Joint Statement of the Liaison Committee of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) and Convergencia Socialista (Argentina), 21 May 2021 (UTC: 10:00), https://convergenciadecombate.blogspot.com/ and www.thecommunists.net
Introductory Note: This is a brief emergency statement on the ceasefire in Gaza a few hours ago. It focuses only on the assessment of the immediate outcome of the war and not on the long-term and international implications. These issues will be dealt with in a separate document which we hope to publish very soon.
1. After eleven days, the Fourth Gaza War ended with a historic victory for the heroic Palestinian people as well as for the international working class! In this war between David and Goliath, Israel succeeded in killing 243 people – a large proportion of them civilians including 66 children, 39 women and 17 elderly men. In Israel, 12 people were killed. But despite having one of the most-modern armies in the world, the Zionist state did not dare to invade Gaza. It did not even venture to mobilize its army at the border to the enclave. It is evident that its deterrence effect is smaller than ever before. In fact, it was Israel which came under pressure – also because of the massive international pro-Palestine mobilizations – and had to publicly accept a one-sided ceasefire before Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad agreed to it.
2. The fact of the Palestinian victory is recognized within both camps. The Palestinians in all corners of historic Palestine – in Gaza, in Westbank, in East Jerusalem as well as within the Israeli state – are holding enthusiastic celebrations on the streets. Likewise, international supporters of the Palestinian liberation struggle are jubilant. Pakistan already announced to hold a ‘day of solidarity’ with Palestinians.
3. In contrast, nobody among the Zionists celebrates. Mayors of cities in Southern Israel slam the government (“It seems like nobody wants to defeat Hamas”, mayor of Sderot) and opposition politicians denounce Netanyahu (Gideon Sa’ar calls the ceasefire “embarrassing”, and the fascist leader Ben Gvir characterizes it as “a grave capitulation to terror and to Hamas’s impositions”). The government tries to reassure the public by claiming that it destroyed large parts of the defensive tunnels in Gaza. However, as everyone could see, Israel failed to weaken the Palestinian armed forces as it was capable to fire rockets and mortar shells against Israel until the very end of the war (more than 4340 rockets according to the Israeli army). Tellingly, there are no public celebrations even among the most fanatic supporters of Netanyahu.
4. One does not need to be Clausewitz to understand that the outcome of a war is not determined by tones of destroyed concrete but by the political consequences. And these consequences are clear: Israel is more isolated than ever, support for Israel in the U.S. – the strongest backer of the Zionist state – is weaker than ever, and the global solidarity with the Palestinian people stronger than ever before!
5. The Liaison Committee of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) and Convergencia Socialista (Argentina), including our comrades in Occupied Palestine, called for the military victory of Gaza and the defeat of the Zionist state from the very beginning. We welcome the triumph of the Palestinian resistance as an important factor contributing to the enhancement of the Third Intifada in all parts of historic Palestine, of the Arab Revolution as well as the global struggle of the working class and the oppressed peoples!