THE crisis in Palestine and the crisis in the Middle East is deepening rapidly to the point where its contradictions are sharpening to the point where they have to be resolved.
Currently the new Israeli Premier Netanyahu, is in Washington discussing with President Obama, and his Secretary if State Mrs Clinton.
Obama is stressing that he wants to see a two state solution, ie wants to see a Palestinian state and to prepare the way for it he wants to see the ending of all Zionist settlement building in the occupied territories.
For Obama this agreement will be the jumping off point for all Islamic states to recognise the state of israel and for a negotiated settlement between the US and its current enemies in the region, Syria and Iran.
Such a settlement would mean having to hand back the Golan Heights to Syria.
Netanyahu, for his part, is not prepared to agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state, and while he is talking in Washington, a new settlement is being constructed in occupied East Jerusalem.
Back in Tel Aviv, his Foreign Minister Lieberman believes that the only way to keep the ‘Jewish state’ alive is to expel all the Palestinian Arabs who live in Israel.
Such is the precarious relationship between Israel and its American sponsor that some weeks before the current talks, Obama let it be known that he did not want to wake up one morning to find out that Israel had attacked Iran and bombed its nuclear reactor overnight.
Such is the desperate situation in the region that King Abdullah of Jordan has already issued a warning that if Israel is not willing to agree to a palestinian state within the next 18-24 months there will be a major war between Israel and the Arab states.
Meanwhile, the Hezbollah leader Nasrallah has just warned the world ‘we have to stay alert’ about the major, current, and all embracing military exercise that Israel is carrying out.
He said: ‘They describe it as a large scale exercise with the aim to lift the national state of readiness in case of a military confrontation in which the home front would be part of the battlefield. . . .
‘The whole entity, the hospitals, the shelters, the government, the armed forces and the media will take part in the drill. This exercise has dimensions. . . .
‘The scenario they are suggesting is: confronting a rocket attack from Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza simultaneously with an escalation in the West Bank, unconventional rocket attacks, the explosion of dangerous material in the Haifa Bay and a terrorism-related incident in Eilat; a series of attacks across the entity.
‘The Israeli enemy will be preoccupied with this manoeuvre for five days. . . .’
The Zionists are preparing for the mother of all showdowns – possibly after a pre-emptive strike by them on Iran.
The crisis of the region has also erupted on the West Bank, where Palestinian President Abbas has unilaterally formed a government to negotiate with Netanyahu and to keep the rift with Hamas going.
Fatah and three Palestinian trade unions have refused to support this government on the grounds that it is illegal.
Now is the time for the Palestinian revolution to push forward in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem.
There must be a Third Intifada and the Abbas leadership must be retired and replaced by Marwan al Barghouthi, to rapidly reunite the two wings of the Palestinian national movement and reform a National Unity government.
Behind the form of the Armageddon type military exercises the Zionist ruling group is expressing their historical hopelessness – their lack of a future.
Now is the time to press forward for a Palestinian state from the river to the sea, with Jerusalem as its capital, with all of the settlements ended, and with all refugees having the right to return to a socialist secular state where Arabs, Jews and Christians will live side by side.