Palestinian resistance inflicts strategic defeat on genocidal Israel

Israel has suffered a strategic defeat at the hands of the Palestinian resistance that united every armed resistance group - a dramatic defeat for the vaunted Israeli military and a lesson for all Palestinians of their united power.

The Israeli military has failed to secure its war aims; the Palestinian armed resistance has not been obliterated and Hamas has emerged largely intact, with a strong following among the people of Gaza. Netanyahu's stated goal of permanently occupying Gaza, ethnically cleansing the Palestinians and replacing them with Zionist Jewish settlers is in ruins.

Israel's negotiations with Hamas represent the failure of unhinged violence, fully backed by the US and UK, to break the Palestinian spirit. The jubilation today in the streets of Gaza gives the lie to the version of events peddled by the UK Government; after Israel used everything except nuclear weapons on Gaza the people have - astonishingly - emerged unbroken and have already started marching towards the rubble of their homes to rebuild.

The Zionist colonists have suffered a severe shock from a people of awe-inspiring endurance and fortitude and an audacious armed resistance whose military prowess has defeated the troops of the local military superpower and shown Palestinians everywhere that victories over Zionism are possible on the road to full liberation.

In common with other settler-colonial projects, Israel has always been skilled at mass killing of civilians but we know that in such struggles victory does not lie with the mass dispensers of death and destruction but with a colonised people who can absorb terrible violence and persist in their struggle for freedom.

We should ask the question whether Zionism has reached its high water mark.

The Zionist project means endless war and destruction, for every people will resist to the utmost their disposession and displacement.

Every barbarism by Israel - mass murder, torture, rape, disease, famine and lethal cold - has been facilitated by the UK government, encouraged by Starmer and his supporters.

We cannot rule out a fresh genocidal attack to try to fend off US disappointment in Israel for the only offence the Empire cannot ignore or forgive - failure. Israel has suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of a Palestinian resistance that enjoys the support of a seemingly invincible people.

The Palestinian rewriting of the rules of asymmetric warfare will be discussed and dissected in war colleges around the world for years to come.

Solidarity now needs to intensify - from BDS, pressure on government, to securing arrest warrants for anyone complicit in the Israeli genocide who comes to Scotland.

We must pressure the Scottish government to contribute substantial humanitarian aid via UNRWA to the people of Gaza living on rubble of homes destroyed by British weaponry, using intelligence provided by the RAF. The Scottish government must pressure Israel to rein in the murderous settlers and soldiers marauding across the West Bank, where two cities are officially twinned with Scottish cities.  We urge members and supporters to continue to write to First Minister John Swinney to recognise Israel's crime of genocide, to enforce the ICC arrest warrants and to support the South African ICJ case against Israel.