CALLS FOR SUPPORT TO ARAB CAUSE
{The following statement was issued June 12 by the United Secretariat of the Fourth International, the world party of socialist revolution founded by Leon Trotsky in 1938.]
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For the third time in less than twenty years, the Middle East has been convulsed by war. The cease-fire imposed by the United Nations, sanctioning the conquests Israel gained by aggression, is only another extremely fragile truce. The diplomatic negotiations and political confrontations now opening can be cut off by a fresh outbreak of armed conflict.
The imbroglio in the Middle East was created by imperialism and it has been the only one to benefit from it. In the first world war, British imperialism made contradictory promises to the Arabs and to the Jews. During the second world war, the "democratic" imperialist powers did nothing to prevent or stop Hitler's genocidal actions toward the Jews. Following the war, the survivors of the Nazi camps were barred from the rich countries by immigration quotas and diverted to Palestine where they installed themselves by force in a poverty-stricken area and at the expense of the Arab masses, who were stripped and left in despair.
The State of Israel, inspired by Zionism, has since then played a reactionary role in the Middle East in the service of imperialism and against the freedom movement of the Arab masses.
This role was concretized in particular in the 1956 crisis when Israel, taking advantage of an international conjuncture which appeared to favor its designs, unleashed -- in alliance with French and British imperialism -- an attack against Egypt which was "guilty" of having nationalized the Suez Canal a few months previously. Eleven years later, once again estimating that conditions were favorable, Israel opened a new offensive and, still in agreement with imperialism, organized provocations against Syria which they wished to strike at due to the progressive policies adopted by the Syrian government.
Egypt's inevitable reply to the threats against her ally, along with the attitude adopted by other Arab countries, became the pretext to unleash an international campaign against the revolutionary Arab ‘nationalist movement, a ‘shrewdly conducted campaign in which the participation of reactionaries throughout the world stood out, including former fascists in certain countries guilty of the most atrocious crimes against the Jews.
It was during this campaign that the extremists of the Dayan type entered the Israel government, indicating that the war had become inevitable and was close at hand.
In the conflict which the Zionists provoked and which is far from having been concluded, even if military operations have been halted, the Fourth International holds that it is the duty of the international workers movement to reject in the most emphatic way any equivocal or eclectic position. We do not underestimate the complexity of the problems involved, particularly the problem of the fate of the Jewish masses settled in this area of the world, who are not at all responsible for the crimes of imperialism and the Zionist state. But while all these problems must be carefully examined in working out solutions, in the opening phase of the struggle and its pursuit, the revolutionary movement is resolutely on the side of the Arab countries and their anti-imperialist revolution, against the State of Israel.
If there were any need of confirming the character of this state and its policies, it was provided beyond any possibility of doubt by the enthusiasm with which the spokesmen of imperialism throughout the world hailed Dayan's military success and by the spirit of revenge whipped up in recent weeks against the Arabs and other peoples engaged in carrying out the colonial revolution. Israel is the keystone in the imperialist system in the Middle East and represents a major obstacle to the victory of the Arab revolution.
On the military plane, Egypt and the other Arab countries have unquestionably suffered a very severe defeat, the immediate and longer range causes of which must be probed to the bottom in the interests of the future development of the revolution in the Middle East. But Dayan's victory is far from being able to assure a stable solution. The State of Israel itself, despite its momentary expansion, has achieved no guarantees whatever for the future. On the political plane it must meet onerous confrontations even in the immediate future.
In addition, the balance sheet of _the entire operation does not add up to a plus for the imperialists although they obviously made gains. In the field of political combat now opening, Egypt and the other Arab countries have sharp weapons available in reality such as control of the Suez Canal and the oil of the whole region.
But it is particularly the mounting hate of the Arab peoples, who have once again seen where their true enemy is, that
visibly reduces the margin of maneuver for the imperialist powers, and makes their presence in the Middle East more and more precarious and increasingly challenged. This holds all the more in view of the fact that the military defeat did not involve either a demobilization or demoralization of the revolutionary Arab nationalist movement which is undergoing fresh radicalization in a series of countries. The most palpable demonstration of this was the mass movement touched off by the resignation of Nasser, who quickly resumed power under the pressure of a popular mobilization without precedent in the Egyptian revolution.
The events in the Middle East will likewise have grave consequences for the bureaucratic leadership of the Soviet Union which proved incapable of providing real help for its allies and even went so far as to join with the representatives of the United States in drawing up the June 7 UN resolution sanctioning Israel's military success.
This quite properly met with an indignant reaction among the Arab peoples, perceptibly diminishing the prestige of the Soviet Union among all the countries involved in the colonial revolution.
Under the pressure of certain peoples democracies that wondered what their own possible fate might be in view of the passive attitude of the USSR in Vietnam and then in the Middle East, a Moscow sumnmit meeting was called. This gave the impression of a firmer attitude, but under the test of events the threats contained in the resolution adopted at that gather-
ing proved to be limited essentially to
the field of propaganda and diplomatic
maneuvers.
The task of the revolutionary Arab
organizations is to seek, in agreement
with the Israeli vanguard circles who re-
ject Zionism, a valid solution to the
question of Israel, a solution that in
any case involves an end to Zionist colo-
nization, the expulsion of imperialism
from this part of the world, and the es-
tablishment -- through the collaboration
of the Arab and Israeli masses -- of po-
litical structures that would permit tak-
ing the road to the construction of soci-
alism. The revolutionary Arab vanguard
must undertake to analyze the reasons for
the military defeat and to draw all the
necessary political lessons in order to
facilitate mobilizing the masses in the
struggles under preparation, eliminating
false allies of the Hussein type, and
setting socialism as the perspective.
The task of the international work-
ers movement is to form a bloc with the
Arab peoples in their revolutionary strug-
gle against the State of Israel and its
imperialist masters in this difficult
stage of their fight for freedom. It is
the duty of the workers states to express
their solidarity through concrete actions
and not by empty phrases having no other
objective but to cover up an attitude of
genuine capitulation.
Long live the Arab revolution! Long
live the revolutionary conquests of Syria
and Egypt! Down with the Zionist State of
Israel and its imperialist partners and
allies!