Since the beginning of the Israeli government’s genocidal war against Gaza following Hamas’ armed action against the concentration camp conditions imposed by the Zionist regime on October 7, the false left-wing faction of the Democratic Party known as the Democratic Socialists of the United States of America (DSA) has existed went out of its way to support Israel’s claim that it was responding to a war crime committed by an anti-Semitic terrorist organization.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman (Wikimedia Commons/Senator Bowman’s Office) [Photo: Staff of Rep. Jamaal Bowman]
This fraudulent narrative served as a pretext for the genocide of the 2.3 million inhabitants of a blockaded enclave the size of the city of Detroit, which has already claimed more than 12,000 lives, including many thousands of children, destroyed hospitals, schools and apartment blocks. and has deprived the defenseless Palestinian population of food, water, fuel and electricity.
The “final solution” to the Palestinian question that the fascist regime of Benjamin Netanyahu is striving for has as its clear goal the “ethnic cleansing” of Gaza, the murder of the largest possible number of its inhabitants and the expulsion of the rest to the Egyptian Sinai desert, thus the land of Israelis looking for a “Greater Israel” can be populated.
Contrary to Washington and Tel Aviv’s claims that the current war on Gaza is a defensive response to Hamas’ October 7 invasion, targeting the group’s leadership and infrastructure rather than ordinary Gazans, it is It is known that plans for ethnic cleansing and population displacement were drawn up by Israeli officials many years ago.
Israel’s ancient ethnic cleansing and genocide plans
A 2016 Center for Constitutional Rights article entitled “The Genocide of the Palestinian People: An International Legal and Human Rights Perspective” contains the following:
In August 2014, Moshe Feiglin, then vice-president of the Israeli Knesset and a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, called for the destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza and offered a detailed plan to spread Palestinians living in Gaza to everyone. Specifically, he envisioned a scenario in which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would find areas on the Sinai border to “set up tent camps … until the relevant emigration destinations are determined.” He also suggested that the IDF would “then eradicate pockets of resistance if any remained.”
He later wrote in an editorial: “After the IDF completes the ‘mitigation’ of the targets with its firepower, the IDF will conquer the entire Gaza Strip, using all necessary means to minimize damage to our soldiers, without further consideration.” ‘
He continued: “Gaza is part of our earth and we will stay there forever.” Liberating parts of our earth forever is the only thing that justifies endangering our soldiers in the fight to conquer land. Once terror is gone from Gaza, it will be part of sovereign Israel and populated by Jews. This will also help alleviate the housing crisis in Israel. “The coastal railway line will be expanded as soon as possible to cover the entire length of Gaza.”
The October 7 Hamas invasion was used to put into action this pre-existing plan to seize space over the corpses of Palestinians.
Hamas’s claims of aggression and terror have also served as political cover for a wall of propaganda and lies by the capitalist media in the United States and around the world, and for the virtually total blockage of coverage of the mass demonstrations on every inhabited continent against anti-Israeli protests -Palestinian genocide and the demands of workers and youth of all races, religions and nationalities for it to stop.
Furthermore, it provided the pretext for efforts by US governments and universities, NATO countries and imperialist allies such as Australia to criminalize support for Palestinians and hex students and workers who express their opposition to the Zionist-imperialist massacre They use the vile slur of “anti-Semitism.”
The United States and its allies were surprised by the massive and international nature of the antiwar movement that erupted in response to the Gaza genocide. This also applies to their agents in the pseudo-left brotherhood such as the DSA, which advocates for parts of the upper middle class. His belated calls for a ceasefire, partly in response to internal disagreements over his complicity in a historic crime against the working class and the world’s oppressed, do not change his reactionary role.
The record of the DSA and its most prominent officials within the Democratic Party since Hamas’s escape from the “open-air prison” in Gaza on October 7 and its armed attack and hostage-taking in southern Israel cannot be better. clearer.
On October 7, the DSA’s official website officially called for solidarity with the Palestinians. At the same time, it implicitly condemned Hamas for its violence against Israeli civilians and equated its armed resistance with Israel’s 75-year history of violence, terror and dispossession against Palestinian civilians. The DSA wrote:
We strongly condemn the killing of all civilians. It is imperative that international human rights laws are respected.
However, the Democratic administrations of Joe Biden in Washington, Kathy Hochul in Albany and Eric Adams in New York, as well as the military intelligence machine they represented, found this to be insufficient. On Sunday, October 8, a pro-Palestinian protest rally was held in Times Square to denounce Israel’s declaration of total war against Gaza, which had been supported by the New York chapter of the DSA. It was immediately heavily attacked by all factions of the political system and the mainstream media, who described it as illegitimate support for terrorism and anti-Semitism.
Ocasio-Cortez condemns Israeli genocide protest as ‘anti-Semitic’
The next day, DSA spokesperson and Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned the protest and called for further protests against Israel’s carpet bombing of civilians in the Gaza Strip to be “stopped.”
“It shouldn’t be so difficult to end hate and anti-Semitism where we see it,” he said; He repeated the lie that supporting Palestine amounted to racism and anti-Semitism. “The bigotry and insensitivity expressed in Times Square on Sunday was unacceptable and sad in this devastating moment,” Ocasio-Cortez continued.
On the same day, he issued a press release posted on his official congressional website in which he stated:
I strongly condemn Hamas’ attack. No child or family should ever have to endure this kind of violence and fear, and this violence will not solve the ongoing oppression and occupation in the region.
He made no mention of the Israeli bombings of homes, apartment complexes, offices, hospitals, mosques and churches, nor the blockade of supplies of food, fuel, medicine, electricity and water to the impoverished and densely populated enclave.
Ocasio-Cortez was not alone. Congressman Jamaal Bowman, who voted for a bill to arm Israel as a DSA member in 2021, issued a statement saying he was “shocked and outraged by the demonstration here in New York this weekend in celebration of death took place”. He described the anti-war protesters as Nazis who “displayed swastikas.”
New York Assembly member and DSA member Zohran Mamdani also condemned the anti-war rally: “My support for the liberation of Palestinians should never be confused with a celebration of the loss of civilian lives.” I condemn the killing of civilians and the rhetoric of a rally [la del domingo] that attempts to downplay the significance of these deaths.”
The war criminals in Tel Aviv and Washington, their spokespersons in the corporate media, and the two imperialist political parties in the United States considered these examples of cowardly accommodation to the mass terror and murder committed by the founders of the Zionist state since its founding to be insufficient . 75 years, with the full complicity and support of US imperialism, and its final and most naked chapter in the Gaza genocide.
On October 12, the Detroit News reported that Republican Congressman Jack Bergman of Michigan and other House Republicans had filed a motion of censure against Rashida Tlaib, a DSA member and the only Palestinian congresswoman, for opposing military aid to Israel and refused to condemn military aid to the October 7 Hamas attack. Democratic Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin of Lansing, a former CIA agent who is part of a growing group of “CIA Democrats,” joined the attack on Tlaib.
The next day, on October 13, the pro-Democrat Detroit Free Press reported that Tlaib had denounced the Hamas invasion as a “war crime” in a statement to the newspaper on October 11. “They were war crimes,” he told the newspaper. “It is a war crime, just as the collective punishment of Palestinians is currently a war crime.”
Tlaib’s attempts at appeasement did him no good. On the contrary, he encouraged the witch hunters. The House of Representatives voted to censure Tlaib on November 7: 22 Democrats gave Republicans the ability to punish an elected congresswoman for her political views, setting a precedent for dictatorship.
Also on October 13, Jacobin magazine, which has close ties to the DSA, published an article by Ben Burgis entitled “The Media Discredits the Democratic Socialists of America on Palestine.” According to the article, it turns out that the Media outlets are discrediting the DSA by not covering its New York chapter’s public apology for its support of the October 8 demonstration in Times Square and the numerous statements by prominent DSA Democrats denouncing the Hamas attack as a war crime.
Three days later, on October 16, Ocasio-Cortez announced on national television in an interview with CNN’s Abby Phillip that she was now willing to vote for U.S. military funding of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system. In December 2021, she voted “present” on the issue – too cowardly and opportunistic to vote “no” – and was attacked for it by Democrats and Republicans alike. But now that Iron Dome allowed Israel to carpet bomb Gaza without fear of effective retaliation, Ocasio-Cortez was clearly convinced of the need.
If anything, the Israeli bombing of Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on October 18, which killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians, sparked even more condemnations of Hamas and moralizing denunciations of “violence” on DSA grounds.
On October 25, as Israel stepped up its bombing of Gaza north and south and the Biden administration threatened war against Iran, all voting Democratic members of the House of Representatives voted to appoint House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as the new speaker of the House of Representatives the House. All members of the so-called “Squad,” including Ocasio-Cortez, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, Greg Casar, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley, voted for Jeffries.
Eight days later, on November 1, after the Israeli bombing of the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, Jeffries told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: “I know that Israel is doing everything in its power to continue fighting this necessary war. according to the international rules of war.” ‘.
As for Ocasio-Cortez, she doubled down on her defense of the Biden administration’s full cooperation on genocide, calling her cynical calls for a “humanitarian pause” on mass killings a positive step. The New York DSAer is one of the first to support Biden’s re-election.
On October 26, he approvingly retweeted a joint statement from New York Democratic Reps. Jerrold Nadler and Dan Goldman. The statement condemned Hamas’ war crimes and its heinous and inhumane attacks on civilians, reaffirmed Israel’s “absolute right” to wage its war on Gaza, and sought to blame Hamas for blocking aid to the besieged enclave . He claimed, without providing evidence, that the Hamas government had diverted “aid” to its “terrorist targets” and called on Hamas to “release the fuel and electricity used in its terrorism to hospitals in Gaza to ensure that those injured.” Civilians receive medical care.”
What can you say? In its vileness and depravity, this statement supported by Ocasio-Cortez is comparable to blaming Jewish resistance fighters for the suffering of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto!
DSA Democrats sign ‘ceasefire’ letter praising Biden and Blinken
The Democratic Party and Biden’s full support for Israel’s mass murder of Palestinian men, women and children as part of its ethnic cleansing campaign – a war crime that has shocked and outraged tens of millions of people around the world – and the reports of protests in defense of Palestinians Ocasio- Cortez and other DSA incumbents have plunged the DSA into a massive internal crisis. As anti-war protests continue to spread in the United States and around the world and the Biden administration calls for billions more in military aid but refuses to call for limits on Israel’s genocidal actions (“No Lines ‘Reds’), the DSA has accepted the call for a ceasefire (rejected by Bernie Sanders). This is an attempt to internally control the political damage and foster the illusion that war and oppression can be ended through pressure from below on the Democratic Party.
On November 15, 24 “progressive” Democrats in the House of Representatives, including DSA members Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush and Greg Casar, sent a joint letter to the “Honourable Joseph R. Biden Jr.” and the “Honourable (Secretary of State) Antony Blinken,” urging them to call for a “robust bilateral ceasefire” in Gaza.
In the second sentence of the letter, “we reiterate our unequivocal condemnation of the Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7.” The next sentence expresses “serious concern” in much weaker language [de los firmantes] by the current Israeli reaction.”
After making some references to the horrific death and destruction Israel has inflicted on Gaza’s defenseless population, the letter actually “commends” Biden and Blinken for advocating for “a further expansion of humanitarian assistance to Gaza.” It raises concerns that the carnage in Gaza could have a “negative impact on national security” and risks “undermining the United States’ own credibility in the region.”
After praising Biden’s “wise words” of advice to Israel following the October 7 Hamas attack, the letter said, “We thank the President for calling for a humanitarian pause…”
It should be noted that this tearful and cynical letter was sent in the midst of the Israeli forces’ ground invasion of Gaza, the occupation of Al-Shifa Hospital and the expansion of their ground assault to the south of the enclave. It was sent a day after the bipartisan march in support of Israel and its genocidal war in Washington DC, where prominent Democrats such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries shared a platform with fascist Republicans such as House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Protestant anti-Semite John Hagee. The most popular chant at the event was “No to the ceasefire!”
The letter coincided with Wednesday’s violent attack by Capitol Police on peaceful, mostly Jewish anti-war protesters outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington. Thursday followed the Biden administration’s Education Department’s announcement of a federal investigation into alleged anti-Semitic incidents at five universities where students protested the American-Israeli genocide in Gaza.
The letter signed by DSA Democrats makes no reference to the undemocratic suppression of free speech and political expression in support of Palestinians on college campuses across the country. This is not about Israel stopping the supply of bombs, projectiles, aircraft and intelligence used to murder Gazans, nor about the United States withdrawing its special aircraft carrier forces that have been sent to the region, to threaten Iran.
The basic political impulse of the letter, consistent with the DSA’s pro-imperialist policies, is to channel social opposition and anti-war sentiment behind the Democratic Party, which has been the graveyard of social opposition for more than a century, and to expand the mass movement against the war prevent war movement to the growing labor movement in the USA and internationally against capitalist exploitation and inequality. As the ICFI and the WSWS have tirelessly explained, the task is to unite the working class and youth in resistance to all parties and governments of the capitalist class: to depose and replace the government, not to coerce it.
The material and political potential for realizing this perspective is clearly evident in the global nature of the mass opposition to the Gaza genocide – despite the barrage of lies and propaganda from all imperialist governments, corporate media and university administrations – amid the growth of an international workers’ strike movement against wage cuts, inflation, acceleration and inequality.
The DSA remains part of the bloody Democratic Party that is currently waging the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine while providing the weapons, political support and lying propaganda essential to the Zionist regime’s genocidal war against the Palestinians. At the same time, the DSA’s favored imperialist party is preparing to open new fronts in Washington’s campaign to overcome its deadly crisis through global war against Iran and China.
And the DSA continues to support the re-election of the trembling war criminal Biden. He has completely exposed himself as an accomplice to genocide and an enemy of the working class and the oppressed of the world.
(Article originally published in English on November 19, 2023)
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