Sadat Sells Out Palestinian Masses

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BR The agreement signed on Ist September between Israel and Egypt has been hailed as a step towards peace' in the Middle East. It is nothing of the sort.

In fact it is a significant victory for United States imperialism which has firmly established its role as the policeman between the expansionist Zionist settler state and the Sadat defending the sell-out on television bourgeois nationalists of Egypt. However much Sadat and Kissinger may blink and smile at TV cameras, their efforts are directed against all of the Arab masses, especially the Palestinians.

DESERT

The treaty returned to Egypt about 13% of the inhospitable desert area which was appropriated by the Israelis in the 1967 war, containing just one almost exhausted oil field. And the bloody fighting in the Lebanon that followed the signing and the news of continuing repression in Egypt shows that this agreement will do nothing to resolve the social and political conflicts in the area, particularly between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

PRESTIGE

Since the major defeats inflicted on them in Indo-China, the US imperialists have sought desperately to restore the shattered vestiges of their prestige and power. Their client state of Israel has always been a reliable ally in extending their influence and diverting the struggles of the Jewish an Arab masses.

However, a number of circumstances have made it essential for the US to win support in the Middle East broader than simply from Israel and the reactionary governments of Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The growth of the world economic crisis, and the use of the 'Oil weapon' by the Arab states has made it imperative for the Americans to expand their power over the bourgeois nationalists.

The Ist September agreement was a triumph by Kissinger for these efforts. The placing of American 'technical experts' where they can supervise the marginal Israeli withdrawals and limit the increasingly unlikely attempt at Israeli expansionism allows them to prevent Sadat or any other forces taking active steps to win back any of the territory occupied by the Zionist settlers.

COAT TAIL Tne new situation must show clearly that the Egyptian bourgeoisie is now so firmly tied to the coat-tails of US imperialism that it is incapable of winning back a single inch of occupied térritory for the Palestinians or anybody else. The very advances of the war of 1973 were simply used as bargaining counters obtain more of the patronage of the US. The rapid move of Ainerican capital into Egypt in recent months shows that it is the American monopolists who hope to be the first to benefit.

News has recently come to hand to indicate that the first to suffer from these new relationships will be the Egyptian working class and those who try to fight for their interests.

On 3rd August a report appeared in the Cairo daily Al Akhbar giving details of the arrest of twenty alleged members of the 'International Communist League' said to be associated with the 'United Secretariat' of the Fourth International. The arrested include Ussama Khalil, an employee of Cairo University, a number of students including Ibrahim Azzam, and several workers who were not named.

Although this group have now appeared before a court, relatives have not been allowed to visit them in prison. There must be an immediate campaign in the labour movement for the release of these socialists, as well as for those others who may still remian in prison following the arrests of hundreds of students and trade unionists earlier this year.

The bloody fighting in Lebanon since the signing of the 1st September agreement also arises from protests against the capitulation to Zionism in the only Arab country where it is possible to mount significant popular protest against it. Further conflict will inevitably arise as the bitterly disappointed Palestinians look to new ways to obtain their just national rights.

One thing that is becoming clearer than ever is that they will have to build a movement to do this that not simply fights the Zionists themselves, but also all those in the Arab world who are prepared to compromise with imperialism.