Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud bloc, was elected as the new
prime minister of Israel May 30, defeating the incumbent Shimon Peres
by less than 1 percent of the vote.
The Likud bloc is an alliance of right and extreme-right parties. The
most bigoted and fascist elements in Israel, particularly the many
U.S.-born settlers in the occupied West Bank, are emboldened by
Netanyahu's victory. More settlements and more attacks on Palestinians
by settlers in the occupied areas can be expected.
Among those expected to hold top positions in the new cabinet is Gen.
Ariel Sharon, a Likud leader. Sharon directed the Israeli invasion and
mass bombing of Lebanon in 1982. That left tens of thousands of
Lebanese and Palestinian civilians dead and hundreds of thousands
homeless.
He collaborated with Lebanese fascists to carry out the horrible
massacre in the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps the same
year. Sharon is a war criminal of the first rank.
Netanyahu promised in his first post-victory speech that his
government would not negotiate with the Palestinians over Jerusalem.
He also called for greatly increasing the Israeli population by
bringing in millions more Jewish people from around the world. This
would require massive new settlements on Palestinian land.
The Likud program calls for continuing to occupy the Golan Heights,
taken from Syria in the 1967 war, and keeping Israeli troops in the
Palestinian city of Hebron, despite the peace accord's promise to
withdraw them.
The underlying reactionary ideology of many Likud leaders calls for
driving all remaining Palestinians out of what they call "Greater
Israel." Netanyahu's father was a proponent of this wing of Zionism in
the 1920s, long before the Israeli state existed.
Peres was the candidate of the Labor Party, which, despite its name,
is the capitalist party that has governed Israel for most of its
48-year history. Both Likud and Labor are pro-U.S. and anti-Arab; both
have systematically carried out policies of racism and brutal
repression against the Palestinian people when they have held power.
At times, like during the Palestinian uprising known as the Intifada,
they ruled together in a coalition government whose main objective was
to crush the Palestinians.
While the Clinton administration strongly supported Peres and worked
for his re-election, there is no doubt that the U.S. will continue to
send billions of dollars in annual military and other aid to the
Netanyahu government.
The motivation for this "generosity" is not concern for the welfare of
the Jewish people-or any other people, for that matter. The U.S.
ruling class invests billions of dollars in Israel every year because
Israel stands guard over U.S. capitalism's most valuable and
profitable assets: the vast oil fields of the Middle East. Israel is
imperialism's forward base in the midst of the oppressed Arab world.
The Pentagon has provided Israel with immense amounts of
weaponry-high-tech, low-tech and nuclear, to carry out its assigned
role in the imperialist system. Washington has also supplied the money
to build thousands of new settlement units in the occupied West Bank
and Gaza, and economic aid to sustain a European-level living standard
in a country which has never had the economic base to support it.
The enormous assistance it receives makes Israel dependent upon
Washington. The Israeli leaders and governing parties may have their
own drives and interests, not always coinciding exactly with those of
U.S. imperialism. But regardless of their ideology or inclination,
none can ignore the strategic interests and policies of the United
States.
What Washington Wants
Washington's support for Peres in this election was based upon his
government's support for what is called the "peace process"-a major
U.S. foreign policy initiative under both the Bush and Clinton
administrations. This plan calls for the Palestinians to have limited
autonomy within 60 percent of Gaza and 34 percent of the West Bank.
The Israelis retain military, security and border control.
The Palestinian Authority that has been established as the governing
body is denied the right to engage in foreign affairs. There is no
provision in the agreement for the 4 million Palestinians living in
forced exile.
By all accounts, living conditions for Palestinians in the occupied
territories have sharply deteriorated since the "peace process" began.
Raji Sourani, director of the Palestine Human Rights Center in Gaza,
speaking after the election, described conditions "as the worst in the
past 30 years. The mood of the people in Gaza is that peace and the
image of peace mean nothing."
Sourani called the situation "explosive."
While Peres and his predecessor, Yitzhak Rabin, supported the accord,
Likud and the Israeli extreme right have opposed making any
concessions to the Palestinians. In December 1995, Rabin was
assassinated by an Israeli opponent of the accord.
The negotiations for this agreement, which is still being implemented,
began after the Gulf war and the collapse of the Soviet Union. U.S.
policy makers believed that, weakened by these developments, the
Palestine Liberation Organization led by Yasir Arafat would be forced
to accept the terms brokered by Washington.
However one views this agreement, the U.S. objective is clear: to gain
stability in this vital region by liquidating the Palestinian
Revolution. The Palestinian struggle has been central to the Arab
liberation movement as a whole for half a century.
Opposition to the agreement has come from the Marxist left-including
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic
Front-and Islamic forces such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. These
organizations view the accord as falling far short of an independent
state and compromising the future of the Palestinian people.
The PFLP, in a statement on June 1, said: "The election of Netanyahu
has weakened the Palestinian Authority, which made a peace of
capitulation with Israel, and strengthened the opposition which
opposed this kind of peace." The organization stated that the election
"paves the way for increased military operations during the coming
period."
A Hamas spokesperson stated that if there was no withdrawal from
Hebron, "the people are going to escalate their resistance."
The government of Syria responded to the election outcome with a
statement that "commitment to Likud's election program will detonate
the region and worsen tension and instability." The pro- U.S. regime
in Egypt, the largest of the Arab countries, also expressed concern
after a June 3 meeting in Cairo between Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak and Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad.
New instability, new tension, new resistance, and above all new
explosions, are not what the U.S. government wants to see in the
Middle East. And for Netanyahu and his new government, regardless of
their campaign promises, what Washington wants will be the most
important factor.
Workers World, June 13, 1996
Shawgi Tell
University at Buffalo
Graduate School of Education
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
