US Out of the Middle East!

Fact 1 - 230 Palestinians have been murdered by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in the last 60 days. Most of those killed were adolescents and children. The IDF uses rocket launchers, helicopter gunships, armored vehicles, and artillery. Palestinian youth throw rocks and use slingshots.

Israeli Military Forces shoot to kill

Fact 2 - The recent uprising in Palestine began with right wing extremist Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to a site sacred to both Muslims and Jews on Palestinian land. Sharon's visit was a premeditated ploy to sink the "peace agreement," push the Israeli government further to the right, and force the Barak administration to include Sharon's party, Likud, in the government.

Fact 3 - The so-called "peace agreement" blew up in both Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat's faces. Sharon's provocation showed the true nature of a "peace agreement" negotiated against the national interests of the Palestinian people. The "peace agreement" proved to be an agreement of the Israeli ruling class to create a "Palestinian Authority" (PA) to repress and control the Palestinians in exchange for a "Bantustan state" similar to those created in South Africa under the apartheid regime. In exchange for these services, Arafat and a small layer of the Palestinian ruling elite enjoy limited power in those areas and economic benefits similar to those South Africa used to dispense to the Black administrators of the Bantustans.

Fact 4 - Under the Oslo Accords and the "peace agreement," Arafat and the PLO renounced the

Palestinian youth throw rocks and use slingshots

historical demands of their people: a truly independent state, the return of refugees to their homeland, and economic and social equality. As of today, Palestinians are treated as second-class citizens inside Israel and hostages in the Palestinian "territories." This clearly shows that the rights and demands of the Palestinian people cannot be realized under Israeli capitalism and its underdeveloped version in Palestine.

Fact 5 - The indiscriminate terrorist attacks by the Muslim fundamentalist organization Hamas are often used as an excuse to deny equal rights and access to jobs inside Israel to Palestinians living in territories controlled by the PA. On the flip side, Hamas' actions are used inside Israel to whip up reactionary sentiments in sections of the working class and the youth. This is convenient for Barak, Sharon and other reactionaries who used the results of their provocation as an excuse to attack recent working class struggles and the peace and human rights movement in Israel. The PLO and Arafat, under pressure from Hamas on one side and Israel - which demands that Arafat exercise control over Hamas - on the other, are trying to find a way out of the crisis. Maybe they will appeal to the United Nations and the Blue Berets, giving Israel greater control over the entire process and furthering the oppression of Palestinians.

Fact 6 - The US and Clinton would like to present a façade as " intermediaries of peace," the "brokers of a new potential agreement" to the public. However, the truth is that the massive US economic and military aid preserves both capitalist development in Israel and the IDF's regional military supremacy. The weapons that are used to kill Palestinian adolescents and children are either made or paid for by the US.

Fact 7 - Socialist Alternative and the newspaper Justice, as socialists and internationalists, are working in the United States to check the reactionary role of the United States in the Middle East. In a resolution adopted at the beginning of October, the Executive Committee of Socialist Alternative called for the formation of broad coalitions on campuses, in workplaces and communities around the country to demand:

• US Imperialism Out of the Middle East!

• Stop All Military Aid to Israel

• For the Immediate Withdrawl of Israeli Forces From Palestinian-Controled Lands!