By the Editorial Board of The Masses
In an unprecedented blow to the “israeli” settler colony and its occupation forces, on the 50th aniversary of the Yom Kippur War, Palestinian Resistance forces launched Operation Tufan Al-Aqsa (tr. Al-Aqsa Flood). Thousands of rockets were fired from Gaza into “israel” while Palestinian Resistance fighters successfully infiltrated into “israel’s” interior as far as the settlements of Sderot, Nahal Oz, Be’eri, and Kerem Shalom, establishing a wide front. So far, at least 15 settlements surrounding Gaza have been taken by Palestinian Resistance fighters. This is the first time that the Palestinian Resistance has recaptured an “israeli” settlement.
Palestinian fighters captured dozens of “israeli” occupation force soldiers, raided multiple IOF barracks killing all the soldiers inside, taking captives, and taking in high value targets like Brigadier General Nimrod Aloni. The enormous ongoing success of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood cuts through the veil of invincibility put up by the zionists. Not only do the Palestinians have the moral high ground over their oppressors, they have the political and military strength to beat them as well. The success of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood proves the nature of the settler state as a paper tiger. Chairman Mao has been proven correct when he said that “all the reputedly powerful reactionaries are merely paper tigers. The reason is that they are divorced from the people. Look! Was not Hitler a paper tiger? Was Hitler not overthrown? I also said that the tsar of Russia, the emperor of China and Japanese imperialism were all paper tigers. As we know, they were all overthrown.”1 Even the most advanced military technology constitutes a paper tiger in the hands of the settlers. The highly computerized Merkava 5 tanks rolled out to some fanfare by “israel” only two weeks ago have already been seen in flames. The most advanced weapons, even the atom bomb, are paper tigers when compared to the power of a people organized for a revolutionary cause.
The coalition of Palestinian forces is broad. The bourgeois, imperialist, and zionist press– both in “israel” and internationally– have painted a picture which gives the impression that Operation Al-Aqsa Flood is the sole work of Hamas. This, however, is merely an attempt by the panicked bourgeois order to conceal the true scale of the righteous offensive. Every notable Palestinian faction has joined together to fight against the zionists. There are soldiers with PFLP, Hamas, DFLP, and the Lion’s Den on the ground in occupied Palestinian territory at this very moment fighting for the freedom of their people together.
This morning, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) issued a statement stating clearly that,
We stand with our brothers in the Al-Qassam Brigades and with all the resistance forces, and we join with them in this battle that will be recorded in history.2
Similarly, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine [DFLP] has issued a statement which openly declared that,
The Democratic Front called on our Palestinian people everywhere to participate in the great national action that our occupied land is witnessing with the movements and activities it deems appropriate.3
The DFLP has additionally released a statement mourning the two martyrs lost so far in the military operation, Siraj Kamel Jamal Nasr and Louay Hussam Muhammad Aql, who gave the ultimate revolutionary sacrifice, whose deaths are indeed weightier than Mount Tai, as they have given their lives for the people in combatting the fascist and bourgeois forces of “israel.” Glory to them!
The Lion’s Den, a Palestinian militant group constituted in August 2022, released a joint statement with the PFLP which stated,
We declare a state of general mobilization and the immediate start of attacks from every location on the ‘Zionist’ occupation forces.4
It is painfully obvious that the zionist rhetoric which portrays the offensive as only the work of Hamas is a deliberate mischaracterization designed to downplay the scale of the uprising, and the connections to the masses which the organizations involved have. What we are seeing at this moment is the full scale mobilization of the Palestinian people that was hinted at by the Palestine wide general strike that erupted after repeated incursions by the IOF into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 2021.5
Some whiners who are suspiciously quiet whenever Palestinians face collective punishment or individual discrimination at the hands of the “israelis” object to us and cry for peace. Peace! As Ghassan Kanafani put it, the colonized seeking to negotiate with the colonizer for freedom “That’s kind of conversation between the sword and the neck.”6 Decolonization is a violent phenomenon, and to treat the “israelis” like small children responsible for none of their actions which have resulted in the daily slaughter of Palestinians is another grave injustice among the many grave injustices piled up on the Palestinian people.
As of 5:50 pm local time, battles continue to rage in the streets of occupied Palestine. Hamas’ military wing released this communique:
Under intense missile cover and targeting of the enemy’s command and control systems, the fighters of Al-Qassam Brigades were able to cross the enemy’s defensive line and carry out a simultaneous coordinated attack on more than 50 sites in the Gaza Division and the southern region of the occupation army, which led to the overthrow of the division’s defenses, and our fighters are still fighting heroic battles in 25 locations so far. Fighting is currently taking place at the “Ra’im” base, the headquarters of the Gaza Division.7
The enormity of the success of this Operation is difficult to emphasize. The Palestinian Resistance forces attacked from air, land, and sea coordinating attacks on the zionist regime. Early reports indicate that around 100 “israeli” settlers have been killed and over 100 taken hostage, with many more casualties from the IOF. The psychological victory this represents, especially given how totally unprepared “israeli” “intelligence” was for the offensive which took place, has implications that none of us yet understand or appreciate. In many ways this moment feels like a Palestinian Tet Offensive.The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine stated: “Today, the nature of the conflict and the dignity of the Arab nation are restored.”8 Everything that has happened today signals an inflection point in the history of humanity. It was demonstrated definitively that the liberation of Palestine can only be achieved in the course of an armed struggle against the settler state. The supposedly fractured organizations of the Palestinian Resistance put aside petty squables and unified themselves as the hardened tip of the Palestinian people’s spear, but that spear is ultimately wielded by the great masses of Palestinian people.
The mass character of the Operation was made clear by the recently released statement of the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades (PFLP),
Our battle is open… We continue alongside our comrades on the path of combat and resistance, and all Palestinians should rise up in every part of the homeland to make the enemy pay an even higher price.. Let our enemy know that we are just beginning, and what is coming is stronger and greater.9
The whole Palestinian people has to rise together against the zionist goliath if they are to be victorious.
The Revolutionary Maoist Coalition commits its unwavering support to those great masses in their righteous struggle against apartheid and congratulates the Palestinian Resistance on it’s successful Operation. We acknowledge the intrinsic link between Palestinian liberation and the liberation of the oppressed people within our own country. Not only is it the government of our country who enables the “israeli” colonial project through its funding, arming, sharing of military technology– making our internationalist action against the amerikan bourgeoisie all the more important– but revolution in each of our countries are only pieces of the same whole. We share not only the basic condition of being oppressed under capitalism-imperialism, as all the toiling masses of today are, but the specific oppression of settler-colonialism. We pledge ourselves to participate in actions in solidarity with the Palestinian Resistance here in the “united states,” as well as to continue to organize a revolutionary mass movement against our own bourgeoisie which shall eventually birth a Communist Party that will carry forth the revolutionary movement of the workers and oppressed nations to victory!
END ZIONIST APARTHEID!
LONG LIVE THE PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE!
FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!
- Speech at the Moscow Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties, November 18, 1957
- Statement Issued by the Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, https://the-masses.org/2023/10/07/statement-issued-by-the-martyr-abu-ali-mustafa-brigades-the-military-wing-of-the-popular-front-for-the-liberation-of-palestine/
- Statement issued by the DFLP: “Democracy”: “Saif Al-Quds 2” in response to normalization projects and official marketing with it, https://the-masses.org/2023/10/07/statement-issued-by-the-dflp-democracy-saif-al-quds-2-in-response-to-normalization-projects-and-official-marketing-with-it/
- https://twitter.com/JackStr42679640/status/1710555487908118792
- https://www.newarab.com/news/palestinians-west-bank-israel-declare-general-strike
- https://youtu.be/oHgZdCJOUAk?si=81w9CoI9I5e9IF9F
- htts://t.me/PalestineResist/13390
- htts://t.me/PalestineResist/13431
- Statement issued by the PFLP: Popular Front: This is a day when the nature of the conflict and the dignity of the Arab nation are restored, https://the-masses.org/2023/10/07/statement-issued-by-the-pflp-popular-front-this-is-a-day-when-the-nature-of-the-conflict-and-the-dignity-of-the-arab-nation-are-restored/
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