“Operation Protective Edge,” Israel’s latest invasion of Gaza, is now in its final stages, as politicians of both sides hammer out a long-term cease-fire agreement. This war saw sporadic rocket and mortar fire from Gaza (mainly by Hamas) and massive bombing and shelling of Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The latest death toll: 67 Israelis (three of them civilians) and 1,948 Palestinians (1,402 of them civilians). In addition, 11,855 homes were destroyed in the impoverished Gaza strip, and 425,000 Gazans are now homeless (United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 8/10/14). For the most part, the victims were ordinary working people.
The goals of Israel’s racist rulers are simple, though often kept hidden behind a wall of lies. They desire as many Jews as possible on as much land as possible, and as few Arabs as possible on as little land as possible. Their land-grab objective hasn’t changed since the inception of Zionism in 1882. Moshe Feiglin, deputy speaker of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), spilled the beans on Israel’s plans for ethnic cleansing by calling for the deportation of Gaza’s population into concentration camps on the Egyptian border, pending deportation to other countries. Then Gaza would be reconstructed as an Israeli (Zionist) city on the ruins of Palestinian Gaza (Mail Online, 8/4/14). This prime piece of coastal real estate, which sits on huge natural gas deposits, would generate super-profits for Israeli tycoons and contractors.
But Jewish workers in Israel will never profit from such racist schemes. Under misleaders like Minister of Economics Naftali Bennet, who has a net worth of $25 million (The Times of Israel, 9/3/13), Zionist bosses are attempting to abolish overtime pay and force workers to work long hours at base rates (Calcalist, 9/1/13). The Israeli ruling class claims that it fights to defend the south of the country from Gaza rocket attacks, which are virtually harmless. Then, it uses the rockets as a pretext for mass killing in Gaza.
Hamas Profiteering
Hamas claims they are fighting to defend the Palestinian residents of Gaza from Zionist aggression. But in reality, they are content to see the Gazan working class starve from the siege or die from Israeli bombings, while Hamas rakes in massive profits from exploitation. Khaled Mashaal, head of the Hamas political wing, has an estimated net worth between $2.5 billion and $5 billion, much of it invested in real estate throughout the Arab world. Ismail Haniyeh, until recently the Hamas Prime Minister of Gaza, is worth an estimated $4 billion. How did these fat cats make their fortunes? From the Israeli-Egyptian siege. To help feed the starving population and provide for their necessities, Hamas buys goods cheap in Egypt, smuggles them into Gaza through tunnels, and sells them at a much higher price to the starving locals (Asharq Al-Awsat, 8/31/12). From this misery, they have grown monstrously rich. The death of more than a thousand unarmed workers doesn’t faze them — it’s just the cost of doing business.
Like all capitalist wars, the latest conflict in Gaza is a war for the rich that is fought by workers. For the international working class, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Hamas counterparts are all enemies. Zionism is a death trap for Jewish and Palestinian workers alike. For workers, the only way forward is communist revolution. Tyrants and profiteers must be eliminated and replaced by workers’ rule, the dictatorship of the proletariat. We call all oppressed people in Israel-Palestine to unite and rise up against war, exploitation and racism, and to build a mass communist movement for a better future.