At the time of writing, the Israeli land invasion of the Gaza Strip is entering its 4th day, following 7 days of intensive bombardment from air and sea.
Gaza is the latest victim of the imperialist "war on terror", after Afghanistan and Iraq. Because it is under the cynical pretext of "defeating terrorism" that the Israeli army are now bombarding shopping centres and open markets, public buildings and mosques, private houses and shanty towns, while terrorising Palestinian families out of their homes, for fear of being targeted by Israeli missiles.
Already 500 Palestinians have been murdered by Israeli fire in Gaza, and 2,300 have been injured. For every Israeli citizen killed or injured by Hamas' home-made rockets, there have been a hundred Palestinians killed or injured by Israel's high-tech, US-equipped war machine! Most of these victims are civilians of all ages, including children, who are certainly not "Hamas militants" contrary to the hypocritical claims of Israeli ministers.
A population imprisoned and blockaded
In fact, these casualty figures are still a huge understatement of the crimes of the Israeli state. For nearly 2 years, Gaza has been subjected to a complete economic blockade for only one reason - the Israeli state's intolerance of the Hamas government voted in by the Palestinian electorate in Gaza. But how many casualties has this blockade actually caused in Gaza, even before this latest wave of Israeli bombings? In the long term, deprivation and shortages can be even more lethal than bombs. And the odds are that the casualties of this blockade alone run into tens of thousands.
Today, under the pretext of destroying Hamas' "fire power", the Israeli army is reducing to rubble what little public infrastructure still remained in the Gaza Strip. Since the invasion began, all food, fuel and electricity supplies have been stopped. The 1.6 million population is penned into an area which is just about the size of 2 average London boroughs, with nothing close to what would be needed in terms of drinking water, toilets, etc. Hospitals are overwhelmed by a constant flow of casualties who cannot be treated due to lack of medicines and electricity. But according to the Israeli Foreign Secretary, "there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza"!
Meanwhile, the "international community" - the alliance of imperialist powers which strives to impose its own order across the planet, is exposing its impotence - or rather, its criminal role in allowing the Israeli state to use terror and cold-blooded murder against the Gaza population. But how could it be otherwise, given the social and economic interests, those of the rich countries' powerful banks and multinationals, that this "international community" is there to defend?
Brown also has blood on his hands
Britain's government has a big share of responsibility among these criminals. Blair, who gave his full support to Israel's carpet-bombing of the Lebanon shortly before leaving Downing Street, is now the man in charge of "mediating" in the Middle East between the Israeli state and the Palestinians, for the "Quartet" (US, Russia, the EU and the UN). It is not hard to imagine what sort of mediation he has to offer!
As to Brown, his apparently benevolent calls for an "immediate cease-fire" hardly conceal his refusal to clearly condemn Israel's aggression against Gaza. Above all, he stops short of calling for the immediate withdrawal of all Israeli troops and weapons out of Gaza and for the immediate end to the economic blockade. In fact a cease-fire alone would just legitimise Israel's siege against the population. But then, Brown sees nothing wrong in Israel's policy, being as he is, a partner to the US "war on terror" in Afghanistan and Iraq and, now, why not, in Gaza?
Meanwhile the UN is paralysed by vain attempts to find a wording acceptable to US leaders while making some sort of a stand against Israel's aggression. But even the tamest wording is unacceptable, whether for Bush, or for Obama, who remains cautiously silent, for fear of exposing so soon after his election how little difference there is between him and Bush, when it comes to defending Western interests in the Middle East.
The hypocrisy of the imperialist powers and the brutality of their Israeli client state may well backfire in the end, as was shown by the many mass demonstrations which have been triggered across the Arab world by Israel's aggression against Gaza, including in countries whose rulers show no sympathy for the Palestinians. The anger expressed in these demonstrations is unlikely to recede, given the increasingly obvious objectives displayed by the Israeli leaders - that is, to terrorise the entire Gaza population into submission.
In any case, the British working class can only choose the side of the people of Gaza against the Israeli state and use every opportunity to express its solidarity with the Palestinians under attack.