DESPITE the recent heavy losses suffered by the Israeli army in trying to penetrate southern Lebanon, the objective of the US administration, its Israeli client, and its British servant remains the destruction of Hezbollah, the carrying out of regime change in Syria and ‘blooding’ Iran to prevent it from developing a civilian nuclear power industry.
The contempt that Bush and Olmert have for the Lebanese cease-fire was exhibited by last Saturday’s Israeli commando raid into eastern Lebanon, near to Baalbeck, many miles from the border with Israel.
This raid was nothing to do with preventing alleged Syrian reinforcement and resupply of Hezbollah, it was far too lightweight for such a purpose.
A small group of Israeli elite forces landed by helicopter, dressed in Lebanese army uniforms for the sole purpose of capturing a leading member of Hezbollah.
The raiders were unmasked at a checkpoint before they got to their target, a senior member of Hezbollah, and were lucky to get away with their lives, suffering one casualty, the death of a major.
A direct result of this raid, an open breach of the cease-fire agreement, which the Israelis, with US support, say that they will repeat as necessary, is that France is refusing to commit major forces to the UN to man the Israeli-Lebanese border, while the Lebanese army is considering withdrawing from its positions south of the Litani river, since, because of its conventional array, it could be wiped out in a few hours by Israeli air power.
As well, Israel says that it will veto contingents joining the UN force, under UN command, if they come from Arab and Islamic countries that refuse to recognise the state of Israel. This narrows down the acceptable forces to Jordan and Egypt!
The UN resolution has already been ripped up.
The US administration and the Israeli military consider that the recent war left the job less than half done. If they cannot get a force into Lebanon that will help crush the Hezbollah, they are in favour of continuing the war.
The Lebanese masses are naturally eager to be able to bury their dead, reunite their families, rebuild their homes and recommence their lives.
Hezbollah is distributing millions of dollars to families precisely for this purpose. The Lebanese government has said that it knows that Hezbollah will not break the cease-fire, and that no other Lebanese militia will do so either.
Lebanon was badly wounded by the Israeli terror attacks and now wants to rebuild.
It is in this situation that the US administration and Israeli political and military figures argue, that far from allowing a breathing space for Lebanon to recover and the Hezbollah to become stronger, now is the time to organise the continuation of the war, using a fake propaganda line to do so – that with every day that passes more and more resupply is taking place from Syria to Hezbollah.
It is only the US and the UK that are allowed to engage in these activities with their constant rearming of Israel.
The Iranian position, to be announced shortly, that it will not give up its civilian nuclear programme will add more fuel to the fire of the US-Israeli war propaganda.
US imperialism and Zionism are not going to allow Lebanon to heal itself and become stronger. They will organise provocation after provocation against the Lebanese and Syrian masses and renew the war.
This means that it is vital that the workers’ movement in Britain takes action to support the Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian people by attacking imperialism.
The working class must force its trade unions to take action to bring down the Blair government and bring in a workers’ government.
This must withdraw all British troops from the Middle East, the Gulf and Afghanistan, support the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, and give every political and material support to the Arab people’s struggle to control their region and its oil resources.
