Egypt: Morsi decree ignites mass protests

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... Palestinians beat back Gaza attack SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 2012 5 The day after the ceasefire in Gaza went into effect, Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi, the key link in the diplomatic chain that forged the agreement, issued a decree granting himself virtually un­ limited power without recourse to chal­ lenge by anyone, including especially the country’s judges.

Justified as a move to get around the mostly Mubarak-appointed judiciary, which—with his own connivance—has failed to bring to justice those respon­ sible for killings and torture before, during, and after the revolution, Morsi’s moves were immediately recognized as a brazen attempt to maintain power for the Muslim Brotherhood and the capital­ ist forces behind it.

The decrees included new means to stack elections in “official” trade unions, and are a warning to independent unions to quiet their dissent over the Morsi re­ gime’s failure to take any measures to im­ prove conditions for the country’s work­ (continued from page 1: “Palestinians beat back Israeli attack on Gaza”)

must uphold the right to resist of the Palestinian people.

During the attacks, many progres­ sive activists and authors refuted offi­ cial claims about the timetable of who attacked whom and when, and about whether the attacks were “dispropor­ tionate.” More importantly, this refuta­ tion opened the door to a discussion about the non-equivalence between the actions of the oppressed and the op­ pressor, between those resisting and those ruling. The very attempt to as­ sess “proportionality” is ludicrous, as the right to self-defense cannot be mea­ sured by the same scales as violence committed to maintain an illegitimate regime built on a century of theft and murder.

By the same token, the reappearance in the media of pictures of murdered children, parents, and grandparents was an occasion to point out that not just civilians but anyone killed while exercising their legitimate right to re­ sist, including by force of arms, must be considered a victim of aggression.

Such discussions, of course, led to deepened education about the inher­ ently murderous and expansionary nature of the settler colonialist regime, which owes its origin to the first vio­ lent and illegal seizures of land decades before 1948. An admission of that was stated by David Ben-Gurion in 1948 when he said, “[we must] strike mer­ cilessly, women and children included.

Otherwise the reaction is inefficient.”

Other crucial facts exposed have been the desperate poverty and malnutrition and the resulting stunting of children’s growth in Gaza imposed by the Zionist siege; the falseness of its claims to have “disengaged” when Israel in fact main­ tains control over the land and popula­ tion, making it the world’s largest openair prison; and the billions of aid given by the U.S. to Israel every year to buy weapons.

What’s more, the discussion about these underlying causes led away from superficial analyses, which saw behind the latest attack such factors such as the upcoming Israeli elections, the need to test the U.S.-funded anti-missile “Iron Dome” apparatus, the desire to send a warning signal to Hezbollah and Iran, or to halt Abbas’s farcical UN “recogni­ tion” bid.

And this attack, coming after the re­ gional Arab uprising, was an occasion for Palestinian revolutionaries around the world to educate about the role of Palestinian liberation within the broad­ er Arab revolution (and the debt owed the former by the latter), and about the role of that revolution in the growing global battle between imperialism and ers and peasants. Stifling such working-class dissent is also key to maintaining U.S. aid, imperialist investment, and IMF loans. In fact, right after the decree was issued, IMF officials said explicitly that their loans were contingent only on Mor­ its victims.

In these new circumstances it is in­ structive to look at the contrasting role during the attack on Gaza of Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi and of that country’s workers and youth.

Morsi used his newfound diplomatic maneuvering room to work with the U.S.

to get a ceasefire agreement in place be­ fore an imminent Zionist ground inva­ sion—but took no serious steps during the assault to side with those under at­ tack in Gaza. Having worked previously with Israel to maintain the siege, to de­ stroy tunnels through which life-saving food and medicine flow, Morsi—des­ perate to maintain billions in U.S. funds and IMF loans—never even threatened to abrogate the peace treaty with the Zionist entity, which allows such mas­ sacres to occur, much less threaten Tel Aviv with entry into the war on the Pal­ estinian side. Revolutionaries in Egypt in contrast organized a delegation of over 500 to visit Gaza while the bombs were dropping, as well as groups of medical volunteers.

Rallies around the world were called almost as soon as Israel’s first bombs dropped to demand an end to the ag­ gression. Widespread protests broke out in the West Bank and among Pal­ estinian students at universities in pre1967 Israel. The organizers of these ral­ lies called for increased efforts to end U.S. and other imperialist aid to Israel, and for boycott, divestment, and sanc­ tions against all Israeli institutions and any institution supporting them.

Most significantly, which brings us back to the question posed at the be­ ginning, solidarity actions increasingly si’s keeping his promise to guarantee repayment through austerity programs, and that the IMF had no interest in the means, democratic or not, by which Morsi would impose such programs.

Nor did Obama issue a word of criticism of Morsi’s moves. This was a given, considering how Morsi had just finished working so diligently with the U.S. and Israel to broker a ceasefire in the Zionist attack on Gaza—a ceasefire unlikely to last long and addressing none of the demands of Pales­ tinians in a serious way.

But the reaction of the Egyp­ tian masses was swift and massive. Millions poured into the central squares of Cairo, Alexandria, and many other cities and towns, in num­ bers rivaling some of the largest protests against Mubarak. Thousands have stayed around the clock. The Muslim Brother­ Tony Savino / Socialist Action raised the call to support Palestinian resistance in all its forms—from hunger strikes to BDS to popular mobilizations to armed struggle—on its own terms. For instance, a statement endorsed by a broad spectrum of Arab and solidarity groups in the New York region declared that “international law guarantees all people, including Palestinians, the right to resist.” Signers included groups who previously would have insisted on re­ ferring only to “nonviolent” forms of resistance.

By the same token, the very first sen­ tence of a statement by the United Na­ tional Antiwar Coalition declared that “UNAC supports the Palestinians’ right to resist tyranny.” This resistance will be tested again and again. Palestinians know it’s only a matter of time before the ceasefire is broken by Israel—as promised by racist politicians who talk of “mowing the lawn” every few years.

While such murderous rhetoric has been a staple of Zionist politicians from before 1948 (see again the quote above from Ben-Gurion), the daily, casual is­ suance of such barbarous sentiments has come to define mainstream Israeli rhetoric. For example, writing in the Jerusalem Post during the attack, Gilad Sharon declared that “we need to flat­ ten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. The Americans didn’t stop with Hiroshi­ ma—the Japanese weren’t surrender­ ing fast enough, so they hit Nagasaki too.” Israel shouldn’t worry about inno­ cent civilians in Gaza, he said, because there are no innocent civilians in Gaza: “They elected Hamas … they chose this freely, and must live with the conse­ quences.” hood threatened to call its own rally in Cairo’s Tahrir Square for Saturday, Dec. 1, sparking fears of civil war, but in the face of such huge numbers already filling the square against Morsi, the Brother­ hood backed down and announced that they would choose an alternate location for their rally.

Revolutionaries in Egypt, while de­ nouncing Morsi’s decree, made clear that opposition to it could not include the “feloul,” the supporters of the Mubarak regime. The Revolutionary Socialists, for instance, declared that “we will not accept remnants of the old regime re­ turning to the revolutionary scene un­ der the pretext that ‘we are all against the Brotherhood.’ We will not work with anyone who worked hand in glove with the deposed dictator. … We call on our comrades in the revolutionary march to step back from this game of shuffling the decks of cards. We call on people to come out into the streets with the slogans: bread, freedom, social justice.”

Supporters of the Egyptian Revolution must be ready to stand by the masses who have returned to the squares to ad­ vance their cause. n Palestinians know that in between this ceasefire and the next war, more Palestinians will be shot down. Nearly 3000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since 2006, as against 47 Israelis by Palestinian fire.

And they know a new war is inevita­ ble, because however limited and hypo­ critical was the Zionist easing of control over Gaza in 2005, any sign of selfgovernance on the part of Palestinians in Gaza was seen as a mortal threat to the colonial-settler regime as a whole, because of the example it set of truly liberated Palestinian land. The sight of Palestinians with guns staffing entry and exit sites in Gaza, instead of Zionist thugs, sent shivers up Tel Aviv’s spine for fear of the example it set. Similarly, the elections won by Hamas tore apart the notion that Israel can impose with impunity its own regime or puppets be­ holden to it.

They know also that because the over­ whelming majority of Palestinians will not rest until their land is free from the river to the sea, until every Palestinian who wants to return to their original home can do so, Israel is bound to con­ tinually launch new wars to maintain its existence as an apartheid state that functions as the long arm of U.S. impe­ rialism in the region.

As we go to press, there have been no serious talks on the border-cross­ ing question raised in the agreement. Meanwhile, Israel has resumed shoot­ ing Palestinians who approach the “nogo zone” established by Israel on the Palestinian side of the border and at boats who approach the illegal Israeli limit on sea travel.

Just three days after signing the cease­ fire agreement, Israeli soldiers killed one Palestinian and wounded more than 19 for approaching the “no-go zone” on the Gaza side of the Israeli fence. And hardly had the ceasefire come into effect before Israel raided the West Bank to round up more than 50 Hamas supporters, while Netanyahu warned that Israel “might be compelled to embark on a much harsher military operation.”

Knowing that another attack is in­ evitable—whether on Gaza, on Iran, on Sudan or elsewhere—the renewed self-confidence of the Palestinians will inspire preparation for it as well as deepening opposition to Abbas’ quis­ ling regime. Supporters of Palestinian liberation must use the precious time before the next attack to organize on­ going solidarity and to mobilize against aid to the Zionist regime. n

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