By: Soraya  Shahabi

 

Words cannot describe the situation that Gaza has been experiencing for the past months. In addition to the increasing and heartbreaking statistics that are released every day by their own "responsible" media! In addition to the dimensions of slaughter, destruction, and injuries to more than two million people that are conveyed to the world every day by these same media to keep everyone "updated," what the media and politicians in the West present as "normal" is the face of "dehumanization" that is imposed on the victims and survivors.

 

The portrayal that the news media of the "civilized world" present of the Palestinian people in Gaza, the "news" that these media have a special talent and skill in producing as "information," is grotesque and distressing. The imposition of these images as "information" about the "normal" conditions of life for millions of hardworking people victimized by poverty, war, and famine in Africa and Asia and in remote corners away from the "Western civilization," if it was effective in shaping public opinion in the West yesterday, it is not today.

 

The faces of children who have "temporarily" escaped with their lives, wounded and hungry, standing amidst the rubble left by Israeli bombings and missile barrages in Gaza, with empty food bowls in the minimum mobile kitchens provided by humanitarian aid, tell the story! The images of frightened families who have built for themselves "safe havens" and "shelters" in tents, ditches, and behind torn plastic sheets and ruins! The display of a dense and massive crowd who roam from one point to another to fill their empty food bowls and dive into the water to catch the relief supplies thrown from the sky by a few airplanes! Then there are other miseries of these people that usually receive a vast volume of "news" coverage by the official media in the West.

 

So that the world "values" the hope to undermine the efforts of some politicians in their "political campaigns" to increase aid budgets for refugees and victims in Palestine! So that, simultaneously with the rising number of casualties in Gaza, the "efforts" of "Herculean" politicians, both rivals and secondary players in the world and the region, such as China, Russia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc., to create conditions "far from another round of negotiations" between Israel and Hamas, as a way to "save" and respond to the "humanitarian crisis," are kept in the spotlight to show that some people are busy with something and maybe in the coming months a "ceasefire" will be established for a few weeks! To convince the world that apparently someone is making an effort to address the "problem"!

 

This scene is entirely designed to bring humanity to its knees and submit to "anything but the current situation"! Today, from the perspective of people in the West, children, infants, and people who in recent months have been massacred by the Israeli army and, with complete military, financial, and political support from the United States, have been condemned to death by hunger, are like themselves and their children, human and equal!

 

The public opinion in the West knows that they used to live in their homes, in their cities and villages, they used to be on the streets and in cars, their children used to go to school and kindergarten, they used to shop from stores and supermarkets, they used to work, they used to be teachers, nurses, doctors, retirees, workers, and employees, and like all humans, they had routines and life plans, neighbors, friends, and families, many of whom, in a short period of a few months, have been completely buried under a rubble called Gaza Strip and have turned from humans into "dead," "refugees," "hungry," "poor," and "homeless," just like themselves and their children, human and equal! The explosion of protest that is erupting today in the West against the militarism of America, Israel, and their allied governments in Europe is a backlash against the alienation that has been imposed on them for decades. 

 

Today, a large part of Western societies, as witnesses moment by moment, live and tangible evidence of this bloodshed, against Israel and their governments, who historically alongside deep-seated racism and Jewish religious extremism, have been and are, as a political movement, and are witnessing their testimony!

The historic and "effective" effort that Western media and its politicians have made for decades to promote the mentality that human rights are not universal and equal, but relative and conditional, depending on the "culture" and traditions of the ruling elite over the people and their skin color and place of birth, has failed in the case of genocide in Gaza! The ideology that, after the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, officially turned racism into a shy, "chic," and "cultural" form under the name of "cultural relativism," racism that on one hand, in a large part of the impoverished and hardworking majority of the terrestrial globe, "dehumanized" and on the other hand, created a suitable space for its penetration into political nationalist and religious movements in Asia, Africa, and the "Third World," under the banner of "anti-imperialism" instilled hatred for Western culture, art, and way of life and everything Western and "sanctified" traditional and reactionary cultures "of its own" in the ranks of the deprived in the "Third World" as "resistance against injustice," replacing the struggle of people for a better life. This dichotomy created a huge and historical gap between what is called "East and West," between two sections of the world's citizens, which hindered a major part in shaping the joint struggle of wage slaves in the world. This era has passed.

Today, the repeated display of millions of "dehumanized" population waiting for the promises of the "global community" in the United Nations and the European Union and its various subsidiaries for a little more "humanitarian assistance" and a little fewer deaths, remain indifferent! It shows that life in Gaza is supposed to continue in this manner with the "hope" that perhaps in an unknown future "negotiations" with the mediation of this and that will yield results, and perhaps fewer people will die of hunger or under bombings! It's a scene that anyone, even those who try to escape watching more news about Gaza, can "rise from their feet"! Just like "Aron Boshnell" did! The self-immolation of Aron Boshnell, a 25-year-old pilot in the U.S. Army, on February 25 in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, in protest against the genocide in Gaza, is just one symbolic example, breaking the backbone of humanity under the weight of the tragedy unfolding in Gaza.

Humanity has awakened, but especially in the West, it has been forced to defend itself, particularly in defense of Gaza. The tragedy of protest and the horrific death of Aron Boshnell is just one scene of this defense! Above all, it is the American society that knows Netanyahu and Biden have broken its back with the ocean of crimes they have unleashed against Palestinians in Gaza! The media and "experienced" politicians of the West can no longer conceal that this fascism and inhumanity are the sharpened blade of Western bourgeoisie and at its forefront America that has brought it to its knees!

In this bloodshed, which is ongoing to bring humanity to its knees, in this atmosphere of hatred and disgust against the global injustice of Western militarism led by America, today there is no room left for hoping for another reactionary pole in the opposite pole in the lower ranks on the scene.

 "Hope" of clinging to another reactionary leadership, whether it's religious, nationalist, militaristic, global or local, regional or national, for "intervention in any form possible," has no place in the fundamental changes underway. 

 

This mentality that "whatever" and "in whatever way" is better than this is not the driving force of the movement on the ground. The course of events clearly shows that not only is there no option in political developments to impose an eradication on humanity, but also there is a great global choice to end the fall of the "empire of corruption" on the way. An option that has only just begun its initial phase. The safety valves of Western bourgeois certainty have all been thrown into the air. In these developments, neither China, nor Russia, nor “Reactionary Islamism”nor "Eastern" or "Western" nationalism, although their movements are significant, are decisive.

Breaking Free: The Shift in Western Public Opinion:

The public opinion in the West has broken free from the control of official media, politicians, and the establishment.

Just a brief look at the protests in America and Europe, at the demonstrations, on the vast social networks, breaking all sorts of censorship barriers in protest against Zionism, and disregarding regulations and bans in suppressing the protest movement on the scene, a long radical line of youth, people, intellectuals, artists, and a vast crowd who are officially and openly unwilling to pay any more than the cost of sending arms to Ukraine and Israel with the additional burden of hunger and further poverty, a vast populace who no longer accept the traditional propaganda for the expansion of government militarism, is enough to show what a giant has been awakened.

Gaza and the people of Palestine are not the only and first victims of the ferocity of militarism and warmongering by the American army and its smaller brother in Israel. But the facts show that this phase of Western militaristic crimes led by America has brought the dilemma to Western societies and they could be its last.

The "dehumanization" in Gaza to hide and obliviate the true face of the massive human population in the minds of Westerners has failed. 

The tradition and political culture of "White supremacy," an element that has been injected into the public consciousness in the West for decades, is no longer constructive today. 

The situation has changed. For Western bourgeoisie, an ideological framework to justify not only its current crimes in Gaza but also its past war crimes is no longer viable.

The two polarities left behind that governing bodies could justify in the West through them, bombings, massacres, and past genocides are now completely obsolete. The consumer value of the bipolarity of dictatorship and democracy, war against terrorism and totalitarianism by parliamentarianism, the display of the superiority of "elected leaders" drawn from ballot boxes in the "civilized world" compared to lifelong leaderships in the "uncivilized world," is completely exhausted.

This ideological vacuum in the West is being filled and responded to. Where the achievements of modern revolutions, the French Revolution, the Paris Commune, revolutions in Europe and America, are not easily recoverable. In the mindset of the working class, where the October Revolution and the history of great socialist movements and the influences of Marx, Engels, and communism weigh heavily on it.

A place where the freedoms and rights attained by citizens and the working class have created a strong defensive fortress against tyranny, national and religious retrogression, economic inequality, and racism.

In the ranks of competitors, both international and regional adversaries, talk of the existence of an ideological framework that could inspire intervention from them in support of humanity does not exist. A brief look at their position in this regard helps to see the scene more clearly.

Above, relations among 'competitors' are evident. The ongoing bloodshed, driven by the fear of militarism's expansion led by America and the subsequent arms race among other global and regional powers, has not only unfolded scenes of horror in Gaza but has also instilled terror in the people of the Middle East and around the world. 

Previously, when Western citizens were non-interventionist and hoped for a return to less oppressive conditions under their governments, they might have implicitly harbored a 'favorable view' towards the ruling powers of the world and the region. 

However, today, as these same citizens rise up directly against their governments to put an end to the catastrophe and hold them 'accountable for their crimes,' including circumventing their commercial deals and sanctions through strikes and protests, no one holds any 'favorable view' towards the intervention of competitors and partners from above.

Today, it is “ordinary citizens”, especially in Western societies, who have left those above in limbo and have led them to a dead end. The resistance movement in the West today is one of the key factors determining political trends. A movement that officially declares that alongside them, there are no "leaders of the free world" and has no "favorable view" towards Hamas and Reactionary Islamism and the power of China and Russia. Just listen to the speeches, agitation, protests, and so on.

Today, civilized people worldwide have marginalized Hamas and reactionary Islamism in Iran and the region, as well as questioned the credibility of rival governments in China and Russia. As a result, focusing on their agendas remains relevant only in upper corridors and international fora like the United Nations and its subsidiaries, leaving little room for global protest against the genocide in Gaza."

The transparency and realities of the past few months have shown the emptiness of opposing calls and the "efforts" of intermediaries and "opponents" in the ranks of the powers that be to end the Gaza disaster. It is more apparent than ever that there is no room for indulging in such illusions and "favorable views."

Beyond the tragedy of Gaza, the ongoing negotiations and agreements between the Western bourgeoisie, who are the perpetrators of this bloodshed, and the Russian and Chinese factions, are exploiting the massacre of nearly thirty thousand people and the complete destruction of Gaza as leverage to shift the balance of power. While China and Russia are not directly responsible for these killings, they are capitalizing on the situation for their own benefit, which is both absurd and delusional.

 

Reading the "hopeful" news they inject into the media about the influential dimensions of it is absurd!

"RIA Novosti reports that the Palestinian ambassadors in Russia have informed that representatives of two rival Palestinian groups, Hamas and Fatah, will meet in Moscow on Friday, February 29th, to discuss the formation of a unified Palestinian government and the reconstruction of Gaza." "Reuters, which published this news, writes that Mikhail Bogdanov, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, has also confirmed the planning of this meeting in an interview with RIA Novosti." Also: "Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas's political office, while stating that the group shows 'flexibility' in the negotiations for a ceasefire with Israel, emphasized that his forces are ready to continue the war."

“According to Reuters, Haniyeh on Thursday, February 28th, in a televised speech from Palestinians in Jerusalem (Al-Quds) and the southwestern bank of the Jordan River, urged them to go to the Al-Aqsa Mosque for prayers on the first day of Ramadan, March 10th."

Thirty thousand killed and the complete destruction of Gaza, along with taking 130 people hostage, is seen as an "opportunity" for Hamas to improve its position among various organizations and institutions that claim to represent the people of Palestine! These speculations are solely for changing their position as one of the players on the stage. Calling the capture of 130 people and firing a few rockets "war" and the resistance of these deprived and victimized people, political charlatanism is endless. 

Hamas's situation is a reflection of the entire position of Reactionary Islamism in the region and in the world in the Palestinian case!

 

The responsibility for the October 7th attack on Israel lies with Hamas. But the genocide underway in Gaza, like the massacres and destruction that took place in Iraq and Libya, and the atmosphere of militaristic terror and intimidation that has dominated the world every day for the past thirty years under the pretext of this and that "axis of evil," is "entirely the product of America and its global hegemony, which claims to have found an opportunity to prevent its dissolution and decline in the face of the realities of the contemporary world."

Hamas is responsible for the October 7th attack on Israel. However, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, similar to the massacres and destruction in Iraq and Libya, is primarily attributed to America and its global hegemony. This militaristic environment has persisted for thirty years, under the guise of combating various 'axis of evil' threats, as America seeks to maintain its power and influence in the face of evolving global realities.

It's not about competition between the East and West, nor about the "anti-imperialist" movements led by the bourgeoisie in the Third World, particularly in the Middle East, nor about movements advocating "independence" and "anti-Western" nationalism. Instead, it purely revolves around leftist and socialist movements in the West striving to leave their imprint.

Western societies, especially America and Europe, have a history of experiencing crises, political upheavals, internal rifts, revolutionary uprisings, civil wars, and political unrest, with the potential for recurrence. These events represent political transformations where fascism, whether local or national, finds no opportunity to thrive or remain concealed.

The future is shaped by non-militaristic, civilized, humanitarian, non-religious, and non-nationalistic human politics and culture. The key to this lies in America and Europe, and it has already been struck in the West! 

The working class and the oppressed people who suffer under the yoke of corrupt, nationalistic, religious, and reactionary governments from the Middle East to Africa, including in Iran, are united and part of this global movement.

The future is made by the socialist movement of the working class, defending the achievements of the revolutionary movements of the French Revolution, communism, and the revolutions in Europe and America, and the October Revolution.

 

February 29, 2024