Cork Socialist Forum 9th November: Palestine is still the Issue

by Israeli worker Tue Nov 05, 2002 11:11

I think it's great that there is a 'Socialist Forum' on Israel/Palestine. Howver I would hope that it is a genuine debate on the issue and that it is not just the SWP telling people their party line.

In my opinion the SWP position on Israel-Palestine is unsocialist. They give uncritical support to the Palestinians, many of whcih are Islamic fundementalists. I support the Palestinian right to self determination, but I do realise that the only real way to solve the problems of the Palestinian people is socialism.

The SWP deny that the Israeli working class exist as a force. They seem to write off Israelis as one large regressive and reactionary mass. The reality is that there is an Israeli working class that are greatly exploited and can be won to socialist ideas.

The SWP are not raising socialism as the only real answer to the issue of return for Palestinian refugees.

The SWP are only concerned with putting out anti-US and anti-Israeli propaganda so that they can sell papers and recruit. They are opportunistic in the extreme when they change their programme and demands just so that they can get the ear of a layer of young Western European muslims.

by Frank Tue Nov 05, 2002 15:49

"Israeli worker" says the solution is socialism. Well yes, but only in the sense that socialism is the solution to everything. Socialism will end war but we won't wait for socialism before we build opposition to Bush's war plans.

Immediately socialists have to champion the fight for democratic demands. While doing this the chances of advancing the fight for socialism are of course improved.

But the democratic rights of Palestinians need to be vindicated regardless of whether they are socialists or Islamists and whether the socialist revolution happens in the near or far future.

Indeed socialists championing their democratic rights and fighting imperialism and its clients is probably the single most important thing Western socialists can do to diminish the influence of Islamism.

A struggle for a single secular state in Palestine where Jews, Arabs, and everyone else can live with equal rights and Palestinian refugees -- driven out by the Zionists in 1948 and since -- can return to their land is of course the democratic solution.

The Israeli state backed up by US imperialism and with the collaboration of corrupt Arab states will not willingly accept such a solution.

What part the Israeli workers play in the fight for this democratic solution is up to them, but of course the fight for it cannot depend on their willingness to participate.

The Arab working class of the region is the obvious agent of change. And once mobilised against Zionism, imperialism and the corrupt Arab leaders, the revolution could quickly become socialist in scope.

The Cork Socialist Forum promises to be extremely interstng and worth supporting.

by Israeli worker Thu Nov 07, 2002 11:42

I agree with you Frank.

Socialists do need to put forward more immediate demands, that are achievable and that point the way towards socialism.

I agree with the demand for a Palestinan state. I support Palestinains that fight for their rights as a nationality. I disagree with terrorist tactics as they are counter productive.

I also support international solidarity between the Israeli and Palestinian people for a better life.

My problem with the SWP is that they do not recognise the national rights of the Israeli people. Israel (like it or not) is a separate nation, and Israeli's do have an identity and a heritage. The SWP do not support Israel's existance and want to see Israel abolished.

I think that the Socialist Forum will be interesting. It is certainly a hot topic of denabe among socialists. Unfortunatly I wont be there, I'm living in Dublin!