1 The attacks launched by Hamas and other resistance organisations on 7 October were a warning that there can be no peace in the Middle East until the Palestinian question is solved. But the reaction by the State of Israel and its Western allies, headed by the United States, is to launch a new imperialist war. Already the assault by the Israel Defence Forces on Gaza has caused thousands of civilian deaths and vast devastation and disruption of ordinary people’s lives.

2 Too many on the liberal and reformist left have been quick follow their governments in condemning Hamas and affirming Israel’s right to self-defence. The flood of media atrocity stories has obscured what actually happened on 7 October. But when oppressor and oppressed clash there can be no neutrality or equivalence. We support the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people and their right to wage armed struggle ...