By Themis Tzimas (*)
This article, almost identical we have written it many, many times before. We will continue to do so almost obsessively, until the last, remaining apartheid disappears: that of Israel. February 23 was another day of executions by the Israeli occupation troops. Since that day (when the article was originally written) the cold- blooded murders of Palestinians of all ages is endless. Children, adults, the elderly, no one is spared the renewed fury of the occupying forces.
The attack on Nablus (which in our homeland was also washed away by supposedly left-wing publications and newspapers) with 10 dead is nothing more than a piece in the action of an uncontrollable, criminal regime, of which, incidentally, all the last, deplorable Greek governments (right-wing and “left-wing”) are complicit, at the behest of Washington and Brussels. As mentioned above, the occupation forces since then continue with their murderous, racist, apartheid attacks. Who can forget Mr. Polakis (SYRIZA Minister, editor note), for example, claiming the now wrecked “EastMed” (the project of a gas pipeline connecting Israel, Cyprus and Greece, never meant to be built but which brought Greece and Turkey to the brink of war in 2020), as a project of the “first time left”, knowing that it was merely the pretext for Greece’s deepest commitment to Zionism? The “best friend” of Mr. Pappas (note: the No2 in Syriza during the Tsipras government) and Tsipras, Bibi Netanyahu? Or Mr. Dendias (supported by the Israeli embassy for the position of Foreign Minister) going to the area and meeting only with Israelis?
Today, of course, the Israelis themselves (on a very small scale it is the truth in relation to the Palestinians) have begun to pay the cost. A fascist-leaning government for the Israelis themselves and not just for the Palestinians, by political forces nurtured by Zionism and apartheid, is taking shape in Tel Aviv, attempting or undoing the bourgeois-liberal predictions that applied to the Jewish citizens of Israel. Israel’s judicial system (tailor-made to the racist measures of the Tel Aviv regime) is being reserved for control by a dual far-right, simultaneously nationalist and theocratic, united in its deep hatred of Arabs. Israel of course was never “the only democracy” in the Middle East because it was never a democracy. But it is the first apartheid regime in the Middle East and we hope that it will prove to be the only one and the last one. The regime that keeps anti-Semitism as an indictment of those who criticize its racist and anti-Semitic policy, while having not the slightest problem reinforcing the existing Nazism in Ukraine.
Israel’s current government is neither the first far-right government nor the first apartheid government. It is simply the most obvious even for those who look the other way and, moreover, the proof of how an apartheid regime is malformed inwards. This is, incidentally, the same regime that interferes in the internal affairs of a number of states and electoral processes, including those of our own country, Greece. It is to be expected that, like apartheid in South Africa, Israel has many very rich and very powerful allies. But they’re not going to save it. Israeli apartheid itself nourishes the means of its destruction, having destroyed the two-state solution, already since Arafat was alive. Israel is thickening new generations of Palestinian resistance, in a way that after Arafat’s death no one expected. Next to the isolated Gaza enclave, first the entire West Bank and gradually all its territory are transformed into a total battlefield. We often forget that the Israeli army has not only been morally and justly corrupted by the long occupation but is also losing its fighting value. In recent decades it has been unable to win wars even against powerful but non-state actors such as Hezbollah. It has essentially been transformed into a NATO version of an army capable of air forces, special forces, intelligence services and hybrid operations but with great difficulty to wage totalitarian, mass wars. Moreover, it is not only the Palestinian resistance in Gaza that is increasingly arming itself. The still lightly armed resistance groups in the West Bank are creating a series of events that still seem painless today, from a military point of view for Israel but may soon develop into a much more effective urban guerrilla force.
Of course, Israel will attempt to complete a policy of ethnic cleansing in order to save itself demographically, but it will be difficult to complete its plan. Even the Arab monarchies, willing to compromise with Israel, will find it very difficult to absorb the shock of a comprehensive and final attempt at ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. This will become even more difficult in an environment of attrition of US power.
In the face of the violence of occupation and apartheid, Palestinian resistance as a national liberation movement is both legitimate and necessary. Its victory is a prerequisite for peace in the Middle East. It will be neither easy nor bloodless. However, its determination and imagination, combined with the retreat of the US, expands its possibilities. So what we can say is long live the Palestinian resistance and always, unequivocally with the defeat of apartheid.
(*) Adjunct Lecturer, Democritus University of Thrace, Department of Political Science, Greece
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