Storm clouds are gathering over the Middle East as Israel, backed by the western imperialist powers, pushes the region ever closer to a devastating all-out regional war, highlighting yet again the choice before humanity: either socialism or barbarism.
In the first two weeks of its aggression against Lebanon, the Israeli army has bombed more than 3,600 sites across the country, killing at least 1,800 people and wounding more than 10,000, the vast majority of whom were men, women and children who had nothing to do with Hezbollah. So far, almost one million people out of a total population of 6 million have had to flee their homes, adding enormous strains to a country that is already beset by deep social and economic crises.
The year-long Israeli carpet bombing has already turned the Gaza strip into rubble. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, hundreds of thousands maimed, and millions displaced. The Zionist regime is now openly promising that a similar fate will befall Lebanon.
They have unleashed an unprecedented campaign of terror on the Palestinian and Lebanese people. They have carried out the pager and walkie-talkie terrorist attacks in Lebanon, leading to dozens of deaths and thousands injured. In Beirut, they assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, the biggest political party in Lebanon. In Tehran, they assassinated Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza.
It is important to point out that at the times of their deaths, both of these men were leading ceasefire negotiations with Israel. In Syria, Israel has continuously bombed sites across government-controlled areas, killing hundreds of people and assassinating a series of Iranian, Lebanese and Syrian officials. They have also bombed Yemen, while also threatening to strike at targets anywhere in the region.
‘Self-defence’ is what the Israeli aggressors call all of this with their cynical arrogance. And their message is parroted by western politicians and media. Of course, any honest person can see through this lie. The actions of Israel provoke disgust among workers and youth across the world.
On one side, we have one of the most technologically advanced armed forces, fully supported by US imperialism, the strongest military power in the world. On the other side, we have the Palestinian and Lebanese people, who – as the Israeli strategists themselves never hesitate to point out – possess far inferior military capabilities and far smaller armed forces.
The level of death and destruction that Israel has unleashed on Lebanon and Gaza has far outstripped what Hamas or Hezbollah have ever done in response. And yet, in shameless contrast to their defence of Israeli barbarism, the western media highlights and condemns every action by the Palestinians, Hezbollah in Lebanon, or Iran. Turning all reality on its head, they present the victims of aggression as the aggressors.
They continue to ignore the real root cause of the conflict, the decades of merciless oppression of the Palestinians who have been violently pushed out of their homeland, amassed in refugee camps, and who have seen more and more of their land systematically taken from them. Likewise, little mention is made of Israel’s past wars on Lebanon and the fact that it occupied the country for 15 years until the year 2000.
Let there be no doubt as to where revolutionary communists stand. We stand firmly on the side of the oppressed people against Israeli and US imperialism. We give unequivocal support to the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank and throughout the region. We are on the side of the Lebanese people, as well as the people of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, who have also been on the receiving end of Israeli attacks. They have every right to defend themselves against Israeli aggression.
The Israeli regime, and the western powers who support it, are enemies of the workers and youth of the Middle East. They have been wreaking havoc in the region for more than a century, keeping it crushed under the jackboot of barbaric imperialist oppression.
The ‘rules based’ order
As Israeli ground troops cross the border into southern Lebanon, it is clear that a much larger invasion is beginning to take shape. The media, however, are telling us that the army of one nation moving into the territories of another is not really an invasion at all. They say that it is only a “limited ground incursion” and an act of “self-defence”.
When Russia moved into Ukraine, the western powers were falling over themselves to condemn what they falsely described as an “unprovoked invasion”, conveniently ignoring the constant provocations by NATO against Russia. But where is the condemnation of Israel when it invades not one, but two nations in the course of 12 months, and bombs and attacks another three, even using terrorist methods?
When civilian areas in Ukraine are hit by Russian bombs, there is no shortage of outrage against Russia and Vladimir Putin by the western press. And yet, Israel has killed far more civilians in the course of one year than Russia has in the course of two and a half years of war.
When Israel assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, their bombs first had to work their way through a residential high-rise block of six to eight floors / Image: fair use
When Israel assassinated Hassan Nasrallah, their bombs first had to work their way through a residential high-rise block of six to eight floors, reducing it to rubble before they could penetrate deeper into the ground to reach the Hezbollah headquarters. The final outcome was the total demolition of an urban area larger than a football field, leaving hundreds of families dead under the rubble. They had no chance to escape as the bombs rained down on them in the middle of the night. Of course, little to none of this was highlighted in the western press. In fact, the action was applauded by the US and their allies!
Close to 2,000 Lebanese civilians have already been killed by Israeli bombs, and the number is growing as each day passes. The perpetrators of this slaughter do not even attempt to hide their glee at the sight of this appalling carnage. Last December, Netanyahu himself threatened that Israel would “single-handedly turn Beirut and South Lebanon, not far from here, into Gaza and Khan Yunis.” He and other Israeli top officials have repeated this statement on several occasions since then.
Workers and youth around the world are well justified in asking, why is there no outrage about all this? Where are the official condemnations? Where is the press coverage? Where are the outraged editorials and fiery speeches about the inviolability of national sovereignty and sacrosanct civilian lives?
If the reaction to the Ukraine war is anything to go by, then surely Hassan Nasrallah or other top Lebanese officials should have been treated as national heroes defending their homeland against the foreign aggressor. They should have been flown straight to Europe and the US, touring parliament after parliament, receiving billions of dollars of military and financial aid to fight Israeli aggression – “for as long as it takes”.
We all know why that did not happen. It is because Nasrallah and the hundreds of innocent civilians living above the Hezbollah headquarters were murdered in cold blood with the aid of 80 US-supplied JDAM bunker-busting bombs. Instead of expressing outrage, all the western leaders attacked Hezbollah for using civilians as ‘human shields’. That is, they blamed Hezbollah for the Israeli killing of civilians with western arms.
And what happens when Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran return fire against Israel? Is it presented as justified self-defence? Of course not. The whole hysterical media machine is whipped into overdrive against the so-called barbaric Iranians, Hezbollah, and so on and so forth.
In reality, only a small number of individuals have been killed by bombings inside Israel in the past year. According to Amnesty International, even before the present bombardment began, the number killed in Lebanon by routine Israeli rocket fire stood at 589. In comparison, only 34 people had been killed by Hezbollah rocket fire inside Israel. In the past week, the Lebanese casualty figures have shot up, while on the Israeli side only a handful have been killed.
In contrast to Israel, which has consciously targeted civilian areas, so far, Iranian missiles have not done so. Nevertheless, there is now talk of imposing further western sanctions on Iran for daring to strike back at Israel. Israel, on the other hand, was rewarded with an $8 billion military aid package earlier this year by the US administration.
In reality ‘Israel’s right to defend itself’ means nothing other than Israel’s right to intervene anywhere it wishes, by any means it wishes, with total impunity, to bomb, to shoot, to starve and to punish anyone. And those who dare defend themselves and fight back against these attacks are labelled as enemies and terrorists, or worse. This is the application of the so-called ‘rules based order’ to the particular conditions in the Middle East.
And what does this ‘rules based order’ consist of, you might ask? What is this mythical international order of ‘democratic’ government and ‘western values’? There is only one rule in this ‘rules based order’: namely, whatever is in the interests of American imperialism must be carried out in any given situation. If the US, or its allies in Britain, France and Israel decide to bomb or invade a given country, they may do so, and the victims must not even attempt to defend themselves against such aggression. Anyone who objects is automatically an enemy of the West and subjected to condemnation, sanctions and attacks, as American imperialism deems necessary.
Who is against peace?
Following months of attacks and provocations, on 2 October Iran finally responded to Israel’s numerous provocations with a volley of 180 missiles aimed at a number of military and intelligence installations.
Predictably, Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, ever keen to show his subservience to US imperialism, came down firmly on the side of Israel, saying that he “utterly condemn[s] this attempt by the Iranian regime to harm innocent Israelis, to escalate this incredibly dangerous situation, and push the region ever closer to the brink.” US vice president Kamala Harris followed suit, saying, “I'm clear-eyed Iran is a destabilising, dangerous force in the Middle East," adding, “I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist militias.”
Keir Starmer, ever keen to show his subservience to US imperialism, came down firmly on the side of Israel / Image: No 10, Flickr
Reading such statements one has the sensation that we have been transported to some bizarre parallel universe. Here you have an Israeli regime which has killed tens of thousands of people and destroyed the lives of millions more, a regime whose prime minister makes no secret of being prepared to drag the whole region into a war, and yet it is Iran that is painted as a dark and demonic force intent on destabilising the whole region.
In fact, throughout the whole of the past year, it is Iran that has shown extreme restraint. For two months after the assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran, the Iranians did not retaliate. Hamas also had accepted a ceasefire deal that was proposed by the West. But it has always been Benjamin Netanyahu who has repeatedly sabotaged such attempts at bringing the war to an end. In Lebanon, as reported by the Lebanese Prime Minister, Hassan Nasrallah himself had agreed to a ceasefire deal with Israel only hours before Israel assassinated him.
Furthermore, Iranian president Pezeshkian had expressed on several occasions that Iran was ready for peace talks and prepared to make a deal with both the West and with Israel to stabilise the region. In fact, he has stated that the US and the West had promised him a ceasefire in Gaza and a return to the Iranian nuclear deal if Iran held back from retaliating. He was foolish enough to believe Biden’s promises. It is clear to anyone with eyes to see that Benjamin Netanyahu is not interested in peace at all.
The fact remains that after one year of fighting in Gaza, Israel has not achieved any of its stated war aims, namely: the release of the hostages and the elimination of Hamas. Just one month ago, after Netanyahu had blatantly manoeuvered, yet again, to scupper the latest attempt at a ceasefire deal, his popularity was in decline, and he faced mass protests and even a general strike. He is very conscious of the fact that were he to lose the premiership he would be back in court facing serious fraud charges. In order to stay in office he therefore needs to continue the war, and preferably drag the US into it. And he is intent on staying in power whatever the cost.
The US imperialists and their puppets in Europe, puffed up with their own pride and arrogance, are unwilling to take the slightest step that could appear as weakness on their part. Hence, they are following Netanyahu down this catastrophic path. They make speeches about ceasefires and the need for stability, but in the end Netanyahu knows that they will come down on the side of Israel, which is their one solid ally in the Middle East.
With this in mind, after days of toing-and-froing with the western powers about a possible ceasefire, Netanyahu climbed the stage of the UN General Assembly with a message to the world: “There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach and that is true of the entire Middle East.” Here we had the true voice of the Zionist ruling class of Israel. It was a declaration of war against anyone in the Middle East who dares to stand in the way of the Zionist regime; Israel must be allowed to expand, intervene and interfere anywhere in the region.
In this context, the growing influence of Iran and its allies has become an obstacle to the aims of the Israeli ruling class. Therefore, Iran, Hezbollah, and any other of its allies, must be punished and beaten into submission, with no concern for the lives that are lost in the process, or the generations that will have to pay the price for such actions.
A war with Iran would have catastrophic consequences not just in the region, but globally. It could very easily spread to other countries in the Middle East and directly pull in US imperialism itself. In fact, this is precisely what Netanyahu has been working towards. He would be mistaken, however, in thinking that this would guarantee him victory. Far from it.
The fact that the Americans are now clearly intervening on the side of Israel will have very serious consequences. It is clear that Russia has been developing close relations with Tehran, and will undoubtedly come to the aid of Iran in ways which we cannot foresee with any degree of precision, but will undoubtedly have a very much decisive influence on events.
Of course, it is impossible to know the degree of Russian involvement at this stage of the conflict. However, it seems likely that the recent missile attack by Iran – which was far more devastating than the Israeli and western press are admitting – counted on the assistance of Russian intelligence, and specifically of satellites that are far more sophisticated than any that the Iranians currently possess. If this is the case, it would constitute a very serious warning to both the Israeli ruling clique and the warmongers in Washington.
This fact, far more than the hypocritical protestations emanating from Washington that America is ‘for peace’, might well oblige Netanyahu to think twice before launching an all-out war against Iran.
The recent missile attack by Iran counted on the assistance of Russian intelligence / Image: Hanay, Wikimedia Commons
There are other factors which the imperialists have to take into consideration. The conflict could spiral unpredictably, destabilising one country after another. In addition, Iran now has a powerful incentive to accelerate its nuclear research programme and develop nuclear weapons. It is now clear to the Iranian leaders that this would be the only real guarantee against an attack on Iran by the West or Israel.
The world economy would immediately feel the shockwaves. Oil prices rose by 5 percent on Friday morning, within minutes of the news that the Biden Administration was ‘in discussion’ with the Israeli government about a possible joint retaliatory strike against Iran. This is nothing compared to what could happen if the supply of oil from the Persian Gulf were to be disrupted. Israel has already raised the prospect of striking either oil or nuclear installations in Iran. The Iranians have in turn threatened to strike at oil installations in the Gulf in retaliation.
If sufficiently threatened, Iran also has the ability to shut down the strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil passes. The Houthis in Yemen could also curtail shipping through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, through which 30 percent of the world’s container traffic passes.
The consequences of all this would be catastrophic for the world economy, which is already on the edge of recession. It could be pushed into a steep crisis, with inflation shooting up, supply chains being disrupted, factories closing, and unemployment rising dramatically. The suffering would extend far beyond the borders of the Middle East. The workers and poor of the whole world would be asked to pay for the murderous adventures of the imperialists.
The potential death and destruction facing millions of human beings is of no concern to Netanyahu or the rabid Israeli ruling class that has now lined up behind him. The same goes for the western imperialists who continue to provide the Israeli army with money, arms and direct military support.
The ‘democratic’ mask of the capitalist class has slipped, revealing its true face: namely, that of a class which would rather drag humanity down into the abyss of barbarism than give up its own narrow interests. It confirms what communists have always said: that the choice facing humanity is socialism or barbarism.
Fight imperialism, fight capitalism
One does not have to dig far to see the racist supremacist ideas inherent in Zionist rhetoric, a racism which is mirrored in the western press. According to this view, the Muslim people of the Middle East are primitive, backward and reactionary by their very nature.
It is western imperialism that is the main source of reaction, which has for decades been meddling and instigating wars and sectarian strife / Image: U.S. Embassy Tel Aviv, Wikimedia Commons
But today’s events reveal once more the true state of affairs: that it is imperialism which is the main source of reaction in the region. More than anything, it is western imperialism that is the main source of reaction, which has for decades been meddling and instigating wars and sectarian strife, which has forcibly held back the economic development of the region, keeping it in a stranglehold of backwardness and poverty, while at the same time providing Israel with all the investment and aid necessary to transform it into a powerful capitalist power in the region.
The Zionists justify their actions by claiming that they are fighting for the security of the Jews in Israel. But what they have actually been pursuing is a policy of greater and greater colonisation of Palestinian land, and a state of almost permanent conflict. In so doing, they have not built a safe haven for the Jews of Israel. On the contrary, they have built a trap for them, a trap that they use to maintain their own rule, privileges and profits.
So long as the Israeli ruling class remains in power, there will be no peace and harmony for the peoples of the Middle East. The Zionist regime, in turn, is merely an outpost of western imperialism. Without the full financial, diplomatic and military backing of the western capitalists, the Israeli army could not maintain itself for very long.
The same people who exploit and oppress the working class in the West are also behind the never-ending wars and civil wars in the Middle East. We only have to look at the wars in Iraq (1990-91 and 2003–11) and Afghanistan (2001-21); the civil war in Syria that started in 2011 and continues to this day; the barbaric civil war in Yemen that began in 2014; the past wars in Lebanon; together with the decades-long onslaught against the Palestinians.
In all of them, we see the involvement, in one way or another, of the western powers. Ultimately, it is they who bear responsibility for all of these conflicts.
Turn the imperialist war into class war
The same people who always tell us that there is not enough money for education, healthcare, pensions and other welfare benefits, can suddenly find the billions of dollars they need to wage imperialist wars in places like the Middle East and Ukraine. The struggle against Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians and its wars with neighbouring countries is directly connected with the struggle of the working class in the West.
No amount of petitioning or radical language can put an end to the Zionist war machine. Force must be met by force. And the most powerful force on the planet is that of the working class, which, once it is mobilised, can sweep away any obstacle in its way. The best way to support the resistance of the Palestinian and Lebanese people, therefore, is to fight the enemy at home: the ruling classes and their governments in the imperialist countries.
We demand the immediate cessation of all support for Israel, including a halt to all arms exports! But we have no illusions that the capitalist class will implement this. It is the working class and its organisations that need to take up the fight. Resolutions should therefore be raised at all levels inside the trade unions that organise workplaces involved in arms production and trade, to impose a workers’ boycott through strike action and blockades of arms shipments.
No amount of petitioning or radical language can put an end to the Zionist war machine / Image: M Waleed, Wikimedia Commons
At the same time, a campaign must be launched for the nationalisation of all arms industries under workers’ control. Instead of means of destruction, these advanced industries must be retooled to produce goods for the benefit of the whole of society. Instead of tanks, we can produce tractors and ambulances. Instead of fighter planes, we can invest in efficient public transport systems.
We demand an end to all military aid to Israel as well as Ukraine. The money should be used, instead, for improvements in education, healthcare and other social programmes for the benefit of the working class.
However, we are under no illusion that the capitalist class has any intention of carrying out such measures. Their interests are directly opposed to those of the working class, at home and abroad.
War is an inherent part of capitalism. The growing number of wars and the general instability are merely expressions of the crisis of the system. It is utopian to think that you can eradicate wars without eradicating their root cause: the capitalist system itself.
What is necessary, therefore, is the preparation of a mass movement to bring down the warmongers who represent a threat to the safety and security of the whole world! They must be stopped by the collective efforts of the world working class, which is the only class that has an inherent interest in peace.
Down with the Israeli war machine!
Down with the warmongers in the West!
Full support for the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples’ struggle against Israeli aggression!
Books not bombs!
Healthcare not warfare!
No war but the class war!
Workers of the world unite!