At the time of writing, negotiations led by the US and France to prevent a Zionist invasion of Lebanon are intensifying. The prospect of a regional war with Hezbollah, and the possible entry of Iran into a theatre of war, is sowing uncertainty in the imperialist capitals of the West. And yet the Netanyahu regime feels completely unpunished as it sets up its military machine. The Zionists are acting exactly like Hitler in the 1930s, when the Nazi leader laughed at the appeasement policies of London and Paris.
The consequences for the region, and for the world, of the policy being pursued by these extreme right-wing messianic rulers in Tel Aviv are unpredictable. In accordance with its intentions, publicly verbalized by its ministers, the Zionist state is building up forces on the border so that, once Lebanon has been razed from the air, it can begin a land invasion and drive Hezbollah behind the Litani River. They want to turn Lebanon into a second Gaza.
A week earlier, the Zionists sowed chaos with large-scale terrorist attacks by blowing up beeper, walkie-talkies and telephones - more than 5,000 bombs resulting in 50 dead and more than 3,000 wounded, most of them horribly mutilated! Massive terrorist attacks which, of course, have not been condemned by the so-called Western “democracies”.
Meanwhile, the genocide in Gaza continues unabated. Already some 42,000 men, women and children have been killed by a merciless military campaign, a figure which, according to The Lancet, could actually amount to 180,000. To all this must be added hundreds of thousands of wounded and sick, and a total destruction of the territory with images reminiscent of those of Hiroshima after the dropping of the atomic bomb.
The genocide in Gaza has also spread to the West Bank, where the fascist offensive of the settlers and the Israeli army has imposed absolute terror: nearly 700 Palestinians have been killed, 164 of them children, since October the 7th. The images of Israeli soldiers throwing the lifeless bodies of Palestinians off rooftops in the West Bank once again show how far Netanyahu and his Nazi-Zionist government have gone.
The US and the EU arm and finance Netanyahu's wars.
But if the Zionist regime can do all this, and can continue to push the world into a war of unpredictable consequences, it is thanks to the ironclad military, economic and diplomatic support of Biden, Kamala Harris and the Democrats in the White House. Yes, the same Democrats who campaign against Trump and talk about the danger of the far right, support the most fascist and supremacist government on the planet.
As we have already explained, without Washington's financial and military support, the Zionist state would not be able to continue the genocide in Gaza, and certainly could not even consider escalating the conflict in Lebanon.
Israel's economy is struggling, with 60,000 businesses bankrupt since 7 October and entire sectors paralysed, such as construction, agriculture and tourism, among other things as a result of the recruitment of reservists, who now account for 71% of the mobilised forces. The public deficit is already almost 9%, fuelled by the accelerated increase in military spending. The Bank of Israel has estimated that the war will consume $67 billion by 2025, and the US alone has already approved $30 billion in aid to Israel.
They try to mislead us into thinking that the US is surprised by Israel's actions. They know their plans inside out, and the Zionists do not make a move without their approval, however grudgingly. At the moment the White House does not want an escalation in Lebanon, it is true, but they will not budge an inch in their support for the Zionist state, and Netanyahu and his fascist ministers know it!
The decline of the US and its loss of influence in the face of China's rise makes it an increasingly unreliable partner for its former Arab allies, be it Turkey, Saudi Arabia or Egypt. Hence its complete inability to antagonise Israel, even if that in turn means being increasingly isolated in the Middle East and the world.
The same goes for the EU and its foreign policy spokesmen, such as the ineffable Borrell, who weep crocodile tears for the victims of the conflict, or warn of the disaster that could be unleashed if Lebanon is invaded, but have not taken a single measure, not a single sanction, against the Zionist state. With Russia yes, but not with Israel? Can one be more hypocritical?
The EU remains Israel's largest trading partner and keeps the EU-Israel Association Agreement intact. It continues to sell and supply arms, and together with the US guarantees Netanyahu all the resources he needs to carry out the slaughter in Gaza and extend the war to the West Bank and Lebanon. Borrell's lamentations, and the words of Pedro Sánchez, whose government with Sumar and IU is a full participant in this reality, are pure empty staging.
The Zionist Third Reich
The drift of the Zionist state is reaching unbearable heights. What a year ago might have seemed like a scenario out of a Nazi film is becoming a reality on the ground. The destruction and genocide in Gaza in such a short space of time is unparalleled in the 21st century, and the threat of war spreading to the region is becoming increasingly possible.
The Netanyahu government and its ultra-orthodox fascist allies, who day in and day out advocate on Channel 14 - Israel's most watched channel - the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, and now the Lebanese as well, have gone so far as to justify the use of atomic weapons. But none of these atrocities and barbarities, said in all conscience, have diminished their support; on the contrary, they are strengthening and consolidating their power over Israeli society.
The opposition, which only a year ago had Netanyahu on the ropes over his authoritarian judicial reform, has been unable to confront this drift. Its refusal to condemn the genocide in Gaza and the massacres against Palestinians in the West Bank, reducing its protests to calling for a ceasefire to bring back hostages, has led to a dead end.
And now, moreover, part of this opposition is the most fervent in its demands for military intervention in Lebanon. One of its main leaders, Benny Gantz, who until May shared a government with Netanyahu, has been insisting for weeks that ‘the time has come to act in the north’, criticising Netanyahu for his supposed passivity: ‘Actually, I think we are too late for this’. And so does Yair Lapid, who refused to join Netanyahu's government but has now welcomed the savage bombardment of civilians in Lebanon, saying that ‘the time has come’. With such opposition, how can the messianic far right not prevail?
The Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, supposedly the moderate wing of the government and whose presence is being questioned by Netanyahu and his fascist partners, has been one of the most ardent supporters of the military escalation. Now, moreover, following the declaration of a state of emergency in Israel, which means that the army can suspend meetings and the fundamental rights of the population, he has been very clear: ‘the public must show composure, discipline and total obedience’.
This totalitarian drift, which is becoming more and more pronounced within Israel and which Palestinians have been suffering for decades in Gaza and the West Bank, shows that Netanyahu and his associates do not need any judicial reform to do away with democratic rights and turn the Zionist state into a theocratic dictatorship. On this path, with an opposition surrendered to the worst Zionist supremacism and ultra-elitism, it will be almost impossible to stop Netanyahu and his government.
To raise a firm opposition against the Zionist ultra-right requires first of all to fight against the ethnic colonialist capitalist state of Israel itself, which denies any rights to half of the population, the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank, and to fight consistently for the complete liberation of the Palestinian people.
Only internationalist solidarity and revolution can stop the escalation of war!
Despite the criminal complicity of the USA, the EU and the so-called international community, and despite the fact that other imperialist powers such as Russia and China approve of cease-fire proclamations but do not break off relations with the Zionist state either, the struggle against genocide is intensifying all over the world.
Millions have filled the streets in solidarity with the Palestinian people, and now we will do so again against the war and in support of our sisters and brothers in Lebanon. In Jordan, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey... whose corrupt governments continue to do big business with Israel, we have seen mass mobilisations. But as we have pointed out, only a new Arab Spring, this time as a socialist revolution that puts these governments and capitalism itself on the ropes, can put an end to barbarism.
Recently the Arab League demanded from Borrell that the EU act decisively to stop the genocide in Gaza, but what about the Arab League? Why don't they impose a boycott on oil and gas trade as in 1973? Where is the so-called Arab solidarity? Only in the streets, because their governments have only one interest: to maintain their lucrative business with the Zionist entity and its American and European sponsors.
In recent months we have witnessed a powerful mass movement in the US in favour of the Palestinian cause that has become a nightmare for the Democrats, whom it has forcefully denounced as responsible for genocide. Seven major unions have demanded that Biden completely sever relations with Israel. This is not a minor factor and could go a long way to losing them the presidency.
The same is true on the old continent. In Britain, where the newly elected Labour leader continues his policy of support for the slaughter, almost a million people have once again taken to the streets of London. And protests are continuing in France, Spain, Belgium, Sweden and even Germany, despite the ferocious repression of the social democratic government, which has banned and intervened in public meetings, outlawed Palestinian solidarity organisations such as Samidoun, and has not hesitated to arrest children, following the example of the Zionists, simply for carrying a Palestinian flag. This is the democratic Europe that wants to give lessons to the world.
Zionist barbarism in Lebanon, and now a military invasion, will only awaken and increase the indignation of the working class, the youth and the oppressed. In the face of this escalation, and the grave risk of a regional war, we cannot place any confidence in the diplomatic action of the criminal governments of the West, nor in the UN or the international community, nor in powers such as China or Russia which, although they denounce the Zionist state in their public statements, in fact maintain an eloquent passivity that allows Netanyahu a great deal of room for manoeuvre.
It is necessary for mass mobilisation to harden and extend, increasing boycott actions and promoting strikes and general strikes that paralyse production, as has been proposed this 27 September in Spain by the CGT and the militant left. And to do so by first of all pointing the finger at our own governments and at a system, capitalism, that pushes us to barbarism: war on war, and war on our governments that sustain the slaughter!
Once again the ruling class all over the world, led by Israel, the USA and the EU, are leading us to a scenario like 1914 or 1939. In the face of militarism and imperialism, against Zionist genocide, the battle cry of proletarian internationalism is more justified than ever: Socialism or barbarism!
From the river to the sea, Palestine will win!
Not one bomb, not one soldier, not one euro for imperialist war and Zionist genocide!
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