Hamas has reached an agreement whereby they will cease rocket
attacks across the border from Gaza and Israel will
lift the economic blockade. Hamas however, must now police Gaza for the Israeli state, making sure no
one carries out attacks. The Hamas leaders are going down the same road as the
PLO leaders before them.
Israel has recently renewed "peace" talks with Syria. The
problem is that on the crucial question of the return of the Golan Heights to Syria, Israel cannot afford to grant this
demand and Asad cannot sign an agreement without such a concession. That
explains the lack of enthusiasm of the Israeli masses.
On the 14th May 1948 the state of Israel was proclaimed independent. The immediate results were an outbreak of killings and the creation of huge numbers of Israeli and Palestinian refugees. Palestinians refer to it as the naqba (catastrophe). Luke Wilson explains how Israel has become a bulwark of imperialism, what it has meant for the politics of the Middle East, for Israeli Jews and Palestinians, and how the creation of Israel has perpetuated anti-semitism elsewhere.