In Solidarity With Gaza

[From January 25th, 2009]
-Speech Given at a protest against the Israeli invasion of Gaza sponsored by the Committee For Justice in Palestine, Santa Cruz Campus Anti-War Network and Santa Cruz International Socialist Organization.

In Gaza a hundred thousand Palestinians will begin to return to their homes to find they no longer have any. Thousands more have been left mauled, injured doesn't even begin to describe the body's packed with shrapnel, burns from white phosphorus and blown off limbs that not only cause immense personal pain but can destroy the very livelihood of a family. Over 1300 are dead, many of them children. There are mothers who will never again know the soft touch of their children. There are sons who will grow up without ever again hearing their fathers voice. The whole of Gaza struggles for water, food, medicine and electricity because of Israel's barbaric assault. And for what? Is it for the 13 Israeli dead? Is it For Israel's Security?

No, this is a war of collective punishment waged against the Palestinian people for choosing not to be cowed, for choosing not to bow down to Israel and to Washington. Because when they had a chance in one of the only truly democratic elections in the Middle-East they chose to cast out the corrupt Fatah party and repudiate its collaboration with the occupiers in favor of a party that however flawed would at least stand up for the Palestinian people's basic right of self determination.

What Israel has done is an atrocity, but Israel’s blank check does not happen and is not so massively supported and funded by both American political parties just because of AIPAC, or because enough Zionists show up to counter protest.

It happens for the same reason that Millions suffer under the US occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, the same reason that the tinpot dictatorships of Saudi Arabia and Egypt are propped up in their suppression of democracy and human rights. It’s the same reason that the death of half a million Iraqi children due to sanctions was seen as worth it by Madeline Albright. It's the preservation of American hegemony over the middle-east. It's the strategic dominance of the US with Israel over the most important, oil rich region of the world and the rest of the world with it.

And Israel has been a more then willing servant of Imperialism for some time. When Iranian Prime Minister Mossadegh nationalized Iran's oil reserves in 1953, the “moderate” Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz explictly made the offer to the the United States for Israel to become a tool.

"The feudal regimes there have to make such concessions to the nationalist movements...that they become more and more reluctant to supply Britain and the United States with their natural resources and military bases...Therefore, strengthening Israel helps the Western powers maintain equilibrium and stability in the Middle East. Israel is to become the watchdog."

Since that time Israel has become more then just the watchdog regionally, Israel has taken a vital role in working to suppress freedom and democracy internationally.

*Israel trained the armies and secret polices of the Shah, Mobuto Sese Seko, Idi Amin and Ian Smith
*Israel Sold US weaponry to Indonesia in the midst of what was a massive genocide that killed over 200,000 being committed against the Timorese
*Israel sold weaponry to terrible military dictatorships throughout South America
*Israel disobeyed the international arms embargo against Apartheid South Africa, and helped to train the South African armies and secret police

Regionally, the vital role of Israel is made clear enough with much more recent examples, like the oft threatened possibility of an attack by Israel on Iranian nuclear facilities, the invasion of Lebanon, an air strike against Syria, what they’re doing now in Gaza and Israel's work to suppress any threat from the Arab people to the US backed Arab regimes. Israel has and continues to play the essential role in suppressing radical Arab movements to wrest control of their own oil resources which are so essential to the functioning of the global capitalist economic system and US geopolitical aims.

And where do they get the money to finance their atrocities in Gaza? From us, all of us here and across the nation who have to pay taxes that fail to provide the basic social and educational services we need. While our schools are failing, millions go without jobs and tens of millions go without health care our taxes fund the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.

They take money out of our pockets to put blood on our hands!

We cannot tolerate this anymore

The Palestinian struggle becomes our struggle too, because it is the struggle against the few corporate and political elites here and abroad that benefit from Imperialism while the vast majority are asked to sacrifice their wages and to fight and die on the battlefields. The Palestinian struggle to liberate themselves from Imperialism is our struggle against the system of Imperialism.

Ultimately their struggle for self determination is intricately tied to the global struggle for a world order that finally recognizes the fundamental moral principle from which all others are derived.

One human life is as good as another

From that basic idea which is the cornerstone of morality all else that I have said follows. A life in Gaza is worth as much as a life in Tel Aviv. A life in Sudan is worth as much as a life in Rome. A life in Oakland, like that of the late Oscar Grant murdered by police, is worth as much as a life in Malibu. That is the world which is needed and that is the world for which we must fight.