and one state may be more ideal . Peace and Justice! Yours in peace.

2. M. Jones says:

   August 5, 2014 at 11:21 pm

   This is a fairly ambiguous statement as all of Israel is in Palestine. Are you calling for Israel to leave the post 1967 occupied territories or for the end of the state of Israel? Given the racist nature of the Israeli state the second would be preferable, but you would need to add what kind of state is required in its place.

   • John Penney says:

     August 12, 2014 at 4:48 pm

     The statement of the NC that :

     “Left Unity calls for the end of the occupation of Palestine by Israel.”

     Does indeed appear to implicitly suggest that Israel as a distinct state should cease to exist in any form at all ,( within “pre 67” boundaries or any other) – as “Palestine” occupies the same physical territory as “Israel”. Given the current fate of ethnic minorities in Iraq it is not surprising that Israeli Jews (and actually the British public too) will see this as a demand from Left Unity that they be militarily defeated, and either flee to “some other” country en masse or face the distinct possibility of suffering the same fate as the Yazidi and Christian communities now face in a Middle East ,in the bloody, chaotic, process of the most radical redrawing of boundaries since 1918 , with potentially strong historical similarities to the huge population movements and intercommunal massacres following the division of India and Pakistan after independence, ie, extermination.

     Well European Jewry have been there once before ,in Europe 1939-45 – almost wiped out by OUR European Christian “civilisation” – so regardless of widely differing views across Israeli society from left to Right about Israel’s undoubted role as an outpost of US imperialism in the Middle East, and the undoubted permanent toxic political Zionist agenda to slowly squeeze all the Palestinians out of all the occupied territories , it is not surprising that they’ll ALL go down fighting (probably with a nuclear finale) before they countenance living in a “unified Palestinian state” any day soon – as so many on the Left continue to propose – long after this possibility has faded into an impossible dream.

     Left Politics has to be aspirational – but it also has to have some basis in the reality of the here and now. Saying (even in a camouflaged form) that Israel , in any territorial form at all , has no right to exist, strikes me today as benefitting only the most extreme factions of Islamic fundamentalism – no friends, or even fair weather allies, of the Left, and certainly has no resonance with the overwhelming bulk of British public opinion – even the broad working class Left-leaning cohort Left Unity needs to be orienting towards with all its statements and policies.

     As with our earlier misjudged LU press statement mirroring Sinn Fein’s “line” on the arrest of Gerry Adams, the NC’s statement on the extremely historically complex Israel/Palestine tragedy, is, in my opinion far too representative of our continuing isolation within the slogan-littered “mindscape” of the “Far Left Bubble”. Given that Left Unity, as a democratic party with policies derived from Conference decisions has no agreed view on the Israel /Palestine tragedy – certainly no agreed position as between a ” viable territorial two state” or a “destroy Israel – everyone lives together in one unitary Palestinian state” objective. In fact we have no agreed “line” on Kashmir, the Ukraine, Syria , or a huge range of other issues. All important world issues – but all ones which we can currently influence not a jot.

     We may all agree positions on all these issues eventually, but are they a priority for us NOW – as a party trying to pull together as broad a radical Left political movement as possible to fight the Austerity Offensive ? I think not. We need to stop posturing within our Left bubble, and start building a real mass movement , by taking up the issues the wider working class are currently concerned with.

3. John Smith Cohen says:

   August 12, 2014 at 7:25 pm

   Much as though I’m against the Israeli state’s actions and its brutal attacks on the Palestinians in Gaza can we also release statements condemning the religious right in Iraq and Syria. Notably IS which is also slaughtering innocent civilians – including beheading kids – funded largely by people from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
   Can we also condemn Assad and his continued attacks on the Palestinian refugee camps, cities not under his control and so on.