Combating Jew-hatred and defending the right of Israel to exist as a refuge for Jews is a dividing line among all those who claim to speak for the working class. That remains true today, as Washington tries to shut down Israel’s defensive war against Hamas. It does so to advance the U.S. rulers’ imperialist interests in the Middle East and beyond, regardless of the consequences for Jews, for Israel and for what Hamas’ survival would portend for all working people.
From its founding in 1987 out of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas’ goal has been to wipe the Jewish people and Israel off the face of the earth. Its determination to carry out another Holocaust remains unchanged two years since its Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom. It is in the class interests of workers worldwide for Israel to carry its war through to the end.
Hamas refuses to give up its arms and is using the current talks to gain space to rebuild and seek out new allies to pursue its murderous aims.
Capitalist rulers in Europe and elsewhere blame Israel for “genocide.” Hamas says their claims show its Oct. 7 pogrom, what it calls a “glorious day,” was successful. Efforts to slander Israel for “genocide” are advanced by Stalinist forces everywhere.
For working people, the fight to defend Israel as a refuge for the Jews is a front line in the battle to prevent Washington and other imperialist powers from marching humanity toward fascism and a third world war.
President Donald Trump’s demand that Israel stop its attacks on Hamas are part of the U.S. rulers’ efforts to impose stability for their own imperialist interests. These include advancing relations with capitalist regimes across the region, including Hamas’ backers in Tehran, and extending Washington’s economic, political and military domination throughout the Middle East.
The stakes are enormous for the working class worldwide. A decisive victory in Israel’s defensive war is crucial. Along that road working people — Jews, Palestinians, Druze, Kurds and others — can advance struggles and forge alliances for their own class interests and national aspirations. It’s out of such struggles that workers come to see that all political questions are class questions.
Safeguarding Israel will not end Jew-hating violence. This requires a deepening of the class struggle.
The killing of two Jews defending a synagogue in Manchester, England, last week, and rising assaults on Jews in the U.S. and elsewhere show Jew-hatred is not a Middle East question. As social and economic crises deepen, the rulers will try to divert the anger of the ruined middle classes and some demoralized workers away from the capitalist class and its responsibility for the crisis they face. The rulers will unleash fascist forces to target Jews, the labor movement and communists.
The fight to eradicate Jew-hatred in the imperialist epoch requires overturning the political rule of the bosses, ending capitalist exploitation and charting a road to end all national oppression. Most importantly, this must be done here in the U.S., home of the world’s final empire.
To make socialist revolutions possible, vanguard parties must be built that are disciplined and capable of leading tens of millions to take power. Such parties can only be forged and tempered in the course of the class struggle. Workers need a party they know and whose leaders and members they have come to trust.
You can be part of the struggle to build such a party today — Join the Socialist Workers Party.