Anonymous Comrade writes:
Two Wars
David Hirsh
Since before it even existed, Israel has been engaged in two wars with its neighbours. One is a just war, waged by Palestinian Arabs for freedom - which became a demand for Palestinian national independence; the other is a genocidal war that aims to end Jewish life in the Middle East.
The job of the left is to insist on the reality of this distinction and to stand against those who recognise the reality of only one or other of these two separate wars.
Nevertheless, when Israeli tanks are stalking through the crowded streets of Gaza, when Katyusha rockets are slamming into Haifa, when Israeli F16s are blowing up buildings in the suburbs of Beirut and when Israeli soldiers are being held in underground dungeons waiting for their own beheading to be broadcast on al-Jazeera, the distinction seems entirely notional.Many people believe the war for Palestinian independence is a pretend war that functions only to give a liberational facade to the real war of annihilation; many others believe the war of annihilation is an Israeli propaganda invention that functions only to allow Israel to thwart the just demands of the Palestinians — an invocation of the Holocaust as a blank cheque.
The problem with social reality is that if enough people believe something to be true, and act as though it is indeed true, then it may become the truth. So if Israelis believe they are only ever fighting a war of survival, then they will use tactics and strategies that are proportionate to the war they believe themselves to be fighting. If Palestinians, meanwhile, come to believe that they can win their freedom only by destroying Israel, then they will think of the Jew-haters of Hamas, Hizbullah, al-Qaeda and the Syrian and Iranian regimes as their allies in the task.
The only way out is for cosmopolitan voices and political movements to insist on the reality of both wars — to separate them conceptually and to stand clearly for a Palestinian victory in the fight for freedom and equally clearly for an Israeli victory in the fight against annihilation.
There is a left common sense in the UK that sees only one struggle going on — a war of the oppressed against the oppressors. This way of thinking denies that there is a substantial project to annihilate Israel and insists that this is in any case not an immediate prospect because Israel is so heavily armed. But there really is a serious global political movement that aims to kill the Jews of Israel. It rules in Iran and in Syria, it was elected into office in Palestine and it occupies southern Lebanon.
If the left is relying on Israel's military superiority to guarantee its survival, then it must also be in favour of Israel's allies, particularly the US, maintaining that military superiority. I think that an atmosphere is building in parts of the British left that would lead many to respond to the annihilation of Israel by saying: "This second genocide of the Jews is tragic, but really, they have only themselves to blame." Israeli Jews would be making a mistake if they relied on the solidarity of the British left to stand against their slaughter.
Meanwhile, the left in Israel is failing to insist on the reality of the just struggle for Palestinian independence. Most of the Israeli left was convinced in 2000 that Palestine had rejected victory in its war for statehood in favour of the hope for victory in the war for Israeli annihilation. But there are still those in Israel and Palestine who have not given up on the project of separating the two wars.
The collapse of the peace process convinced many Palestinians that the war for independence could never be won and that their only option was to join the jihadi movement against the Jews. Yet Palestinian nationalism has not yet been entirely defeated by the jihadis.
Even if events march on, and cosmopolitan perspectives are defeated, it is still the job of the left to represent conceptually — even if it is unable to do so materially — a different possible world. The wars of annihilation can only end in ever deepening horror; the struggle for freedom can end in peace.
So we must keep fighting against those who think that the only real war is an Israeli war of survival, as we keep fighting against those who think that the only real war is against the Israeli oppressor. The left has to think differently, and it has to create a different reality. We have to know which side we are on. We're on the side of the Palestinian struggle for independence and we're on the side of the Israeli struggle against the jihadists (not to mention the Palestinian, Iranian, Syrian, Egyptian and Lebanese struggle against the jihadists, as well as the trade union, socialist, democratic, lesbian and gay, feminist and secular struggles against them).
But that's absurd, cries one camp: the jihadists are currently dictating the struggle for Palestinian independence. Hasn't it become one struggle? Hasn't it always been one struggle, Jews against Arabs? We offered them peace and they chose war — then they started raining missiles down on our heads.
But the other side insists: Barak's offer was to set Palestinian oppression in stone, wasn't it, not Palestinian liberty? He offered slavery, not freedom. You talk about theannihilation of Israel, but it is Palestine that is prevented from existing — Israel, I can assure you, exists. It has destroyed the project of Palestinian liberation and is currently in the process of destroying the cedar revolution in Lebanon along with the infrastructure of the state.
Is it a war of annihilation or a war of liberation? Both wars are real, even if only in our minds. And human beings have the capacity to shape the world according to what is in their minds.
