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THIS ARTICLE IS PRINTED IN PROLETARIAN ERA THE CENTRAL
ORGAN OF SOCIALIST UNITY CENTRE OF INDIA(S.U.C.I.) ON
1ST. OCTOBER ISSUE 
Ariel Sharon’s Visit — A Sinister Portent
The Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon arrived in New
Delhi on September 8 with a high-powered, large
delegation including three cabinet ministers and about
30 heads of defence and business organizations. The
object of the visit, as officially stated, was to
further strengthen the bilateral ties between India
and Israel. To achieve this, discussions were held at
various levels between the two sides. Six agreements
were signed on issues ranging from environment to
educational and cultural exchange programmes. At the
end of the visit, the two countries, in a joint
statement, expressed the common  resolve   to fight
terrorism unitedly. Although the statement skipped a
mention of the key area of growing military
cooperation between India and Israel, it ‘‘expressed
satisfaction over the growth of bilateral economic and
commercial relations’’. 
The basic point that has emerged is that the two
countries would henceforth cooperate in fighting
‘‘terrorism’’. No doubt, by terrorism, the Indian side
means what it calls cross border terrorism originating
in Pakistan. Israel, of course, seeks Indian
co-operation in its fight against Palestinian
‘‘terrorism’’ 

Long History of Israel’s Terrorism on Palestinians.
What terrorism ? The charge of terrorism levelled at
the Palestinians is a blatant lie, and the whole world
knows it. The state of Israel was carved out of
Palestine, which was under British rule, after the
Second World  War.  The Jews inhabited the Palestine
area in the distant past.  But with the rise of Islam,
those areas were captured by Muslim rulers when the
Jews were driven out.  Came the great exodus and the
Jews fled and spread out over many countries of the
world and lived there for centuries.  They were
persecuted  from country to country over the ages, the
mass persecution and genocide of Jews under Hitlerite
rule being the horrible climax.  So, they had the urge
and demand of long-standing for their own state, for
regaining their original homeland.  But when Israel
was formed, it was not on the basis of a negotiated
settlement between all concerned on a just and
equitable basis but by forcibly evicting the millions
of Palestinian Arabs who had been living there for
centuries.  And from the very beginning, the ruling
class of the new state of Israel, instigated and
backed by imperialist countries, especially the USA,
embarked upon violent Zionist expansionism. Since
then, Israel has an unbroken record of coercion, open
warfare and state terrorism directed against not only
the Palestinian Arabs evicted to make space for Israel
who had spread out in the remaining areas of Palestine
and in  the adjoining Arab states, but also against
the Arab people in general and the Arab states in the
region, blatantly infringing upon their sovereignty.
Israel launched two major wars of invasion, in 1948
and 1967. Through these, the Golan Heights were
captured from Syria, West Jerusalem snatched from the
control of Jordan and East Jerusalem from the
Palestinians; the West Bank and the Gaza strip within
Palestine were captured and some areas of Egypt and
Lebanon were also occupied temporarily; Palestinian
refugee camps inside Lebanon were attacked by Israel
killing and wounding a very large number of inmates.
The UNO declared the Israeli occupations illegal and
demanded withdrawal of Israeli forces from the
occupied areas. But over the years, successive Israeli
governments, flouting the UN resolution, have gone on
building numerous Jewish settlements in the illegally
occupied areas -- near Jerusalem, in the West Bank and
Gaza strip in a bid to change the demographic
character of these areas, ruthlessly pursuing the
objective of illegal expansion of Israel in the
occupied areas. They stepped up persecution of the
Palestinians and intensified savage repression of
their protests and struggle  for their legitimate,
internationally recognized and UN-endorsed rights.
In this situation, the demand and the movement for a
new Palestinian state emerged and gained ground. For
long years, the Palestinians, spread out over a number
of countries, have been conducting struggle under the
leadership of Yasser Arafat. The need of a Palestinian
state, a homeland for the Palestinian people, has been
widely recognized internationally. Arafat emerged as
the leader of the Palestinians, as the de-facto Head
of the Palestinian state, which did not exist as yet. 
The Oslo Accord, which the Palestinians were forced to
accept through US pressure in 1993 while Clinton was
the US President, did not fulfil the Palestinian
aspiration for full statehood. Nevertheless, the
Palestinians, by dint of the long years of struggle,
secured some advantages through the Accord. In terms
of the Accord, Israel was to vacate some of the areas
occupied by it, vacate the illegal Jewish settlements
put up by it and the Palestinian areas were to be
given a semi-autonomous status with the right to
conduct their internal administration, to form a sort
of nascent state in order to move towards full
statehood.
But Israel was determined to nullify in practice
whatever limited gains the Palestinians made at Oslo.
Instead of dismantling the illegal Jewish settlements
in West Bank and Gaza strip, Israel has increasingly
gone on building newer settlements, including a string
of new settlements surrounding Jerusalem, in a bid to
squeeze and hound out the Palestinians from their own
areas. Israel has turned many of these settlements 
into military outposts connected to Israel by highways
bypassing the Palestinian areas, seized hill tops,
most fertile lands and orchards and denied water to
the Palestinians by controlling the water sources and
diverting the water to irrigate lands in Israel.
Israeli troops have been patrolling the borders of the
Palestinian-administered areas in Gaza strip and the
Palestinian enclaves in the West Bank ,denying the
Palestinians free exit and entry from  and to their
own semi-autonomous enclaves!  In protest against the
persistent denial of the demand for a Palestinian
state, continuous incursions into and armed attacks on
the Palestinian areas and Israeli brutality, the
all-out Palestinian freedom struggle intensified.  USA
and Israel called this legitimate freedom struggle
terrorism.

Past Criminal Record of Ariel Sharon  
The present Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon is a
worthy continuator of the expansionist, terrorist
Israeli policies. In 2000, when he was in the
Opposition, he accused the labour government of Israel
of being too soft with the Palestinians ! His
‘‘heroic’’ exploits, carried out at the behest of
Israeli ruling class, include the following. During
1969-71, leading the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), the
operation ‘‘Pacification of Gaza’’, a brutal policy of
repression in Gaza strip blowing up houses, bulldozing
Palestinian refugee camps, imposing severe collective
punishments, killing and imprisoning numerous
Palestinians; between June and September, 1982, as the
Israeli defence minister, directing the IDF in the
‘‘Operation Peace in Galilee’’, killing about 18,000
Palestinians and Lebanese, wounding over 30,000 and
destroying over 40,000 houses; the massacre of
Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila camps directed
by him in September, 1982, killing an estimated 3,500.


Present Intensification of Attacks on Palestinians
It is but natural that the Israeli attacks on the
Palestinians further intensified when Sharon took over
as the prime minister. Israeli troops have put up road
blocks round the Palestinian cities in the West Bank,
isolating them economically and socially from the
surrounding villages. In early August this year,
Sharon government announced the expansion of a major
Gaza settlement. In Gaza, 40 percent of the land is
allocated for the Israeli settlers numbering less than
5000, while more than 1.25 million Palestinians live
in extremely over-crowded refugee camps and towns. In
execution of a sinister plan, Sharon government
completed in late July this year construction of the
first phase of a 25-foot fencing between Israel and
West Bank territory, not along the border laid down in
1967, but well within the Palestinian land, intended
to cut the West Bank area in half and annex 58 per
cent of its territory to Israel. Without any prior
notice, the affected Palestinians were suddenly
deprived of their farmlands and olive orchards, of
their livelihood. In many places, the fence cuts off
access among neighbouring villages. Through passage is
refused to the Palestinians at the gates, thus denying
access even to hospitals and permanently separating
relatives. On the other hand, even on the slightest
suspicion, Israeli army is attacking, destroying and
demolishing homes, police outposts, administrative
buildings, etc., and even whole towns in
Palestinian-administered areas at will with tanks,
bombs, rockets, helicopter gunships and bulldozers. A
number of towns have been ravaged in this way and
occupied, including Beit Jala and Jenin. To hide up
its misdeeds, Israel refused to permit the UN Fact
Finding Mission to visit the Jenin area. During the
past two years, over 1500 died and about 20,000 were
wounded in the Israeli attacks, many of them
permanently disabled. The Israeli army has been
carrying on ‘‘targeted  killing’’, meaning
assassination, of scores of Palestinian freedom
fighters and leaders selectively, employing missiles,
helicopters and 1000-pound bombs in attacks on their
homes, cars and offices. Only a few months back, the
PLO leader Yasser Arafat’s Headquarters was blockaded
for days on end by the Israeli army, virtually turning
him into a prisoner. 
Despite Arafat’s weaknesses, he symbolizes the
Palestinian aspiration for freedom and justice and is
a thorn in the flesh for the USA. So, immediately
after capturing Iraq, the US ruling class, in its bid
to restructure the Middle East in its favour, turned
its attention to the Palestinian movement, perceiving
it to be a major obstacle to its imperialist design in
the area. The USA announced a ‘‘Road Map’’ on 30
April, 2003, an evil plan for dismantling the
Palestinian resis-tance organizations, creating rifts
within the Palestinian movement, weakening it and
reducing Arafat to a nonentity stage by stage in
conjunction with Israel to move towards a Palestinian
state indepen-dent only in name but in reality
virtually a colony, putting an end to the Palestinian
liberation struggle. 

Unholy and Shameful Indo-Israel Nexus
Faced with gross and forcible violations of the Oslo
Accord, continued Israeli repression, attacks and
savagery and the US-Israeli sinister design, what
could the Palestinian liberation fighters do but try
to retaliate and resist ? Not possessing the
sophisticated weaponry that Israel has, the
Palestinians rose up in resistance movement, took to
the streets with whatever they had to resist tanks,
helicopters and missiles. The Palestinian intifada
developed as natural reaction to Israeli terrorism.
But Israel calls this Palestinian terrorism and seeks
to drown it in blood. And now the Indian prime
minister Vajpayee, too, calls this terrorism!
Facing all-out attacks, weakened by the absence of
Soviet Union by their side as the trusted friend, the
Palestinian liberation fighters battle on heroically.
We like to ask prime minister Vajpayee: Is the
Palestinian liberation struggle terrorism ? Is it not
Israel that is the arch terrorist state practising
state terrorism against the Palestinian liberation
fighters and the surrounding states of the Middle East
? By calling the Palestinian struggle terrorism,
Vajpayee, representing the Indian government, becomes
a party to the US-Israeli bid to close the door to a
negotiated settlement in Palestine and smash into bits
the anti-imperialist struggle of the Palestinians
through the steamroller of terror and oppression. By
clasping the hands of Ariel Sharon dripping with
Palestinian blood, prime minister Vajpayee has smeared
his hands with the blood of those freedom fighters. 

The Background: Growing Aspiration of Indian Ruling
Class 
How could this happen ? This has happened because the
Indian government, its policies, have nothing to do
with the interest, hopes and aspirations of the Indian
people. It should be realized that the governments in
New Delhi, serving the ruling Indian capitalist class,
have to adopt and implement policies in the interest
of this class, have to reflect its class-aspirations.
For long years after the independence, the best means
of achieving the freest possible growth of Indian
capitalism under the given circumstances was to take
up a neutral position between the Socialist camp
headed by the Soviet Union and the Imperialist camp
headed by the USA to exploit the contradiction between
the two to gain advantages and concessions from both.
That is why the successive Congress governments at the
Centre, starting with those led by Jawaharlal Nehru,
pursued the policy of non-alignment with either camp.
During those years, there was the necessity for the
Indian capitalist state to have the support of the
newly independent capitalist countries to strengthen
India’s position on the world scene as a leader of the
non-aligned movement. The Indian governments
championed the cause of the resurgent Afro-Asian
countries and the national liberation movements for
this purpose. They supported the Palestinian
liberation movement and developed closeness with the
PLO. Naturally, the relation with Tel Aviv was one of
animosity. 
But with the dismantling of the  Socialist camp, the
policy of non-alignment lost its very basis in the
unipolar world where the USA, as the sole superpower,
called the shots. In the mean while,  Indian
capitalism had grown and matured to acquire
distinctive and pronounced imperialistic traits. The
aspiration of the Indian ruling class now was to
emerge as the dominant power in South Asia. With this
in view, Indian monopoly capital welcomed
globalization and liberalization. The governments
subservient to it, particularly the recent BJP-led
ones, reflecting this class aspiration, opened the
large Indian market to imperialist monopoly capital,
the multinationals, in exchange for participation of
Indian capital in imperialist multinationals as junior
partner to bring about emergence of India as a major
player on the world economic scene. They have been
cultivating close relationship with the USA
economically and militarily for the last few years to
facilitate the rise of India as the regional super
power. The growing military collaboration has been
reflected in the numerous joint Indo-US military
exercises on land, sea and air, not only in India but
in other countries as well.

The Present Situation
When the US imperialist rulers, taking advantage of
the 11 September, 2001 terrorist attacks in the USA,
took upon themselves the ‘‘right’’ to attack any
country, to launch onslaught on anti-imperialist
struggle in any part of the world in the name of
global fight against terrorism but in reality to
strengthen the world-wide US imperialist hegemony and
artificially boost up the crisis-ridden US economy,
the BJP-led Indian government declared common cause
with this US ‘‘fight against terrorism’’. It did this
to ingratiate itself with the US rulers, with a view
to securing US support, diplomatic and military, to
strengthen the Indian bid for ascendancy in South
Asia, especially vis-a-vis Pakistan. When the USA
invaded, laid waste and captured Afghanistan first and
then Iraq, the Indian government, by not condemning
these attacks, virtually condoned these imperialist
invasions and still maintains the pretence of
participating in the US-led global "fight against
terrorism.’’ 
But the problem is, US help to gain decisive military
superiority over Pakistan has not been forthcoming.
Although there has been a growing Indo-US closeness in
recent times and perception and appreciation in the US
Administration of India’s leading role  as the
regional superpower and although the USA would like
close Indo-US relation as a counter to the strong
Russian and Chinese presence in the neighbouring
regions, that is but one of the many considerations of
the USA in its global design. The USA cannot just now
enhance the Indian weapons capability to lend it
preponderance over Pakistan’s, in view of the
wholesale support that Pakistan has been able to
provide to the US invasion of Afghanistan, taking
advantage of its geographical proximity to that
country.

Why the Indo-Israel Nexus?
So, side by side with a competition with Pakistan to
curry US favour, New Delhi has been busy mending
fences with Israel and rapidly developing ties with it
for the past few years. There are several obvious
advantages to be had from this. Firstly, Israel,
though a small country, has, through all-out US help,
developed an advanced industrial base and possesses a
large arsenal of sophisticated weapons, either
provided by the USA or produced by it, on its own or
with US collaboration. Thus, advanced industrial and
military know-how is available with it. Secondly,
Israel is inimical to Pakistan and vice versa.
Therefore, it has no compunction in providing advanced
industrial and military technology and weapons system
to India.  India’s row about cross border terrorism
from Pakistan to justify its militarization spree
naturally falls on sympathetic ears in the Israeli
ruling circles. Thirdly, through developing closeness
with Israel, a close ally and accomplice of the USA,
New Delhi may hope to make Washington better disposed
to it, strengthening it  vis-a-vis Pakistan.
For Israel, long considered a pariah by most of the
Third World countries, it is something of a diplomatic
breakthrough to develop closeness with India, a 
leading Third World country and a leader of the NAM.
And if India’s support can be secured for Israel’s
‘‘fight against terrorism’’,  it would be all the
better. The prospect of trading in the large Indian
market is a bonus. 
For the past few years, both the sides have been
cultivating close relationship. And results have been
forthcoming. Indo-Israeli trade, which was earlier
negligible, has swiftly reached the annual value of
$1.6 billion for civilian items only. Though a
multi-billion dollar defence agreement, India has been
receiving sophisticated weapons and military know-how
from Israel. There has been regular exchange of
expertise in fighting ‘‘terrorism’’. Sometime back,
none other than the BJP  deputy prime minister LK
Advani paid a visit to Israel. 
Thus, the time had ripened for firming up and
formalizing the Indo-Israeli unholy nexus and taking
it to a higher stage. This has now been accomplished
through the New Delhi visit of Ariel Sharon.

Emerging Indo-US-Israel Axis : Ominous Portent 
During this visit, Israel agreed to sell some
sophisticated military equipment to India and joint
Indo-Israeli production of some other advanced
military equipment was discussed. There is no doubt
that more such developments are in the offing. But of
grave import was the Israeli deputy prime minister
Yosef Lapid’s utterance in New Delhi at the end of the
meet that an ‘‘unwritten and abstract’’ axis with
India and the USA had been created to combat
international terrorism. "There is a mutual interest
of the three countries in making the world a more
secure place for all. There is American support for
this unwritten axis’’. (The Statesman, 11.9.2003)
This is ominous. There is no reason to think that
Lapid’s utterance was unauthorized or without US
approval. This cannot but be of the gravest concern to
all patriotic Indians. The projected Indo-US-Israel
axis has a sinister portent. The avowed objective of
fighting terrorism will convince no one. We have seen
how, in the name of destroying Osama bin Laden and his
terrorist outfit Al Quaida, the USA ravaged and
occupied Afghanistan. We have also seen how the USA,
in the name of removing the threat to the world Saddam
Hussain was allegedly posing with his stockpile of
WMD, has invaded and occupied Iraq but no trace of the
WMD stockpile has been found. And Iraq may not be the
last instance in the current spate of international
gangsterism resorted to by the USA. It is no secret
that Cuba, Iran and North Korea are in the US hit
list. 
The attacks on Palestinian liberation struggle
continue unabated. On 11 September, immediately on
return from New Delhi, Ariel Sharon chaired a meeting
of the Israeli Security Cabinet which decided to expel
the  Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from his own
country! On September 14, Israel announced that
killing of Arafat was an option that was being
considered. On 17 September, the USA vetoed a Syrian
resolution in the UN Security Council, supported by
majority of the UNSC members, asking Israel not to
harm or deport Yasser Arafat.
Such is the character of the rogue states with which
an Indian tie up is projected. New Delhi’s continuing
assurances that India remains committed to the
Palestinian cause should deceive nobody. These are
mere lip services designed to preserve the
considerable business and trading interest of Indian
capital in the Arab world, and the support of the Arab
and other countries of the Middle East that India
wishes to continue to enjoy at the international fora
like the NAM and the WTO. 
The proposed Indo-US-Israel axis tramples upon the
long-standing anti-imperialist sentiment and tradition
of the Indian people. It will be a blow to the
fraternal bond of the Indian people with the on-going
anti-imperialist struggle from country to country of
the Arab world against US overlordism and hegemonism,
a bid to alienate the Indian people from the
mainstream of worldwide anti-imperialist struggle to
weaken it.

All Parliamentary Parties in Conspiracy Against People
It is not that just the BJP-led central government
that is engaged in this conspiracy against the people.
It is moving on this path along with the parliamentary
Opposition parties, in tacit understanding with them. 
The principal Opposition party Congress, aspiring to
come to power through the coming Lok Sabha poll, to be
entrusted with pursuing the same anti-people policies
of the Indian ruling class that the BJP is
implementing being in government, did not protest the
unholy Indo-Israeli nexus. Instead, its leader Sonia
Gandhi paid a courtesy call to Ariel Sharon while he
was in New Delhi, to strike a rapport with him in
advance. On September 24, while on a visit to the USA,
prime minister Vajpayee publicly praised Sonia Gandhi
for this proper discharge of her duty as the leader of
the Opposition.
What about the CPI(M) and the CPI ? Do they not swear
by anti-imperialism day in day out ? Could not they
have risen up in vehement protest inside the Lok Sabha
and the Rajya Sabha, stall their proceedings and link
up such protest with a countrywide protest movement ?
They did nothing of the sort but kept themselves
limited to only a token protest because they do not
really mean the anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism they
profess. They protest, not for building up movements
on the issues but for keeping their leftist image in
tact to make gain in election politics. Enjoying power
in a couple of states with the backing of the ruling
Indian monopolists, they have become part of the
capitalist political establishment. Need we remind the
people that in the year 2000, the CPI(M)  leaders
Jyoti Basu (the then  chief  minister  of  West
Bengal) and Somnath Chatterjee visited Israel to woo
the Israeli capitalists for investing in West Bengal ?


The People Must Rise Up and Resist! 
The parliamentary Opposition parties will do nothing
effective to foil the conspiracy against the people.
But the people cannot let it go unresisted. The
proposed Indo-US-Israel axis is not an isolated
development, it represents a drift towards US
imperialism engineered turn back from the dangerous
path they are treading.by Indian monopolists in the
hope of  reaping more profit in the world market as
partners of US monopoly capital. This dangerous trend
must be resisted at  all costs, must be resisted now.
Countrywide protracted mass movement is the only
deterrent in the hands of the people for forcing the
rulers to 



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