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Maoist Internationalist Movement

"Guardian Unlimited" leads the way on Mideast coverage

July 27

Dahlan resignation is a lesson to our class internationally

It has to be said that at this moment that the British newspaper "Guardian Unlimited" is far ahead of the other imperialist newspapers on Mideast coverage. The pathbreaking journalistic research done by "Guardian Unlimited" stands in contrast to the lagging being done in the name of "Maoism" internationally.

The "Guardian" just explained why the U.$.-linked Palestinian security chief Dahlan resigned:

"Many of the younger Fatah leaders, particularly those close to the Fatah commander Marwan Barghouti, jailed by the Israelis, have long called for reforms to the movement's many security forces and the sacking of men like Mr Dahlan.

"Shortly after the defeat of Fatah in Gaza, Mr Barghouti, who is an influential figure, sent a message from prison offering his support to Mr Abbas on condition that he sacked the senior security leadership.However, Mr Dahlan has been regarded as important within Fatah, not least because of his close relationship to American officials. He also played a key role in a Fatah crackdown on Hamas in Gaza more than a decade ago."

The "Guardian" is explaining a key question in how some Palestinians were perceiving the liberation of Gaza as not a religious thing but an anti-Amerikan thing.

Meanwhile, CIA fronts claiming Maoism globally are trying to substitute the campaign against religion for the principal contradiction. The situation in the Gaza Strip makes it clear why the battle against religion cannot be substituted for the battle against national oppression. The secular forces in Gaza were more under the control of the U.$. imperialists than the religious ones. Those trying to make religious fundamentalism the principal question are on the side of Dahlan and the most bought-off sectors of the PLO.

For that matter it must be admitted that the exploited and oppressed are more religious than the exploiters globally. The European imperialist exploiter populations are barely religious, Amerikans slightly moreso, but imperialist country exploiter populations have higher proportions of scientists and secular people than the exploited countries do.

Thanks to uneven development as explained by Stalin and Mao in opposition to the theses of Trotsky, the proletariat is concentrated in the most backward countries. Our class has the false consciousness of religion, but this does not mean we should abandon our class.

What happened in the Gaza Strip is bound to happen globally. Wherever the secular forces fail to address the demands of the exploited and take the bribes of U.$. imperialism, it could be true that religious forces are less bribed. When that occurs we cannot expect our class to remain out of the clutches of religion. Quite the contrary, we must in fact train our class to side with their more religious brethren if Yankee imperialism comes to bribe the secular leaders of the oppressed and exploited.

The Palestinian people kept their eye on the ball when they liberated the Gaza Strip. They did not get confused by peripheral issues. In this they race ahead of the CIA-front so-called Maoists.

Bribe coming for Hamas?

Even more pathbreaking is the "Guardian" research on Tony Blair's real mission in the Mideast. Appointed envoy for the "Quartet" supposedly engaged in diplomacy on the Palestine question, Tony Blair does have a particular Ireland-influenced angle not just for Iraq but Palestine too. Readers are already aware that the West Bank is poised for bribery from the West now that the PLO has broken with Hamas and set up dominance in the West Bank. It is possible a new sort of economic factor is coming into play for Hamas.

It turns out that there are natural gas reserves off the coast of the Gaza Strip large enough to dwarf other aspects of the economy. This fact is crucial in understanding the liberation of the Gaza Strip by Hamas, an organization considered terrorist by both the United $tates and European Union. We recommend that readers see Arthur Neslen's article on the subject at the Guardian.

Thus far perhaps Hamas has taken a responsible approach to imperialist ties. When back channel communication with British imperialism started, Hamas leader Haniyeh reported it openly.

"'I cannot deny that there are now other contacts, other channels of communication with the UK and these involve people of high rank, although I am not personally involved,' he claimed in an interview with the Guardian.

"'The main aim of the contacts is to improve our democracy and governance. This is just part of the many contacts that are going on with other governments around the world.'

"He added that Britain wanted to keep the contacts secret."(2)

Now a $4 billion natural gas deal for Gaza is in the works involving a British company, BG.(3)
"Ever sensitive to popular anger at the exploitation of Palestine's national treasure, one of Hamas's first demands after seizing power in Gaza was for a renegotiation of the BG contract.

"Ziad Thatha, the Hamas economic minister, had previously denounced the deal as 'an act of theft' and modern-day Balfour Declaration, that 'sells Palestinian gas to the Zionist occupation'. His rhetoric might have been a response to the circumvention of the Gaza Strip in the deal, which will pipe gas directly onshore to Ashkelon in Israel. But it could also have reflected the fact that Hamas had been cut out of the deal, while one of its most deadly rivals might have been cut in.

"On April 29, two weeks before fighting flared in Gaza, Yossi Maiman, co-owner of the rival Israeli gas company EMG, claimed that in 2004, while he was in talks to join the project, it was revealed to him that shares in it were being held in trust for two confidential partners: Mohammed Rashid and Martin Schlaff. BG denied the claims but they were damaging.

"Schlaff is a millionaire who was investigated on charges of attempting to bribe Ariel Sharon in 2006. Mohammed Rashid is a former director general of the PIF and erstwhile "mentor" and ally to the now-exiled Gazan warlord Mohammed Dahlan. Conflicts Forum website described Rashid as a sometime advisor to the US and 'an essential part of America's programme to undermine Hamas'." (3)

Unless the estimate of natural gas reserves is wrong, the $4 billion deal is approximately on the order of a $1000 per persyn benefit to Palestinians. It is not $10,000 or $100,000 or $1,000,000 per Palestinian, which is important to know given what happens in other Arab countries. Of course, the exploiters will make sure that the Palestinian people do not see much benefit from the natural gas deal.

Whether Blair dangles Gaza's own resources before Hamas as a means of making peace remains to be seen. We doubt that the bribe is sufficient to entice Hamas.

Some cannot bring themselves to read MIM Notes. For them it would be better to read the realistic journalism of the "Guardian" than to wish for an immaculate delivery of the international proletariat from religion via persynality cult.

Notes:
1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2135911,00.html
2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2134598,00.html
3. http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/arthur_neslen/2007/07/gaza_a_gas_for_blair.html