Israel has murdered Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and is now on the brink of all out war in Lebanon. Now Iran has launched another missile attack on Israel, hitting a number of military bases.
A year after it began its genocide in Gaza, Israel is threatening to ignite a regional Middle East war.
This is a rogue state unleashing terror in an effort to crush all resistance.
It has dramatically escalated its bombing through intense strikes in Lebanon night after night. The “new phase” of the war has killed at least 1200 people so far.
Israel is entirely to blame for the escalation. For the last year Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged fire across the border, after Hezbollah began limited rocket attacks in response to Israel’s genocidal violence in Gaza.
Israel has continually upped the stakes, assassinating Hezbollah commanders and then staging a terror attack through exploding pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah, killing 42 people including 12 civilians, and leaving hundreds of others with horrifying injuries.
Once again Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has brushed aside calls for a ceasefire, saying Israel would “continue fighting with full force”.
Israel’s Defence Minister said it would, “continue until our goal is achieved—the safe return of the residents of the north to their homes”. Around 60,000 Israeli settlers have been evacuated from the border. More than that it wants to make up for the failure in its 2006 war and break Hezbollah.
Hezbollah has said that a ceasefire in Gaza could end the conflict—but Israel has refused to end the genocide.
For months Netanyahu has threatened to turn Beirut and southern Lebanon into Gaza. Israel is again demonstrating its contempt for civilian lives as it bombards residential areas. It is also preparing troops for the possibility of an invasion.
Albanese’s complicity
The US and Australian governments are again complicit.
US President Joe Biden says he wants the situation to “de-escalate” through a “diplomatic solution”.
But the US has given the green light to Israel, continually defending Israel’s “right” to target Hezbollah. For months it has mouthed opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza and said it wants a ceasefire, while continuing to facilitate Israel’s massacres through keeping up a steady flow of weapons. As a result Israel knows it can continue to kill with impunity.
Anthony Albanese is also complicit. While he calls for de-escalation and says Netanyahu “needs to listen to the international community” he refuses to take any action pressuring Israel to do so.
The Labor government is still allowing the export of parts for the F-35 fighter jets Israel is using to bomb Gaza and Lebanon, as well as continuing to buy weapons from Israeli arms companies.
The calls for sanctions against Israel are growing louder. In September, the UN General Assembly backed a resolution urging member states to sanction all goods from illegal Israeli settlements as well as weapons that might be used in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza.
But the Australian government is still dismissing the idea.
Israel has invaded Lebanon repeatedly since 1978. It was the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon from 1982 that led to the emergence of Hezbollah as an armed resistance movement that eventually drove Israel out of the country.
The Australian government hypocritically calls Hezbollah a terrorist organisation. But it is Israel unleashing terror and death on a gigantic scale in both Gaza and Lebanon.
Israel invaded Lebanon again in 2006. It ruthlessly targeted civilians as well as basic infrastructure including Beirut airport, factories and almost every bridge in the country.
However it was forced to withdraw after being humiliated at the hands of Hezbollah fighters. Their victory was celebrated across the whole Arab world.
In 2012, Hezbollah began to lose some credibility as an organisation that will stand consistently with the oppressed. It sent fighters into Syria to defend the dictatorship of Bashar Al-Assad against a popular uprising. It has supported austerity and anti-union measures, and even helped facilitate a gas exploration deal between Lebanon and Israel.
But now, as Lebanese socialist Simon Assaf reports, Israel’s assaults have “reinvigorated” it. “The rallying behind Hezbollah right now is more significant, and bigger, than during Israel’s 2006 war on Lebanon.”
Israel’s ruthless expansion is another call to action for the entire Arab working class.
By James Supple
