1 October 2024
The International Bolshevik Tendency condemns Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and the bombing that killed Hassan Nasrallah and other top commanders of Hezbollah, along with hundreds of civilian residents of Beirut. The show of force comes in the wake of previous Israeli attacks in Lebanon and Iran against Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shakr and Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh. The invasion and targeted assassinations are clearly designed to sabotage any attempts to reach a deal to end the year-long genocide in Gaza, which has killed up to 186,000 Palestinians, displaced 80 percent of the besieged enclave’s population and lay ruin to its civilian infrastructure such as homes, schools and healthcare facilities.
Israel’s military operation in Lebanon represents a significant step towards a broader regional war in the Middle East. Over 1,000 people have been killed in the past two weeks, and up to 1 million displaced, victims of criminal detonation of communication devices, extensive air strikes on civilian areas and land invasion by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant threatens to unleash Zionist terror on Lebanon “from the air, sea and land,” with massive aerial bombardment facilitating the IDF ground invasion in southern Lebanon, much like the Israel–Hezbollah War in 2006.
The assault on Lebanon, like the Gaza genocide and the brutal occupation of the West Bank, is not an act of “self-defense” or retaliation. Instead, it is an extension of and a “new phase of the war” to assert dominance and establish a Greater Israel in the Middle East—ethnically cleanse the region of the Palestinian people and annex large swathes of territory. The Israeli state, backed by Western imperialism, seeks to dismantle any opposition that threatens its supremacy, viewing Hezbollah, like Hamas, as just such an obstacle. In Lebanon, as in Gaza, Israel is indiscriminately killing civilians while dubiously claiming to target only the armed militias.
Israel has been able to carry out its genocidal war with the steady supply of funds and arms from Western imperialists, while the US runs diplomatic cover for Israel at the UN. Since 7 October 2023, the Biden administration has reportedly made more than 100 military aid transfers to Israel hidden from congressional oversight, while pushing through an extra $26 billion in funding for Israel, in addition to the $3.3 billion in military aid Tel Aviv already receives annually from the US.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cavalier dismissal of impotent calls by the UN, US, Britain and other imperialist powers for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas/Hezbollah is an attempt to drag the Middle East into an all-out regional war. American imperialism is deploying additional forces to the Middle East to “help defend Israel and protect US and allied personnel and assets.” The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, along with destroyers, a cruiser and 6,500 sailors, will buttress America’s already 40,000 troops in the region. This threatens to plunge the Middle East into a regional war, drawing in Iran, more direct military involvement of Western imperialist forces and potentially the Russia–China bloc, with catastrophic consequences.
The IDF attack on Lebanon once again serves as a reminder of the urgent need for labor action and solidarity. The international working class must not only condemn Zionist terror but seek to actively intervene to defend the Palestinians and undermine the IDF-with strikes, “hot-cargoing” of war materiel and labor-led mass mobilizations, including among the Israeli working class. Revolutionaries oppose the Zionists’ drive to a full-blown regional war, call for all imperialist troops out of the Middle East and condemn the genocide currently being carried out by the Israeli apartheid regime.
Imperialists out of the Middle East!
Down with Israel’s Gaza Genocide!
For Workers’ Action Against the War!
For a Socialist Federation of the Middle East!