Zionism and the Middle East

[Unis]

Understandably and sadly out of necessity I see why we oppose Zionism, and Israel's imperialism. I think it is a very important cause and one which we have to fight against.

However, I'm very dissapointed to see no similar antagonism towards places like Saudi Arabia - who's totalitarian anti-worker policies seem ignored. Just because Saudi Arabia is oppressing its own people why do we draw less (or no?) attention to this?

So often on here people will damn American and Israeli Imperialism and draw the conclusion that any and all resistance to these are valid and progressive. This is clearly not true - in Afghanistan and even Palestine, the Taliban and Hamas both want to establish an Islamist (and obviously still capitalist) state. This is just in opposition to our values as the Imperialists, so why do we support them?

Honest question - I'm new to everything.

[Ricardo]

I'd say the reason many people on this site support organizations like Hamas is because although most of their views are reactionary, they are anti-imperialist, and lacking any strong leftist anti-imperialist organizations, people choose to support what is around.

It's true that many comrades tend to focus their attention on America's and Israel's wrongdoings, but this is because these are two of the worst countries in the world. Almost every country is capitalist so there needs to be strong worker's movements in every one, which is what we as revolutionaries intend to develop.

[Proletarian Ultra]

However, I'm very dissapointed to see no similar antagonism towards places like Saudi Arabia - who's totalitarian anti-worker policies seem ignored. Just because Saudi Arabia is oppressing its own people why do we draw less (or no?) attention to this?


I'd say a. Israel gets more military aid from the West (although the Saud pig-fuckers do get quite a lot) and b. we know less about the anti-Saud opposition in Arabia.


So often on here people will damn American and Israeli Imperialism and draw the conclusion that any and all resistance to these are valid and progressive. This is clearly not true - in Afghanistan and even Palestine, the Taliban and Hamas both want to establish an Islamist (and obviously still capitalist) state. This is just in opposition to our values as the Imperialists, so why do we support them?

Any and all resistance is valid and progressive. If I try to stab your kids and you break my jaw, you did the right thing no matter what your political views are - it doesn't suddenly become wrong if you're a reactionary. In short, values have nothing to do with it.

Besides, none of us here support Hamas politically; most of us support DFLP, PFLP or PPP if we support any party politically.

But consider also this...

It's a big myth that Gandhi won freedom for India; in fact, the Quit India movement had mostly fizzled out a few years before independence was gained. What really turned the British out was the Bombay Mutiny, which was in response to a trial of Indian National Army guerillas. INA was backed by Imperial Japan. Now, Imperial Japan was clearly in the wrong - but was INA wrong to fight the British, or even to take Japanese support? My answer would be no.

Likewise with the Palestine question.

[NGNM85]

Understandably and sadly out of necessity I see why we oppose Zionism, and Israel's imperialism. I think it is a very important cause and one which we have to fight against.

However, I'm very dissapointed to see no similar antagonism towards places like Saudi Arabia - who's totalitarian anti-worker policies seem ignored. Just because Saudi Arabia is oppressing its own people why do we draw less (or no?) attention to this?

So often on here people will damn American and Israeli Imperialism and draw the conclusion that any and all resistance to these are valid and progressive. This is clearly not true - in Afghanistan and even Palestine, the Taliban and Hamas both want to establish an Islamist (and obviously still capitalist) state. This is just in opposition to our values as the Imperialists, so why do we support them?

Honest question - I'm new to everything.

I would venture this is probably because there are a lot of americans on the forum. Granted, the US is definitely chummy with Saudi Arabia, however, we have a much more direct role in providing financial, material, and political support for Israeli aggression and human rights violations. That's why it gets more attention. Of course the human rights violations in Saudi Arabia should be opposed, just like in Myanmar, or Tibet, etc. however, it's incredibly easy to point the finger at other people, that requires zero courage. The test is applying those principles inward, to yourself. As Americans, if we oppose this sort of behavior, we should not just point the finger at others, but first make sure that our own government acts in accordance with our principles, because that's actually within the realm of our influence.