The article below is an adaptation of a Jan. 3 talk presented at a mass meeting organized by American Muslims for Palestine. The speaker is an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition and a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation in Chicago
On behalf of the ANSWER Coalition, a national anti-war and social justice organization, let me say first that we stand with Gaza. We stand with Palestine. Israel is committing unprovoked atrocities and war crimes in Gaza.
We demand an immediate end to the attack on Gaza and we call for the arrest and trial of the Bush Administration and the entire Israeli government for their thousands of crimes against the people of Palestine.
As progressive people in the United States from all communities, we must resist the divide and conquer strategies of Israel and the Bush Administration. They try to divide us from our natural allies—the Palestinians and the people of the Middle East—by labeling the victims of terrorism as terrorists. The real terrorists are the occupiers in Washington and Israel, not the people of Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Iran or any other country targeted by the U.S. government.
We extend our unconditional solidarity to the people of Palestine, and wish to join in struggle with those who are under attack by the U.S. and Israeli war machines. Israel is Washington’s junior partner in the Middle East, and it is inconceivable that the U.S. government did not give the green light to Israel before this attack began. All U.S. aid to Israel must cease immediately.
Israel is an apartheid state. Zionism is a racist ideology. Those who fight occupation and apartheid and Zionism are our friends and allies. The right of the Palestinian people to defend themselves is a human right, just as much as food, medicine and jobs.
The Israeli and the U.S. governments are the aggressors, and are trying to force Palestinians to accept either colonial humiliation or outright extermination as a people. This situation makes the Palestinian resistance an agent for genuine peace in Palestine and the entire Middle East—peace that does not rest upon systematic oppression.
The assault on Gaza is part of a calculated offensive by U.S. imperialism to destroy all resistance to their domination in the Middle East. The strategy in Gaza resembles that used in Iraq and in Lebanon in 2006: starving and bombing the people into submission. Make no mistake, sisters and brothers: The main goal of the assault on Gaza is to disarm the people of Palestine. This must not happen.
Geostrategic imperatives drive U.S.-Israeli aggression
Control of the Middle East has been of the utmost importance for U.S. capitalists for over 70 years. Every U.S. president for the last seven decades—Democrat or Republican—has made it their top priority to secure the oil of the Middle East for U.S. oil companies and the Pentagon. Bush’s aggression is the twin of Obama’s silence.
The U.S. government doesn’t simply want access to the oil and other natural resources of the region. They want control over the world’s oil supply, so they have the power to stop the flow of this critical resource to other countries if needed. Control of the world’s oil supplies gives the United States and its military a great strategic advantage over the rest of the world. Remember, it is the official foreign policy of the U.S. government to take all actions necessary to impose its financial and military dominance over the globe. For them, the dominance of the globe, including dominance over all working people here in the United States, begins in the Middle East.
But U.S. imperialism will not prevail in the Middle East. The oil and the natural resources belong to the people of the region and not to corporate interests in the United States, Britain, France or any other imperialist country. We will fight alongside our sisters and brothers in the Middle East until every country is liberated from racist U.S. dominance.
In order to further their goals in the world, the U.S. government has funded Israeli terror, the occupation and theft of Palestinian land by Israel. Justice cannot be achieved unless every single Palestinian refugee anywhere in the world has the unconditional right to return to his or her home.
Take to the streets in defense of Palestine! End the criminal assault on Gaza now! End the occupation! Victory to the Palestinian people!
