Statement by the DAAM Party

The war between the United States and Israel on the one hand and Iran on the other, which has been underway since February 28, has shaken the Middle East and reverberated throughout the world. As missiles strike across the region and drones explode in the skies above its cities—while Israeli civilians repeatedly run to bomb shelters—a fierce debate has emerged in Israel and internationally regarding the nature of this war: what caused it, and what consequences it may bring.

The statement of the DAAM Party presented here seeks to clarify the sequence of developments that led to this war. It challenges several widely accepted assumptions that have become entrenched within liberal and progressive discourse and points toward the direction that the forces of peace and democratic progress in Israel must adopt in order to defeat the far-right government in the upcoming elections.

DAAM is a joint Jewish-Arab political movement whose members are citizens of Israel committed to Israeli-Palestinian peace based on equality and mutual recognition of rights. Founded in 1995 by Jewish and Palestinian activists, the party promotes social justice, and Jewish-Arab cooperation as the foundation for a democratic future. For peace to rise, mutual recognition is a fundamental principle.

From the early 1980s onward, the founders of DAAM were active participants in the struggle against the occupation, a struggle that reached its historic peak with the outbreak of the First Intifada in December 1987. The party’s position regarding Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, and the regional war that followed is grounded in the same principles that have guided its activity from the beginning: opposition to oppression and reactionary forces on all sides, defense of democratic values, and commitment to a political future based on equality between peoples.

The War Against Iran Is a Direct Continuation of October 7

The war that erupted on Saturday, February 28, 2026, began with a coordinated American-Israeli strike against Iran. This confrontation cannot be understood in isolation. It represents the direct continuation of the events set in motion by Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

For many years Iran systematically cultivated Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as key components of a broader regional network of militias and proxy organizations. Through these forces Tehran expanded its influence across the Middle East while avoiding direct military confrontation with Israel.

This network included Hezbollah in Lebanon; the Assad regime in Syria; Shiite militias in Iraq; the Houthi movement in Yemen; and Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Palestinian territories. Together these forces formed what Iran calls the “Axis of Resistance.”

Through this system of proxies—most of them non-state actors—Iran sought to destabilize its rivals while steadily building strategic leverage across the region. The aim of this alliance was never aimed at reaching a long lasting peace in the Middle East.  Ultimately, Tehran aimed to ignite a broader confrontation that would destroy Israel from several fronts and establish the regime of the ayatollahs as the dominant power in the Middle East.

For years the Iranian regime succeeded in pursuing this strategy with relatively little resistance. Its regional standing grew considerably during the past two decades, particularly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, which had served as a major obstacle to Tehran’s expansionist ambitions.

The failure of the American project in Iraq left a deep trauma in U.S. public opinion. A broad political consensus gradually emerged in Washington that large-scale military confrontation in the Middle East should be avoided whenever possible. This approach was reflected most clearly in the Obama administration’s policy of containment toward Iran, culminating in the nuclear agreement signed in 2015.

Under the diplomatic cover provided by that agreement, the Iranian regime strengthened its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza and encouraged a growing belief among its allies that a decisive confrontation was approaching—a final “day of judgment” aimed at destroying the State of Israel.

When Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad launched their coordinated assault on Israeli communities near Gaza on October 7, they were implementing a broader regional strategy whose objective extended far beyond the Palestinian arena.

The immediate participation of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi movement in Yemen in attacks on Israel—what they described as a “war of support”—demonstrated that the assault was not an isolated operation but part of a wider strategic plan. The war that has unfolded since then, reshaping the lives of millions across the Middle East, is therefore the direct consequence of the murderous gamble undertaken by Hamas in the service of Tehran’s strategic ambitions.

The Iranian Regime Refused to Recognize the New Balance of Power

Over the following two years Israel worked to repel the assault launched by Hamas and Hezbollah, targeting the leadership of both organizations and destroying much of their military capacity.  Days after the agreement on a cease fire in Lebanon the Assad Regime in Syria collapsed like a card castle. A central pillar of the “Axis of Resistance” where Iran invested Billions was gone. 

A joint American-Israeli operation in June 2025 severely damaged Iran’s military capabilities and its nuclear program. Two and a half months later, in October 2025, a ceasefire agreement was signed in Gaza and all Israeli hostages were released. The war that had begun on October 7 appeared to have reached its conclusion.

The results of the war in Gaza were clear and decisive, and neither side had a clear interest in renewing the fighting. Yet the Iranian regime refused to acknowledge this reality. Since the June 2025 operation it promoted a narrative claiming that the “Axis of Resistance” had actually won the war and that Israel had been defeated—arguing that Israel itself had requested the ceasefire after suffering heavy damage to economic, medical, and military infrastructure in its major cities.

The leadership in Tehran refused to draw the strategic conclusions required by its defeat and the defeat of its proxies. It ignored the historic significance of the United States joining— for the first time—an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

At the end of December 2025 the regime’s weakness became dramatically visible when a massive popular uprising erupted in Iran. New social groups joined the protests, including merchants from the traditional bazaar.

Demonstrators chanted “Death to Khamenei” and demanded the overthrow of the regime that had ruled Iran through repression for nearly half a century and driven the country into poverty, hunger, and stagnation.

More than thirty thousand citizens were massacred by the repressive machine within a matter of days in a desperate attempt by the regime to crush the uprising.

Against this backdrop, U.S. President Donald Trump demanded that Iran enter negotiations, backing his demand with the deployment of significant military forces to the region. In February 2026 negotiations between representatives of the United States and Iran opened in the Sultanate of Oman, with the goal of reaching an agreement that might prevent a military confrontation. There was hope that such an agreement could also stabilize the situations in Gaza and Lebanon.

Many observers expected the Iranian regime to recognize the new balance of power and to abandon its megalomanic  strategic ambitions, including its nuclear project. Trump repeatedly stated that he preferred a negotiated settlement to military confrontation. Yet the leaders in Tehran chose to ignore what had become evident. The destructive arrogance that had characterized Hamas’s leadership and led Yahya Sinwar to launch the disastrous October 7 attack, also shaped the position of the Iranian regime. Its negotiators rejected American demands. The message quickly spread to Iran’s allies. Both Hamas and Hezbollah adopted similarly uncompromising positions.

Hezbollah declared that it would not surrender its weapons to the sovereign Lebanese government and would not allow the ceasefire with Israel to be implemented. Hamas rejected the United Nations Security Council resolution calling for its disarmament and continued to obstruct progress toward implementing the reconstruction plan for Gaza.

American Isolationism Allowed Iran to Grow Stronger

All available indications suggest that the Iranian leadership believed it could prevent an attack and secure a favorable agreement without making major concessions. Tehran’s calculation relied on widespread public opposition to war within the United States, including strong opposition from the Democratic Party as well as from segments of the isolationist wing of Trump’s MAGA supporters within the Republican Party.

Iran also assumed that the Gulf states—concerned that war could threaten their oil infrastructure—would exert pressure on Washington to avoid military confrontation. Tehran’s strategic gamble was that the United States would continue its traditional policy of containment, which had dominated American policy for more than a decade.

Indeed, for years Iran succeeded in maneuvering Western governments by exploiting Washington’s reluctance to enter into direct confrontation.

The nuclear agreement signed in 2015 lifted many of the sanctions imposed on Iran and opened economic opportunities that had previously been unavailable. But, under the international legitimacy granted by that agreement, the Iranian regime expanded its ballistic missile program, developed deadly drone technologies (aimed against Ukraine as well), and provided massive financial and military support to militant groups in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Gaza, and the Palestinian territories.

Even the October 7 attack did not prompt the Biden administration to abandon this flawed policy of containment. In April 2024, after Iran launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel for the first time, the Biden administration sought to restrain Israel’s response, arguing that a regional war had to be avoided at all costs.

In reality, however, the regional war that Washington sought to prevent had already begun.

The aggression of Iran and its proxies against Israel—combined with the brutal massacre of tens of thousands of Iranian citizens during the recent uprising—cannot simply be ignored. Such passivity risks sending a dangerous signal to the world that the use of force is sufficient to deter the United States.

In February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine and is threatening Europe. China is preparing for a possible invasion of Taiwan. Both are watching developments in the Middle East closely, waiting to see how the United States responds to Iranian aggression. Saudi Arabia’s behavior provides a clear example. In 2019 Iran attacked Saudi oil facilities in Ras Tanura during Trump’s first presidential term. The United States chose not to respond and offered little meaningful assistance to its ally.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states concluded that Washington might not defend them and began signing agreements with Iran and strengthening ties with China and Russia.

Even during the negotiations between Washington and Tehran in February 2026, the impression remained that the American administration was eager to reach an agreement and avoid military confrontation.

Yet Iran apparently believed that any concession regarding the foundations of the “Axis of Resistance” would undermine the regime itself. Consequently, Iranian negotiators arrived at the negotiating table in Muscat and Geneva with a rigid and defiant position.

Under those circumstances, Trump ultimately chose the military option.

The Objectives of the United States and Israel

As the war continues, an important question remains:
Will Israel and the United States succeed in bringing down the Iranian regime? Will the Iranian people take to the streets again?

Will Iran eventually become a democratic state capable of peaceful relations with its neighbors? At this stage of the war, any definitive answer would be premature.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its affiliated networks function as a powerful military-economic structure dedicated to advancing Iran’s expansionist ambitions while enforcing domestic repression.

This organization possesses enormous economic interests inside and outside Iran and has little intention of relinquishing them. In many ways it operates as a violent, mafia-like structure—a state within a state.

These forces are currently driving the continuation of the war and refusing to acknowledge the emerging balance of power.

Although Israel and the United States have stated that they would welcome the fall of the regime, regime change was not among the official war aims. The declared objectives were more limited:
the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program, severe damage to its ballistic missile and drone capabilities, and the neutralization of its regional proxies.

A fourth objective involves weakening the regime’s internal repression mechanisms—particularly the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij militia.

If these goals are achieved, it may create conditions under which the Iranian people could again rise against the regime.

The American Public Struggles to Confront Global Changes

The attack launched on Saturday morning, February 28, came as a complete surprise to the American public. War with Iran had not been part of the national debate. In Israel, by contrast, the public had been preparing for such a possibility for months, as the government repeatedly warned about the growing likelihood of war.

When Trump delivered his State of the Union address to Congress on February 24—only four days before the attack—he devoted only a few minutes of a two-hour speech to Iran. It is therefore unsurprising that American public opinion was shocked and unprepared when the war began. Domestic concerns dominate American political life: economic challenges, rising costs of living, immigration issues, and political scandals.

Polls conducted after the attack revealed widespread skepticism about the war and deep concern about another prolonged American involvement in the Middle East. Many Americans do not view Iran’s efforts to destabilize the region as a direct threat to U.S. national security.

Yet from a geopolitical perspective it is difficult to deny that the United States—as the leading power of the democratic world—cannot remain indifferent to Iran’s attempt to impose a fundamentalist regional order and eliminate Israel, one of Washington’s closest allies.

The failure of the American administration to explain clearly to its own public the reasons and objectives of the war represents a serious leadership failure.

Israeli Public Opinion Supports the War but Will Not Forget October 7

Some small forces on the Israeli left—including the Communist Party, Hadash, Ahmad Tibi, and Balad—oppose the war and appear disconnected from the prevailing mood of Israeli society. Like segments of the left in Europe and the United States, they call for an immediate ceasefire and effectively align themselves with Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.

By contrast, the major opposition parties in Israel support the government’s military actions, recognizing that Iran represents an existential threat not only to Israel but to the entire region.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has attempted to transform the war into a political asset and to gain electoral points. He is presenting his close relationship with Trump as proof that he is the only Israeli leader capable of persuading the United States to cooperate militarily with Israel at such an unprecedented level.

The evidence of polls conducted after the attack on Iran was launched suggest that Bibi’s cards have not changed. Israeli political camps remain largely unchanged: Netanyahu’s supporters continue to support him, while his opponents remain firmly opposed. This is largely because a majority of Israelis strongly oppose Netanyahu’s domestic policies and his ongoing attacks on democratic institutions, particularly the judiciary and the free press.

Trump’s public attack on President Isaac Herzog and his call for Netanyahu to receive a pardon provoked widespread anger among Israelis, many of whom saw it as an attempt by Netanyahu to use the war and his relationship with Trump to escape his corruption trial.

Even if the war with Iran ends in a clear military victory, Israel’s political landscape is unlikely to change dramatically. Many Israelis fear that Netanyahu will attempt to use electoral success to further weaken democratic institutions while advancing the agenda of the far-right, the settler movement, and ultra-Orthodox parties.

The Political Task Ahead

The task facing supporters of peace and democracy in Israel after the war—regardless of its outcome—is to unite all opposition forces in order to replace the dangerous right-wing government led by Netanyahu.

The broad civic movement that filled Israel’s streets for nearly a year prior to  October 7 in defense of democracy continues today to oppose Netanyahu and his extremist partners. At the same time, the opposition camp still struggles to present a coherent political alternative.

It remains divided and lacks unified leadership as well as a clear policy toward both the Arab world and the unresolved Palestinian question.

Despite these difficulties, the democratic camp must unite and bring about the defeat of Netanyahu’s government.

Partnership with MK Mansour Abbas and the broad political forces he represents in the Arab community in Israel, is essential to securing a democratic majority and preventing Netanyahu from returning to power for another destructive term.

DAAM Party calls upon all its members and supporters to mobilize politically to end Netanyahu’s rule and bring about a political transformation in Israel.

Even if the government that replaces him does not fully adopt the peace program envisioned by DAAM, it would nevertheless represent a crucial change—one that safeguards Israeli democracy and creates the conditions for deeper processes that could eventually open the way to a just Israeli-Palestinian peace.

The post Iran’s Regime Is Now Paying the Price for Its Strategic Mistake in Backing Hamas’s October 7 Attack first appeared on Da'am Party: One state - Green Economy.

A great honor was bestowed upon Benjamin Netanyahu when, this past February, he became the first foreign leader to visit the White House after Donald Trump’s reelection. He returned home energized and invigorated. His bet on Trump had paid off — big time. The gift Trump offered Netanyahu? A fantastical plan to transfer two million Gazans out of the Strip and turn Gaza into a flourishing Riviera. And Netanyahu, true to form, didn’t hesitate to present this dangerous delusion as his long-awaited “day after” vision — a plan the army and the opposition had long demanded from him.

The warm ties with the White House gave Netanyahu the sense that he was on top of the world. After all, Trump had won the election despite a conviction for sexual assault, with more cases pending over his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, won clearly by Joe Biden, and his role in the January 6 Capitol riot. If Trump could beat the system, why not Netanyahu? All he had to do to extricate himself from his ongoing corruption trial was to mimic Trump: launch an all-out assault on the judiciary, the police, the prosecution, and the media — and aggressively push forward with a judicial overhaul, just as Trump had undermined American democratic institutions.

But there’s a key difference between Trump and Netanyahu. Trump rode into the White House backed by a populist movement centered around the conspiracy theory of the “deep state”: a clandestine alliance of Democrats, state institutions, the Justice Department, and national security agencies that, according to the theory, colluded to distort the will of the people and steal the election. In fact, nearly half of Americans believe the 2020 election was rigged, and that President Biden’s win was illegitimate.

Trump repeatedly declared that if reelected, he would dismantle the deep state. And indeed, upon his return to the White House, he surrounded himself with conspiracy theorists and shadowy operatives, appointing them to some of the most sensitive posts. The Attorney General, the FBI Director, the Deputy Director, and other senior officials worked tirelessly to delegitimize the very institutions that form the foundation of American democracy.

Netanyahu, as we know, has always believed that what’s good for America is good for Israel — and what’s good for Trump is definitely good for Bibi. In a speech to the Knesset, he even recounted whispering to Trump during his White House visit that “Israel has a deep state too.” Trump’s response was never disclosed — but surely, a con man knows a fellow con man when he sees one.

Not long after their meeting, in March 2025, Netanyahu posted on X (formerly Twitter) in Hebrew:

“In America and in Israel, when a strong right-wing leader wins elections, the deep state — serving the left — manipulates the justice system to thwart the will of the people. They will not win. Not in Israel, not in America. We stand strong together.”

Sara Netanyahu joined the chorus. In an interview with Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, on Fox News, she aired her grievances, describing Israel’s deep state as:

“Relatively small radical-left elites, funded by foreign governments, holding key positions of influence. They use other means — particularly abuse of the judicial system — to try and topple a democratically elected government.”
And with a nod to the host, she added:
“Look at what they did to President Trump and his family. They did the same to my husband, to our family, to our sons — bringing ridiculous, false charges.”

But here’s where the plot twists. It turns out that the Trump-Netanyahu alliance may not be helping either of them. Last week, Pandora’s box was opened, and the chaos inside is now spreading fast. Trump and Netanyahu, both self-styled victims of the deep state, are now at the center of a strange and stormy scandal consuming the U.S.: the Jeffrey Epstein files — the same ones that have been the foundation of Trump’s favorite conspiracy narrative on his road back to the presidency.

For those less familiar with the intricacies of American politics, Jeffrey Epstein was a businessman arrested for running a sex-trafficking ring of underage girls with Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of media tycoon Robert Maxwell (once the owner of Israel’s Maariv daily). Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019 before his trial began. He was known to fly prominent figures to his private island in the Caribbean, where underage girls were allegedly kept as sex slaves. His acquaintances included Bill Clinton, Britain’s Prince Andrew, Israeli ex-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and many celebrities and business moguls. Trump and Melania were also photographed socializing with Epstein.

How did Netanyahu manage to drag Trump into what Trump’s base calls a reckless military adventure? Enter Epstein — again. The conspiracy theory now claims Epstein was a Mossad agent, evidenced by his ties to Ghislaine Maxwell and her father’s alleged Mossad links. From there, it’s a short leap to accusing Israel of holding the Epstein files and using them to blackmail Trump and other officials. Because how else, the theory goes, could Israel have persuaded Trump to attack Iran against his will?

According to the conspiracy theory, Epstein held on to incriminating footage and client lists — mostly Democrats — to blackmail them. During his campaign, Trump promised to reveal everything. Once elected, he appointed Pam Bondi as Attorney General and Kash Patel to head the FBI, tasking them with following through. But despite their early declarations that the Epstein files were “on their desks,” they abruptly announced that no such files existed.

So where does Netanyahu fit into all this?

He has no direct link to Epstein — and yet, somehow, he may end up as the story’s main casualty. The rift between Trump and far-right media firebrands Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon blew wide open following Israel’s recent strike on Iran. Israel’s successful elimination of top Iranian military and nuclear officials, and its near-total control of Tehran’s airspace, put the Trump administration in a difficult spot.

Initially, Trump distanced himself from the attack, claiming he wasn’t in the loop. But once the military achievement became clear, he flipped and sought to bask in the glory. That decision sparked backlash from his own base. Bannon was spotted entering the White House just before the American strike. Carlson warned of U.S. entanglement — even the risk of triggering World War III. The far right began accusing Trump of being manipulated by Netanyahu, who was dragging him into another Middle East war — despite Trump’s campaign promises to avoid conflict and pursue a new nuclear deal with Iran.

Which begs the question: how did Netanyahu manage to drag Trump into what Trump’s base calls a reckless military adventure? Enter Epstein — again. The conspiracy theory now claims Epstein was a Mossad agent, evidenced by his ties to Ghislaine Maxwell and her father’s alleged Mossad links. From there, it’s a short leap to accusing Israel of holding the Epstein files and using them to blackmail Trump and other officials. Because how else, the theory goes, could Israel have persuaded Trump to attack Iran against his will?

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s public denial — that Epstein had no links to Mossad and that Israel possesses no such lists — didn’t help. The conspiratorial genie was already out of the bottle. Trump’s denials and his attempts to dismiss the scandal as a Democratic hoax were met with scorn and disbelief from right-wing influencers whose blogs boast millions of followers.

Now, the hard-right Freedom Caucus in Congress is jumping on the wave, demanding steep cuts to Israel’s defense aid. Their argument: Israelis enjoy high living standards and universal healthcare, while Americans suffer under crushing costs and a broken system. Why, they ask, should billions of taxpayer dollars continue to flow to Israel? America First, once directed at the rest of the world, has now been turned inward — at Israel.

In a final twist of irony, the very deep state narrative that carried Trump to power is now being turned against him. Millions who once believed his every lie now follow his far-right successors, who claim Trump himself is being blackmailed by Netanyahu — the same Netanyahu they say is stirring conflict in Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Iran, and now Syria.

And they are not alone. The progressive left in the Democratic Party — and even parts of the center — have long soured on Netanyahu. Now it seems he and Israel are losing what little bipartisan support remained in Congress.

This shift is already influencing Trump’s foreign policy recalibrations, with increased emphasis on ties with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, even Turkey. Trump finds himself ensnared in his own web of falsehoods, while Netanyahu’s grand bet increasingly looks like a broken reed. The departure of ultra-Orthodox factions from the Israeli government, and threats of a far-right exit over ongoing hostage negotiations with Hamas, suggest Netanyahu’s ship of state is slowly sinking in the murky waters it created — and the rats are already looking for safer shores.

The post The Deep State Turns on Netanyahu first appeared on Da'am Party: One state - Green Economy.

The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria is good news for the Arab nations and for all freedom seekers around the globe. Since the 2011 outbreak of the Arab Spring in Syria, Da’am Party has unequivocally supported the popular struggle to overthrow Assad’s brutal regime. During that time, the party organized protests in front of the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv and during the visit of the Russian Prime Minister to Israel, demanding an end to the Syrian genocide.

In 2014, Da’am Party initiated the “Committee for Solidarity with the Syrian People,” which included over 50 Jewish and Arab figures. The committee held speaking panels and raised funds for Syrian refugee children, which were transferred to them through Save the Children.

The timing of Assad’s regime fall is no coincidence. After more than 13 years of oppression, which led to the displacement of 13 million Syrian citizens, the killing of half a million people, and the imprisonment and torture of hundreds of thousands, regime opponents managed to overthrow it almost without a fight. The final disintegration of the Syrian regime can be attributed to Hamas’s terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, which was orchestrated and supported by Iran—the patron of both Hamas and Assad’s regime.

The Da’am Party strongly condemned the barbaric attack of Hamas, which aligned itself with the Iranian axis and sought to extinguish the state of Israel, and expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself. Our stance against Iran and its proxies reflects our commitment to the freedom of Arab nations, above all the Palestinian people, who have long suffered from displacement and suffering. We argue that the struggle for progress, democracy, and human rights in the region requires Israel to end its political intransigence, but such progress will not be possible without the defeat of the Iranian axis, which seeks to establish an aggressive and extremist theocratic rule in the region that views Israel as its target for destruction.

Over recent decades, under the pretext of “liberating Jerusalem,” Iranian aggression has gained momentum. Iran has nurtured and armed its proxies —Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas—who have wreaked havoc and destroyed the lives of millions in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. Iran also created a “ring of fire” around Israel and positioned itself as a regional power. Its objectives, however were entirely detached from the needs of the peoples who became hostages of the Iranian regime.

The collapse of Assad’s regime began with the confrontation between Iran and Israel on October 7, 2023. The decisive event in this process, which paved the way for the Syrian revolutionaries, was undoubtedly the assassination of Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah a year later, on September 27, 2024. Israel’s decision to eliminate Nasrallah, who played a prominent role in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, sent a clear signal to the Lebanese and Syrians that the organizations tied to the Iranian axis, including Iran itself, are not invincible.

The joy expressed in videos from liberated areas of Syria following Israel’s killing of Nasrallah was striking. The Syrian people knew Hezbollah fighters and their revered leader Nasrallah as perpetrators of some of the most heinous crimes against the residents of Syrian towns and cities such as Qusayr, Madaya, Zabadani, and many others. Hezbollah’s acts of oppression included murder, rape, systematic starvation, and torture. The celebrations in Syria over Nasrallah’s death reflected the Syrian people’s view of Hezbollah and Iran as their enemies and their approval of Israel’s fight against them.

In Lebanon, a broad front emerged in opposition to the “Support for Gaza War” launched unilaterally by Hezbollah on October 8, 2023, without any deliberation in parliament. The Lebanese people clearly understood that this war would bring devastation to Lebanon, hollow out the country’s institutions, and turn Lebanon into an Iranian proxy state serving as a base for endless future wars against Israel.

The success of the rebels in toppling the regime in Damascus can be attributed to several factors, including the weakening of Hezbollah and its defeat in the war against Israel; the failure of Hamas; the blows suffered by Iran; and Russia’s entanglement in its aggressive war against Ukraine. The U.S. and Western Europe maintained relations with Russia even after 2015. The tacit acceptance of Russia’s murderous airstrikes on Aleppo (the second city of importance in Syria) in 2015, aimed at saving Assad’s regime, was later interpreted by Putin as a green light to invade Ukraine, with little expectation of serious Western opposition.

However, a decade of Russian-Iranian occupation in Syria failed to stabilize Assad’s regime. The destruction of the economy, reliance on a Narco-economy, and rampant government corruption left extreme oppression as the regime’s sole guarantee for survival. Syria, like Lebanon, became a failed state, unable to protect its citizens or provide for their most fundamental needs.

Life for Syrians, including those from groups that once supported the regime, turned into a nightmare. In 2011, when the Syrian uprising began as part of the democratic Arab Spring, the regime portrayed itself as the sole bulwark against jihadist forces threatening secular life, garnering support from minorities and residents of major cities. This time, however, during the ten days leading up to the regime’s collapse, it became evident that this support base had completely eroded. As the rebel forces advanced toward Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and Damascus, they were greeted with cheers and celebrations by the local residents. Fifty-four years of the Assad dynasty rule in Syria had united the Syrian people against it.

The fall of the Syrian regime is a historic event that shakes the foundations of all authoritarian Arab regimes in the Middle East. These regimes had welcomed Assad back into their fold over the past year, normalizing relations with him. The United Arab Emirates, with the support of the U.S. administration, played a leading role in this normalization effort. For all of them, Bashar al-Assad’s downfall signifies that the Arab Spring has not yet had its final say.

For the Da’am Party, the revolutionary wave of the Arab Spring in 2011–2012 reflected a profound historical shift, embodying the Arab peoples’ aspirations for democracy. We rejected the views that claimed it was a mere fleeting event serving the interests of extremist Islamist forces. We interpreted the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, and later in Lebanon and Iraq, as a new era in which the peoples of the region seek their place in the modern 21st-century world. After years of tyranny, they want to share in the achievements of progress and the social, economic, political, and cultural openness that other world nations enjoy. The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime marks a critical milestone in the collapse of the entire Iranian axis. It will have a particularly significant impact on Hezbollah, which will no longer be able to operate as an armed militia alongside the Lebanese state.

The regime’s fall also delivers a severe blow to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and to Iran’s broader project, which has leveraged hostility toward Israel and calls for its destruction as an effective tool for gaining popular support. This defeat will have direct consequences on the Iranian political arena. The damage to the prestige and status of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s militant force, will inevitably strengthen the civil reformist movement.

If the Iranian regime wishes to survive following Syria’s collapse, it must abandon the idea of exporting the Shiite revolution and dominating Arab states under the pretext of “liberating Jerusalem.” Instead, it must redirect its efforts toward rebuilding the Iranian state, society, and economy.

As for Russia, that was “invited” to Syria by Assad, it has lost all its assets in Syria, from the Khmeimim airbase to the Tartus naval base. This situation will have far-reaching consequences for Russia’s prestige as a military power and for its actions in Ukraine.

Although Israel’s actions over the past 14 months did not reflect a coherent plan, they played a decisive role in the fall of Assad’s regime. Israel was caught off guard when Hamas launched “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” on October 7, 2023. Despite the bitter failure it experienced that day, Israel demonstrated its resilience to itself and to the world. This stands in stark contrast to Nasrallah’s claims that Israel’s power is illusory and comparable to a “spider web.” Backed by overwhelming support from its citizens, its economic, social, military, and technological capabilities, in addition to generous U.S. military and economic support, Israel managed to reverse the equation. Fighting on multiple fronts, Israel proved that the Iranian axis is the weaker force.

As the Syrian people embark on the long and arduous journey of internal reconstruction, it is vital for Israel to cease all interference in their affairs, allowing them to rebuild their political, social, and economic lives according to their own will.

This war, however, came at an unbearable cost, especially for the Palestinian people, who paid a devastating price: tens of thousands killed and injured, many of them women and children, widespread hunger, and the internal multi-time displacement of over two million Gaza residents. Also, the West Bank faced a severe crisis, exemplified by the closure of checkpoints, leaving 200,000 workers without a livelihood. The Lebanese people suffered immensely, with countless homes destroyed, civilians displaced, and many lives lost. It is important to remember that this tectonic upheaval was triggered by Hamas’ reckless and murderous actions, including mass killings, rapes, and the abduction of civilians—among them elderly people, women, and children—who remain hostages to this day. None of them ever saw a representative of the red cross.

All of this could have been avoided if Israel had acted differently. The Iranian axis could have been dismantled earlier had Israel chosen to support the democratic forces in Syria against the regime. When the Syrian people rose up in 2011, Israel chose to watch from the side-lines, preferring to maintain the status quo with the “familiar enemy,” Bashar al-Assad. Israel allowed the massive intervention of Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah in support of Assad. The result was the bolstering of Iranian power in Syria and the arming of Hezbollah, which grew into a formidable force and joined Hamas in the attacks of October 8, 2023.

However, the original sin of Israel, which led to the devastating war of October 2023, lies in its decades-long refusal to reach a just political solution to the Palestinian issue. Israel systematically undermined the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and sought to deepen internal Palestinian divisions by providing economic support to Hamas. Due to the blindness of its political and military establishment, Israel adopted an approach that viewed Hamas as a strong but deterred force—a sort of guarantee for maintaining the status quo, particularly in the absence of any significant global pressure for a political resolution. For years, Israel turned a blind eye as Hamas built its military strength, using the generous aid it received to boost its missile industry and construct a network of tunnels designed for future attacks.

The fall of the Syrian regime directly serves Israel’s security interests, as it cuts off Iran’s military supply routes to Hezbollah through Syria. Iran’s “ring of fire” around Israel has collapsed. At the same time, Israel watches the dramatic developments in Syria with suspicion and concern. The Israeli political and security leadership—spanning both the coalition and opposition—views these events through a purely military lens. Their actions focus on damage control, anticipating the potential emergence of rogue elements seeking to act against Israel during Syria’s transition period.

From the Syrian people’s perspective, Iran and Russia are their primary enemies—not Israel. The Syrian rebels understand their victory is partly owed to Israel’s military superiority in its campaign against Iran. Today, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq are fragile, fragmented states. Rebuilding these nations after the systematic destruction caused by Iranian occupation will take a long time.

As the Syrian people embark on the long and arduous journey of internal reconstruction, it is vital for Israel to cease all interference in their affairs, allowing them to rebuild their political, social, and economic lives according to their own will. The same principle applies to Lebanon’s rehabilitation. Neither Syria nor Lebanon currently poses a threat to Israel. All they seek is to heal the deep wounds inflicted by the Iranian regime and its allies—Assad’s regime and Hezbollah.

Within Israel, there is much to hold Prime Minister Netanyahu accountable for. The Lebanese journalist Fares Khashan was correct when he tweeted on Sunday, December 8, that “Bashar al-Assad is a far greater criminal than Netanyahu. Assad committed crimes against his own people, while Netanyahu acted against an external enemy that threatened to annihilate Israel.”

While Assad’s regime was worse, this does not absolve Netanyahu of being the most incompetent prime minister in Israel’s history. He supported and bolstered Hamas, systematically obstructing any political resolution with the Palestinians. His refusal to pursue a political solution gave Iran an opening to present itself as “the protector” of the Palestinian people. Netanyahu deepened the occupation and perpetuated an apartheid regime that denies 5 million Palestinians basic human and civil rights.

He failed to protect Israeli citizens from the horrific massacres perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, leaving defenceless Israelis vulnerable to unimaginable violence. Netanyahu also ushered openly racist parties into his government, focusing his efforts on undermining Israel’s democratic system and attempting a judicial coup to shield himself from the criminal charges he faces. Now that fighting has diminished, and a new phase in his trial begun, he is giving a new green light for the judicial coup to advance.  In recent years, Netanyahu has adopted a mantra akin to Assad’s: “It’s me or the state burns down.”

In the aftermath of the devastating war, all peoples of the region—particularly the Palestinian people—must reassess their approach to the conflict. Support for armed struggle, the “resistance axis,” and violence has led the region and the Palestinian people to ruin and disaster. A new path must be forged, one that prioritizes diplomacy, coexistence, and rebuilding trust.

Without a doubt, respecting individual freedoms and adopting democracy as a fundamental framework for societal development is a guarantee for the security of all nations. The Palestinians must change their misguided approach of boycotting everything Israeli, including the democratic forces within Israel, under the pretext of opposing “normalization.” Instead of this futile policy that leads to a dead end, a creative leadership is needed to present a plan for building Palestinian society in partnership with progressive elements in Israel.

This equation also requires an Israeli component. Liberal and democratic forces in Israel must reassess their positions and put an end to the notion that the conflict with the Palestinians can be “managed” and its resolution postponed to a distant future. Leaving the occupation and apartheid regime in the territories intact—even while taking steps to “reduce the conflict”—creates fertile ground for the growth of racist and fascist forces and fuels the flames of judicial overhaul and the dismantling of democracy. The result is the establishment of an anti-liberal, religious, messianic regime, with the Nation-State Law of 2018 serving as its wake-up call, leading to the judicial coup of Minister of Justice Yariv Levin in 2023.

The pro-democracy protest movement, which demonstrated for months against the far-right government, proved that there are resilient and influential democratic forces in Israel with widespread public support who are aware of the dangers. This movement must break free from conservative thinking and adopt radical solutions based on partnerships of peace and democracy with the peoples of the region. Peace and mutual recognition with the Palestinians are central components that will secure the future of all nations, as well as the stability and rebuilding of Israeli society itself.

The post Position Statement of the Da’am Party
Fall of the Assad Regime: The End of the Iranian-Russian Axis first appeared on Da'am Party: One state - Green Economy.

Position of DAAM Party: October 7th Massacre: crime against humanity!

BY The DAAM Party – POSTED ON 25/10/2023

Am 7. Oktober verübte die Hamas Verbrechen gegen die Menschheit, als sie Zivilisten angriff, Kinder, Alte, Frauen und Männer in den Gemeinden um Gaza. Die Aktionen der Hamas an diesem Tag forderten 1.300 Tote, Tausende Verwundete und führten zu etwa 200 Geiseln. Doch die langfristigen Folgen dieser Taten werden sicher noch weit schwerer wiegen. Es war ein Angriff nicht allein gegen die Israelis, sondern auch gegen die Palästinenser, sie zielten auf die Grundlage neuen Lebens. DAAM vertritt das Recht von Israelis und Palästinensern auf ein Leben in Freiheit und Würde in diesem Land. DAAM lehnt die israelische Militärherrschaft über die 1967 besetzten palästinensischen Gebiete ab und hat beständig – manchmal unter schwierigen Bedingungen, isoliert – für eine gerechte Lösung gearbeitet, die Palästinensern gleiche Rechte sichert.

Gleichzeitig hat DAAM immer den islamischen Extremismus abgelehnt, für den die Hamas steht. Voller Sorge sahen wir die Dominanz der Hamas in der palästinensische Sache und die destruktive Auseinandersetzung, die sich daraus entwickelte. Wir arbeiteten und hofften auf die Wiederherstellung einer demokratischen palästinensischen Kraft, die der extremistischen Ideologie entgegentritt, die auf Hass basiert und jede Möglichkeit einer politischen Lösung und eines Frieden zwischen beiden Völkern ausschließt.

Alle israelischen Regierungen bevorzugten die Hamas als die herrschende Fraktion in Gaza. Trotz wiederholter Zyklen der Gewalt und entgegen den Versicherungen Netanyahus sowie der anderen israelischen Anführer, hat Israel der Hamas immer wieder Legitimität verschafft. Israel sah die Hamas als effektiven Subunternehmer, ignorierte die gefährliche Ideologie der Organisation und den Terror, den sie gegen die Bewohner von Gaza ausübte.

Dieses Desaster hätte verhindert werden können

DAAM lehnte die Oslo-Vereinbarungen 1993 ab, weil sie keine Basis für einen dauerhaften Frieden zwischen Israel und den Palästinensern boten. Die Palästinensische Autonomiebehörde, die durch Oslo geschaffen wurde, erwies sich bald als korrupt, unfähig, den Bewohnern der West-Bank und Gazas eine Alternative zur israelischen Besatzung zu bieten. Die PA stimmte der Fortsetzung der Siedlungen zu und weckte zurecht den Hass auf den Straßen Palästinas. Die Hamas nutzte die Schwachpunkte von Oslo und der PA. Sie begann, unter den Palästinensern ihre giftige Ideologie zu verbreiten, begleitet durch Bomben in Bussen und eine Terrorkampagne gegen die Bürger Israels. Diese finstere Realität stärkte und nährte die israelische Rechte. Die Ermordung Jitzak Rabins im Oktober 1995 war ein entscheidender Moment in der Geschichte des Konfliktes, in dem die extreme Rechte ihre dominierende Position in Israel festigte.

2005 setzte Ariel Sharon den Abzugsplan für Gaza durch. Der Plan eines einseitigen Rückzugs, ohne Vereinbarung mit den Palästinensern, war eigentlich ein Geschenk für die Hamas. Sharons Plan war es, Gaza zu verlassen, um so die Kontrolle Israels über die West Bank zu stärken, um jede politische Bewegung für einen Rückzug und eine Aufgabe von Siedlungen zu verhindern. Diese Politik basierte auf der Trennung zwischen der West Bank und Gaza und wurde von allen israelischen Regierungen seither übernommen. Die Annahme war, auf diese Weise Sicherheit für die Israelis zu schaffen, vertrauend auf eine Art von Waffenstillstand, die Hudna, mit der Hamas. So wurde die Terrororganisation in Gaza Israels Partner bei der Verwaltung des Gazastreifens. Auch wiederholte Waffengänge änderten nicht die Wahrnehmung, dass die Hamas die Macht in Gaza stellt und entsprechend behandelt werden muss.

Am 7. Oktober 2023 erntete Israel die bitteren Früchte dieser falschen und destruktiven Politik. Nun, nach 18 Jahren, hat sich der Kreis geschlossen. Israel ist an einem Punkt, an dem es keine Wahl hat und wieder die Kontrolle über Gaza übernehmen muss. Der barbarische Angriff der Hamas war ein strategischer, militärischer, sozialer und politischer Schlag, der Israel überraschte und komplett veränderte.

Die bevorstehende Bodenoffensive in Gaza wird unvorstellbare Folgen für die Israelis und die Palästinenser haben. Für die Israelis wird ein langer und grausamer Krieg, vielleicht ein Mehrfrontenkrieg, viele junge Leben kosten, die Wirtschaft schädigen und Ressourcen zerstören, die für Wohlstand und Entwicklung verwendet werden könnten. Für die Palästinenser heißt das: Tausende von unschuldigen Opfern und eine beispiellose humanitäre Krise. Schon heute (18.10.) gibt es über eine halbe Millionen Vertriebene, die in den Süden des Gazastreifens flüchten in der Hoffnung, den Kämpfen zu entkommen.

Diese menschliche Tragödie wird sich in das Bewusstsein beider Nationen für Jahre eingraben. Die Hamas und die israelische Regierung sind dafür direkt verantwortlich. Wie gesagt: Nach dem Rückzug den Gazastreifen unter der Kontrolle der Hamas zu halten, war im Interesse der Hamas und der israelischen Rechten. Trotz der virtuellen Autonomie von Gaza unter der Führung der Hamas war der Gazastreifen abgeschottet und vollständig von Israel abhängig. Die Strom- und Wasserversorgung, die Ausgabe von Ausweisen, der Schekel als offizielle Währung, die Einfuhr von Lebensmitteln und Treibstoffen – die Schlüssel zu allen Aspekten des Lebens in Gaza blieben in den Händen Israels. Alle israelischen Regierungen spielten, mit der Unterstützung der internationalen Gemeinschaft, ihren Part in dieser Inszenierung, die nun durch den unvorstellbaren Terror der Hamas auf israelischem Boden erschüttert wurde.

Die symbiotische Beziehung zwischen Israel und der Hamas

Im Januar 2006 gewann die Hamas die Wahlen zum Palästinensischen Legislativrat. Ismail Haniya, der Führer der Hamas, wurde der Chef der PA im Gaza. Doch statt als Führung einer verantwortlichen politischen Einheit zu handeln, nutzte die Hamas die erreichten Positionen, um ihre militärische Stärke auszubauen. Im Juni 2006 entführten Kämpfer der Organisation Gilad Shalit. Im Juni 2007, angesichts des Chaos, dass nach der Entführung entstand, der israelischen Blockade und des andauernden militärischen Drucks, griffen bewaffnete Einheiten der Hamas die Aktivisten der Fatah in Gaza an und übernahmen alle Institutionen mit brutaler Gewalt gegen ihre Gegner.

Die Hamas lehnte die Oslo-Vereinbarungen ab und nahm doch an den Wahlen zum Palästinensischen Parlament teil, die auf genau dieser Grundlage abgehalten wurden. Hamas nutzte Oslo als Grundlage, um die Kontrolle über den Gazastreifen zu übernehmen, und, wie sie hofften, eines Tages auch über die Palästinenser in der West Bank.

2011 gab die israelische Regierung dem öffentlichen Druck nach und stimmte einem Gefangenenaustausch zu. Im Tausch für die Rückkehr eines Soldaten, Gilat Shalit, wurden mehr als 1000 palästinensische Gefangene entlassen, darunter Yihya Sinwar, der Chef der Hamas im Gazastreifen wurde und den terroristischen Angriff am 7. Oktober dirigierte.

So baute die Hamas ihre Macht aus. Aus einer Organisation, die 2007 nur einige Granatwerfer mit einer maximalen Reichweite von 2 km verfügte, wurde eine militärische Kraft, mit Tausenden Raketen, die auch Tel Aviv und Haifa erreichen können. Während sie mit Tunneln eine Stadt im Untergrund von Gaza bauten, stellte sich die Hamas als der offizielle Vertreter des palästinensischen Volkes dar, wie einst die PLO. Ihre Führer, die meist im Ausland leben, werden als Ehrengäste in der arabischen Welt und Ländern wie Russland und dem Iran empfangen. Die PA, die an der Verwaltung ihrer Territorien gescheitert ist, korrupt und abgeschnitten von der Bevölkerung, kann mit der Hamas nicht konkurrieren.

Die Absurdität der israelischen Politik bestand darin, dass sie nicht zwischen den Bewohnern und der Führung zu unterschied und die Hamas nicht als eine zynische Terrororganisation zu behandelte, die die Bewohner als Geiseln genommen hat. Sie gestatte stattdessen der Hamas, den Gazastreifen zu kontrollieren und ihre militärische Macht auszubauen.

Die Politik der Hamas basierte darauf, dass in jedem Fall eines israelischen Militärangriffs das entstehende humanitäre Desaster weltweiten Druck erzeugen und Israel isolieren, die Blockade schwächen und so ihre Legitimität stärken würde. Auf diese Weise konnte die Organisation weiter die humanitäre Hilfe für die Bewohner plündern und in die Raketenproduktion stecken.

Die Hamas ist eine fundamentalistische, hierarchische Organisation. Sie zielt nicht auf eine politische Lösung. Sie hatte daher kein Problem, das Schicksal der Palästinenser mit dem Regime der Ajatollahs im Iran zu verbinden – einem Regime, das mit den Palästinensern nichts verbindet, weder national noch religiös. 2012 verließen die Führer der Hamas Damaskus, nachdem sie die Massaker des Assad Regimes am syrischen Volk verurteilt hatten. Die Mehrheit der Syrer wie der Palästinenser sind Sunniten. Dieser Bruch führte zu einer Krise in den Beziehungen der Hamas zum Iran, dem Sponsor und Waffenbruder des mörderischen Regimes in Damaskus. Diese Krise endete 2022 mit einem Besuch der Hamasführung in Damaskus und einer Wiederaufnahme der Beziehungen zum Iran.

Die Haltung der Hamas zu Israel geht davon aus, dass die Israelis dumm sind. Erstens, weil sie Demokraten sind, eine Idee, die mit dem extremen Islam unvereinbar ist, der Demokratie für eine Schwäche hält. Und zweitens, weil sie liberal sind, eine obszöne Erscheinung in ihrem Weltbild, eine Vergötterung des Konsums und abgeschnitten von jeder Spiritualität.

Im Namen dieser „Spiritualität“ verübten die Agenten der Hamas ein barbarisches Massaker an hilflosen Zivilisten. Die Sprecher der Hamas leugnen das Massaker und die Grausamkeiten. Doch  die Grausamkeiten sind in Fotos und den ausführlichen Richtlinien dokumentiert, mit denen die „Al-Nukba“ Einheiten in den Dschihad zogen. Die arabische Presse ignoriert die Massaker und kooperiert mit der Hamas in der Gehirnwäsche von Millionen Menschen rund um den Erdball. Doch Tatsachen können nicht verheimlicht werden. 1.300 Tote, darunter 500, die von den Mördern lebendig verbrannten, so dass sie nicht identifiziert werden können. Zeugenaussagen und Fotos beweisen die Verbrechen.

Langfristig gesehen hat sich die Hamas verrechnet. Die Gruppe hat ihre Rolle als Subunternehmer Israels nicht verstanden. Sie hat nicht verstanden, dass sie ohne Israel keinen Platz hat. Vielleicht vertraute sie darauf, dass die Hisbollah und der Iran ihr zu Hilfe kommen, einen Krieg von Gog und Magog gegen Israel starten würden. Die übersteigerte Selbstsicherheit verleitete die Führung der Hamas zu der Einschätzung, dass ein strategischer Angriff auf Israel sie in eine unabhängige Kraft verwandeln könnte. Sie zog nicht in Betracht, dass ein solcher Angriff Israel keine andere Möglichkeit lassen würde als die Vernichtung ihrer Organisation.

Die Amerikaner und der Protest übernehmen die Führung

Der Angriff der Hamas traf Israel mitten in einem existenziellen inneren Kampf um seinen Charakter: soll es ein liberaler demokratischer Staat oder eine Diktatur sein? Eine beispiellose Protestbewegung war gegen eine gefährliche Koalition der messianischen, faschistischen Rechten aufgestanden, die religiöse Führer wie machthungrige und korrupte Politiker umfasste. Während wir die Protestbewegung als eine Quelle der Hoffnung und einen Anfang zur Korrektur von Israels falscher und gewalttätiger Politik sahen, sahen Ismail Haniyeh und die Hamasführung den Protest als eine Schwäche, die sie ausnutzen konnten.

Die israelischen Streitkräfte stützen sich einerseits auf Technologie und Geheimdienste, andererseits auf die Luftwaffe mit ihren professionellen und motivierten Piloten. Die Erosion der Motivation der Luftwaffenpiloten, verursacht vom Versuch eines Regime Change durch die eigene Regierung, erschien der Hamasführung als ideale Chance. Zudem verschaffte sich der Hamas Geheimdienst Informationen über Israel und konnte dabei die eigenen Pläne geheim halten. Ihre Leute gelangten in die Kommandozentrale für den Gazastreifen dank einer genauen Karte, über die sie verfügten (Ronen Bergman, NYT). Die Hamas wussten alles, was es über die Siedlungen in der Umgebung und die Städte Sderot und Netivot zu wissen gab. Jede der eindringenden Gruppen wusste genau, wohin sie gehen und was sie tun sollten.

Die israelische Armee wurde überrascht und brauchte 48 Stunden, um zu reagieren. Der  inzige Schutz für die Bewohner waren die Polizei, die Grenztruppen und Bürger, die selbständig auf das Schlachtfeld aufbrachen, um ihre Freunde und Verwandten zu retten. Die israelische Öffentlichkeit ergriff eine tiefe Angst angesichts des Verschwindens der Armee und der Ohnmacht der politischen Führung.

In dieses politische Vakuum stieß die US-Regierung. Sie handelte, um jede Möglichkeit eines israelischen Zusammenbruchs abzuwenden. Die Präsident Biden sprach wie Churchill und zeigte, wie Führung in einer Zeit ohne Orientierung aussehen muss. Er erklärte eine bedingungslose Unterstützung für Israel und warnte alle, die Nutzen aus der Situation ziehen wollten, dass sie vorsichtig sein sollten: „DON’T“ wiederholte er mehrfach. Biden erklärte, dass die Hamas eine existenzielle Gefahr für das israelische Volk ist. Er machte klar, dass der Verteidigungskrieg Israel gerechtfertigt ist.

Seit dem Tag der Wahl Bidens haben wir festgestellt, entgegen mancher Kritik, dass er der einzige Faktor in der Weltpolitik ist, der gegen Diktatur und Faschismus steht. Auch dieses Mal erkannte Biden, dass er intervenieren musste, denn ein Zusammenbruch Israels wäre eine Gefahr für die Demokratie in der Welt und für die Sicherheit der Amerikaner selbst. Ein Sieg der Hamas ist ein Sieg für das Lager des Iran, Putins Verbündeten, so auch eine Gefahr für die Ukraine.

Die israelische Rechte flirtete mit Putin und lehnte die Unterstützung Bidens im Krieg um die Ukraine ab. Der Angriff der Hamas zeigte, dass zwei Lager bestehen: die USA, Europa, die Ukraine  und Israel auf der einen Seite, Russland, Iran, Syrien und vielleicht China auf der anderen. Die Entsendung der 6. US-Flotte ins Mittelmeer und die Entfaltung des US-Schirms war der Schutz für Israel. Es stellte die Sicherheit für Israel wieder her. Zum ersten Mal gab es einen Konsens in Israel über Bidens klare Führung.

Seit 2011 hat DAAM die Ereignisse des arabischen Frühlings in Syrien genau verfolgt. Der Frühling endete in einem brutalen Winter. Russland und der Iran kamen dem Assad-Regime zur Hilfe. Sie halfen ihm beim Massaker an der syrischen Bevölkerung, was eine riesige Fluchtbewegung, zumeist nach Europa, auslöste. Als Putin die Ukraine überfiel, unterstützten wir die Ukraine ohne Bedenken, als eine Verteidigung der Demokratie gegen die Diktatur. Die Beseitigung der Hamas ist für die Bidenregierung notwendig angesichts der Achse des Bösen: Russland, Iran und ihrer Metastasen in der Region. Biden unterstützt Israel, denn seine Demokratie ist wichtig nicht nur für die Israelis, sondern ebenso für die Palästinenser und die Möglichkeit, dass ein arabischer Frühling wiederkehrt. Die Kräfte, die sich im arabischen Frühling gezeigt haben, werden sich nicht sammeln und wirken können, so lange der Nahe Osten von fundamentalistischen und monarchistischen Diktaturen beherrscht wird. In den USA selbst geht der Kampf um die Seele der Demokratie weiter. Das Trump-Lager, unterstützt durch Putin und mit Sympathien für die Hisbollah, ist eine Gefahr für das amerikanische Volk und die Menschheit.

Viele junge Menschen in der arabischen Welt, unter ihnen prominente Intellektuelle, beurteilen die Wirklichkeit nach dem alten Muster: Russland = Anti-Imperialismus – auf unserer Seite; die USA = aggressiver Imperialismus – der Feind der Völker. Diese Wahrnehmung bestimmt auch ihre Sympathie für die Hamas und die Hisbollah und die Beschreibung dieser Organisationen als Freiheitskämpfer. Viele Unterstützer der FREE PALASTINE Bewegung tappen in diese Falle. Die Lage des ukrainischen und syrischen Volkes zeigt die große Lüge, die dem zugrunde liegt. Indem Israel jetzt die Führung der USA akzeptiert, bricht es mit der Linie Netanyahus, der sich der Linie der Diktatoren angeschlossen hatte.

Eine entscheidende Aufgabe für die Organisationen des Protests

Der zweite Faktor, der Israel rettete, war die Protestbewegung, die seit dem 7. Oktober eine große Hilfskampagne im Land anführt. Von Anfang an verstand die Protestbewegung, dass Biden ein vertrauenswürdiger Verbündeter ist. Auf den Demos in der Kaplanstraße in Tel Aviv zog sie die amerikanische Fahne neben der israelischen auf. Die Führung der Bewegung verlangte, dass sich Biden nicht mit Netanyahu traf. Die Protestbewegung bildet jetzt die Klammer, die die israelische Gesellschaft zusammenhält. Das ist entscheidend, weil sich das Bündnis zwischen Israel und den USA während Netanyahus Amtszeit massiv verschlechtert hat, als Israel sich als unabhängige Kraft gegen die Allianz der demokratischen Länder aufspielte.

Als DAAM entschied, die Protestbewegung zu unterstützen, taten wir das, weil diese Bewegung die Fahne der Demokratie und Gleichheit erhob. Die Dominanz der israelischen Flagge war in unseren Augen problematisch, da so die Bildung eines gemeinsamen Nenners mit der arabischen Gesellschaft verhindert wurde. Dennoch wussten wir, dass der Protest eine demokratische Bewegung ist, die in der arabischen Welt unmöglich wäre.

Biden unterstützt Israel nicht, weil er Zionist ist. Die Vernichtung der Hamas als einer Terrororganisation ist im Interesse des gesamt demokratischen Lagers, einschließlich Europas und Israels. Die alte Haltung Israels war, das Biden nicht weiß, was er tut. Wir Israelis sind die Seiltänzer, wir wissen, uns oben zu halten und werden die Hamas austricksen und alle Seiten zu unserem Vorteil ausnutzen. Wir können uns nur auf uns verlassen. – Der Krieg, den die Hamas am 7. Oktober begann, hat dieses Konzept zerstört. Israel realisierte, dass es demokratische Verbündete braucht.

Unsere Position: Die israelische faschistische Rechte loswerden – und die Hamas, mit der sie kollaborierte

Jeder, der heute auf Gaza schaut und sagt, dass es eine menschliche Tragödie ist, hat recht. Eine Million wurden auf die Straßen geworfen und zur Flucht in den Süden des Gazastreifens gezwungen. Das Los von Frauen, Kindern, hilflosen Alten ist völlig unklar. Wir lehnen die extremistischen Stimmen ab, die in Israel Rache fordern, die nicht zwischen der Hamas und dem palästinensischen Volk unterscheiden. Wir verlangen allen möglichen Schutz von Zivilisten. Wir verlangen die Garantie von humanitären Korridoren, die der UN und Hilfsorganisationen ermöglichen, das Leben für die Bewohner von Gaza zu schützen und zu erleichtern.

Die große Frage ist, ob Israel in der gegebenen politischen Situation und angesichts des erlittenen moralischen Schlages die Hamas vollständig zerstören kann. Die Frage wird noch entschieden werden. Eine andere strategische Frage entsteht, wenn Israel erst seine Militäroperationen abgeschlossen hat: Wer kann die Hamas ersetzen und die Kontrolle in Gaza übernehmen? Zugleich  müssen sich die Palästinenser und ihre Unterstützer ehrlich fragen, ob sie einen Sieg der Hamas über Israel vorziehen und wirklich bereit sind, in einem Staat mit einem fundamentalistischen Regime wie im Iran oder Irak zu leben.

Wir wollen, dass die Hamas besiegt wird. Aber wir glauben nicht, dass dies unter der Führung von Netanyahu und der faschistischen Siedlerorganisationen erreicht werden kann, die jetzt endlich alle öffentliche Unterstützung verloren haben. Israel wird eine neue Regierung bilden müssen, geführt von Menschen aus der demokratischen Protestbewegung. Die Anführer des Protestes und ihre Unterstützer sind ununterbrochen tätig, Tag und Nacht, um israelische Bürger zu unterstützen. Sie füllen das Vakuum, das durch den Ausfall der Regierung entstanden ist. Sie sagen Netanyahu: Wenn wir den Krieg gewinnen, dann nicht wegen Deiner Führung, sondern trotz Eurer Regierung.

Sofort nach dem Ende der Kämpfe in Gaza wird ein Kampf um die Entfernung Netanyahus und seiner Verbündeten von der Macht in Israel beginnen. Wir bereiten uns auf diesen Moment vor und werden mit allen unseren Kräften dabei helfen. Ein Sieg der demokratischen Protestbewegung in Israel wird auch ein neues Kapitel in den arabisch-jüdischen Beziehungen öffnen. Die Palästinensische Sache wird nach dem Ende der Hamas hoffentlich eine wesentliche Veränderung erfahren. In den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten hatte die Hamas es geschafft, alle freien Debatten, jede liberalere Position zum Schweigen zu bringen. Jede Zusammenarbeit mit Israelis wurde diffamiert als Verteidigung des Status quo. Wenn es gelingt, die Hamas und die faschistische Rechte in Israel zu stürzen, öffnen sich Möglichkeiten für einen gemeinsamen Friedensprozess. Dies ist ein Kampf an zwei Fronten.

Viele Israelis, die in der Nähe des Gazastreifens lebten, die ermordet oder entführt wurden, unterstützten eine politische Lösung mit den Palästinensern, ja sogar mit der Hamas. Die Idee, dass auf der Grundlage der Blockade und der Abtrennung Frieden erreicht werden könnte, die Idee einer Versöhnung mit einem terroristischen Regime nur wenige Kilometer entfernt, ist am 7. Oktober zusammengebrochen. Eine zwei Staaten-Lösung, wovon der eine eine Demokratie ist, während der andere von einem gesetzlosen Regime beherrscht wird (was der „Mentalität“ der Palästinenser entsprechen soll), ist ebenso zusammengebrochen. Wir müssen verstehen, dass die Westbank und Gaza mit Israel verbunden sind, geographisch wie ökonomisch. Wir leben seit Jahren in der Realität eines Landes, in dem ein Apartheidregime nationaler Diskriminierung zwischen Israelis und Palästinensern existiert. Bis wir bereit sind, gleichberechtigt mit den Palästinensern in einem demokratischen Staat zwischen dem Jordan und dem Mittelmeer zu leben, wird das fürchterliche Blutvergießen nicht beendet werden.

https://planwirtschaft.works/2023/10/29/hamas-israel-der-schlaf-der-vernunft/

The post Stellungnahme der DAAM: Das Massaker am 7. Oktober – ein Verbrechen gegen die Menschheit! first appeared on Da'am Party: One state - Green Economy.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas perpetrated crimes against humanity by targeting civilians, children, the elderly, women, and men in the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip. The actions of Hamas on that day resulted in a staggering toll of 1,300 fatalities, thousands injured, and some 200 hostages. However, the long-term impact of these actions is likely to be even more severe. In the long run they represent not only an assault Israelis, but also against Palestinians as they target the fabric of a future life. The DAAM Party stands for the right of both Israelis and Palestinians alike to a life of freedom and dignity in this land. DAAM opposes the Israeli military rule over the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 and has consistently strived, sometimes in challenging conditions of isolation, for a just resolution that ensures equal rights for Palestinians.

Simultaneously, DAAM has consistently condemned the Islamic extremism that Hamas represents. We have observed with concern the domination of Hamas over the Palestinian scene and the destructive discourse that has subsequently developed within it. We have acted and hoped for the resurgence of a democratic Palestinian force that opposes this extremist ideology, grounded in hatred and which denies any possibility of a political solution and peace between the two peoples.

All Israeli governments have preferred Hamas to be the influential, ruling faction in Gaza. Despite recurring cycles of violence and the assurances of Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders, Israel has consistently acted to provide Hamas with legitimacy. It has perceived Hamas as an effective sub-contractor, ignoring the organization’s dangerous ideology and the terror it has exerted upon Gaza inhabitants themselves.

This disaster could have been prevented

DAAM opposed the 1993 Oslo Accords, arguing that they lacked any basis for establishing a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority, established within the framework of the Oslo Accords, quickly revealed itself as a corrupt entity incapable of providing the inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza with an alternative to Israeli occupation. The Palestinian Authority acquiesced to continued settlements and rightly incurred the wrath of the Palestinian street. Hamas exploited the weaknesses of the Oslo Accords and the Palestinian Authority. It began disseminating its poisonous ideology among the Palestinians, accompanied by suit side bombings of buses and a campaign of terror against Israeli civilians. This grim reality nourished and strengthened the Israeli right. The October 1995 assassination of Yitzhak Rabin was a pivotal moment in the history of the conflict, solidifying the dominance of the Israeli far right.

In 2005, PM Ariel Sharon implemented the Disengagement Plan from Gaza. This unilateral withdrawal plan, implemented without an agreement with the Palestinians, was in essence a gift to Hamas. Sharon’s goal was to leave Gaza and thus solidify Israel’s hold on the West Bank, neutralizing any political move that would necessitate a withdrawal and dismantling of settlements there. The policy of separating Gaza from the West Bank (the “isolation principle”), was henceforth adopted by all Israeli governments. It was meant to provide security for Israelis, relying on a form of ceasefire (“hudna”) with Hamas. Thus, the terrorist organization in Gaza became a partner to Israel in managing Gaza. Even recurring cycles of violence with Hamas did not alter the perception that Hamas controlled Gaza and had to be dealt with accordingly.

On October 7th, 2023, Israel reaped the bitter fruits of this misguided and destructive policy. Now, after 18 years, the circle has closed. Israel finds itself with no choice but to reassert control over Gaza. Hamas’s barbaric attack was a strategic, military, social, and political blow that horrified Israel and transformed it entirely.

The future ground incursion into Gaza will come at an incomprehensible cost to both Israelis and Palestinians. From the Israeli side, a protracted and ruthless war, which could develop to include multiple fronts, will claim the lives of many young people, impact the economy, and destroy resources that could have been directed towards welfare and development. From the Palestinian side, there will be thousands of innocent victims and an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Already today (October 18th), there are over half a million displaced people in the Gaza Strip, fleeing to the south in the hope of escaping the crossfire.

This human tragedy will be seared into the consciousness of both peoples for many years to come. The direct culprits are Hamas and the Israeli government. As noted, the preservation of Hamas as the post-disengagement ruler in Gaza was a joint interest of Hamas and the Israeli right. Despite the perceived autonomy of Gaza under Hamas’s governance, in reality Gaza remained closed and entirely dependent on Israel. The supply of electricity and water, issuance of identity documents, the shekel as the official currency, and the import of food and fuel —key to all aspects of life in Gaza- remained in the hands of Israel. All Israeli governments, with support of the international community, played a part in creating this quagmire, which shattered in the unimaginable display of terror by Hamas on Israeli soil.

The symbiotic relationship between Israel and Hamas

In January 2006, Hamas won the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council. Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas, became the head of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza. Instead of acting as the leader of a responsible political entity, however, the Hamas organization used its position to strengthen its military power. In June 2006, armed members of the organization abducted Gilad Shalit. In June 2007, within the chaotic reality that ensued after the abduction, the Israeli siege and continuous military pressure, Hamas militants attacked Fatah activists in Gaza and seized all institutions, employing brutal violence against their opponents.

Hamas opposed the Oslo Accords, which did not prevent it from participating in the Palestinian parliament elections that were held based on the Oslo Accords. Hamas used the Oslo Accords as a platform to take control of the Gaza Strip, hoping, eventually, to gain control over the entire Palestinian people in the West bank too.

In 2011, under pressure from the Israeli public demanding release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli government finally relented and agreed to a prisoner exchange deal. In exchange for the release of one soldier, Gilad Shalit, more than a thousand prisoners were freed, including Yihya Sinwar, who became the leader of Hamas in Gaza and orchestrated the October 7 terrorist attack.

Thus, Hamas built its power. From an organization that held a limited number of mortars in 2007 with a maximum range of 2 kilometers, Hamas has evolved into a formidable military force, equipped with thousands of missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv and Haifa. By constructing an underground city of tunnels in Gaza, Hamas has positioned itself as the official and exclusive representative of the Palestinian people, akin to the PLO in its time. Its leaders, based primarily abroad, are received as esteemed guests in the Arab world and in countries including Russia and Iran. The Palestinian Authority, which failed in managing the territories it received from Israel and became corrupt and disconnected from the people, failed to compete with Hamas and establish its supremacy.

The absurdity in Israel’s policy, which instead of distinguishing between residents and the leadership that took control of them, and viewing Hamas as a cynical terrorist organization that exploits the Palestinians in Gaza as pawns, allowed Hamas to rule Gaza and strengthen its military power.

Hamas’s policy was based on the premise that in case of an Israeli military attack, the ensuing humanitarian disaster would trigger global pressure globally, isolate Israel, lift the siege from Gaza, and increase Hamas’s legitimacy. This enabled the organization to continue embezzling humanitarian aid funds intended to assist Gaza residents and instead use it to produce missiles.

As a fundamentalist, deterministic organization not aimed at advancing a political solution, Hamas had no problem linking the fate of the Palestinians to Iran’s Ayatollah regime, a regime lacking any historical connection, whether religious or national, to the Palestinian people. In 2012, Hamas leaders left Damascus after condemning Assad regime’s massacre carried out against the Syrian people, the majority of whom belong to the Sunni sect, to which most of the Palestinian people also belong. This rupture plunged Hamas into a crisis in its relations with Iran, which had been providing it with patronage and support together with the murderous regime in Damascus. The crisis concluded in 2022 with a visit by Hamas leaders to Damascus and the renewal of relations with Iran.

Hamas’s attitude towards Israel presumed that Israelis are fools. First, because they are democrats, an idea that is not accepted by extremist Islam, which perceives democracy as a weakness. And second, because they are liberals, a phenomenon deemed despicable by the same perception, as it sanctifies consumerism and is disconnected from spirituality.

Indeed, in the name of that “spirituality,” Hamas agents committed a barbaric massacre against defenseless civilians. Hamas spokespeople deny the massacre and all the atrocities which have taken place. However, all atrocities committed were documented and captured in the detailed instructions received by the “Al-Nukhba” forces sent out for the Jihad war. The Arab press ignores the massacre and collaborates with Hamas in brainwashing millions around the world. The facts, however, cannot be hidden. 1,300 bodies, including 500 bodies burnt alive by the insurgents, remain unidentifiable. There are living testimonies and evidence that prove the crimes committed by Hamas operatives.

In the long run, Hamas miscalculated. The organization’s leadership overestimated its role as Israel’s subcontractor. It failed to understand that without Israel, it has no existence in the region. Perhaps it assumed that Hezbollah and Iran would come to its aid and launch the battle of Gog and Magog against Israel. The Hamas leadership’s inflated sense of security led it to conclude that by inflicting a strategic blow to Israel, it would become an independent power. It did not consider that such an action would leave Israel no choice but to annihilate the organization.

The Americans and the protest take control

Hamas’s attack found Israel amid an existential internal struggle over its character – whether it would be a democratic liberal state or an emerging dictatorship. An unprecedented protest movement stood up against a dangerous coalition of messianic, fascist right-wingers, including dangerous religious leaders and power-hungry, corrupt politicians. While we identified in the protest movement a source of hope and an opening for correcting Israel’s misguided and aggressive policies, Ismail Haniyeh and the Hamas leadership saw it as a weakness to be exploited.

The Israeli military relies on both technology and intelligence, as well as air power based on the professionalism and motivation of its pilots. The erosion in the motivation of Israel’s air force pilots, because of the government’s attempted regime change, appeared to Hamas’s leadership as a golden opportunity. Additionally, Hamas’s intelligence successfully gathered information about Israel while concealing its own plans from it. Hamas operatives knew exactly how to reach the Israel’s Gaza Strip command center thanks to an accurate map in their possession (Ronen Bergman, NYT). Hamas operatives knew everything that could be known about the communities in the vicinity, as well as the cities of Sderot and Netivot. Every group of Hamas operatives that infiltrated Israel knew exactly where they were going and what they were doing.

The Israeli army was stunned and struggled to function for 48 hours. Those who saved residents were the police and border guards, as well as other civilians who went to the battlefield themselves to rescue loved ones. The Israeli public was hit by an existential anxiety due to the army’s disappearance and the political leadership’s hollowness.

Into this governmental void entered the American administration, which acted to prevent any possibility of Israel’s collapse. The Churchillian speech of President Biden showed what leadership should look like in a place empty of leadership. He expressed unconditional support for Israel and warned those, such as Iran and Hezbollah, who wanted to exploit the situation that it would be better for them to be careful.  “DON’T” was the word he repeated twice. Biden declared that Hamas poses an existential threat to the Israeli people, thus emphasizing the justification of Israel’s defensive war.

From the moment of Biden’s election, we argued, despite many critics, that he is the sole force in the world standing against dictatorships and fascism. Once again, Biden understood that he had to intervene, as Israel’s collapse would pose a threat to democracy worldwide and to the national security of the Americans themselves. Hamas’s victory is a victory for the axis of Iran, Putin’s ally, and thus, also threatens Ukraine.

The Israeli right-wing had been flirting with Putin and refused to support Biden in the uncompromising war for Ukraine. Hamas’s attack revealed that there are now two opposing camps confronting each other: the United States, Europe, Ukraine, and Israel on one front, with Russia, Iran, Syria, and perhaps even China on the other. The American deployment of its Sixth Fleet to the Mediterranean and spreading of its defensive umbrella over Israel were intended to save Israel. It restored security to Israelis and, for the first time, a consensus was formed in Israel on the courageous leadership of Biden.

Since 2011, DAAM has closely followed events of the Arab Spring in Syria, a spring which transformed into a cruel winter. Russia and Iran came to Assad’s aid and helped him massacre the Syrian people. A huge wave of refugees was created, many of whom reached Europe. When Putin invaded Ukraine, we supported Ukraine without reservation, as those defending democracy against dictatorship. The elimination of Hamas, from Biden’s administration’s perspective, is also necessary in the face of the axis of evil comprising Russia, Iran, and their regional affiliates. Biden declared his support for Israel because this democracy is important not only for Israelis, but also for Palestinians and the possibility of the Arab Spring’s return. The forces that emerged during the Arab Spring will not be able to strengthen and change the face of the Middle East while it is ruled by fundamentalist or monarchical dictatorships. In the United States itself, a war over the soul of democracy is still being waged. The Trump camp, supported by Putin and demonstrating admiration for Hezbollah, is a threat to the American people and humanity.

Many young people in the Arab world, including prominent intellectuals, still judge reality according to the old paradigm: Russia = anti-imperialism – is on our side; the United States = aggressive imperialism – is the enemy of the people. This perception also shapes the bias in favor of Hamas and Hezbollah, defining these organizations as freedom fighters. Many supporters of the FREE PALESTINE movement fall into this trap. The fate of the Ukrainian and Syrian peoples testifies to the great lie at the core of this perception. When Israel today embraces the leadership of the United States, it is essentially departing from the path led by Netanyahu, which linked it to the axis of dictatorships.

A decisive role for protest organizations.

The second factor that saved Israel was the protest movement, which since October 7th has led the massive home front aid campaign. From the outset, the protest understood that Biden is a trustworthy ally, and therefore raised the American flag alongside the Israeli one during the demonstrations in Kaplan St. (Tel Aviv). The movement’s leadership demanded that Biden not meet with Netanyahu. The protest movement has now transformed into the backbone that holds Israeli society together. This is crucial as the alliance between Israel and the United States completely deteriorated in Netanyahu’s tenure, during which Israel behaved as an independent force, detrimental to the alliance of democratic nations.

When DAAM decided to support the protest movement, we did so because it was a movement that flew the flags of democracy and equality. The predominance of the Israeli flag in the protests was problematic in our view, as it prevented creation of a common denominator with the Arab society. Nevertheless, we understood that at its core, the protest is a democratic movement that does not exist in the Arab world.

Biden does not support Israel because he is a Zionist. The annihilation of Hamas as a terror entity is an interest of the entire democratic camp, including Europe and Israel. Israel’s past approach was that Biden does not understand what he is doing. We Israelis are tightrope walkers who know how to walk a thin line, and we will succeed in outsmarting Hamas and leveraging all sides to our advantage. We have no one to rely on but ourselves. The war initiated by Hamas on October 7th put an end to this approach. Israel realized it needs democratic allies.

DAAM’s position: Get rid of the Israeli fascist right and also of Hamas, with which it collaborated

Anyone who sees what is happening in Gaza today and says it is a human tragedy is right. One million residents have been thrown into the streets, and forced to evacuate to the southern part of the Gaza Strip. The fate of women, children, and helpless elderly people is uncertain. We oppose the extremist voices in Israel demanding revenge, those who do not distinguish between Hamas and the Palestinian people. We call for action to prevent harm to civilians to the extent possible and to ensure humanitarian corridors that will allow UN forces and others to protect the lives and peace of Gaza residents.

The big question is whether Israel can totally eliminate Hamas, given the prevailing political situation and the moral blow it has suffered. This question has yet to be settled. Another strategic question that will arise once Israel completes its military operation is who can replace Hamas and take control of Gaza. On the other hand, the Palestinians and their supporters need to honestly ask themselves whether they are in favor of a Hamas victory over Israel and whether they are actually willing to live in a state with a fundamentalist regime, like Iran, or Iraq.

We want Hamas to be defeated, but do not believe that victory can be achieved under the leadership of Netanyahu and the fascist settler group that, to our delight, has lost all public support. Israel will need to establish a government led by members of the protest movement, which has defined the parameters of a democratic state. The protest leaders and their supporters are tirelessly engaged in assisting citizens day and night, filling the void created by the government’s dysfunction, and they tell Netanyahu: If we win the war, it will be despite your leadership and not because of it.

Immediately following the end of the fighting in Gaza, a critical struggle for the removal of Netanyahu and his associates from power will unfold within Israel. We are preparing for that moment and will try to assist and promote this struggle with all our might. The victory of the democratic protest movement over the fascist forces in Israel will also open a new chapter in Arab-Jewish relations. The Palestinian arena without Hamas, will hopefully undergo a significant transformation. In the past two decades, Hamas has managed to suppress all free discourse, silencing any liberal opinion. Any collaboration with Israelis was defined as normalization. If we succeed in removing Hamas and the fascist right in Israel, all possibilities for examination of a shared peace will be opened. Therefore, this is a crucial battle on both fronts.

It is important to note that many Israeli residents living in “the Gaza envelope”, those killed and abducted, supported a political settlement with the Palestinians, including with Hamas. The idea that peace could be achieved based on siege and separation, and reconciliation with the existence of a terrorist regime just a few kilometers away from your home, collapsed on October 7. The concept of two states, of which one is a democracy, and the other is ruled by a “lawless” regime (which so called “fits the mentality” of the Palestinians), has also crumbled disastrously. We must recognize that Gaza and the West Bank are also tied to Israel, geographically and economically. We have been living for years in a one state reality, where an apartheid regime of national discrimination exists between Israelis and Palestinians. Until we are ready to live in equality with the Palestinians, in one democratic state in the geographic space between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, this terrible bloodshed will not be resolved.

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Apart from Israeli democracy, there exists almost no country that won its democracy without a civil war. Democracy in Israel was established by agreements and compromises that succeeded in maintaining unity and the myth of “eternal Israel”. From its inception, Israeli democracy was based on demography, i.e., on the creation of a Jewish majority. This ongoing concern to preserve the Jewish majority has become the primary social and ideological political axis in Israel. This is also how the “status quo”, an agreement between secular and religious, took place. In fact, for the sake of “peace at home” it forced a compromise on secular residents in the form of keeping the Sabbath and recognizing the value of studying Torah for its own sake. This is the source of the “hybrid” dubbed the Jewish and democratic state. Following the fundamental contradiction between Judaism as a religion and democracy as a liberal secular value, the Knesset refrained from establishing a constitution. David Ben-Gurion left this task to future generations. And so, ahead of the upcoming celebrations of its 75th anniversary, Israel is facing a regime change, which seeks to erase the same balances and understandings that created the Israeli “miracle.”

Not 20 years have passed since in 1948 Israel established its demographic majority by deporting 750,000 Palestinians, and the same majority became virtual. Following the 1967 war, Israel took control of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with inhabitants it previously exiled. Since the Jewish majority became decidedly fictitious, Israel has made countless attempts to preserve the Jewish and democratic character of the country, starting with the autonomy plan and the Jordanian option, through the Oslo Accords and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, to the construction of the separation wall, but they all collapsed. Following this, most of the Israeli public decided to ignore the Palestinian issue, allowing the army to manage the “conflict,” and also to ignore the harsh reality in the occupied territories.

It was the “government of change” let by Naftali Bennet and Yair Lapid which included the right, the centre, the left and even the Islamic movement, that brought this idea to the level of absurd. All coalition members vowed to leave ideological differences aside, and to manage the country as though the demographics between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River had not changed for 55 years. As if a complex reality had not arisen, endangering Israeli democracy! Some 450,000 settlers have made their home in the occupied territories since 1967. The settlements were built in proximity to Palestinian villages and cities, on “state” and private lands. And here is the paradox: as the settlements grew and expanded, the Jewish and democratic state withered.

Within the “Green Line” the country’s citizens belong to diverse and multicultural communities: secular and religious, Ashkenazi and Mizrahi, Arabs and Jews, right-wing and liberal, LGBTQ and straight. In contrast, the character dominating settlements is uniform – Zionist, religious, messianic and racist. Since the settlers represent a cohesive group residing among and within the Palestinian population, they do not have the privilege of ignoring the occupation. They live this violent conflict daily, effectively under military rule with Israeli law spreading its protection over them with the help of temporary decrees.

This is why the settlers demand a final decision. In their eyes, the idea of simply “managing the conflict” in accordance with convictions of Israeli liberals, who care about the democratic nature of the country, costs the settlers loss of life and ongoing insecurity. As long as there is no decision, the settlements remain temporary and the settlers feel like second-class citizens. They feel that they sacrifice their lives for the homeland while the liberal majority moves away from Jewish values in favour of a secular, materialistic, permissive life.

Religious Zionism strives to instil in hearts and minds its ideology, according to which Judea and Samaria are part of Israel, and whoever mentions the word “occupation” is betraying his homeland. They have appropriated the flag, have always claimed the Palestinians are not and will never be a partner, and that dividing the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is impossible. As the general public has also adopted the “no partner” idea, the settlers decided that the time for a decision has come. No more idle talk about managing the conflict, but ending it by taking the last necessary step and annexing the West Bank to Israel, just as Jerusalem was annexed in 1967. The annexation would normally mean immediate citizenship for 3 million Palestinians and violation of the demographic balance. However, Religious Zionism’s solution to the demographic problem is simple: deny Palestinians human and civil rights, chief among them the right to vote.

The first condition for realizing the annexation plan was to create a full-fledged right wing coalition majority by the joining of three forces: Netanyahu’s “second Israel” with the ultra-Orthodox and Religious Zionism. But how did the three gang up? Particular conditions were created. The prime minister is on trial for breach of confidence and bribery; to save his skin and escape the horror of judgment, he was willing to let religious Zionism receive everything it desired. The last elections produced the necessary majority. In addition, the Palestinians are divided: the Arab citizens of Israel are preoccupied with internal crime and murders, Arab countries have given up on the Palestinians, the world has turned to other concerns, and the coalition’s 64 mandates are the signal that the time is ripe and the opportunity is here.

But the path to annexation goes through the Supreme Court. The latter is the only branch entrusted to maintain the state’s democratic nature. To realize messianic ideology, one must resolve once and for all the fundamental contradiction between the state being simultaneously Jewish and democratic. According to the coalition members the “sovereign” people, gave them a majority to implement their platform. They view the Supreme Court as the enemy of this “majority” since it is unelected and acts to preserve the egalitarian and democratic nature of the state. This conflicts with Jewish values such as the settlement of the Land of Israel, observance of the Sabbath, exemption of the ultra-Orthodox from military conscription, and might back protections for Arab citizens, Palestinians and asylum seekers. The solution to this problem, namely the high court is simple: the majority will choose the judges “like in America,” and the judges will rule according to the will of the majority. This will pave the way for Israel to become a fully Jewish state in the entire area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean.

This is how we have devolved into a full-blown civil war, just like the American civil war between the democratic liberal North and the South that advocated slavery. It was one of the painful stages that established American democracy. In Israel, the liberal democratic “North” is fighting the racist messianic “South”, which also advocates racial segregation and denies the human and civil rights of the Palestinians. This war cannot end in a compromise because it is impossible to compromise between slavery and democracy, just as it is impossible to compromise between apartheid and democracy.

In the case of the United States, there was no doubt who would win: the South represented feudalism while the North represented modern industrial society. In Israel, too, the liberal North is teaching the fascist South that the majority does not always decide, and that progress, high-tech, academia and science are what drives society, and therefore this battle will be decided in favour of the democratic camp. Yet fascist messianic ideology will not be defeated until the fate of 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza is decided. The political reality that the occupation created in the West Bank and Gaza, which is characterized by discrimination, despair and poverty, makes it very difficult to start a conversation about the democratic future of the two nations.

It can be assumed that the basic attitude of the Israelis flocking to the streets for weeks to save democracy opposes the occupation. This approach has not yet solidified into a political program, and the Palestinians’ avoidance of participating in this historic struggle does not help formulate a political plan suitable for the needs of the two peoples living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The nationalist and fascist camp is the common enemy of Palestinian democrats and the Israeli democratic camp. Fascism can only be defeated by joint forces, and the way to do this is through the overthrow of this malicious government. Support for the protest movement must therefore be unconditional, and every democrat must work for its success.

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Political Report to the Central Committee

The Central Committee’s current gathering is being held under special political circumstances. Netanyahu’s fall comes after a 12-year rule. The government that replaces Netanyahu consists of eight parties that range from the deep right, center, the Zionist left as well as the Islamic Party, all of which sit around the same table. What was agreed by all partners was that in order to hold power, they must refrain from engaging with explosive ideological and political questions, such as the Palestinian question, the separation of religion and state, attitudes towards the judiciary and the High Court, the Jewish Nation-State Law, and the contradiction between the Jewish and democratic character of the state. The avoidance of discussion on these fundamental questions, which remained unresolved between Netanyahu’s bloc and the opposing bloc of the center and left, and Lapid’s agreement to relinquish the position of prime minister in favor of Naftali Bennett, indicate a blurring of the fundamental principles that hitherto separated the conservative right from Israel’s liberal wing.

The prevailing excuse among supporters of the new government is that the compromises reached were an outgrowth of the need to overthrow Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc, which threatened to plunge Israel into the abyss, so this new creature should be treated more as a transitional and not a homogeneous government. Let us examine the long-term strategic tasks given up by the leaders of the center-left parties: resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, tackling the climate crisis, eliminating the social gaps between the majority of citizens and the thriving minority in the high-tech industry; resolving the transportation crisis (and transportation on Saturday); and repairing the mechanisms of education, health, nursing and social care. While Netanyahu clings to the neo-liberal approach adopted in the United States in the early 1980s and spread around the world for 40 years, an approach that advocates drying up the public sector, this government unites two completely different wings. A conservative wing that identifies the strong and directive state as the source of the problem, and the left wing that sees the state as the source for resolving the gaping social abyss.  

The global health crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic, and the climate crisis that is causing global warming and natural disasters, have exposed the globalism of the world in which we live. Coronavirus does not distinguish between an American from New York and an Indian from Bangalore, an Israeli from Tel Aviv and a Palestinian from Ramallah. Nor does global warming separate continents from each other. All of these have reinforced new paradigms that place at the center of humanity’s attention the promotion of human welfare, elimination of poverty and the transition to renewable energy that heralds the fourth industrial revolution. The profound political change that took place in the United States following the victory of Joe Biden placed the Green New Deal program on the world agenda. However, the Biden administration went further and stated that not only is the planet in existential danger, but the democratic regime itself. If 1% of society enjoys resources equal to those enjoyed by the remaining 99%, the democratic regime that caused this problem loses its credibility.

It appears that the new Bennett-Lapid government has adopted a more balanced policy in many areas. This includes an internal policy that does not accept Netanyahu’s approach to the “deep state” in relation to institutions of the rule of law such as the High Court, the police, the General Security Service and the media; its position toward the American political arena, where it aspires to work with both the Democratic and Republican parties in Congress instead of being biased toward the Trump faction and the racist groups that support it; a more flexible stance toward the nuclear agreement with Iran and a less combative one vis-a-vis the US; a more positive position toward the Palestinian Authority at the expense of Hamas, unlike Netanyahu; a different attitude toward the Arabs in Israel and the Arab parties; and less of an inclination to surrender to the ultra-Orthodox parties, which were an essential backbone of the Likud bloc.

At the same time, when it comes to fundamental problems, such as the Palestinian problem, Netanyahu’s legacy continues to dominate, as maintaining the status quo has become the internal glue binding the new government. All parties and political currents in Israel, right and left, including Arabs and even the Greens, ignore the Palestinian problem that has become a so-called unsolvable question. Bennett declares this publicly, and the rest of the parties adopt this approach unequivocally. Moreover, there is no party in Israel that promotes the basic principles adopted by US President Biden: Not regarding democracy and human rights; dictatorial regimes that threaten the democratic regime; economic change that seeks to weaken huge monopolies like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple; taxes on multinational corporations; the construction and re-establishment of the welfare state, strengthening the working class and trade unions; and not in the fight against global warming.

The Unresolved Palestinian problem

The prevailing propaganda in Israel is that there is no solution to the Palestinian problem, when the presupposition that dominates is a zero-sum game – any achievement of the Palestinians is considered a loss for Israelis. Despite the security coordination with the Palestinian Authority and the Oslo Accords, principles of which are implemented to this day, the Palestinian people are still considered Israel’s enemy. From the moment the agreement between Israel and the PLO was signed in 1993, it became clear that Israel never intended to build a sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. Following the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005, the split between Hamas and Fatah (2006-2007), and on the other hand the expansion of settlements and an increase in the number of settlers to over half a million Israelis, the establishment of a separate independent Palestinian state alongside Israel became untenable.

Trump’s four year rule that was completely biased toward Israel, and the “Deal of the Century” registered as his trademark, critically harmed the Palestinians. Trump went so far as to say that, unlike all previous American governments, he did not oppose annexation of Area C to Israel. Moreover, the agreements between Israel, the Emirates and Bahrain, followed by Sudan and Morocco, were a direct result of Trump’s policies. These agreements gave impetus to Netanyahu’s claim that the Palestinian problem is not the heart of the struggle with the Arab world, and that the formula of “land for peace” is no longer relevant. In a nutshell, all the Zionist parties, including the left-wing parties, supported these “Abraham Accords,” which weakened the bargaining power of the Palestinians. During the four election campaigns that came one after another, these parties did not raise the Palestinian question as an electoral issue at all.  

Biden’s victory over Trump upended the situation. Now that Netanyahu has been left without a patron in the White House, his opponents were given the go-ahead to overthrow him. On the other hand, the qualitative change in US policy pushed Abu Mazen to initiate a political move to get out of the complete political isolation imposed on him by Trump’s position and the agreements between Israel and the Arab states. The first step required of him to restore the status of a legitimate representative in the equation, and to frustrate the position of Israel refusing to work with him on the grounds that he does not represent the entire Palestinian people, was to come to terms with Hamas, restore territorial unity between the West Bank and Gaza, and to form a new government chosen in clean, transparent elections open to all Palestinian political currents.

Yet Abu Mazen failed to achieve this basic goal, without which the Palestinian Authority has no credibility or place. After Fatah split into three heads, it became clear to Abu Mazen that these elections he called for were threatening his rule, and playing into the hands of Hamas. For its part, Hamas maintained its unity and hoped to take over the PA democratically in order to break the blockade on Gaza, and become the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Among Palestinian public opinion, the cancellation of the election appeared to be met with indifference. This was not so within the Hamas ranks. This move thwarted the organization’s plan to seize power democratically, while allowing Israel to continue its iron fist siege of Gaza. Hamas’ response was direct and simple. If Abu Mazen does not want to transfer power in a democratic way, Hamas will occupy the political arena by beginning a limited confrontation with Israel, in order to expose its weakness and helplessness. For this purpose, the old slogan “Al Aqsa is in danger” was recruited.

However, during the 11 days of conflict, tagged by Israel as Guardian of the Walls, violence also spilled over into Israel in the form of clashes between Jews and Arabs inside Israel.  Hamas’ popularity rose and Abu Mazen lost the remainder of his popular support. Yet Hamas did not emerge victorious from the conflict, as it boasts. Gaza suffered enormous damage: 260 killed, about a third of them children, collapsed residential buildings and towers, 70,000 residents made homeless. On the other hand, Israel, despite its military might, a huge technological advantage and the Iron Dome, did not defeat Hamas. As has become clear since Hamas carried out the coup against the Palestinian Authority and took control of Gaza, Hamas cannot be defeated because there is no alternative to replace it. In addition, there is no international, Arab, or Palestinian body interested in running Gaza. Due to the Israeli closure and Hamas rule, Gaza has become a battered area, undergoing a humanitarian catastrophe that cannot be addressed under current conditions.

It also became clear that the destruction caused by Israel in Gaza does not punish Hamas, but adds to the suffering of the residents and causes an increase in despair, hostility to Israel and the desire to remove the inhuman closure in any way possible. Israel paid a heavy political price after the American leadership demanded an immediately cease fire, and received sharp criticism from the American and world press. Israel’s attitude toward the Palestinians, its continued occupation and apartheid policy, represented in surrender to the settlers, eviction of residents from their homes in Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, the ongoing closure in Gaza and the human catastrophe it causes, have removed all masks behind which Israel has hidden for too many years. For example, the claim that the Palestinians are unwilling to recognize Israel, or the terrorist nature of Hamas, and other claims that aim to continue the status quo. Global public opinion does not accept Israel’s policy and its attempt to make the Palestinians disappear and turn them into a “shrapnel in the backside” with which life can go on (a phrase dubbed by Bennet back in 2013 minimizing the importance of the Palestinians to no more than a “shrapnel in the backside”).

Gaza, on the other hand, has only two options: either to continue the current situation, that is, to retain Hamas rule, to repeat periodic military attacks, and to deepen the destruction and humanitarian catastrophe, or to end the closure by meeting Israel’s demands and take full responsibility for Gaza and its residents. The current state of affairs does not indicate a desire on the part of Hamas to reach a long-term settlement that will allow it to abandon its weapons and rehabilitate Gaza. Like Hezbollah, which is destroying Lebanon, Hamas is proving to be a failed, corrupt and dictatorial organization, clinging to mukawama (resistance) to justify its absolute control. On the other hand, anyone who demands that Abbas be preferred in order for him to take on Gaza’s fate is deceiving themselves, because of Abbas’ weakness and inability to deal with Hamas. It follows, therefore, that the two existing movements, Fatah and Hamas, are not entities capable of managing the Palestinian people’s crisis.

On the other hand, there is no party in Israel calling for the return of Gaza to Israeli rule. Israel is facing a Gordian knot. In fact, it controls every detail, small or large, in Gaza. Israel issues ID cards to residents, the currency in Gaza is the shekel, imports and exports are under Israeli supervision, it controls all entrances to Gaza, including air and sea, and even the suitcases full of dollars from Qatar pass through it. Gaza is under Israeli sovereignty without Israel taking any responsibility for its residents, who have become a tool in the hands of Hamas and Israel. This arrangement between Israel and Hamas cannot continue for long, but there is no Israeli political force that is prepared or capable of reaching a solution.

Palestinian protest without program and without leadership

Together with the difficult war between Hamas and Israel, we saw mass demonstrations in Arab communities within Israel, in East Jerusalem, in the West Bank, as well as in European and American cities. The picture that emerged was of a renewed Palestinian unity that managed to bring the forgotten Palestinian issue back to global consciousness. The new and alarming phenomenon that preoccupied the Israeli authorities, was the involvement of Arabs in Israel in demonstrations, and especially the acts of violence and assault on Jewish property and homes in mixed cities such as Jaffa, Lod, Haifa and Acre. At the same time, extremist Jewish organizations, such as Lehava (a small movement inspired by the late racist Meir Kahana) , La Familia (right wing football fans of Beitar)  and others, incited and attacked Arab residents, causing harm to innocent people on both sides.

The slogans adopted by Arab demonstrators were usually divided on the basis of their ideological affiliation. The religious adopted the call “Al-Aqsa is in Danger” and the secular “save the residents of Sheikh Jarrah.” But the outburst of the masses on the streets came from a number of reasons, chief among them a sense of despair, frustration and anger at the government and also against the Arab leadership, including Arab Knesset members. The demonstrators’  violence directed against Jewish residents and government symbols is the same violence that is directed daily at the Arab society and against the Arab residents themselves, making life in the Arab localities unbearable.

In the background also stand uninterrupted years of armed criminal violence in Arab villages and cities.  The Arab leadership insists on blaming the police, claiming that the source of violence in Arab society is the failure of police to restrain the mafia families. It is quite clear, however, that this phenomenon is not reduced to organized crime, but is a widespread culture of violence perpetrated within the family, between neighbors, in schools, on the street, at weddings and in conflicts between clans.

It is impossible to ignore the fact that violence in Arab society has also become a legitimate instrument for imposing religious conventions, and is also used against anyone who violates the strict dictates of tradition. Women who do not abide by the required dress code, artists who demand freedom of expression and exceed the limits permitted by religious tradition, the LGBTQ community, and anyone who wants to hold a show or sports competition featuring women. This violence does not end here. It is fed by a large social stratum, which includes 40% of Arab youth who are not integrated into any framework, do not study and do not work. These young people have lost all hope in the future, and turn to violence to express frustration and anger against the society that has turned its back on them.

Violence is also related to the clan nature of Arab society and its conservatism. This puts obstacles in front of any democratic process in the local authorities. Arab society suffers from a lack of leadership in its institutions. Local authorities cannot deal objectively with society’s deep problems because the key to selecting staff is not their professional suitability but rather their affiliation to the “right” clan. This is what inevitably leads to corruption and a lack of transparency, resulting in a loss of Arab residents’ trust in these authorities.

Moreover, cooperation of the Arab parties with families and clans generates distrust between the citizen and the parties, resulting in a subsequent decrease in trust in the entire democratic process and a drop in turnout in recent elections to below 50%. Government plans, such as Resolution 922, which allocated NIS 15 billion to the Arab society over 5 years, were of no avail because Arab local authorities lack the ability and skills to utilize the sums efficiently and correctly. In fact, as of June 2021, although 90% of the sum has been allocated only 62% was utilized because of the need to be transparent in spending (proper invoices, plans, etc.).

If we add to these phenomena the attitude of the Israeli government, and especially Netanyahu’s attitude towards the Arabs during his 12 years of rule, we have all the elements that concocted a violent explosion. On the one hand, Netanyahu’s administration authorized  NIS 15 billion for the needs of Arab society, on the other hand, he waged a campaign of wild incitement against the Arabs, with the aim of destroying the legitimacy of the Arab voice and the Arab parties as partners in a future parliamentary coalition that could overthrow him.

The purpose of the incitement was political, to prevent the center and left parties from joining with the Arab parties. On the other hand, it served as fuel for Netanyahu’s electoral base by transforming his opponents into traitors to Zionism simply because they cooperated with Arab parties. When Netanyahu decided to change tactics and turn himself to the Islamic Movement to gain a majority in the Knesset, he was apparently too late. His courting after Abbas Mansour, the leader of the Islamic movement  did not alleviate the rage that had accumulated on the Arab street against him, and did not prevent the mass demonstrations that surprised all security forces. The wave of demonstrations ended without any real result while the authorities began a large-scale wave of arrests, which included hundreds and possibly thousands of youths participating in the demonstrations and acts of violence. For now, life is back on track, and what is expected is a return of wild use of arms and, murders and violence within Arab society, leaving tens of thousands of young people idle without a solution and without change, until the next outbreak.

A comparison between the wave of demonstrations by young people in Palestine and comparison to the Black Lives Matter movement, is misleading.  In the United States, this movement has a clear political agenda and a thoughtful leadership operating within the Democratic Party. This leadership mobilized its supporters to secure the victory of Joe Biden in order to remove President Trump from power. In contrast to the Palestinian protest movement, the black movement sets out a clear and determined program that calls for working together with whites to fight for democratic values for all US residents and not just for blacks. On the other hand, the Palestinian movement, which raises the slogan “Free Palestine” without any realistic political agenda to achieve this goal, speaks on behalf of the Palestinians without any attempt or desire to recruit democratic elements from within Israeli society. This is a serious error. It therefore lacks the foundations necessary for the continuity and formation of an alternative leadership to the failed leaders who currently stand both in the Palestinian Authority and at the head of Arab parties and authorities.

DA’AM, Biden and the Israeli-Palestinian Green New Deal

Biden’s victory over Trump in the US presidential elections is a watershed in human history, and becomes the basis for a political course of action that changes accepted conventions and concepts in numerous areas: attitudes to the approaching climate disaster, racism, human rights, LGBTQ rights, social justice, the capitalist economy, international relations, democracy versus autocracy and a critical look at the past, especially slavery.

This kind of mental calculation is warranted by the depth of the crisis that American society has reached, and with it many countries around the world that have chosen leaders with populist tendencies, prone to fascism, such as Trump, Erdogan, Urban, Putin and even Netanyahu. These leaders endanger the democratic regime, bringing us back to Europe’s situation during the years in which Nazism developed. In the face of these, the American people had no choice but to pose the poignant question, “Where did we go wrong?” It turned out that the root of the problem was the neo-liberal capitalist regime, which pushed a very broad stratum of the middle class to the margins, depriving them of the basic conditions for a stable life. Much of that class translated this disappointment into support for Trump.

It is our duty as Da’am to understand the nature of the change and the reasons for it. It can be said we successfully met this task. We watched Biden’s victory over Trump. The October 2020 Central Committee report described the tremendous popular movement that occupied the streets of American cities from east to west, headed by movements of blacks, young people, and women. Biden’s victory by a margin of 7 million votes expressed the power of this movement, which united around Biden’s leadership with one clear goal: to overthrow Trump and save the democratic regime. This goal was set by Biden not only with respect to the United States, but on a global scale. He therefore presented to the world the choice between two inescapable possibilities – democracy or autocracy, with the United States and democracies, or with Russia, China and their allies in the world.

The question before us is what is the significance of this historic transformation in the United States for us in Israel and Palestine? How do we translate these principles into the political reality in which we live? For us, adoption of the slogan “Israeli-Palestinian Green New Deal ”  is a continuation of the position of the left-wing progressive forces in the United States, which have great influence within the Democratic Party.

As for the Israeli left-wing parties, they sacrificed their principles in favor of forming an alliance with the extreme right, claiming that this is the order of the day to replace Netanyahu. We are currently predicting how Meretz may vote in favor of the law to prevent reunification of Palestinian families, the same law against which Meretz filed a petition with the High Court, defining it as a racist law covered by false security pretenses.

The green movements, which raise the banner of environmental protection and call for a “Green New Deal” in Israel, also draw a clear line between their struggle for the environment, the preservation of the climate in Israel and the Palestinian question. They ignore the occupation and the apartheid regime that Israel is imposing on the West Bank and Gaza, arguing that linking the fight against the climate crisis to the fight for human rights, and against the occupation may narrow their ranks . For them, the occupation is a controversial issue in Israeli society, while it is possible to reach broad agreement and even a consensus on the climate issue. As long as this is its position, the Green Movement in Israel cannot be part of the global green movement for saving the planet, which places the idea of environmental justice and the duty to protect and safeguard the interests of oppressed peoples as a central plank in its struggle. The adherence of the Israeli movements to Zionist ideology and their refusal to change their way of thinking and acting only strengthened the extreme right and enabled it to take over the public space. These environmental movements thus become the tail in the current government, while neutralizing themselves from any real influence and action toward solving the Palestinian problem and achieving peace.

Al-Hirak al-Fhalastini, which calls for the “liberation of Palestine” from the Mediterranean Sea  to the Jordan River and has adopted the slogan “Palestinian lives matter,” isolates itself by adopting an outdated nationalist agenda that has no proximity to the Black Lives Matter movement other than the name. Blacks in the United States are also an oppressed ethnic group like the Palestinians, but representatives of the black movement speak on behalf of the entire American people, in all its ethnic, religious and national components.  Al-Hirak al-Fhalastini refrains from any representation or reference to Israeli society, sometimes distinguishes between a Jew and non-Jew, and is willing to cooperate with extremist religious elements such as Hamas, who deny democracy and secularism. This narrow national focus neutralizes al-Hirak from any real political influence, and ultimately plays into the hands of Hamas, as we saw in the last war. Hamas, for its part, cynically uses al-Hirak, most of which is based on secular activists, to slam Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, thus strengthening its cards in the run-up to a total fundamentalist takeover of the Palestinian arena.

The Da’am Party emphasizes that any political solution to the Palestinian issue must include the absolute majority of Palestinians and Israelis. It has recently been proven that there is no peace without the Palestinians, despite the agreements signed with a number of Arab states. On the other hand, there will not be an end to the occupation without an alliance and close cooperation between Palestinians and the democratic forces in Israel.

We present the Israeli-Palestinian Green New Deal as a programmatic basis for unification of the Israeli and Palestinian democratic forces on the basis of equality, climatic and social justice. The struggle against global warming, for human rights, for the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination, the struggle for a free democratic society, the campaign to separate religion from the state, for an economic system that puts workers’ interests at the center, and the campaign for a just society – should unite Israelis and Palestinians. We oppose divisions and separation, walls and barriers, and the oppression of culture just because it is different. The fundamental values we are talking about are the guarantee for coexistence in one land, which will put an end to the bloody conflict that leads to a dead end.

Based on this concept, we participated in the last election campaigns and hosted numerous activists who promote struggles in various areas of life, including in the fields of workers rights and unionization, the struggle for climate, human rights, equality for the LGBTQ community, the struggle against clan rule in Arab society and more. Our goal was to develop the discussion and expand it as much as possible, in order to build collaborative relationships and alliances with anyone who acts and takes an interest in these social, cultural and existential areas. The profound change that is taking place in the United States and around the world provides credibility and strength to our positions.

The political bankruptcy of the left-wing Zionist and Arab parties paves the way for a discussion and connection with young activists, women and men, in both Israeli and Palestinian society, who want a Palestinian-Israeli democratic alternative. Our field work in MAAN, in the Sindyanna of Galilee organization, in the empowerment of women, the promotion of alternative energies and urban agriculture and in the adoption of principles of sustainability, all strengthen our presence, confirm our political action and the validity of the program we promote. The call for a “Israeli-Palestinian Green New Deal”, goes in tandem with our goal – one democratic state for Israelis and Palestinians that will end the apartheid regime.

The post Prospects for change with the demise of Netanyahu and criticism of Abu Mazen first appeared on Da'am Party: One state - Green Economy.

Thoughts of a Palestinian worker after the latest round of war

Interview and translation from Arabic: Assaf Adiv

The phone call from Musa (pseudonym), which came a few hours after announcement of the ceasefire, did not surprise me. For many years Musa and I have been exchanging views on the situation, and I am well acquainted with his unique and courageous voice. Musa spoke fluently, non-stop. It was obvious he was speaking from the heart.  

Musa wakes up every morning at 2.00 a.m., prepares his provisions and sets out for his workplace. He, Like 150,000 Palestinian workers who are employed by Israeli companies, he will go through checkpoints, humiliations and unplanned obstacles on their way, even before they start work at 7.00. These workers, whose income is a crucial component of the Palestinian economy, also play a vital role in the Israeli economy.

Musa knows Israel well. He has been working for Israeli employers for 15 years. At the conclusion of his work day, he returns to the Palestinian side and the sad reality in which he and his family live. As someone who directly experiences the Israeli occupation in the flesh, Musa’s words take on special meaning. Here are the primary things he said in our last conversation:

“The young say that Hamas did what no Arab country dared to do. Today (Friday May 21^st) in the al-Aqsa Mosque, after a Friday sermon given by the Mufti of the Palestinian Authority, who did not mention the war at all, a real uprising against him began – people called him and Abu Mazen traitors!”

“I think this support for Hamas is the result of no alternative. If there was a serious body that offered to build a common state of Israelis and Palestinians, one that would allow young Palestinians to live, travel and see the world beyond the walls, they would choose it. Shortly before the coronavirus pandemic, Israel permitted Palestinians from the West Bank to reach Tel Aviv and Netanya. Many young people told me they were amazed to see Israelis treat them in a normal and humane way. Our young people do not know what life is, what a beach is, what a train is. Everyone here dreams of Europe, but in a sense Israel is Europe.”

“We need to find a solution that will allow us to live equally with Israelis. Mahmoud Abbas and the PA are corrupt. They consider the security coordination with Israel a sacred thing. They are known to speak two languages. On the one hand they talk about Palestine, and on the other, during the war, they were silent. Only now, after Egypt announced that it would give half a billion dollars for rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip, did the PA demand that the money go through them.

“What I am telling you is the opinion of many, but no one dares to say that the solution is together with Israel. If I say or write this they will call me a traitor. All the workers understand this is the right direction, but we need the intellectuals and educated class, those with influence and voice, to support it.

“The people go with Hamas because they understand the PA is doing nothing. Hamas boasts that it is challenging Israel and firing missiles. Yet it hasn’t reconstructed the homes in Gaza that were destroyed in 2014. Both sides – Ramallah and Gaza – are building themselves up by means of the never-ending conflict. A power is needed to replace the PA and Hamas.

“In Gaza, people are without jobs and without a future. They cannot leave, and the only force that can employ them is the Hamas or Islamic Jihad militias – obviously young people will join them. As our young people face a blank wall with no future, no jobs, and no chance to travel and live, support for Hamas and Jihad will increase.

“In the West Bank, the situation is different – here we have job opportunities in Israel. People see the Palestinian Authority employees earning NIS 2,000 a month and then everyone says to themselves, I prefer the difficulties of the checkpoints so as not to depend on that Authority. To this add the VIP certificates that PA officials have, which allow them to move freely. They talk about the liberation of Jaffa and Acre and Haifa, but enjoy the existing system and leave us locked up.

“I think the equation needs to be reversed. We should live in equality. Like in the US – all together, black and white. That’s how it should be here. We do not need a country like Jordan or Lebanon. Non-functioning countries. People want democracy and freedom. People ask where all this is leading. Israelis, too, need to understand that it is impossible to shut us down and expect peace. There must be a third party that presents a new alternative. I know that already today there are a lot of joint economic projects for Israelis and Palestinians who work together. Israel is a strong country, it has technology and an economy. We need to understand the situation and make contact with Israelis.”

The Voice of the Silent Majority

Comments by Yacov Ben Efrat:

Musa’s remarks, brought here in his own words, express a widespread opinion in Palestinian society, both in the West Bank and in Gaza. Yet this voice is not heard. The discourse dominating the street is unfortunately that of a particular stratum of activists and intellectuals, who celebrate the newfound unity between the West Bank Palestinians and those living in Israel, who support the “victory” of Hamas and Jihad. This discourse skips the need to deal with the situation on the ground, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority, Hamas, and the Israeli Right wing.

Despite his criticism of the Palestinian leadership, Musa is not dragged along with those who would erase the presence of 7 million Israelis. Musa explains that the slogan of one state from the Jordan to the sea is not enough. For this to come about, Israelis need to be involved. Musa knows both sides and tries to look at reality objectively.

A scheme that erases Israel and ignores the contradictions within it plays into the hands of both the Israeli Right and the Islamic current, which are ideologically opposed to democracy. The Palestinian people needs a new political program, based on a correct reading of reality. Such a program must also be addressed to the democratic Israeli public that opposes the Right.

The things Musa is talking about reinforce the view that the only way to end the Occupation is to build a democratic state, in which Palestinians and Israelis live equally. This position is backed by the progressive wing of the American Democratic Party, which supported the struggle of blacks for full equality, and which today supports Palestinian rights in the spirit of the slogan “Palestinian lives matter.”

The post “We need a third party that promotes one state where Palestinians and Israelis will be equal” first appeared on Da'am Party: One state - Green Economy.

Since the last Central Committee meeting in February of this year, the political arena has undergone fundamental upheavals that we could not have anticipated. A global event like the coronavirus pandemic that has spread across the planet was surprising, leaving no place on earth without casualties. The pandemic illustrates the nature of globalization, which united the fate and future of humanity and the interrelationships between peoples, crossing national and ethnic boundaries. A health incident that began in the live animal market in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 became a global health disaster within two months.

The coronavirus and the way each regime dealt with it revealed the nature of the various regimes and the shortcomings of the global neoliberal capitalist regime (which itself reached a dead end in 2008 following collapse of the American economy, which dragged the world to a historic low). The Chinese and American regimes stood out in the way they handled the crisis: the Chinese communist dictatorship hid the outbreak of the pandemic to protect its name, as the virus probably erupted due to a lack of government oversight over the wet market.  The American president also hid the dangerous nature of the pandemic from the American people, for fear of its impact on the New York Stock Exchange. The Chinese regime imposed severe measures and locked down 40 million citizens in the city of Wuhan for over two months, while Donald Trump has accused his Democratic opponents of inventing the pandemic, a hoax to damage the economy for electoral reasons.

The Chinese example of dealing with the pandemic has proven to be more effective. China managed to eradicate the pandemic with record speed through the draconian steps it took, steps possible for a dictatorial regime. The United States, on the other hand, which has been slow to prepare for the crisis,  and its president even denied and continues to deny the severity of the pandemic, has failed miserably in coping with it, and the coronavirus is spreading non-stop as of this writing. The death toll in the U.S. is approaching a quarter of a million, or a quarter of all COVID-19 related deaths worldwide, while the number of people infected now exceeds 8 million. American society has been deeply traumatized by Trump’s bizarre and reckless behavior on the one hand, and the health disaster on the other. The collapse of the economy as a result of the prolonged closure has affected the lives of millions of citizens. The US and China were the two powers that led the world economy in the last two decades. Yet the coronavirus revealed that humanity could not rely on China, despite its economic efficiency, due to its tyrannical regime, nor on the US. The latter collapsed because of its loose political regime, which on the one hand allowed an unstable and criminal personality like Trump to seize power, and on the other leads an economic system that sanctifies the extreme profit of the few. This method has been shamefully exposed in the face of a privatized health system that cannot cope with a huge-scale health disaster as befell the United States and the world.

The lesson we learn from the coronavirus is that restricting basic freedoms and human rights in exchange for economic well-being, as in China, is a fundamental problem, but also that when capital and monopolies take over the democratic regime, democracy is emptied of content, and political parties cease to serve the citizens and serve capital instead. Although before the pandemic China boasted of its impressive increase in gross national product, which reached 10% annually, and flooded markets with cheap goods that resulted in an increase in consumption and standard of living, its capitalist, non-transparent dictatorship extracted from humanity an extremely high health and economic cost. American capitalism, on the other hand, and the intensification of monopolies impoverished the American people, created abysmal social gaps and led to a loss of confidence in the democratic regime. This gave rise to populist and pro-fascist currents like Trump’s, which rose on a wave of partially justified criticism of the Democratic party, promising to “dry up the swamp” in Washington and clear it of corruption. In light of this, the American people need radical political and economic change simultaneously.

In recent years, the Da’am Party has championed the slogan “One State – Green economy,” which is gaining momentum in light of the current crisis. The slogan “one state” does not stem solely from the failure of the “two states” solution against the backdrop of the failed Oslo Accords. It comes from retrospection of the new global situation which pushed aside the national idea, abolished the national market, and deepened its unification. This process was made possible because of the information revolution, the Internet and the global transport network, which render it easier to move goods and people with tremendous speed. Hence symbols such as the flag, the national anthem and even the homeland itself lose their role in a world that not only copes with the coronavirus as a single health unit, but is united in the manner of production, consumption, and abolition of customs. If we add to this the joint effort to prevent global warming and save the planet, a universal task that will not be achieved without world-wide unity.

It is clear that the capitalist economic regime has failed to respond to the health crisis. Privatization on the one hand, and the complete neglect of health, education, housing, welfare and means of employment on the other, have deepened the crisis and proved that the poor are the first to pay the price. Let’s face it, governments were forced to “shut down the economy” because the health care system was unprepared to take in a large number of patients, lacking the requisite numbers of beds, inhalators  and medical staff; In Italy, thousands died not because of the coronavirus, but because of the health system’s collapse. We have discovered that despite the technological age in which we have been living for several decades already, the education system stood by helplessly and failed to prepare for remote learning. The welfare system lacks the resources necessary to absorb the millions of unemployed or self-employed who have lost their source of livelihood. Meanwhile, the private sector that was prioritized over the public sector (for example Google, Amazon and Facebook continues to use its massive capital to profit from the crisis itself, without providing any help to alleviate the citizens’ suffering.

When we move to discussion of a green economy, the paradigm changes. It is a cooperative economy built on true principles of democracy. An economy that directs the political regime and parties to serve the general public good instead of the capital controlled by the few. The role of the state is to manage the economy and take steps that strengthen the basic infrastructure for the benefit of society, whether it is health, education, public housing, transportation, internet communication, vocational training, strengthening bargaining power with employers, and monetary compensation or division of labor among employees to provide a dignified source of livelihood for all. The prevailing opinion is that many professions that have disappeared due to the coronavirus will not return. That the world economy is turning to a new mode of production controlled by robots, artificial intelligence, commerce via the Internet, the “Internet of things (IoT); and is moving to renewable energy, electric and autonomous vehicles. While these ideas began to be heard several years before the coronavirus, the epidemic has become an accelerator for this global development. Yet this reality requires a new way of thinking about politics and society – it does not fit into the framework of capitalism, and requires new priorities. Given the terrible failure of the confrontation with the coronavirus in China and the US, there is no escaping the question of what society we want to live in in the future: will we continue to support forms like the communist capitalist and democratic capitalist regimes, or will we pave the way for a new paradigm.

The coronavirus as a catalyst for political change

The epidemic has affected politics in both the United States and Israel. There is a good chance that the US presidential elections will lead to Trump’s defeat in early November. In Israel, too, Netanyahu’s failed handling of the crisis, his preference for his personal legal interests, and the proliferation of political considerations in dealing with the pandemic resulted in a major setback in his popularity. But the more substantial change is undoubtedly taking place in the United States, which has witnessed the largest protest movement in decades, led by a broad coalition headed by the Black Lives Matter movement. This movement is united behind Democratic candidate Joe Biden and his deputy Kamala Harris, the first black woman from a major party to run for this office. When Hillary Clinton ran for president with a white man as her vice president, deep reservations arose from the left wing of the party that supported Bernie Sanders. Many felt reticence toward Clinton, who seemed the representative of a failed administration, and situated too close to capital. The rise of Donald Trump was a huge surprise and shock to the entire world. On the one hand, dictators like Putin, Erdogan, Kim Jong-un, al-Sisi, Assad, bin Salman, or populist right-wing leaders like Netanyahu and the leaders of isolationist parties in Europe, led by Johnson, celebrated, each for his own reasons. In contrast, more “sane” countries, led by EU leaders, went into shock, and not in vain. Trump attacked the NATO alliance, withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, and rescinded the nuclear deal with Iran. The Democratic Party, influenced by its left-wing’s messages learned its lesson – not to repeat the mistakes of Obama who, contrary to his promises, preferred capital, large monopolies and Wall Street financers, all of which deepened poverty and social disparities, and created the fertile soil in which Trump grew. The selection of Clinton as the presidential candidate was a slap in the face to a public that wanted change. It is possible that Trump’s statement “Obama is the reason I came to power” is the only truth he has uttered to date.

The shock of Trump’s election has increased the influence of the voices demanding a fundamental change in the Democratic Party. The first change was the selection of candidates with a new profile: more blacks and more women. Leading them is New York congressional representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has gained immense popularity and adopted a socialist approach and the Green New Deal; Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is waging a campaign against the monopolies, and especially against the giant Internet companies – Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google – and is demanding their dissolution under the Antitrust Act. The popular struggle and mass demonstrations across the US, which were influenced by the assassination of black citizen George Floyd, gave the election campaign further enthusiasm and stamina, so much so that Biden is ahead of Trump by significant margins in all opinion polls.

Trump failed to address the coronavirus crisis and attacked anyone who warned of its dangers, including scientists, experts, governors, and politicians. He accused the Democratic Party of inventing the pandemic only to advance itself in the elections. Trump also adopted racist positions and praised supporters of white supremacy; adopted a position against Obamacare; supports the prevention of abortion; adopts various conspiracy theories; harms the legal system; doubts the credibility of the elections; and refuses to commit to an orderly transfer of power in case of lose. He savagely attacks and mocks Biden, a representative of the Democratic Party, and even members of the Republican Party, so much so that his stay in power poses a danger to the democratic regime and creates the threat of instigating a civil war within American society.

Because of the dangerous situation, and the depth of the current crisis on all levels, the Democratic Party is faced with only one choice – to make a radical change at the political level: removing the influence of capital; implementing deep economic reforms; improving the health system; improving the state of the labor market and protecting the right of association; changing the tax policy that favors the rich at the expense of the poor; repairing the education system to improve its level and train the new generation for the future; annulling the overly high tuition of universities and the debts of graduates that harm their future; adopting renewable energy; dismantling monopolies; repairing the legal system; dealing with racism in the police ranks; abolishing private prisons; changing laws like the prohibition of using soft drugs, which put millions of blacks in prisons; correcting psychological treatment systems; safeguarding the right of women to abortion, and other steps that could prevent an eccentric person like Trump from coming to power again.

The coronavirus does not forgive Netanyahu

The pandemic reached Israel in February 2020, at the height of the 23rd Knesset election campaign, which was held on March 2. The election results were not much different from those of the previous two rounds, and Netanyahu failed to establish a supportive bloc of 61 MKs composed of ultra-Orthodox and right-wingers. He dragged the country to three rounds of elections for one and only reason – to attempt to evade prosecution on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Netanyahu hoped that through a majority bloc he would succeed in passing laws that would overturn the trial. His second term as prime minister, with serious pending charges that could result in imprisonment, created a deep constitutional crisis in Israel, dividing society between the captive base of his supporters and those who see him as a corrupt person who does not deserve to serve as prime minister.

Even when Netanyahu’s opposition won 62 seats, and Blue and White won 33 seats as opposed to 36 for the Likud, the opposition was not sufficiently politically homogeneous, and had no common denominator other than opposition to Netanyahu. Although the Joint Arab List went as far as recommending Gantz to the president to form a government, it was impossible to create a Center-Left parliamentary block big enough to win the majority because of opposition from members such as Moshe Ya’alon’s faction (Telem).  After the legal period, that allowed Gantz and then Netanyahu to form a government ended, and in view of the increasing severity of the coronavirus crisis, Gantz decided, at the cost of splitting from Lapid and Ya’alon, and disappointing thousands of his followers, to reach a rotation agreement with Netanyahu. Even when a parity government was formed that gave Blue and White half of all government ministries, with the other half divided between the components of the right-wing bloc: Likud, Agudat Israel, Shas, Derech Eretz, Gesher, and the Jewish Home, the number of Gantz MKs dropped to 14 after the split with Lapid,  thus weakening his influence within the coalition. Netanyahu took advantage of the situation to launch a poisonous campaign of incitement against the Attorney General and the State Attorney’s Office. He withdrew from the agreement with Gantz; and especially from approval of the state budget, without which the government would disband automatically. Netanyahu is trying to escape the rotation agreement with Gantz that is due to take effect in September 2021, and force a fourth election, hoping to reach a majority that will allow him to pass a High Court override clause and other changes that will allow him to postpone/annul  his trial. In May, it seemed that the pandemic was contained and Netanyahu declared victory over the pandemic, praised himself as a wise leader, and called on Israelis to return to their normal lives. His popularity rose, and polls predicted 40 seats. This was the opportunity to hold the fourth round of elections.

But the situation was quickly reversed; the pandemic returned to spread at record speed, Netanyahu did not want to impose a second lockdown because he feared anger and public frustration. The crisis reached its peak after Israel became world leader in the number of per capita diagnosed infections daily, and the death toll rose to more than 2,000. Just as Netanyahu’s popularity soared after the ending of the first lockdown, it plummeted just as quickly as he was forced to re-impose a total lockdown, which deepened the economic crisis and exacerbated the difficult situation of millions of citizens.

Compared to the success of the first lockdown, for which Netanyahu gained confidence in his policies, the increase in morbidity over the summer was undoubtedly influenced by a lack of trust in the government and Netanyahu’s discretion. Netanyahu rejected the plan of Coronavirus Project Coordinator Roni Gamzu to lock down the red cities (mainly ultra-Orthodox) due to his need for support of the ultra-Orthodox factions in government; and launched a savage campaign of incitement against his opponents protesting in front of his Jerusalem home. The anger and doubt of Netanyahu’s motives only intensified.

The slogan “Just Not Bibi” (Go!) plays into the hands of the Right

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the political, social and economic weaknesses of Israeli society. Politically, it is clear that Israel is at a dead end as the political system has failed to produce a stable government to run the country. Prosecuting Netanyahu has plunged the political arena into a crisis, with many of his supporters seeing nothing wrong with Netanyahu serving as prime minister with three pending indictments against him. This approach includes the base of the Likud, which benefits from the bonuses that come with proximity to power and Netanyahu’s policies that have created economic stability and welfare for broad sections of the middle class and public sector workers. The right-wing religious public also aligns itself with Netanyahu, who guarantees it generous budgets for what is increasingly seen as a type of “autonomy” exercised independently from the general state systems.

On the other side is the other half of the public, including the marginalized Arab population, which suffers from Netanyahu’s racist incitement. The reason for Netanyahu’s obsession with the issue is simple – he is constantly striving to prevent the possibility that the Joint List could be a partner in a liberal and left-wing opposition that sees Netanyahu as a threat to the democratic and justice systems. Netanyahu’s plan (which has so far failed) to annex parts of the West Bank to Israel is interpreted by the same opposition as a step toward eliminating Israel’s Jewish majority and turning the country into an apartheid state. In addition, it sees the strengthening of religious and conservative elements as a threat to the secular character of society and its liberal way of life.

In the past, it was possible to reach understandings between the right and the left, and there were also joint governments (Netanyahu, Barak, Lapid). But after Netanyahu adopted the “bloc” strategy (right-wing plus ultra-Orthodox), he established an exclusive rule for himself, not only vis-a-vis the liberal wing but also within the Likud itself. The possibility of reaching a compromise between the two blocs became impossible, and the hostility to Netanyahu and the call for his removal became the slogan of the opposition camp.

The split between the various social groups stood out following the first lockdown, with each stratum or sector making decisions independently and blatantly violating central government directives. The alarming rise in morbidity in Arab society reflected a refusal to obey the government. People held numerous weddings and continued to pray in mosques, disregarding the pandemic. Only when the number of victims soared did the heads of the Arab local authorities act together with the clergy to prevent spread of the pandemic.

In the Jewish religious sector, the crisis continues in full force, with religious leaders refusing to obey government directives while using their political influence to blackmail Netanyahu. The third party – the upper middle class, a stratum of educated intellectuals and young people, retired generals, former members of the security forces, and the press – are all united in their hatred of Netanyahu and see him as caring only about cancelling his trial, and all this at the cost of pleasing the ultra-Orthodox and suppressing their democratic right to demonstrate.

On the economic side, a network of failures and neglect of infrastructure has been exposed. The medical system is starved and there is a shortage of beds and medical staff. The education system suffers from overcrowding classrooms, the status and salaries of teachers are poor, there are not enough computers for pupils, and there is no fast internet network. There is no functioning system for vocational training in the professions of the future and there is still reliance on a weakened and temporary workforce. Reliance on polluting energy such as gas and oil continues, and the creation of alternative energy sources is not promoted. There is no well-developed welfare system and assistance to the unemployed. Old-age benefits are meagre to a level that prevents economic and health security for the elderly. There exists no practical plan to protect all the unemployed and self-employed who have suddenly collapsed, and to deal with the danger that an entire generation will be lost. When you combine the crisis in politics, social divisions and economic failure, the result is a deep crisis from which there is no prospect of exiting.

In Israel, as in the rest of the world, a new approach is needed to change the political-economic system. It is clear that the slogan “Just Nor Bibi” is insufficient to create the profound change required to solve these deep problems. How can we fight the right without addressing the question of occupation and providing a solution to the Palestinian problem? How can we continue to demand democracy for Jews and manage and finance apartheid for Palestinians? How can right-wing neoliberalism be fought without setting up an alternative economic plan based on a green new deal? Required are investments in the public sector (health, education, vocational training, transportation, renewable energy) and the end of privatization, which transfers public projects to China or the United Arab Emirates or to private investment funds, whose aim is to increase profits regardless of the public and the lives of Palestinians and Israelis.

How do we deal with the current crisis?

The first question that must be asked is what faces us in the immediate future. What are the developments that have the potential to open up new political opportunities for us? How will the crisis affect political developments and awareness of the Palestinian and Israeli publics? Can our slogan “One State – Green Economy” be a call to mobilize the public, or will it remain a future idea that cannot be implemented at the moment?

The Da’am  Party program became most relevant to the new global and Arab situation after 2008 and the collapse of neoliberalism. We were attentive to developments in Egypt and Mahalla El Kubra in 2008 as the first spark of what was defined in early 2011 as the Arab Spring. A massive protest movement that overthrew dictatorial regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen, and expanded to Syria and Bahrain. In Europe and the United States, too, a widespread protest movement has arisen against the capitalist regime. We supported the Arab Spring because it placed the call for democracy at the center of the pursuit of a new political order, as well as the demand for social justice. We had hoped that the Arab Spring would sweep the Palestinians and Arab society in Israel, but the response of the Palestinian organizations, the Palestinian Authority and the Joint List was disappointing, as most of them sided with the counter-revolution.

After suppression of the Arab Spring and its imprinting in blood; massacre and expulsion of the Syrians from their homeland; beginning of an unending civil war in Yemen; and the military coup in Egypt against the revolution; there was a sense that the Arab Spring had failed. That it was confronted with strong and powerful forces that fought against change with all their might. Suffice it to mention Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Turkey, Hezbollah and Russia. And yet our position remains clear: Things will not be the same again. For a short time we saw a return of the demonstrations in Iran, then in Iraq, Lebanon, and together with them returned the Arab Spring slogans “bread, freedom, social justice.” Today we see them directed against Iran, even though it allegedly won in Syria. In Sudan, a large-scale civil revolution broke out that led to the removal of the eternal dictator General Omar al-Bashir, who relied on the support of the Muslim Brotherhood. The revolution in Sudan succeeded in forcing a partnership arrangement between the military and civilian forces, which continues today. In Algeria, demonstrations began against the Bouteflika regime, which called for democratic elections free of corruption and forgery. Even these popular revolutions have not yet affected the Palestinians, neither in the territories nor in Israel.

The question to be asked is how the Palestinians can ignore such important historical events that could change the balance of power in the region and put Israel in front of a new political situation. How can it be that the Palestinians, who in addition to the occupation also suffer from the corruption of the Palestinian Authority, and from the internal division between Fatah and Hamas, are not acting against the PA and Israel.  How can the absolute distrust of the Palestinian public in the PA be reconciled with the absence of significant political direction that seeks to change the situation, despite the revolutions being ignited in every corner of the Arab world. And how can we explain that on the one hand many of the Palestinian people have given up on the idea of an independent Palestinian state and prefer one state, and yet there is no significant political movement that waves this banner. Part of the answer lies in the failure of the Arab Spring in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon to build a new modern and democratic regime.

These developments in the Arab world do not occur in a vacuum. Many of these revolutions were suppressed through external intervention and funding by the Gulf states. The election of Donald Trump was a gift to the corrupt autocratic regimes of the Gulf, for whom democracy is the ultimate enemy. Trump allows for Russian involvement in Syria, the continuation of Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, and the involvement of both the Emirates and of Turkey in the Libyan civil war. In addition, Trump began implementing the Deal of the Century, moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, stopping aid to the Palestinian Authority, and also encouraging the annexation of settlements to Israel (and later objecting to it). In addition, Trump encouraged Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Bahrain to establish open normalization with Israel, thus completely isolating the Palestinian Authority.

The irony is that while Trump encourages all of the reactionary forces in the Arab world to suppress the Arab Spring, the spread of the coronavirus in the US has been a catalyst for the entry of spring into the U.S. itself. The huge mass movement that blacks are leading against racism and for social justice stems from the same reasons that pushed young Arabs into the streets and squares – a corrupt regime that leaves no future and horizon for the masses. This is why young blacks and whites in the United States take to the streets. But unlike what has happened in the Arab world, they have a political answer – overthrowing Trump and gaining a majority in the US Congress.

When we founded the Da’am Party 25 years ago, we determined that political change would come from Western countries, as the Third World does not have the necessary resources to change the regime. What is happening today in the US confirms this prediction. If we want to answer the question of what we expect after the coronavirus pandemic, the answer lies in Biden’s success or failure to move Trump out of the White House. The world after the pandemic and Trump’s removal will be a different world. Numerous issues left without a solution, including in Egypt, Syria, Iran and other Arab countries, will have to get a solution fulfilling the promise of the Arab Spring’s first chapter.

If Trump wanted to save the Saudi regime and its Gulf allies through an unholy alliance with Israel, the change in US rule heralds the end of these regimes, which have become outcasts and despised in the world due to their criminal involvement in other countries, their support for Trump, and oppression of internal opposition. The change in the United States also heralds the end of Netanyahu, who has lost the Israeli public trust is facing prosecution. He, too, will have to face a new US administration that remembers how he stood up for Trump, thus supporting the tragedy the US went through, losing its world status, paying a price of over 200,000 dead and 7.5 million infected, and a severe economic crisis. This change will not come automatically. It is necessary to internalize that the continuation of the current situation leads us to fascism, and that anyone who wants to prevent this dangerous deterioration must adopt an agenda of radical change.

The post-coronavirus world will not be able to tolerate the effects of populism, fascism or Trump. There is no room for dictatorships like that of General Sisi in Egypt, or of the corrupt regimes in the Gulf, or of Israeli apartheid. Anyone who demonstrates against Netanyahu while raising the Israeli flag is driving factionalism. He takes himself out of the direction of the progress of history. In the United States, blacks refuse to salute the American flag because of the racism directed at them. In Israel, the flag does not in any way symbolize the profound change that demonstrators are fighting for in the United States, or those fighting for democracy in the Arab world. Democratic change in Israel must be based on a Palestinian-Israeli partnership in struggle. If the struggle limits itself to overthrowing Bibi, the result will be the rise of Bennett and the far right. The role of Da’am is first and foremost to create a broad discussion about the future, and to contribute to it with articles, analysis, meetings, and lectures; at every opportunity to build a broad Palestinian-Israeli democratic coalition, which will integrate with the messages and struggles of the Arab Spring, with the democratic movement in the United States, and work with every democratic movement against the Palestinian Authority and Hamas in calling for freedom and democracy for Palestinians as well as all people of the world. History refuses to end. The information and Internet revolution, as well as revolutionary attempts in the world, open up the possibility of change here in Palestine and Israel as well. The current crisis within Israel and the Palestinian Authority can and should pave the way for change and the presentation of new ideas. The initiative to open a broad and genuine dialogue on all these questions, starting with the flag, the Naqba, the partnership between Israelis and Palestinians, the climate crisis and the economic situation, is essential if we want to create a society that can present solutions to the challenges we all face as human beings.

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At the mass rally held by the gay movement LGBT at Rabin Square on July 22, 2018, protesters not only demanded to be accepted as different, but also called for full equality. They cried out against the injustice caused by a government that excludes homosexual men from having children through a surrogate mother.

LGBT’s demands target the hearts and minds of Israeli society. They demand an egalitarian and democratic society when, in fact, their country favors the Jewish nation over the Arab nation, religious over secular. However, like the massive social protest of 2011, the protest opposes a discriminatory society while omitting to oppose the discriminatory state. The omission seems contrived, especially considering that the Surrogacy Law excluding gay men passed in the Knesset on the same night as two strongly nationalistic laws, one against “Breaking the Silence” and the other, called the Nation-State Law, prioritizing Jewishness over democracy. On one fateful night, the fundamentalist Right realized its darkest desires.

Not very long ago, I need hardly point out, those who murdered Jews because they were Jewish also murdered homosexuals, Gypsies, and the mentally challenged. Today, those who hate Arabs and expel refugees because of their skin color discriminate against homosexuals, even if they are Jews. The fact that the Surrogacy Law and the Nation-State Law were passed by the same number of votes is not coincidental. It conjures up a reality that endangers the future of Israeli society.

Prime Minister Binyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu had earlier promised to support surrogacy for homosexual men. Those who believe that in changing his mind he caved in before the pressure of the ultra-Orthodox, and that he prefers the governing coalition over his previous commitment, do not understand the world we live in. The people who stand behind these laws – as well as laws changing the face of the High Court, religionizing the army and the schools, applying Israeli law to the West Bank settlements, and preferring “Zionist” culture – are not the ultra-Orthodox. They are the Jewish Home and the Likud: Israeli fundamentalist parties that are closely connected to the populist Right in Europe and the United States.

It is no coincidence that Putin and Trump’s “attention” to Netanyahu was evident in their Helsinki summit. Putin hates homosexuals, and Trump hates them even more. Both men lean toward dark nationalism mixed with xenophobia. They denigrate women and love adore brute force, and that is what they love about Bibi. He is the darling of the world’s nationalist villains. He serves as a model for them, and they are the rising power. So why should Bibi consider the rights of homosexuals, Arabs, or immigrants?

An ethno-nationalist tsunami is sweeping the world – from India to Russia, from Europe to the United States. Nations are busy rewriting their histories. They prefer a “glorious” past to an uncertain future. Trump wants to make America great again. Putin emulates Ivan the Terrible. Austria, Hungary, and Poland are reinventing the past, and Netanyahu is laboring to redefine Israel. He wants to weaken the legal system, take over the treasonous media, destroy the old elites, and erase any chance of reconciliation with the Palestinians. The new Poland, on whose land three million Jews were killed, is updating its biography. With the exception of a few rotten apples, Poland “did not cooperate with the Nazis.” Its ruling Nationalist Party passed its own version of a “Nation-State Law”, which at first criminalized anyone accusing the Polish people of collaboration with the Nazis—and later, with Netanyahu’s concurrence, softened this “offense” to a civil one.

Holocaust survivors and their descendants promised not to forget or forgive, but Netanyahu forgave Poland. Its new government deplores the independence of the Polish Supreme Court; it views the free press as a source of fake news, and it sees Netanyahu as an ally in its struggle against the common enemy – liberal Europe. In addition, Bibi and the Polish leaders are in lockstep with Putin and Trump, who have declared Germany a foe.

The Surrogacy Law, as well as the Nation-State Law, are not a result of coalition constraints or the competition between politicians about who is more right-wing. They reflect the strategic choice of the Israeli Right as a whole, which stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the international fascist camp. The European Union and German PM Angela Merkel are facing a broad and threatening coalition that includes the Putin-Trump axis, the British Brexits such as Boris Johnson, Matteo Salvini of Italy, Viktor Orban of Hungary, Sebastian Kurz of Austria, and Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland.

The world as we have known it has changed beyond recognition. Globalization based on neoliberal economics has gone bust. The economic crisis of 2008 created a political vacuum that has ushered in ethno-nationalism, patriotism, exclusion, and white supremacy.

LGBT is not big enough to withstand the fascist onslaught that is sweeping the world. In order for LGBT to prevail, social movements excluded from the threatening new world order must join the struggle. One hundred thousand protesters would not have filled Rabin Square if the fight were just about gay men demanding the right to have children through surrogates. The square was filled with a general feeling that this government is leading Israel to a place whose agenda is dictated by national religious messianism, and that populism based on hatred of Arabs, immigrants, homosexuals, and women is making Israel an unbearable place.

Just as no one can fathom what Trump wants to achieve for the US and the world, few can understand where Netanyahu is going. When Minister Yuval Steinitz was asked about the fate of Gaza, he replied honestly, “Nobody knows.” Netanyahu knows how to swim in murky political waters, he knows how to overcome coalition crises, he has proved his ability to win elections, but he hasn’t the faintest idea what Israel will look like a decade from now.

The Nation-State Law proves that the Israeli Right has no vision. It builds walls of hatred and discrimination while trying to prevent the inevitable: the creation of a bi-national, diverse society in which Israelis and Palestinians live together, a society based on a shared economy, renewable energy, common infrastructure, and a regime that safeguards equality for all citizens regardless of religion, gender, race, or sexual orientation.

The importance of the LGBT demonstration in Tel Aviv stems from its political nature. The demand of gay men for equality raises the issue of equality for all. Those opposing discrimination based on sexual orientation cannot ignore discrimination based on religion and ethnicity. The struggle for LGBT rights is part of the fierce struggle between ethno-nationalism and global partnership, between dictatorship and democracy, between liberalism and fascism, between democracy and occupation. It is, therefore, crucial to support the LGBT movement at a time when the world has lost its ethical compass.

*Translated from the Hebrew by Robert Goldman

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