Israeli prison guards ‘shot prominent Palestinian detainees nine times’

Hassan Salameh was beaten and shot inside his cell, possibly with rubber-coated bullets, after Ben-Gvir stormed the prison, his fiancee and a prisoner rights group say

 

A Palestinian boy holds a framed image of Hassan Salameh during a protest against the Israeli death penalty law for Palestinians in Gaza City 31 March (Reuters/Dawoud Abu Alkas)

MEE staff

Published date: 3 November 2026 15:45 GMT

Israeli prison guards shot and wounded prominent Palestinian detainee Hassan Salameh nine times last month, his fiancee and a prisoners’ rights group have said.

The assault on Salameh, 55, came after National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir stormed his cell and filmed himself threatening to kill him.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS), which monitors the conditions of Palestinian detainees, said it received information about the assault following a visit to Salameh by a lawyer on Monday.

Information provided to the group and Salameh’s fiancee, Ghufran Zamel, indicated that he had been severely beaten and shot nine times.

The type of ammunition used and the precise circumstances of the shooting remain unclear.

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Israeli prison guards have recently stepped up the use of rubber-coated bullets against prisoners, firing at them from close range inside their cells.

The practice has caused severe injuries and potentially irreversible harm, according to rights groups.

PPS said Israeli restrictions on prison visits had prevented the lawyer from obtaining further details.

“This has raised serious concerns about the prisoner’s fate and underscores the urgent need to disclose the circumstances of the incident and guarantee his physical safety,” the group said.

Zamel told local media that Salameh was beaten before Ben Gvir’s visit and after he left. An Israeli force stormed the cell, subjecting him to a severe beating, including blows to the face, before firing nine bullets at him.

Three days after the assault, Salameh was taken to have his injuries photographed. He was then returned to his cell without medical treatment and given only painkillers, despite the injuries he had sustained, Zamel said.

According to Zamel, Monday’s visit by the lawyer confirmed that Salameh was still suffering from the effects of the assault and remained in poor health. He appeared visibly exhausted.

PPS said the attack came amid what it described as a campaign targeting prominent Palestinian prisoners, which goes “beyond repression and punishment” and places their lives at risk.

“Prisoner leaders are facing various forms of physical and psychological torture, systematic crackdowns and public threats to kill them made by Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir,” the group said.

“The continuation of these policies, alongside restrictions on visits and the absence of independent oversight, paves the way for further violations and deprives prisoners of even the most basic protection.”

Escalating abuse

Born in the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza in 1971, Salameh became involved in Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation after the outbreak of the First Intifada in 1987.

He later became a leading figure in the armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades. In 1996, Israel convicted him of orchestrating several bombings that killed and wounded scores of Israelis.

Salameh said the attacks were carried out in response to Israel’s assassination of Hamas bombmaker Yahya Ayyash earlier that year.

Israeli guards ‘crushed’ Palestinian prisoner’s testicle with rubber bullet

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He was sentenced to 48 life terms and has spent a total of 14 years in solitary confinement since his imprisonment 30 years ago.

In September, Ben Gvir posted a video showing himself in Salameh’s cell, surrounded by security guards, as he told him that he wanted to “execute” him.

The minister also vowed to ensure prisoners such as Salameh were “put to death” if he became defence minister.

Palestinian prisoners, particularly prominent figures such as Salameh, have long faced abuse by Israeli prison authorities.

However, reports of abuse have escalated since the Gaza war and genocide began in October 2023. Several rights groups have accused Israeli prison authorities of widespread torture, physical assaults, sexual violence, starvation, medical neglect and humiliation of prisoners since then.

Last month, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel said they had collected 21 testimonies documenting what they described as a “dangerous practice” of prison guards firing rubber-coated bullets at prisoners from close range.

In one incident, an Israeli prison guard seriously wounded a Palestinian prisoner by firing rubber-coated bullets at his testicle. His right testicle was “completely crushed” and had to be surgically removed.

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US senator reveals ‘staggering’ sum AIPAC spent to defeat Abdul El-Sayed: They have the money; we have the people

 November 4, 2026, at 8:37 am

 

Senator Bernie Sanders and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed address students at the University of Michigan and members of the local community during a town hall rally in support of Dr. Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign for the U.S. Senate in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, on October 26, 2026. [Katie McTiernan – Anadolu Agency]

Independent US Senator Bernie Sanders said on Tuesday that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the leading pro-Israel lobbying group in the United States, had spent $39 million to oppose Egyptian-American Democratic candidate Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate race.

Sanders made the remarks in a post on the US social media platform X, as voters headed to the polls in the congressional midterm elections. El-Sayed is running against Republican candidate Mike Rogers.

“AIPAC spent $30 million against Abdul El-Sayed in the primary, then poured another $9 million into supporting Mike Rogers,” Sanders said.

“Here’s the good news: In response to AIPAC, ordinary Americans donated $12 million to Abdul,” he added.

READ: AIPAC signals fresh spending against El-Sayed after humiliating $32m Michigan defeat

“They have the money; we have the people. Let’s win,” Sanders concluded.

Sanders’ remarks come amid a closely fierce race for Michigan’s Senate seat. El-Sayed won the Democratic Party nomination in August, defeating Representative Haley Stevens, who had received substantial financial backing from pro-Israel groups.

According to The Washington Post, AIPAC’s independent political action committee spent more than $30 million during the Democratic primary to support Stevens and oppose El-Sayed, before providing about $9 million to a political group backing Rogers in the general election.

El-Sayed, an Egyptian-American doctor, has taken positions critical of Israeli policies, particularly Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip. He has called for an end to US military aid to Israel and enjoys the support of Sanders and several progressive political figures.

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Election flop leaves Donald Trump a wounded animal

 

Gabriel Rubin

November 4, 2026

WASHINGTON, Nov 3 (Reuters Breakingviews) – A paean to vanity construction projects was an apt closing message for President Donald Trump ahead of midterm elections. In 2024, he swept back ​into power by promising lower prices and no new wars. Two years later, his Republican Party has lost ‌unified control of Congress as inflation reaccelerates and imperious foreign policy runs aground in Iran. There was little left to tout beyond the White House’s new helipad. Still, the commander-in-chief’s apparent lack of concern makes some sense. Despite Tuesday’s legislative rebuke, he still overwhelmingly controls the ​trade and military decisions that caused such brutal blowback.

Losing both chambers of Congress, as early returns pointed to ​on Tuesday night, should end the most chaotic portion of Trump’s second term. Once seated, Democrats ⁠with investigatory powers should rein in the president’s worst excesses. Particularly rich seams likely include questionable government contracting, opens new tab, Trump family self-dealing ​in various cryptocurrency ventures, and influence-peddling, opens new tab abroad.

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They may be emboldened by a race that seemed to be shaped directly by White House ​policy. For instance, polls showed voters swinging hard for Democrats in the closing months of the race, as gasoline prices surged by 40% and diesel prices nearly doubled following Trump’s decision to attack Iran.

https://www.reuters.com/graphics/BRV-BRV/BRV-BRV/zdpxezrmzvx/media-embed.html

Republican candidates in states on the border with Canada lost, despite attempts to distance ​themselves from Trump’s onerous tariffs. Republican incumbent Susan Collins of Maine even won a largely symbolic rollback of some levies in ​late October, but it was too little and too late. Her opponent, Troy Jackson, mocked her during debates for getting duties on ‌road salt ⁠removed: “we can’t eat road salt.”

Agricultural and manufacturing states, burned by the loss of key export markets in China for beef and soybeans, delivered particularly brutal verdicts. Kansas, South Carolina, and Texas elected Democratic senators for the first time in decades. Besides reorienting the battlegrounds of American politics, their six-year terms will provide a lasting advantage in future election cycles, making ambitious legislation ​more plausible if the opposition party ​retakes the White House ⁠in 2028.

And then there’s the embrace of artificial intelligence by the President and his party. In Texas, arguably the epicenter of the boom in chatbot-powering data centers, Democrats won the governor’s ​race for the first time in decades. Elon Musk’s nearly $500 million in election spending ​for Republicans in ⁠Texas was not just wasted, but repudiated.

Ultimately, though, Trump has promised to become “Mr. Veto” against a Democratic Congress, thwarting efforts by lawmakers to address these points. Even attempts to remove members of the administration, like Defense Secretary and Iran war architect Pete Hegseth, ⁠require overwhelming ​votes that might still be out of reach. There will be fights ​over the budget, and plenty of brinksmanship. For now, the rebuke is stinging, but incomplete.

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Context News

• On November 3, the United States ​held elections for the House of Representatives and 35 seats in the 100-member senate.

Editing by Jonathan Guilford; Production by Aditya Srivastav

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Four-Year-Old Among Eight Palestinians Killed by Israeli Attacks Across Gaza

by Dave DeCamp | November 1, 2026 at 2:19 pm ET | Gaza, Israel

Israeli strikes pounded Gaza on Sunday, killing at least eight Palestinians, including a four-year-old boy, as the IDF continues its constant violations of the US-backed ceasefire deal.

The boy, identified as Zain Owais, was killed alongside his father, Mohammed, by an Israeli strike that hit a group of Palestinians west of Gaza City. At least one other person was killed in the strike.

Mourners react as a man carries the body of Palestinian boy Zain Owais, who was killed along with his father Mohammed in an Israeli strike, according to medics, during their funeral in Gaza City, November 1, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Another Israeli attack hit the al-Mawasi tent camp west of the southern city of Khan Younis and killed five police officers, according to Gaza’s Interior Ministry. Gaza’s police force has been a frequent target of Israeli strikes as Israel seeks to disrupt Hamas’s control over the small area of Gaza where the civilian population lives.

According to Al Jazeera, the Interior Ministry said the police officers killed on Sunday were “performing their routine duties,” and it condemned the “horrific massacre.” The ministry said that since the so-called ceasefire deal was signed, the IDF has killed 75 police officers and called on the international community “to take urgent action and exert pressure” on Israel to end the attacks.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Sunday that since the ceasefire deal was signed in October 2025, the IDF has killed at least 1,583 Palestinians, including 348 children and 150 women. Another 5,696 have been injured, including 1,731 children and 966 women.

In that same period, seven IDF soldiers have been killed in Gaza, including one who was killed by other Israeli soldiers in a friendly-fire incident in February of this year, and two who were killed in September in the accidental explosion of an Israeli military drone. According to the Israeli military, the other four died as a result of “combat” in southern Gaza in October 2025, when Hamas militants were trapped on the Israeli-occupied side of the Strip.

Hamas has also not launched any rocket attacks on Israel and has agreed to a US-backed proposal that would see the group give up its weapons, but Israel rejected the potential deal. Despite President Trump calling for Israel to stop bombing Gaza because Hamas agreed to disarm, the US continues backing Israel’s daily attacks.

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Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.

Trump plans to resume bombing of Iran as early as day after midterm elections

Andre Damon@Andre__Damonm WSWEDS, 2 Nov 2026

President Donald Trump arrives to speak during a campaign rally at the Five Flags Event Center, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in Dubuque, Iowa. [AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall]

The Trump administration had told Gulf Arab governments to prepare for a new round of strikes on Iran as soon as November 4, the day after Tuesday’s midterm elections, MS NOW, the cable network formerly known as MSNBC, reported Friday, citing three senior Gulf Arab officials. The network wrote that US President Donald Trump was planning to resume the bombing of Iran once the elections were over.

Tuesday’s election is expected to reflect overwhelming popular opposition to the war in Iran and to its economic consequences, including the surge in prices. In a Pew Research Center poll released October 8, 65 percent of Americans said they disapproved of how Trump had handled the war.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the United States had told several Gulf Arab governments to expect a military campaign against Iran after the election. The Journal wrote that Trump was leaning toward a large post-election attack whose targets could include Iran’s nuclear sites and its infrastructure.

MS NOW reported that the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, with its escorts and about 9,000 Marines and sailors, would arrive in late November as the third carrier in the region, and that more Patriot antimissile batteries had gone to Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Trump told KCMO, a Kansas City radio station, on Friday that the war “is going to be over very soon” and that “We’re knocking the hell out of them,” MS NOW reported. On Saturday night Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, where a Halloween party was under way: “We’ve knocked out their nuclear. We still have to take care of, I would say one or two sites, but we can do that in 10 minutes.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was hosting the Group of 20 foreign ministers in Atlanta, said Saturday at a press conference there: “If we needed to do something militarily, we would have the ability to do it and we have everything we need to be successful.” MS NOW quoted a former official of the administration who was familiar with its deliberations as saying of Trump: “He’s been convinced that with this final attack we can get a deal with the Iranians, or we can finally destroy their nuclear program.”Available from Mehring BooksThe struggle against imperialism and for workers’ power in IranA pamphlet by Keith Jones

On Saturday, according to Iranian media as summarized by the Institute for the Study of War, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei ordered a response “without geographical limitations” and directed that the list of targets be extended to all US and Israeli assets. Iranian officials have named US bases, Gulf energy installations, pipelines and airports. In the spring fighting, Iran struck energy and industrial sites in the United Arab Emirates and airports in Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.

Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat on the Foreign Relations and Appropriations committees, has sat in a classified briefing on the plan. Speaking Wednesday at the Middle East Institute in Washington, he said the briefing included “a fairly detailed conversation about what the war plan would be if we restarted military operations,” and that the plan “will lead, in my view, to a prolongment and an escalation of this war.” He pointed to “open reporting as to what we may be planning and the civilian infrastructure that we may be targeting.”

The next day Murphy wrote on X: “Some of us have been briefed on the war plan. And while I cannot disclose any details, I can say this: the plan is insane. It will not achieve objectives and will set off a new cycle of escalation.” Murphy suffered a stroke Saturday and was hospitalized.

Murphy’s statement is particularly significant because he has seen the plan. A member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has said that the operation will produce the opposite of what is claimed for it: a longer and wider war, whatever the administration intends. His objections concern its effectiveness and its legality, not the aims of the war.

Yet no Democrat, Murphy included, demanded that the briefing be made public or that Congress reconvene before the attack.

Murphy remained the only lawmaker to have spoken publicly about the briefings. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer wrote on X Wednesday that Trump “led us into this war with no plan, no authority, and no exit strategy” and that Democrats had “given Republicans 14 chances to hold Trump accountable and end this reckless war.” Schumer’s posts that week did not mention the plan to resume it.

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On Friday night, as the MS NOW report circulated, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York Democrat, headlined a get-out-the-vote rally in Dumfries, Virginia, for Representative Eugene Vindman, a Virginia Democrat who served in the Army. While making cursory statements criticizing the war in Iran, neither speaker mentioned the strikes planned for after the election or warned about their implications, let alone called for opposition.

The Democrats on CNN, CBS and NBC on Sunday did not mention the plan either. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, on CNN’s State of the Union, did not mention the planned strikes, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, on CBS’s Face the Nation, and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, on NBC’s Meet the Press, did not mention the war at all.

On January 22, 2026, five weeks before the attack on Iran began, the Democratic Party supplied 149 House votes for the $839 billion military budget, which passed 341-88. Six weeks earlier, on December 10, 2025, the House had passed the National Defense Authorization Act 312-112, with 115 Democrats in favor, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and on December 17 the Senate passed it 77-20, with Schumer, Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois and 25 other Senate Democrats in favor.

On March 4 the Senate voted 53-47 against taking up a War Powers resolution to stop the war, and on March 5 the House voted 219-212 against a similar measure.

Gasoline prices had risen by more than 40 percent since the war began, and the national average was above $4 a gallon, according to AAA figures on an NBC News price tracker updated Saturday. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported October 16 that gasoline prices had risen 34.2 percent in the year to September, fuel oil 74.2 percent and airline fares 22.4 percent, and that consumer prices as a whole had risen 3.7 percent.

The Pentagon told Congress that the cost of the war had reached $47.1 billion by October 16, the New York Times reported Wednesday, and that more than 60 percent of it had gone to bombs, missiles and other ammunition. The Pentagon’s casualty report published October 15 listed 21 US troops dead and 865 injured in the Iran war and related operations in the region.

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Report: US deploys 10 military cargo planes to Israel amid preparations for possible strike on Iran

 

MEM, October 30, 2026

 

 

A view from Tehran, Iran, as people go about their daily activities while anti-Israel banners are displayed in major squares across the capital, amid ongoing discussions over Israel’s general elections and the Israeli government’s policies toward Iran, on October 27, 2026. [Fatemeh Bahrami – Anadolu Agency]

The US has transferred 10 military cargo aircraft to Israeli air bases in the southern Negev region amid preparations for a possible military strike against Iran, the Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported Thursday, Anadolu Agency reported.

The broadcaster said the aircraft landed at Ovda and Nevatim air bases, while additional US military planes were reportedly dispatched to bases in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

According to KAN, the planes departed from Fort Bliss in the US state of Texas, which houses one of the US military’s largest air defense centers, including facilities associated with interceptor missiles and air defense batteries.

There was no immediate US confirmation of the reported deployments, and it remained unclear what cargo the aircraft were carrying or whether Washington had decided to launch an attack against Iran.

An Israeli official told the broadcaster that Israel and the US were closely coordinating their military preparations.

“Israel and the United States are coordinating closely, and although no decision has yet been made on the matter, the Americans and Israel are preparing for any decision President Donald Trump makes,” the official said.

The official did not specify the nature or timing of any potential decision.

Earlier this week, KAN reported that Washington had warned Gulf countries about the possibility of a short, limited military campaign against Iran.

According to the broadcaster, the US military has also transferred a Patriot missile defense system from Texas to reinforce its air defenses in the Gulf region.

The report said US troops stationed at bases across the region had been instructed to leave as a precaution against a possible military escalation.

It added that US forces were replenishing their weapons stockpiles, with an additional aircraft carrier and Marine Corps unit expected to arrive in November.

The reinforcements would reportedly join approximately 20 US warships already operating in the Middle East.

READ: Israeli soldier charged with spying for Iran in exchange for cryptocurrency

Separately, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier Thursday that US Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander Gen. Brad Cooper had briefed Trump on options for potential strikes against Iran.

The newspaper suggested that the briefing could indicate that Washington was moving closer to launching major military operations.

Democratic US Sen. Chris Murphy said he and several other senators had received a briefing on possible plans to attack Iran, describing them as “insane.”

Murphy warned that such an operation would lead to a devastating escalation and could undermine the US commitment to the rule of law.

The US and Israel launched attacks against Iran on Feb. 28, prompting Tehran to retaliate against Israel and US targets across the region before a ceasefire agreement was reached in April.

The US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding in June concerning freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, but its implementation has stalled over disagreements related to the waterway’s security.

The latest reported military deployments come amid renewed concerns over a possible escalation between the US and Iran.

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Behind the US midterm elections: economic crisis, world war and the drive to dictatorship

 Joseph Kishore@jkishore

 

The US midterm elections conclude Tuesday under conditions in which the objective factors that will determine American policy, whoever emerges with control of Congress, are entirely excluded from the campaign. Three interrelated processes will shape what follows the vote

A worker sorts ballots at the L.A. County Ballot Processing Center during the California primary election, June 2, 2026, in City of Industry, California. [AP Photo/William Liang]

First is the economic crisis. This week brought the most serious indications yet that the speculative bubble on which American capitalism rests is beginning to collapse. Alphabet, the parent company of Google, lost a record $482 billion in market value on a single day after reporting a free-cash-flow deficit of some $9 billion—driven by spending on AI. On Friday, the Nasdaq fell 2.86 percent. Intel plunged 28.6 percent, and the chip index fell 7.2 percent, for a monthly loss of more than 15 percent.

The speculative bubble is a reflection of a protracted crisis of American capitalism, which is entering a new stage. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond stands near 4.9 percent, the national debt has passed $40 trillion, the global position of the dollar is under increasing threat, and the Federal Reserve is discussing further rate hikes.

The collapse of this house of cards will have incalculable consequences. Whatever their tactical differences, both parties will respond, as they did in 2008, with a massive bailout of the financial oligarchy, paid for by the working class.

Second is the escalating global war. The administration has postponed its plans to expand the war against Iran until the votes are counted. According to Axios, US and Israeli officials are preparing a week-long bombing campaign against Iran’s leadership, nuclear facilities, energy installations and infrastructure, to begin after November 3. Washington has told governments in the region to prepare for Iranian retaliation.

At the same time, the war against Russia in Ukraine is moving toward a direct clash between nuclear powers. In September, Russia warned that it was ready to use “all its arsenal, including nuclear weapons,” if NATO moved to isolate Kaliningrad. On October 18, Ukraine attacked Russia with more than 1,000 drones. The European powers are escalating the conflict, and the principal aim of the Democratic Party is to ensure that American imperialism plays the leading role in a war against Russia.

Third is the growth of social anger and the class struggle. In Europe it has already erupted. In France, hundreds of thousands of workers and students have marched for six weeks against cuts to schools and the soaring cost of living, and the movement has spread across the continent.

The American ruling class is acutely aware that the same conditions exist here. When the movement in France erupted, the Wall Street Journal warned its readers, “Don’t think it can’t happen in the US given the current state of American politics.” Fortune ran the headline “France is rioting over surging inflation, skyrocketing national debt and crumbling schools. America is its sleeping twin.”

It is the complete suppression of the actual reality that will shape American policy that gives the entire spectacle its degraded character. Neither party can tell the population the truth, because both defend the interests of the capitalist oligarchy that rules the United States.

Trump, representing the most ruthless factions of that oligarchy, has spent the nearly two years of his second term erecting the framework of a dictatorship. He has sent the National Guard into American cities, built a network of immigration prison camps, carried out mass raids and worked systematically to criminalize political opposition.

Anticipating major losses in the midterm elections, Trump is working to overturn the results. The Justice Department has sued to block certification of the Senate election in Alaska if the Republican incumbent, Dan Sullivan, loses. On Thursday, it filed a revised complaint, along with some 40 subpoenas and document-preservation demands, over claims that operatives aligned with the Democratic candidate, Mary Peltola, recruited a second candidate also named Dan Sullivan.

In California, after federal courts rejected the administration’s demand to set aside 20,000 ballots, the Justice Department has issued grand jury subpoenas to local election officials. Under Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby reportedly told senators in September that deploying the National Guard to the polls had been discussed, and Trump has refused to rule out invoking the Insurrection Act.

The drive to overturn the vote is bound up with fascist and racist agitation without precedent in American politics. Trump has denounced Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, as a “jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member,” and told a rally that Michigan must “stand up and fight just like Todd did to stop a jihadist from walking into the Capitol,” invoking the passengers of 9/11 United Flight 93. Federal agents have raided the home of Representative Ilhan Omar and the White House is seeking to strip her of citizenship and deport her.

The Democrats’ opposition to Trump centers on the war against Russia. When Trump licensed imports of Russian diesel on October 9, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, together with Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Elizabeth Warren, denounced the decision as “a total betrayal of Ukraine,” declaring, “Putin only responds to strength.”

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The Democrats are running 67 “CIA Democrats”—congressional candidates drawn from the military and intelligence agencies—more than in any of the previous four elections. In the weeks before the vote, the New York Times has fed a stream of reports on Russian “sabotage” and “shadow war” to the affluent upper-middle class layers that form the party’s base.

This anti-Russia hysteria is being whipped up so that the Democrats can present their expected gains as a mandate for war. On the rest of Trump’s agenda, including the attack on democratic rights, they will seek an accommodation with the White House and the Republicans.

In a lecture at George Mason University outside Washington on Wednesday, David North, chairman of the WSWS International Editorial Board, summed up the two parties. Trump, he said, “is the representative of the American capitalist oligarchy. He epitomizes its ruthlessness, its gangsterism and its stupidity.” The Democratic Party “is the indispensable second half of the capitalist two party system. To the extent that it has a distinct role to play in American politics, it is to divert and deflect mass social discontent.”

In carrying out this role, the Democratic Party relies on the Democratic Socialists of America—its public relations arm—to direct the growing anti-capitalist sentiment among young people back into the party of Wall Street and the intelligence agencies. On Friday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held a campaign rally with Representative Eugene Vindman—a former Army officer, National Security Council official and anti-Russian war hawk—on the edge of the Quantico Marine base in Virginia.

The answer to dictatorship and war, social inequality and fascism lies in the development of the class struggle. War and dictatorship cannot be stopped by pressuring the Democrats or through bourgeois elections, but only through a complete break with the Democratic Party and the independent and revolutionary mobilization of the working class. The Democrats, the trade union apparatus that functions as their arm, and the pseudo-left all sow complacency and downplay the danger of dictatorship.

The Socialist Equality Party is building the political alternative to this entire rotten establishment. It fights to mobilize the strength of the working class against war and dictatorship through the formation of rank-and-file committees in every factory and workplace, independent of the union apparatus and linked across industries and national borders through the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees.

American workers face the same attacks as the workers and youth now in the streets of Europe, and their struggles must be unified on the basis of a socialist and internationalist program: the expropriation of the oligarchy’s wealth, the reorganization of economic life to meet social needs and an end to imperialist war.

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