[pdf http://54.72.113.178/cpgb-ml/wp-content/medialebanon_20060804.pdf 700 800]The present Israeli aggression against Lebanon and Gaza is a continuation of the politics of US imperialism through the agency of Israeli zionism, its heavily armed military and nuclear base in the Middle East.
US/Israeli attack on Lebanon is doomed
The capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbollah on 12 July was used as a pre-text for the US-planned aggression by its zionist rottweiler on a scale that has astonished all progressive humanity. Lebanese infrastructure was smashed to smithereens, 100s of civilians killed and nearly a million made homeless. The Israeli military not only expected Hizbollah’s fighting capacity to be decimated, but also the Lebanese population to be intimidated. Instead they have remained firmly behind resistance to the Israeli aggression, as has the elected government of Lebanon which includes Hizbollah and President Emile Lahoud’s record of hostility to US bullying.
The massacre of over 60 civilians (mainly children) at Qana (29 July), rather than intimidating the population, brought an onslaught of protests as the UN office in Beirut was stormed and Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora (supposedly friendly to the US), snubbed Condoleezza Rice by calling off her visit, denounced the “heinous war crimes” of Israel and thanked Hizbollah for its defence of national sovereignty. Israel’s failure to eliminate Hizbollah by massive bombing, including bunker-busters, has forced it to go into Lebanon on the ground where it has met heroic resistance and has been unable to hold some of the towns and villages it claimed to have taken. The longer Israeli soldiers are in Lebanon on the ground the more they will face substantial losses.
Attempts to defeat Hamas
Ever since the democratic election of 25 June in the Palestinian territories brought Hamas into office all the hypocritical lovers of ‘democracy’ have sought to undermine the Palestinian Authority (PA) by blockading funding to the PA and continuing to bomb it in spite of the Hamas ceasefire. Israel’s murder of a family on a Gaza beach, caused Hamas to resume defence of Palestine, which included the capture of Corporal Shalit. Israel is determined to crush Hamas. It has no intention of negotiating; always claiming that it cannot negotiate with whoever the current leaders are. A few days before the June aggression, Hamas and Fatah had worked out a joint statement implicitly recognising Israel. This was blatantly ignored and Israel went ahead with its pre-planned bombardment.
On 27 June, the Israeli Occupation Force launched massive aerial destruction starting in southern Gaza which destroyed vital roads and bridges, the Gaza City power station, etc., followed by a ground offensive with tanks and bulldozers which destroyed homes and razed farmlands to the ground thus attempting to reduce even further the population’s means of survival. They had the audacity to arrest half of the elected government of Palestine and a quarter of its elected MPs. Despite continuing bombardment of Gaza (about 150 shells a day) all attempts to beat the Palestinians into submission are being yet again thwarted by a resilient and heroic Palestinian people who refuse to submit and are strongly supporting the resistance.
It is not about ‘kidnapped’ soldiers; it is the attempted liquidation of resistance presently led by Hamas to the occupation of the land of Palestine, the annexing of more of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, and the destruction of Hizbollah enabling the installation of a government in Lebanon subservient to imperialism. In short, it is about imperialist domination of the Middle East.
The resistance in Lebanon and Palestine has demonstrated mutual support, and the effectiveness of guerrilla tactics, including tunnel warfare (so successful in China and Vietnam) has exposed the weakness of the high-tech Israeli army.
Morale in Israel, however, is less secure. Bombing that has been a ‘normal’ part of life for Palestinian and Lebanese civilians for decades is now affecting cities like Haifa. The Israeli humiliation following its invasion of Lebanon in 1982 haunts Israelis in the same way that Vietnam haunts the American collective memory. There may be current public approval in Israel for its offensive, but there are signs that it is becoming less solid.
What US imperialism wants
US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, says they want a “New Middle East” which “strengthens the forces of peace and democracy in the region”. In fact the present US-led carnage is aimed at destroying democratic states and strengthening a fascistic state: destroying democratically elected Palestinian and Lebanese governments because they have actively resisted US aggression and trying to intimidate Syria into weakening its support for resistance movements, and enabling the fascist zionist state to strengthen and enlarge its settlements, particularly in the fertile Jordan valley and East Jerusalem while attention is focussed on Lebanon and Gaza.
Support Resistance in Lebanon and Palestine
In the end, Israel will be unable to maintain domination of the Palestinians and of neighbouring states by military means, buffer zones or any other device. So long as there is oppression there will be resistance and despite all the zigzags of the struggle and the vicissitudes of fortune, in the final analysis it can only end one way – in the defeat of the reactionary and the victory of the revolutionary forces.
The victories of the Lebanese resistance are causing consternation in the reactionary/imperialist camp, and lifting the morale of the Arab peoples and of progressive humanity. While both the Labour Government and Labour Party remain committed to promoting the interests of imperialism and backing Israel to the hilt, the outrage caused by Israeli carnage in Lebanon and Palestine, combined with the heroic resistance put up by Hizbollah and Hamas, is causing serious dissent and disintegration in government circles. In fact the entire imperialist camp is in disarray.
It is the duty of the working class in this country to oppose and expose the dirty war waged by imperialism, including the representatives of ‘our’ own imperialist bourgeoisie. The resistance movements in the Middle East are fighting our enemy, are weakening imperialism, and we must support them.
