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Admittedly I've only skimmed all the replies in this thread, but from what I saw the entire discussion has revolved around military moves by Hezbollah and Israel. I definitely side with Michael K. and those critical of Hezbollah's bluster in that sphere. But now it's time to turn to a class analysis of the "Resistance." On that the late Bassem Chit's piece is essential (search for "hizb" not "hezb") http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=1034&issue=145 On Tue, Feb 17, 2015 at 6:15 AM, Michael Karadjis via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > From: Joseph Catron > Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2015 3:50 PM > “Except, of course, when it hasn't been: > http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/23433” > > That linked article refers to the recent bout of shadow-boxing. So I was > talking about the 9 years between 2006 and 2015, so my point still stands. > Perhaps this latest round may herald things to come, changing realities, > perhaps not. We’ll see. But I think it deserves its own analysis and > doesn’t alter the fact that the border has been quite since 2006. > > “But that's not the silliest error here. Are you unaware that Hamas also > maintains and enforces ceasefires with Israel? And this involves not only > the al-Qassam Brigades standing down, similar to Hezbollah, but also > suppressing retaliatory fire from other resistance groups. None of this is > a secret.” > > Yes, well aware. But you see I am not writing on a computer far far away > condemning Hezbollah (or of course Hamas) for NOT sending rockets into > Israel. I am not demanding people on the other side of the world carry out > military actions to get themselves and hundreds of civilians slaughtered by > the entity in order to prove their revolutionary purism. > > Rather, the question is, just what does “steadfast” mean? What does > “resistance” mean? I maintain that for Hezbollah, the Lebanese government, > Jordan and Egypt it means zero (and for Syria with the Golan it means less > than zero, while for Iran the loudness of the rhetoric is in proportion to > how far away it is from Zionist borders). The fact that none of these four > actors which border Israel, nor even Hamas for much of the time, carry out > attacks across the Zionist border does not make them collaborators, does > not prove they are not “steadfast,” but also does not prove that they are. > But so what does prove that they are, or are not? What does it even mean? > > The reason I say the only “resistance” organisation in the Middle East is > Hamas is because Palestine is still under occupation and Hamas resists it. > It is not about how many rockets Hamas fires or doesn’t fire or that it > enforces ceasefires or doesn’t. So when you say “The biggest difference > between Hamas and Hezbollah in terms of their military (not political) > characteristics is that Hezbollah has actually liberated land and defended > it, rather than shifting it from one form of occupation to another,” well, > yes, but that is the point: before 2000, when Lebanon was under Zionist > occupation, it was correct to call Hezbollah a resistance organisation, > just like Hamas now; but since the liberation of south Lebanon was > complete, the meaning of the term is obscure. > > Perhaps that wouldn’t matter so much and maybe it is fine to rest your > “resistance” credentials on past glories IF something on a much grander > scale were not occurring right now, especially since Hezbollah and its > apologists cravenly use these ‘resistance” credentials of previous decades > to justify its counterrevolutionary action now. > > “And as for this all "moral support" business, I can do no better than to > quote Sartre's preface to Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth, which I've > inexcusably waited this long to read: "Sometimes the Left scolds them ... > 'you're going too far; we won't support you any more.' The natives don't > give a damn about their support; for all the good it does them they might > as well stuff it up their backsides." In the absence of some concrete > mechanism for leftists in the West to turn their moral support into actual > material support, their online ruminations will count for still less than > that.” > > Fine. No, I don’t think Hezbollah cares that someone wrote an email > thousands of miles away offering them some degree of moral support and > someone else replied that they have become a Shiite sectarian death squad. > Of course not. Just like Syrian rebels with their backs up against the > wall, under barrel bombs, ballistic missiles, sarin, starvation sieges etc > etc don’t care much that comfortable western lefties thousands of miles > away scratch every surface to try to find some evidence of them appealing > for western intervention or some evidence of a few western supplies of > ready-meals, tents, radios or half-supportive speeches in order to “expose” > them. No, they don’t care about such crap either. > > We’re analysts, that’s all. Neither Hezbollah nor Syrian rebels give a fig > about our analysis, just as I likewise don’t give a fig when someone writes > on an email, 1000s of miles from me, that my carefully argued views will > “amuse those of us with some grounding in reality.” Sorry – it only > encourages me ;-] > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/acpollack2%40gmail.com > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
