THE Israeli government has been given the go-ahead by President Bush to mobilise up to 30,000 reservists, who are now joining the battle to enter southern Lebanon, to try to carve out an Israeli security zone from the border to the Litani River.
The 48 hour bombing ceasefire was forgotten almost as soon as it was announced, as Israeli planes went after targets in southern Lebanon and the Bekkaa Valley, and took out vehicles entering Lebanon from Syria, claiming that they were carrying missiles to resupply Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, there was no security issue concerning the transport of 500 pound guided bombs from the US to Israel. These have been killing hundreds of Lebanese children, and are being sent via British civil and military airports.
However, everywhere the aggressor forces tried to enter the Lebanon they were fought bravely by Hezbollah, the Lebanese national liberation movement, and in most cases they are being held, and in some cases thrown back with heavy casualties. Hezbollah is making history. It has already put an end to the myth of Zionist invincibility. Yesterday it claimed that it had sunk another Israeli warship off the coast of the city of Tyre, with a guided missile.
We also saw yesterday, with TV cameras entering the town of Bint Jubayl, the weight of explosives and the firepower that the US-financed Israeli army is deploying.
In Bint Jubayl, which the Israelis were forced to quit by Hezbollah, not a single building was left standing, and groups of elderly people were coming out of the cellars, shell-shocked and confused, not knowing where they were.
Every little village on every hill top in southern Lebanon is getting the same murderous treatment.
As for Hezbollah, it was nowhere to be seen. However, it materialised quickly as a fighting force everywhere the Zionist forces sought to make a push, to push them back.
There is no way that Israel can carve out a Security Zone reaching to the Litani River without heavy casualties, and then hold it for more than a few days. Their forces are already under attack from all directions and will be rapidly decimated.
The US, orchestrating the Israeli offensive drive, has given Israel up to 12 days to carve out a Security Zone.
US allies, such as France, are already discussing with Iran that it should support France taking the lead in a ‘stabilisation force’ that will take over the ‘buffer zone’ from the Israelis, and man it along with the Turkish army and Arab forces from Morocco, Egypt and Jordan.
In return for Iran discussing this issue with Hezbollah, it is being suggested that a certain latitude on the nuclear question could be organised.
France is also discussing with the Syrian government, and pledging that if Syria helps to ‘stabilise’ the Lebanon, and influence Hezbollah, discussions can begin immediately after the stabilisation force is established on the southern border, on the issues that concern Syria. These are the return of the Golan Heights and all of the territories seized by Israel after the 1967 ‘Six Day’ war.
This is the plot that Bush and Rice have been working on.
However, Hezbollah insists that there can be no discussions until the Israelis are driven out of the Lebanon, and that they will not stop fighting until this is the case.
Workers in the western capitalist countries, such as Britian, are opposed to the role that the UK, US and Israel are playing in the Lebanon and Palestine.
Workers must demand that their trade unions take strike action to bring the Blair government down to stop the use of civilian and military airports for flying deadly 500 pound bombs for the supply of the Israeli airforce.
A workers’ government must be brought in to stop all supplies of British arms to Israel, and to arm Hezbollah and Hamas and to recognise Hamas as the government of Palestine.
