No one should be surprised that the Zionist state, in Israel, is now stepping up its war on Lebanon. I said, a year ago, that it was inevitable. The nature of Zionism is not just ethno-nationalism, but, also, settler-colonialism, combined with imperialism. The mouthpieces of the Zionist butchers, whether its Netanyahu, Mencer or Hagari, must know, by now, that no one believes a word that comes from their mouths, any more than they believe the lies of Biden, Harris, Blinken, Starmer, Lammy and the rest that enable them, so visibly at variance are they with the reality that the whole world can see. But, that simply means that they no longer even bother to try to make those lies convincing, just telling an ever bigger lie each time, as they drive ever deeper into the rabbit hole, themselves facilitated by the huge propaganda machine of the global 24 hour, all-pervasive media that is a central element of their rule.
For the last 80 years, Zionism has proceeded by stealing Palestinian lands, occupying them, forcibly driving the existing Arab communities from them, and then, erecting their own Zionist settler communities. It was in this way that large numbers of Palestinians were turned into refugees in their own land, and driven into Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. On each occasion, the Zionists have used such pogroms against the Palestinians to expand their territory, and, when such pogroms are responded to by neighbouring Arab states, in support of Palestinians, the Zionists have used that response, as justification for the pogroms that provoked it, and to, also, then, further annex territory, as they did, for example, in the Sinai, Golan Heights, and Lebanon.
There is a simple reason for that, which does not come down to a simple subjective drive of the Zionists to expand their territory, by stealing it from others. The reality is that without the economic support given to the Zionist state by the US, and its allies, Israel would collapse. It is too small to be viable, even today, after 75 years of such externally financed and supported, economic and technological development. Without that US and other imperialist support, it would not have had access to the capital, technology, and weapons required for that development. Its not coincidence that the Zionists, in seeking to establish their totalitarian, ethno-nationalist state, looked for external support for that from like minded regimes in Nazi Germany, and fascist Italy, and later from the USSR.
But, it was the US, as world hegemon, after WWII, that was the real sugar-daddy for the Zionist state, which became its main proxy in the region, effectively a vassal state, contrary to all of the nonsense from anti-Semites that proclaim that the Israeli-Jewish tail wags the US imperialist dog, and also makes a nonsense of the idea that, today, the US is powerless in preventing the Zionist state from continuing the genocide against Palestinians, or against its war on Lebanon, which is part of an attempt to, again, provoke a response from the neighbouring Arab states, as on all previous occasions, which, then, facilitates a wider regional war against those states, and a further annexation of their territory by the Zionists, backed by US imperialism.
Israel is too small to survive in the age of imperialism, where the nation-state has become absolutely reactionary, a fetter on the further rational development of capital. The same applies, even more, of course, to Palestine, which is one of the reasons why the bourgeois Two State Solution was not just a utopian fantasy, but also, a reactionary fantasy, only imaginable as the creation of imperialism itself, which, given the backing for the Zionist state from the US and its allies, was never going to be brought about, especially as the reality of that, led, over decades, to the Palestinians, violently, but ineffectively resisting the Zionist juggernaut, and reaching out, in that hopelessness to the kinds of reactionaries, which provided both the Zionists, and US imperialism with the propaganda to use against them. That is part of the reactionary dead-end to which nationalist ideology, as against proletarian ideology, leads.
I set out several months ago, the rationale for the current developments. Israel is too small, and the solution requires a much larger single market, in the region. US imperialism uses Zionism as its proxy, in the region, as a Senator Joe Biden once said, “If Israel did not exist, we would have to create it, to represent out interests in the Middle-East”. US imperialism, also has other client states in the Middle-East, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the other Gulf Monarchies, but, they are not dependent upon US imperialism, as Israel is. Egypt as well as Syria and Iraq, in the past, looked to the USSR, and, today, Syria and Iraq, look to Iran, which, in turn, is allied to Russia and China. Even Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf states, have begun to turn towards China, as the most dynamic economic power, when it comes to investment of real industrial capital, as against the proclivity of western imperialism, over the last 40 years, only to promote financial and property speculation, and consequent blowing up of asset price bubbles that subsequently burst leaving nothing tangible behind them.
As I set out, in that post, six months ago, those, like Owen Jones, that have accepted the idea that somehow, the Zionists have lost, because they have not defeated Hamas, or recovered the hostages, do so, because they are unable to allow themselves to accept the logic of their own analysis, which leads to the conclusion that the Zionists never were concerned, primarily, with defeating Hamas, nor returning the hostages, but were engaged in genocide against the Palestinians, requiring their physical destruction, or their ethnic cleansing from the region, at least into yet more refugee camps in the surrounding areas, or further afield if possible. Why is Zionism engaged in such a venture, not just out of pure evil intent, but for very specific reasons, of its need to expand its own territory and power, in the region, and to clear away the Palestinians who, for as long as they exist, will continue to rebel, and to provoke the sympathy from the Arab masses, in the region, to which the Arab ruling classes have to respond.
The strategy was set out by imperialism in The Abraham Accords. That strategy has been iced, as a result of the Hamas attack on October 7th, 2023, and the response to it by the Zionist state, and its imperialist sponsors. Donald Trump simply said out loud what the response of US imperialism has been, but left unspoken, which is to allow the Zionist state to finish the job, i.e. to exterminate the Palestinians. The Zionists said a year ago what they were going to do, and no one can have any excuse for not knowing in advance, what they have indeed done since then. Every red line crossed, with no consequence, for the simple reason that US imperialism has given sanction to the Zionist regime to do precisely that. This is not Netanyahu defying Biden, but Biden giving Netanyahu the green light, and the means to act, but simply saying, don't let my fingerprints on the job be too visible. Sunak, Starmer, Scholz, Von Der Leyen and the rest have done the same.
Only when Gaza is physically flattened, do they, now, call for a ceasefire there! Of course, the reason, even for that, is given primarily to recover the hostages – or sausages as Starmer referred to them in a Freudian slip in his Conference speech – not to prevent the further genocide against the Palestinians. The day after day pogroms, rape, murder and torture of Palestinian men, women and children, in the West Bank, of course, also continues, without even any such comment from US imperialism, or Starmer or the EU, because of course, the hostages are not held there.
US imperialism and its UK and EU subordinates also tried to wash their hands of the Zionist attacks on the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, but, were quick to accept the Zionist narrative on it, as well as demanding that Iran did not respond to it. When, of course, Iran did respond, rather mildly, the US, UK and EU, as well as some of their client states in the region had already beefed up their own military resources in the area, ready to take down those Iranian drones and missiles that the Iron Dome did not itself take care of.
Again, we had Owen Jones, who has done a lot of good work highlighting the genocide in Gaza, and the role of Biden, Sunak, Starmer et al, in facilitating it, interviewing people who argue that the Zionist regime could not attack Lebanon in the same way it has done with Gaza, and who point to the example of previous such land invasions. But, this is basically the triumph of hope over reason, again driven by a moralistic approach. The Zionists said that they would flatten Beirut in the same way they have done with Gaza, and they are already starting to do so. It, also, shows the nonsense of those that try to distinguish between offensive and defensive weapons, a distinction used by the apologists of imperialism, and its arms supplies, both in Ukraine, and to Israel. The much vaunted Lebanese rockets have also simply been shot down by the Iron Dome, rocket launchers and so on taken out by Israeli jets and missiles. It leaves Israel free to launch attacks without any concern for effective responses.
So, it is no surprise that the Zionist regime showed no timidity or caution when it launched its strikes inside Iran itself, used its cyber warfare capabilities to recklessly, and indiscriminately explode pagers and walky-talkies in crowded areas in Beirut, followed by outright and devastating missile and aircraft attacks on buildings in Beirut. The idea it is doing this without the tacit support of US/NATO imperialism is laughable. If the latter wanted to stop it they could with a single phone call, threatening to stop the supply of arms and other support. Not only have they not done so, but they have sent even more of their own forces to the region to act to back up the Zionist regime, and provide further cover against any response.
The earlier attacks on Damascus etc. were intended to provoke a retaliation from Iran that never came. At each stage, the Zionist regime has had to step up the level of its attacks, as each one has failed to bring the kind of even proportionate response that would justify a rapid intensification into a regional war, giving US/NATO imperialism the grounds for its own more overt, direct involvement.
A look at the cross-border attacks between Israel and Lebanon, over the last year, shows the number of attacks by the Zionist regime, as against those from Hezbollah, is far, far higher, disproving the claims about the Zionist regime simply responding to attacks. We now see that Britain has sent 700 marines to Cyprus ready for an intervention into Beirut itself, under cover of the excuse of evacuating Britons, who currently, could be leaving by simply getting on a commercial flight out of Beirut Airport. This has a familiar ring from previous times, for example, the sending of warships to Nanking.
The continued statements out of the mouths of the likes of Biden and Starmer about wanting peace, whilst all the time sending even more weapons to the Zionists, backed up with an increasing amount of their own military hardware sitting on the sidelines, should be treated with the same contempt as Starmer and Reeves claims not to introducing austerity whilst in the same breath cutting benefits, removing Winter Fuel Payments from a million poor pensioners, and maintaining the Two Child Benefit Cap, as well as refusing to commit to the kind of taxation of the rich that would close their fiscal deficit.
A regional war is coming, and US/NATO imperialism is four-square behind it. Starmer et al may not be able to keep pensioners warm, but they can send billions in arms to the corrupt Zelensky regime, and to the genocidal Zionist regime.
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