“Only the revolutionary initiative of the Palestinian masses themselves, in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, as well as in Gaza and within Israel itself, holds the key for a qualitative leap in a successful struggle against the occupation. The Arab masses in the neighbouring countries must also play a key role.” (https://www.marxist.com/israel-palestine-no-to-the-invasion-of-gaza.htm)

“the… masses themselves.” According to In Defense of Marxism, the masses must be left to themselves by the Marxist movement, or the leadership needs to fall into the hands of the capitalist class so they can make deals behind the backs of the people with their genocidal enemies. The Marxist movement has always argued for dialectical arguments over one-sided limited arguments. The masses cannot exist without leaders and vice versa. The leaders are the negation of the masses, and the negation of the leaders are the masses themselves in a united movement that necessitates a leadership incorporated into the masses. Masses of people in and of themselves do not exist. Neither do Marxist leaders exist without the proletariat to follow them.

“The Arab masses… must… play a key role.” Really? From the Marxist perspective, it is the masses that must dictate to their leaders what they must do. As leaders, Marxists must think about the masses, their opinions, experiences, and conditions before they can conclude what the masses must do next, rationally and considering their joint story as compiled by the leadership. In fact, this is best accomplished not by guess-and-check predictions but by a full understanding and appreciation of their most recent step forward as a mass. They should put this violence within the context of the Arab Spring, which promised to free Gaza but only imprisoned Egypt. The Hamas attacks promised to balance the power with Israel, but instead subdued the greatest threat to Israeli capitalism at the behest of US imperialism.