Democratic Socialists of America's position on Middle East

[Hawkeye-X]

It fits me to the T, btw:

The Democratic Socialists of America issued a new statement addressing issues of peace and security in the Middle East. The statement was approved at the DSA National Political Committee meeting held October 1-2. The statement will appear in the issue of Democratic Left (Fall
2004) that will reach most members prior to the election. The statement has already been posted on DSA?s web site. (www.dsausa.org) Sentiment to revise the statement emerged in response to the escalating violence. The full text of the statement follows.

DSA NPC Resolution on Israel?s Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Adopted Oct. 3, 2004.

Democratic socialists are appalled by the escalating violence in the Middle East, as two competing nationalist movements ratchet up the use of military power as the prime tool for resolving differences. The damage to civilians in life and property is incalculable, and the deepening hostilities are rapidly becoming a permanent source of war and brutality in the Holy Land. The fratricide must stop and differences resolved if there are to be just and egalitarian societies in Israel and Palestine. Whatever one's view of the origins of the conflict, the first steps toward peace can only come today when the Israeli and Palestinian communities renounce armed struggle and commit to live within two economically and strategically viable states. We do not say this as pacifists deploring wars in general, but as socialists understanding that the rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians cannot be won through armed struggle, but through arbitrating legitimate grievances.

Since its founding in 1983, Democratic Socialists of America has consistently held that peace would only come to the Middle East in a settlement that recognized both the Palestinian and Jewish people's right to self-determination. Thus we have consistently supported the Palestinian right to a sovereign state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as Israel's right to retain its character as a majority Jewish state, with full political and civil rights accorded to Palestinians and Jews, whether secular or religious, as well as to other national and religious minorities, without qualification. We reaffirm that commitment today.

DSA believes that the greatest barrier to peace is the Sharon government's efforts to de facto annex most of the occupied territories.
The "wall" being built by the Israeli government is said to be a defense against terror attacks and protection for isolated, illegal and?in DSA's view?undesirable Israeli settlements, but its creation?whether purposeful or not?will divide Palestinian communities in a manner that precludes the creation of an independent Palestinian state. The occupation also contributes to a profound sense of humiliation and resentment as Palestinians continue to live under the most dire conditions. The Israeli government's policy of administering collective punishment, including road blocks, military incursions, the demolition of homes and the wholesale closure of the territories, is self?defeating. By contributing to mass unemployment, economic destitution and homelessness, the policy only increases the pool of extremist recruits and threatens the viability of Palestinian communities.

DSA has forthrightly condemned suicide bombings and calls on the Palestinian Authority to do all within its power to stop them. But as long as Palestinian desires for self-determination are violently denied by the Israeli occupation, terrorist acts of desperation will continue.
This analysis is in no way a justification for attacks on Israeli civilians or a vindication of the wisdom of Palestinian leadership, including its often-invoked rejectionism. That leadership has been negligent?if not criminally implicated?in the failure to bring peace and justice to the region. It is to say that the Israeli government, an American ally that talks in the name of the Enlightenment and of democratic values, has pursued for 37 years a ruinous policy of occupation, and one that must end.

Peace will also not be possible until the United States government stops framing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as part of the "war on terrorism," as its roots lie not in some nihilistic global conspiracy but in denying self-determination to the Palestinians. Nor should the legitimate cause of Palestinian self-rule be left in the hands of Islamist religious extremists who use the cause to whip up anti-Jewish hatred or allowed to be exploited by authoritarian Arab regimes to deflect their own people's attention away from their undemocratic homeland practices.

The Sharon government can pursue its destructive policies only because the Bush administration (and both parties in the U.S. Congress) grants the Israeli administration a "blank check." Despite the horrific Israeli occupation, no mainstream politicians have the courage or foresight to call for the end of U.S. military aid to Israel, a cessation that should last until Israel ends all illegal settlement activity and demonstrates a renewed willingness to trade land for peace.

The militarization of Israeli society is complemented by right-wing-backed free market ?reforms,? austerity measures and other blatant attacks on workers? living standards. These have made Israel less secure, vulnerable not just from physical assault by external enemies but from a self-induced crisis economy. The recent massive public workers strike, led by the Histadrut Labour Federation?the third nationwide strike in 18 months?is a direct outcome of the government?s iron-wall intransigence, the accumulated financial burden of maintaining Israel as a garrison state, and efforts by the Likud-led government to ruthlessly privatize Israel's public sector. Similarly, the continued violence buttresses the role of the most regressive elements in Palestinian society, at the expense of the emergence of a secular, progressive leadership. As socialists, DSA supports workers on both sides of the Green Line, and not their reactionary political leaderships.

The pro-peace and labor forces in both Palestine and Israel are the segments of the region's societies with which we politically identify and from which we draw strength. They cannot succeed absent the aid of the international community. Only a U.S. government willing to take a forthright stand against Israel's occupation policies by threatening to cut off military aid can move Israeli policy in a pro-peace direction.
At the same time, the U.S. and the European Union (the main provider of aid to the Palestinian Authority) should pressure the Palestinian Authority to do all in its power to cease attacks on Israeli civilians.

In addition, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations must station a permanent international armed peacekeeping force to separate the parties now. Such a force must be maintained during what will be, by its nature, an initially fragile peace. Only years of peaceful coexistence between a viable Palestinian state and a secure, but non-expansionist Israel can bring a durable, self-sustaining peace to the Middle East.

The outline of a just peace settlement has been visible since the nearly successful secret talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 1995. In return for a just peace, there must be an abandonment of all Israeli settlements on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, except those that a peace treaty might exempt through a mutual exchange of territory. In addition, the capital of the Palestinian state must be sited in the Palestinian parts of Jerusalem, as the Palestine National Council argues. Finally, Israel must recognize its responsibility in the creation of the 1948 Palestinian refugees, as well as acknowledge that its majority Jewish character is predicated on the permanent displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and their descendants. That clear-eyed understanding should be balanced by Arab acknowledgement that nearly an equal number of Jews were forced out of Arab lands?states in which they had lived peacefully for thousands of years?during and after the creation of the state of Israel. A just settlement to the Palestinian refugee question will involve limited resettlement of refugees within pre-1967 Israel, but mostly massive economic compensation paid for by Israel and the Western Nations that refused to absorb the Jewish refugees from the Holocaust.

Whatever the precise nature of a just two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, peace will remain elusive absent a balanced U.S. regional foreign policy. As a U.S.-based organization that supports a just two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, DSA is committed to alter the ruinous bipartisan policy of successive Washington administrations that facilitates Israel?s disastrous and self-defeating occupation of the Palestinian people.