This Moment

I stand by what I've said about the Hamas action. I hope it's not callous to say the issue before us at this moment is how the IDF is pressing on Gaza. That is more important than what assorted idiots have said over the past week.

In this respect the current DSA anti-massacre-in-Gaza focus is well-taken, as far as it goes. I could see myself in one of those marches, even if obliged to grimace at whatever anti-Semitic expressions floated up. I've been to ANSWER demos with dumb features (never bothering to listen to the fools on the platforms).

I shudder to think of what I would hear at one of those pro-Israel affairs, if the remarks of Israeli leaders and our own Secy of State are any indication.

I would focus thusly, as far as immediate agitation is concerned:

• Immediate ceasefire

• Allow water, food, electricity, and medical supplies into Gaza

• Prisoner exchange

• Halt settler attacks on Palestinians on the West Bank

Without doubt, the no-massacre-in-Gaza meme does not go far enough. It lacks the universalist implication that the Hamas massacres are at least equally terrible, if not worse, since they were fomented first. So the moral clarity is absent. Is it crass to say that clarity is secondary to preventing the next atrocity, with far more numerous victims? This absence of clarity is not the way to build a democratic socialist organization, but it is not a reason to decline to march. 

None of this takes anything away from criticism of how DSA conducted itself this past week, nor from any plans to either criticize the organization or the leadership or stage a collective resignation. 

Gaza is burning, right now. Who cares if a bunch of us loudly resign from DSA? On the margin, all it does is weigh on the side of Israel "defending itself."