Palestine in the Context of the U.S. War
	By Anton Black
The Palestinian struggle against unjust Israeli occupation has been going on in various forms for many decades. The intensity of conflict took a major leap with the Al-Aqsa Intifada triggered by Gen. Ariel Sharon's armed "visit to" the Al-Aqsa Masjid in September 2000. This represented the basic failure of the peace negotiation process begun in 1993. Since the September 11 events in the U.S., Israel has rapidly escalated its attacks on the people. Israel and the U.S. are justifying this as part of the U.S. war on terror. The Palestinian people persevere in their struggle in the face of all this and are increasingly at the center of conflict in the world arena of the U.S. war. The unjust nature of the Israeli occupation has been clearly and richly documented by the Palestinian people. On English language internet source, www.alnakba.org, documents this, including month by month accounts of the years 1947-49. This source (al nakba means "the catastrophe" in Arabic) breaks the people's history down in detail, including accounts of when and where people were expelled by which Zionist/Israeli military units. Many thousands were multiply expelled in successive Israeli wars. Zionist behavior towards the Palestinians was the same as that of the European Americans towards indigenous people in the U.S. Palestinian history since the 1940s is their trail of tears. In an overall sense, the Palestinian struggle is a just struggle for liberation. I learned some basic anti imperialism from this struggle myself, as I was stationed on aircraft carriers in the Middle East in the early '80s. We were there in relation to the Iran hostage crisis and later to cover the aftermath of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. I learned to see a lot of connections through these experiences. The U.S./Israeli position on negotiations since '93 was that the Palestinians must accept a bantustan arrangement in their country. Leading forces in the Palestinian Authority were negotiating the terms of this for years, on the grounds that something is better than nothing. Two basic problems were the right of return of Palestinians to their country--a just demand which Israel will not even discuss-and the status of Jerusalem, the declared capital of both sides and the site of world significant religious holy sites. Negotiations came to an impasse over these questions in the summer of 2000. In September 2000, Sharon visited/invaded the Al-Aqsa Masjid with government backing as part of a successful attempt to seize the reins of the Likud party, and then the Israeli state. This triggered the current ever-escalating round of conflict. After the September 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S. occurred, the Palestinian Authority did what it could to "get with the program" of the new U.S. war. At the same time, the Israeli government increased its attacks and political demands against the Palestinians under the banner of the U.S. "war on terrorism." The U.S. abandoned any pretense of evenhandedness. Israel threatened Arafat and confined him to Ramallah on the West Bank. His headquarters have been attacked several times while overall the level of violence has rapidly increased. The broader context in which this is taking place is U.S. preparation for phase 2 of its war--an attack on Iraq intended to topple the government preceded by a diplomatic offensive focused on demands for renewed UN inspections to look for "weapons of mass destruction." The U.S. has now leaked contingency plans for possible nuclear weapons use against Iraq (along with Iran, Syria, Libya, North Korea, Russia and China). U.S. war and sanctions (economic warfare) have already killed about a million Iraqis. The combination of sanctions with the bombing of water treatment systems constituted de facto biological warfare by the U.S. against Iraq. There is also the issue of U.S. use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions (radiological warfare) as well. To attack Iraq on anything like the Afghan war model, the U.S. needs active cooperation from neighboring countries, especially Saudi Arabia. Part of the maneuvering around this in relation to Palestine is a peace plan proposed by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah--comprehensive peace between all Arab countries and Israel--in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967 and the formation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. This may be formalized at an upcoming Arab league summit and is being looked at by the U.S. and Israel and is gaining support from other countries including European Union members and Russia. As this plan is being floated a rapid escalation of the violence is in progress. Israel says Arafat may be allowed to travel, as Palestinian police have arrested those accused of assassinating the Israeli tourism minister last fall. In all likelihood, this peace plan is not likely to succeed, and Saudi and other Arab cooperation in war against Iraq may prove to be problematic for the U.S. Recent public opinion polls in a number of Muslim and Arab countries have shown a very different perception and understanding of the war, the U.S. and the September 11 events than what prevails in the U.S. The many decades of constant, often very intense struggle by the Palestinians for justice has given the imperialists no rest and has sometimes upset their plans in the region. This also creates an additional basis for real hatred of the U.S. among people in the region. I suggest two conclusions from this. First; the current U.S. war is in many ways bound up with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Second; anti-war people in the U.S. and especially anti-war veterans should oppose Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people as part and parcel of opposing the U.S. war overall. This can contribute in a major way to the international character and to the ideological internationalism of the anti war struggle around the world.