The aims of Zionism and Imperialism in Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority

The Zionist killing spree in the Gaza strip raised a wave of solidarity in the masses of the Middle East, which was ignored by the collaborationist dictatorships currently on the saddle of the Arab states, but finally found an expression in the Islamic militia of Hizballah, which attacked an Israeli army position, killed seven soldiers and captured another two, and offered to release them in exchange for the release of political prisoners in Israel. Above and beyond all the programmatic and tactical differences between the Marxists and the Islamists (and they legion), it must be recognized that by that single act of solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people they Hizballah itself at the forefront of the anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist struggle in the region. The Hizballah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, repeatedly appeals, not to sectarian interests, but to the unity of the "Arab and Muslim people" or "the Islamic nation" against Zionism and its American backers.

Israel answered to the Hizballah strike by the same state terrorist methods it employed in the Gaza strip and the West Bank: the systematic destruction of the economic infrastructure, the terrorizing of the civilian population, the indiscriminate bombing of neighborhoods in crowded cities-as a result of which more than 80 Palestinians and above a hundred Lebanese have been killed-and, generally speaking, the most absolute disregard for the lives of the civilians and even of its own captured soldiers. In the past several days, eight Palestinians have died at the Rafah crossing between the Egypt and the Gaza strip, waiting for days with no shelter and an inadequate water supply, and a humanitarian catastrophe due to lack of food is imminent in Gaza.

The similarities between the Zionist actions in Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority are striking, not only as regards their military methods but also, what is no less important, in their aims. Ostensibly the reasons for both operations are to stop the firing of rockets (Qassams from the Gaza strip, Katyushas from Lebanon) and to release the Israeli soldiers captured by the Hamas and Hizballah militias. In actual fact, the objective of the Zionist regime and of American imperialism is to bring about a "regime change" (a euphemism for installing a Quisling puppet regime) by fomenting a civil war among Lebanese and Palestinians: between the Fatah and Hamas in the Palestinian authority, and between Hizballah and the Christians in Lebanon. Furthermore, the attack against Lebanon and Hizballah are also meant to intimidate the regimes Syria and Iran, two of the "rogue states" that American imperialism has been trying to target for several years.

Historically the Christian bourgeoisie in Lebanon has tended to collaborate with imperialism (first French and British and later American) and with Zionism against Palestinian, pan-Arabist and/or pan-Islamist movements. The avowed objective of the Israeli mass bombardment of Lebanon is "to force the Lebanese government to assume responsibility for what happens in the South," i.e. to force to Lebanese army to impose its authority in the Shiite regions, i.e. to disarm the Hizballah militia. Of course, that cannot be done without a reshuffling of the Lebanese government and an armed clash of the Lebanese army with Hezbollah. In other words: what the Zionists want is to bring about a civil war in Lebanon, much as they have been trying to do with the PNA. To that end they sent weapons to Abu Mazen in June; and they count on the possibility that, by threatening to destroy the entire economic infrastructure of Lebanon, they will push the Christian bourgeoisie to play a similar collaborationist role against Hizballah.

What they didn't count upon-used as they were to kill basically defenseless Palestinian guerrillas-is that this time they were facing an organization which was armed during the last decade by Iran, and which therefore was able to retaliate to the Israeli attacks, however disproportionate the military forces. Everything points at a far from favorable denouement for the Israeli side, which has suffered so far 11 military and 12 civilian casualties. Since the war with Lebanon started, there has been a precipitous decline in the Tel Aviv stock exchange, and the Israeli bourgeois has lost 6 billion shekels (approximately 1.5 billion dollars) in share values. That's why Israel rejected the Lebanese offer for a cease fire, with full backing from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who warned that "there is no point in achieving a ceasefire so long as Hizbullah and Hamas are capable of firing rockets at Israel." On the military side, the Pentagon notified Congress of plans to sell Israel JP-8 aviation fuel, valued at up to USD 210 million, in order "to enable Israel to maintain the operational capability of its aircraft inventory." There is now a real danger that Israel will directly target Syria. Iran, in turn, has long been threatened with military aggression by the US imperialists, who work in tandem with Israel on these issues.

The Zionist regime is always callously ready to use the Jews as cannon fodder to advance the imperialist plans in the region or, as the Israeli deputy in the UN said to the Israeli TV, "to do the dirty work (in the Middle East) for others". As the days pass and Israeli casualties accumulate, the Zionist government is becoming increasingly worried about what they call the "rearguard", i.e., the Jewish civilian population. Actually, the real concern is that the "rearguard" will lose its patience and begin to protest against the war. Several demonstrations have taken place in the last couple of days against the barbaric attacks in Lebanon and Gaza. They are still minority actions, but the last one in of Tel Aviv included several thousand people. Furthermore, the Palestinian masses in Israel have demonstrated also in the Galilean city of Nazareth.

An immediate campaign of mobilizations must be started to stop the bombing, exchange the captured soldiers for political prisoners held in the Zionist jails, and withdraw the Israeli army from the Gaza strip, the West Bank and Lebanese territory.

Militants for the Fourth International