Out of the Be! mould

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THE HOT summer in Palestine is usually the least ac-; tive period politically.

West Bank, schools and Universities are on holiday and demonstrators have usually been deterred by the last wave of arrests, beatings, prison sentences, fines and killings used by the military authority to oppress the spring wave of struggles.

This cyclical wave of struggles and oppression has become almost monotonous in recent years.

This summer the new Israeli defence minister and darling of the USA, Moshe Arens, is trying to use this quiet period to tighten his grip on the Palestinians.

Some week ago, after an armed settler was killed in the Al-Halil market, he utilised the opportunity to take hold of the city's central bus station, in order to achieve the settlers' old ambition of an area in the heart of the Arab city.

An Israeli government comuniqué, stressing that 'Jewish blood' will not be shed in vain, gave the green light to the fascist death squads.

Masked gunmen entered Al-Halil university, killing 3 students and wounding dozens with indiscriminate shooting.

The response of the Israeli army, as usual, was to unleash a new wave of oppression ..• on the Arab population.

A curfew was again declared in the Al-Halil area and in the city of Kalkilya, from where two of the killed students came.

AFTER what appeared to be initial victories in West Beirut, the Lebanese Army - which is primarily Christian, particularly its officers - stands nowerless to intervene in the battles going on in the Chouf and Aley mountains.

Some Muslim leaders have claimed that the defeat in Beirut was the result of a trick the breach of a ceasefire agreeOur correspondent in Haifa reports on a new clampdown on the Arabic-language press A woman was killed by 'unidentified' Israeli gunmen while taking part in a protest demonstration in Nablus.

Some 20 students from the Bir-Zeit University, who were arrested in the university after the army had surrounded it in response to a protest over the Al-Halil murder, now face 1½ years in prison for taking part in the demonstration.

Another victim of the new wave of oppression might be the 'A-Sherá' magazine appearing in Jerusalem.

Life has never been easy for Jerusalem Arabic paper publishers. The occupation forces have been constantly using all kinds of oppression, including strict censorship; arrests and beating of journalists; house arrest of editors by military decree; and special military decrees to stop the selling of a paper in some regions or for some time.

But a public eager for political news and discussion has multiplied the number of WestBank papers and magazines, while a whole layer of intellectuals, experienced in the struggle against the occupation, have always found new ways to give life to their papers.

by Andrew of the Gemayel regime hoped that the Beirut victories were a sign that the army, which fell apart in the mid-70s and is now full of new recruits, would be tough enough to take on the opposition militias.

But fighting in the capital is very different from fighting in the mountains and in the Among these papers ASherá' was a newcomer, not well financed, appearing every two weeks in the last period.

At the beginning it survived the oppression by not speaking so much directly about the Israeli occupation.

Instead it gave its readers more of a political analysis, writing about 'American policy' and specialised in exposing the reactionary forces in the Arab countries and also in occupied Palestine.

It also carried detailed reports of the trade union movement in the occupied territories and other mass organisations like the network of volunteerwork-committees developing now in every refugee camp and village.

In Palestinian affairs it was bringing an even-handed collection of all views expressed publicly by all the tendencies within the PLO.

Tendency

It rejected the bad tendency of both right and left to get away from political discussion into blaming , each other as somebody else's 'agents'.

In its front pages and leading articles it campaigned for the positions of the Palestinian left. It exposed the plans put forward by the arab reactionary regimes, like the Fahd and Fez plans, as a thin cover for their servitude to imperialism.

called recently for a political solution to the problems a factor where the battles are currently raging. thinking... inside Fatah, for implementation of democratic reforms in the PLO as raised by the Fatah opposition, and for a co-operation with Syria and the Lebanese national movement against the Israeli aggression, while keeping the instill occupy a quarter of lebanon both with the army and with Christian militias in rounding up opponents; they have also +870-7 10X dependence of the Palestinian revolution.

In the last issue of A-Shera, in an article explaining the establishment of a joint political and military command to the Popular Front put the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front, it writes:

'It is impossible to achieve national liberation in third world countries, except through a complete break from the capitalist market and the clear connection to the socialist revolution in order to confront the economic and social domination coming out of the links with the imperialist market... And this calls for the vitality of the working class taking the lead inside the national alliance. the leadership of the working class, which is the class revolutionary to the end, in a vital condition to the success of the •Palestinian revolution to achieve its aims of liberation, democracy, socialism and unity...

'One of the conditions for victory is the existence of the basic tools for victory, the revolutionary party and the united national front. And while the PLO constitutes the frame of a front for the national forces in the Palestinian arena, ... the party of the Palestinian working class will be made of from all parts of the working class and from all the Palestinian Marxists. WHEN Menachem" Beg became Prime Minister of Isra there were dire warnings the holocaust to come. Wast Begin the one-time leader the Irgun, the Revisionis Zionist terrorist outfit? Wast he an ardent supporter Zionist settlement of the We Bank and of an Israel who boundaries would not be final accepted until they stretchi from the Nile to the Euphrates' Begin has come and gon The holocaust came too but not yet over - the shatter buildings and bleeding bodi in Lebanon are a thing of t present.

The West Bank settleme also continues - huge sur of money are devoted to a racting Jewish settlers to tt area.

And while the Sinai w returned to Egypt, Isra has annexed the Golan Heigh and extended itself into Leb non. In addition, war wi Syria constantly threatens.

In this Begin's actions we not out of tune with the actio of the Labour Alliance in t preceding decades of Israe history. Where he differ is that he - like other Revisio ist-Zionists - was less inclin operate merely as a l satrap, governing some dista outpost of Washington's e pire.

Begin's successor, Sham comes from a similar mou He was a leading member the Stern Gang which, in t days of the British manda 'out-Irgunned the Irg as one writer recently put it.

But it is not the past tl will determine Shamir's p cies. Firstly, he will find difficult to hold the prest governing coalition togeth It is not excluded that a n 'national' government soon be formed.

It is unlikely that Shamir bi self will remain Prime Minis for long.

Secondly, he is faced an intensification of the Leb ese war, and with it proof p tive that Begin's policy (wt Shamir supported after signing of the Camp Da agreement, which he 1 opposed) has failed.

Thirdly, the Israeli econ is in much poorer shape ti usual and thus the press from the US will be all more telling.

Both these factors indir a possible mending of brid between Israel and US imper ism.

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SELF DEFENCE NO NEWHAM