The scathing remarks of Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against Barak Obama for suggesting that the
‘two state solution’ should be based upon the pre-1967 borders, just
before boarding the plane to Washington for a state visit, exposed the
diplomatic weakness of the imperialist leaders.
The last few
weeks have seen an unprecedented public dispute between the president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The dispute
officially erupted over Ahmadinejad’s dismissal of Heydar Moslehi, the
minister of intelligence who was fired by Ahmadinejad (officially he
resigned himself) on April 17, but was then reinstated later the same
day by a direct decree from Khamenei.
The
revolutionary wave sweeping through the Middle East has acquired a new
dimension with the eruption of the Palestinian masses along Israel’s
borders last weekend. Every 15 May, Palestinians commemorate the Nakba
(catastrophe) of the declaration of independence of the state of Israel
on 15 May 1948. In recent years, protests have been marked by clashes
between Israeli security forces and stone-throwing Palestinian youths,
but Sunday was the first time the commemorations took on a more
widespread and militant character.
Alan Woods, Political Editor of the In Defence of
Marxism website and a leading cadre of the International Marxist
Tendency, and Muayad Ahmed a leading cadre of the Worker Communist
Party of Iraq & Editor of the ‘Alsheoiya Al-Omalya’ (Worker
Communism) monthly paper, spoke on the way forward for the Revolution
in the Arab world at a meeting in London.
The Syrian revolution has taken a
significant and possibly key turn today after what has been a very
bloody week. As thousands of protesters once again took to the streets,
the regime has unleashed the most barbaric repression, no doubt gambling
on the idea that total repression can stop the movement. But cracks are
now appearing within the armed forces.
The British government, along with their French and Italian
counterparts, is stepping up its aggressive action in Libya by sending
military advisers to help secure its interests. Slowly, but surely, they
are being dragged into sending ground troops under the guise of “all
necessary means”.
The young activist from the 25th February
group, Ala’a Nabiel was released on Saturday, April 16th, after being
arrested on Friday, April 8th.
Firas Ali, an Iraqi political
activist, was detained at the office of the Federation of Workers’
Councils and Unions in Iraq, Baghdad, at about 2pm on 13 April. A
protester, Haidar Shihab Ahmad Abdel Latif, is believed to have been
detained on 1 April on Tahrir Square, Baghdad. Alaa Nabil, another youth
leader of the February 25 Group, was also arrested on April 8, and
remains in custody. It is feared that they and other detained activists
are at high risk of torture.
These days, Iraqi authorities feel free to carry out
arbitrary arrests, physical assault and torture of Iraqi citizens who
participate in peaceful demonstrations. In fact, they have begun to
recruit and utilize of the expertise of the masterminds who were part of
the horrific Baathist regime of Saddam.
There is no future without the past.
An empirical, mechanistic and a pragmatic approach to the revolution
sweeping across the region from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea
would end up in a flawed analysis and a disastrous fate for the mass
upheaval.
What started as a genuine revolution
against Gaddafi, has been taken over by reactionary bourgeois elements.
In the Interim Council, and now the newly formed Interim Government,
direct representatives of imperialist interests have been promoted to
leading positions.
On Saturday afternoon French warplanes
were the first to bomb Libya, in what one can only describe as open
imperialist aggression. This was followed by US and UK ships and
submarines launching 110 Tomahawk Cruise missiles. The French are
strengthening their position by sending their Charles de Gaulle aircraft
carrier into waters off the Libyan coast