Desperation on Display: Continued Violence in the Wake of Genocide
Two million people in Gaza are starving as a result of the blockade set by Israel in the continued Palestinian genocide. Earlier this week it was warned that 14,000 babies could die “in the next 48 hours,” [1] to which only 5 aid trucks were allowed to pass after, completely insufficient for the needs of the Palestinian people (by design). The violence that has been laid against the Palestinian people is constantly met with deflection, with the most cowardly using groups like Hamas as evidence of Israel’s imminent danger ignoring the constant expansion and violation of agreement after agreement to do so creating the very conditions for such resistance. The most honest, and vile, believe in some divine plan involving the construction of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians to do so.
The CWPUSA has been abundantly clear in its position [2] that we believe in an independent political path for the working class, and the immediate need for an independent Palestinian state and that it is capitalism-imperialism that is at the heart of this genocide. We have also not shied away from the violence occurring, but approach it with an analysis, a studied grasp on the situation, recognizing that while groups such as Hamas do not represent those of the proletariat, it is in the immediate interest of the proletariat in the region for Palestine to be recognized and the genocide to end, and we couldn’t possibly denounce the violence that Palestinians respond with in the face of this reality.
On Wednesday the 2st, Elias Rodriguez, opened fire on a group of people, killing Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, two employees of the Israeli embassy. [3] Despite bourgeois media outlets actively pushing the narrative that this was an attack motivated by religious hatred, Rodriguez upon his capture and in a manifesto acquired and published by Ken Klippinstein, [4] it was made abundantly clear that the sole motivation was a response to the genocide of the Palestinians on behalf of Israeli and international capital.
The outcome is that two people whose lost lives will do nothing to further motivate the working class to action will now be used to condemn a man whose motivations were to take into his hands what he felt he could to challenge the bourgeoisie’s atrocities. This is evidence of just how dire the condition of the Palestinian people is and the current weakness of the working class movement to challenge the bourgeoisie, where individuals take it upon themselves to express desperation through more violence. We do not see this as a strategy towards resolving this with a revolutionary working class movement that we can take on. We also cannot possibly condemn this event.
We’ve seen hunger, pestilence, and death being cast upon the Palestinians. Yet, we see such cynical condemnations, such as the PSL saying nothing more than to distance itself from the shooter, and the CPUSA waxing-poetic about how “acts of terror inevitably set back movements for peace and justice,” 5 distorting the history of South African apartheid and its end, and even the U.S.’ civil rights movement, saying that “militant non-violent protest has time and time again proven to be the most effective form of struggle,” and how dare they throw the martyrs of these movements to the wayside for such an anti-materialist view. How can there be honest concerns about giving the bourgeois a pretext to crack down, when they already have! We have watched student and worker protests crushed, Palestinians kidnapped, harassed, and assaulted, and
plans to advance this. They never needed a pretext because they know there is no organized political force to challenge them. Rodriguez has only added himself to the list of desperate acts taken in any attempt to stop the genocide, from brave organizers, to Aaron Bushnell lest we forget, and will be met with a vengeance by a class we have sworn our lives against.
The working class must be organized and activated. The bourgeois narratives erasing the genocide of the Palestinians from the context of this event must be combatted. Any effort to distract from the fact there is a genocide happening in Gaza must be exposed. We have to keep pushing, knowing that tens of thousands of lives are on the line. We have to keep fighting for the millions of working people of all countries who have committed to struggling against the massacre. The CWPUSA wants an end to the violence. The proletariat wants an end to the violence. An end to this kind of violence will only begin with the immediate end to the genocide, and will only be a permanent fact of human society when socialism-communism has won.
- Bartholomew, Jem. “First Thing: UN Says 14,000 Babies Could Die in Gaza in next 48 Hours under Israeli Aid Blockade.” The Guardian, The Guardian, 20 May 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/20/first-thing-un-says-14000-babies-could-die-in-gaza-in-next-48-hours-under-israeli-aid-blockade.
- “Israel Invades Rafah: Working People of the World Call for a Free Palestine, Capitalists Commit Genocide! | New Worker.” New Worker, 6 May 2024, https://newworker.us/international/israel-invades-rafah-working-people-of-the-world-call-for-a-free-palestine-capitalists-commit-genocide/. Accessed 23 May 2025.
- 3. Ward, Jasper, and Emily Rose. “Suspect Charged with Murder in Fatal DC Shooting of Two Israel Embassy Aides.” Reuters, 22 May 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/two-israeli-embassy-staffers-killed-washington-shooting-2025-05-22/.
- 4. Klippenstein, Ken. “The Israel Embassy Shooter Manifesto.” Kenklippenstein.com, Ken Klippenstein, 22 May 2025, https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/the-israel-embassy-shooter-manifesto.
- 5. X (Formerly Twitter), 2025, https://x.com/communistsusa/status/1925693921222443377. Accessed 23 May 2025.