Dear Socialist Viewpoint,
The article, "Which Way Forward for Palestinian Liberation?"1 by Joseph Daher, in the May/June issue of Socialist Viewpoint, is really informative. Iran's role is hardly surprising given the 7th-century fundamentalist politics of the Khomeini-led revolution, its savage repression of its very militant working class at the time-particularly the oil workers-to preserve capitalist rule, and its barbaric patriarchy.
In many ways, the overall picture he draws of the role of the various anti-Israeli forces in the region is highly reminiscent of the role of the Arab sheiks and bourgeoisies during the war that established Israel. The ruler of Trans-Jordan stopped fighting as soon as he achieved his own goal of expanding kingly territory; the Iraqis pulled their troops back in order to crush a populist insurgency in Baghdad, etc.
Daher is spot-on in his description of BRICs and, even more importantly, in his recognition that the multiple polar world poses an even greater threat of world war/nuclear catastrophe/global extinction than the singular, now finished rule of U.S. imperialism and its Western European subordinates.
It's useful to be reminded that China actually invests in Israel as I continue to wrestle with whether it can in any way be still considered a deformed workers state because of nationalized property forms-a position which I lean strongly against but on which I am not 100 percent certain. The uncertainty doesn't make me any more sympathetic to the leftists who support Russia in Ukraine in large part on the grounds that the U.S. proxy war is really aimed at "socialist" China.
Daher pointing to the potential strength of the Middle Eastern proletariat particularly in choking off oil, plus the catalytic role of previous Palestinian revolts (as well as the present Genocide) gives a really useful alternative strategic perspective.
-Bob Mandel
1 https://socialistviewpoint.org/mayjun_25/mayjun_25_14.html