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From The Militant, Vol. 12 No. 19, 10 May 1948, pp. 1 & 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
The last few weeks have brought an unexpected series of military setbacks to the Arab forces in Palestine. It began with the defeat of Fawzi el Kawujki’s “army of liberation,” numbering several thousand, near Michsmar Haemek, one of the Jewish strongholds in the Jezreel valley. The Arab attack failed completely and the attacking forces withdrew with great losses.
The Jews then took the initiative and occupied two villages which the Arabs were using as bases. They have since occupied the Arab part of Tiberias, meeting with almost no resistance. They attacked the Arab section of Haifa with superior forces and occupied it after a 36 hour battle. This was done with British acquiescence, as British troops were in the area and could have halted the Jewish attack.
These initial Jewish victories have been due to the ability of the Haganah to draw the Arab guerillas into well-prepared pitched battles. The predominately feudal level of social organization of the Arabs as well as the guerilla character of their fighting forces makes them least fitted for this type of warfare.
The present relationship of forces could be decisively changed in one of two ways: If the Arab countries around Palestine, throw their forces into the battle, or if one of the imperialist powers intervenes.
The reactionary chiefs, feudal lords and kings who rule the Arab world in absolutist fashion are joined together in the Arab League. It was organized in 1943 at the behest of Great Britain and never was in any sense a representative body of the Arab peoples. Since the First World War it has been the ambition of the various Arab rulers to unite the Arab countries – each ruler scheming to bring about Arab unity under his own leadership.
This conflict of the personal ambitions of the feudal lords is the Achilles’ heel of the Arab League and makes difficult joint actions. The main conflict centers around the ambition of the Emir Abdullah to “unite” Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Transjordania into a “Greater Syria.” Ibn Saud, king of Arabia, as well as the king of Egypt oppose the creation of so powerful a force alongside their own countries. They want either to continue the status quo or “unite” the countries under their own aegis.
The defeat of the Arab guerilla forces finds the Arabian rulers squabbling in conference rooms over the spoils of a war which they have not yet entered. Most of the Arab countries do not have modern armies. They are also forced to use, whatever regular armies they have, to maintain peace in their own countries. (The recent police strike in Egypt brought the Egyptian army into play; one million Kurds in northern Iraq are at present threatening rebellion.) Only Abdulla of Transjordan can throw a modern fighting force against the Jews.
It appears that the Arab League has for the moment set aside its fears of Abdulla’s ambitions and made him the pivot of its struggle to prevent the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. This does not exclude the possibility of an agreement between the Zionists and Abdullah – who might be willing to sell out the Palestinian Arabs to extend his own kingdom.
Within the framework of their general agreement on imperial policy in the Middle East, the United States and Great Britain are constantly jockeying for a greater share of the oil booty and control of the Middle East. Each have their local puppets. Transjordan is a British protectorate. Britain furnishes a number of key officers as well as the commanding general for Emir Abdulla’s army, and also pays the maintenance cost. The United States pays to Ibn Saud of Arabia royalties amounting to millions of dollars a year. Since the imperialists use the bought-and-paid-for-royal-lackeys as instruments of their own policy, it appears that Britain, basing herself upon Abdullah’s army, has the upper hand for the moment.
The UN special assembly which was convened at the request of the U.S. to reconsider the partition resolution remains in a state of suspended animation. The State Department, which miscalculated its ability to push through the partition proposal last November, called this session to bring its former resolution into line with its new understanding of the facts. But since these facts themselves are changing, with the unforeseen Jewish victories, while the assembly is in session, American policy is vacillating and marking time.
The latest U.S. resolution proposed a maintenance of the status quo, as well as an increase in Jewish immigration and other concessions to the Jews. Since the Jews have conquered an area approximating the UN partition borders, the status quo means a step in the direction of the partition resolution, without the granting of official recognition.
The defeats of the Arabs in Palestine have not altered the basic relationships between the two communities. Even consolidation of a Jewish-held territory and the establishment of a Jewish state would not eliminate the conflict. Several hundred thousand Arabs live in Jewish-held territory. The Zionists have not indicated that they intend to rescind their policy of building a closed Jewish economy. They have given no sign that they intend to end the boycott of products of the Palestinian Arab economy.
Thus the Jews will remain in an antagonistic relationship to the immediately surrounding Palestinian Arab population. Furthermore the Jewish territory will be an island in a hostile Arab sea. In the face of constant danger from surrounding Arab states, the Jews will have no recourse but to rely upon an imperialist power for “protection.” It is this which determines the reactionary character of a Jewish state in Palestine.
The fundamental solution of this tangled and snarled problem remains the same as before: The Arab and Jewish masses must join hands in a struggle against the imperialists. Clear all imperialist troops from the Near East! Convoke a Constituent Assembly based on universal suffrage to set up the Palestinian state!
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