Attack on aid flotilla, is that the beginning to the end of Israel-Palestine conflict?

Attack on aid flotilla, is that the beginning to the end of Israel-Palestine conflict?

I’m afraid, I don’t think so!

What are the measures to judge the current state of the conflict? Let’s start w/ the power balance. What has changed since Israeli attack? Apart from ‘traditional’ governments that favor Palestinians cause [however the 'cause' is defined], a good number of Israeli allies have mildly condemned the Israel. Note that the phrase the EU members used are almost identical: “Israel used an out of proportion force”. With the exception of Germany that has strongly condemned Israel and demanded to end the blockade on Gaza, no western government has indicated a serious tension w/ Israel. Now, all these governments aside, the determining state resides in White-house. US, the $3 billion/year aid provider of Israel, the member of security council in UN w/ veto right that has blocked numerous UN resolutions against Israel has not, even mildly, condemned Israel. So, as the saying goes “forgeD abouD” any serious changes in power balance on the states level.

How about workers who in politics are represented by the Left, socialists and communists in particular? They have rightly condemned Israel, anywhere from within Israel and within US to the either corners of the world, Africa and South America. But then this Left is mainly an opposition of the local governments, hardly influential on the workplace. How about worker organizations, such as unions? As far as I know, w/ the exception of Swedish Dock worker Union [that will try to persuade its member not to touch Israeli goods for a week] we have not seen any serious move by workers. This is not to undermine the unconventional stand of Swedish Dock workers Union. As a matter of fact, this is a great news that needs to be highlighted and praised within the context of Unions & involvement in politics. But as far as its impact on the power balance is concerned, it would hardly have an impact.

What is the problem with Israel?

Israeli religious state has a chronic ID crisis. Since its birth it has to reproduce its “needed” image constantly. Its religious references, its historical references and even its anti-semitic & Holocaust references are NOT only to justify its being, it is to justiyfy its non-stop wars. Israeli state, as we know it, can not function w/o an enemy. Like a magnet that must have 2 poles to exist, the religious Israeli state can not function w/o an antagonistic pole. For decades the Nationalist Arabs constituted its enemy. Political Islam took over that role since late 80s. While history is not my strongest subject, I can’t recall any country in the world that in the past 250 years has been in a state of war in 62 consecutive years other than Isreal [Congo has a longer state of war BUT most of its wars were imposed upon it]. Israel & War however are 2 inseparable companions.

Background to the current crisis

Israel’s new crisis started off shortly after 2009 assault on Gaza. While Israel was promoted by EU so that it now is officially considered as an EU ally and have unlimited access to EU’s resources including the most secret military info, no one has yet substitute the US relation to Israel. US, the Israel’s god & godfather, happens to have a policy that MIGHT minimize the “needed” image of Israel. How? Obama administration, an almost identical administration to Jimmy Carter in late 70s, was the engineer of political Islam, this admin is the creator of Hamas. While flirting w/ political Islam has always been a consistent policy of all US admins -liberals or conservatives-, this particular administration is extending its kinship on political Islam.

This US admin has two babies: Israel and political Islam. It feels the least animosity towards either of them. That makes the insecure religious Israeli state nervous. For months, prior to the attack on aid flotilla, Israel had “crisis” w/ US, it literally was looking for anything to break out a war, to prove “who the boss of the ME is” and hence prove it to US that it is needed as it is. A nervous, hand-on-trigger state would shoot at some point at someone. It did. It massacred humanitarian activists. [Interestingly enough, the very soldiers that killed the peace activists were reflective of the Israeli state, e.g. nervously killing an armless person w/ 30 bullets and another w/ 4 bullets in the head!].

In Conclusion:

Neither of the current in-powers players in Israel-Palestine conflict — Israel, Nationalist Arabs, political Islam [essentially Islamic Republic of Iran], US — are to resolve the conflict. They are part of the problem. The only force that has no benefit in this conflict, that has every interest in a peace resolution are workers, represented by socialists. The socialist, pro-peace movement as strong as it is, can not impose a peace solution unless in some corner of the world it actually gain a state power. Believe it or not, there is one corner in the Middle East where the prospect of gaining power by socialist is real: Iran, thanks to an ongoing revolution against the Islamic Republic.

As much as we must use the current power balance, that is, the objections to Israel – be it the condemnations by EU governments and by various other states in the world + the masses on the streets – to remove the blockade on Gaza, expecting an end to the Israel-Palestine conflict out of this particular Israeli atrocity is an illusion.

Posted as a note on Facebook on June 7, 2010