A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #362 - Greater Israel, from Gaza to Lebanon (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

There is only a vague allusion to the phrase "From the Nile to the 
Euphrates" in the Hebrew Bible. Therefore, there is no real religious 
justification for everything happening in the Middle East: the 
confinement of two million Gazans in an ever-shrinking area, the 
colonial steamroller in the West Bank, the subjugation of most Arab 
countries, and the massive attack against Iran and Lebanon, including 
the assassination of their leaders.
Trump embodies the new phase of globalized capitalism. Oligarchs, 
billionaires, and tech giants have moved on to the boundless plundering 
of all the planet's resources. Trump has no preferred playground: 
Greenland, Nigeria, Cuba, Iran-anything goes, as long as there's 
something to steal. It means that the United States possesses both the 
most sophisticated weapons and the currency in which the main economic 
transactions are conducted.

The war with Iran is, of course, a trap set by Netanyahu, into which he 
has fallen. But the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz doesn't really 
affect the United States. Trump's only problem is saving face while the 
Islamic Republic emerges strengthened from this war.
The European bourgeoisies pretend to be worried about the methodical 
destruction of all the rules of the game that had been in place until 
now and about a crisis that is impacting their profits. They will not 
oppose Trump. The European Union has launched a massive rearmament plan. 
Everywhere, military budgets are exploding. The official enemy is 
Russia. These bourgeoisies are multiplying repressive laws against 
migrants and the proletariat. They are preparing for a widespread rise 
to power of the far right. The European Union is more than complicit 
with the Israeli genocidaires.

The forced destruction of Palestine
Netanyahu has his own interests: an endless war to maintain his grip on 
power. Beyond Netanyahu, there is Zionism. For over a century, this 
settler colonialism has massacred or expelled the local population, then 
waged war against those who want to return home.

Since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza, the slogan "Israel has the 
right to defend itself" no longer even tries to convince. Israeli 
leaders are "peeing off the diving board," in the words of Sylvain 
Capel: they openly claim responsibility for their actions. Taking 
advantage of undeniable military superiority thanks to the unwavering 
support of the United States, they have launched an all-out war.

First, there is the war against Palestine. In 1947, at the time of the 
Partition Plan vote, Ben-Gurion believed that a Jewish state was only 
viable with at least 80% Jewish population. What followed was the Nakba. 
Today, despite the genocide, despite the expulsions, despite the 
fragmentation of Palestine, there are roughly as many Israeli Jews as 
Palestinians between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
The method used in Gaza after the murder of 10% of the population 
resembles that used in 1948: installing a virtually unlivable 
"temporary" situation that becomes permanent. In 1948, it was the 
deportation of Palestinians to camps without any infrastructure. Today 
in Gaza, Trump's "Peace Plan" and his "Peace Council" are proving to be 
mere scraps of paper. No reconstruction is planned, and the $17 billion 
is just empty words. Another reality is taking hold: humanitarian aid 
trickling in, a hermetic blockade, the transformation of the territory 
into an ever-shrinking concentration camp. The ceasefire is being 
implemented in the Israeli style. The occupier kills whomever it wants, 
whenever it wants. And any retaliation is considered a violation of the 
ceasefire.

In the West Bank, 60% of the territory is now off-limits to 
Palestinians. There is no concealment in the cooperation between the 
settlers and the army. They support each other in the destruction of 
infrastructure, the theft of land, and the establishment of new 
settlements. The occupier tortures and kills in the prisons. The goal is 
to concentrate the three million Palestinians in increasingly smaller 
areas: the major cities and a small number of neighborhoods in 
Jerusalem. Everything is being done to provoke a new exodus.

The Neutralization of the Region
The greatest success of the Trump-Netanyahu tandem is the Abraham 
Accords. There was, of course, no reason why the feudal, slave-owning, 
and patriarchal monarchies of the Gulf, which belong to the same 
imperialist world as Israel and share the same values, should not ally 
themselves with Netanyahu. This alliance enabled the genocide. These 
Arab countries are also afraid of the violence of their new ally, first 
and foremost Egypt, which is cooperating in the strangulation of Gaza.

The Emirates are the most committed to this alliance. Netanyahu visited 
Dubai, and the Israeli army is helping the country arm itself against 
Iran. Israel and the Emirates are intervening together in Libya to 
support Marshal Haftar, and also in Somaliland.
Netanyahu played a significant role in the fall of the Syrian 
dictatorship. The new regime, which emerged from Al-Qaeda, is entirely 
dependent on the West. It will prevent any hostile act against Israel. 
Since then, well beyond the occupied Golan Heights, Israeli troops are 
just a few kilometers from Damascus, and bombings of Syrian villages are 
frequent. Regarding the flotillas, Israeli leaders had received 
assurances from Europe that they could do whatever they wanted. The 
European Union had refused to repeal the association agreement that 
allows Israeli products to arrive duty-free on our plates. And that 
disgraceful Eurovision took place despite the boycott by several 
countries. Previous flotillas had been intercepted 150 or 200 kilometers 
off the coast of Gaza. This time, the acts of piracy were extremely 
violent and took place very close to the Greek coast. Ben Gvir went so 
far as to send videos showing the humiliation inflicted on these 
Westerners, considered enemies. The acts of torture to which some were 
subjected give an idea of what Palestinians endure daily.

The Iranian Bone
At the beginning of this year, the theocratic dictatorship was on its 
deathbed. Despite ruthless repression and dozens of hangings, the 
Iranian people, from all social classes, took to the streets. Women 
openly defied the imposed moral order.
The Israeli-American attack served two purposes. For Trump, it was 
predation: after seizing Venezuelan oil, he was going to seize Iranian 
oil. After establishing US bases in almost every country in the region, 
he was going to set his sights on Iran and exact his revenge, half a 
century after the 1979 Revolution that had expelled the Americans.

For Netanyahu, the calculation was simple: "Israelis are afraid of no 
longer being afraid." Intense propaganda convinced Israelis that Iran 
represented an existential threat that would "throw them into the sea" 
(while history is stubborn: it was the Palestinians who were thrown into 
the sea in 1948).
For both leaders, everything started well: on February 28, Ali Khamenei 
and the entire Iranian leadership were assassinated, just as the 
leadership of Hezbollah had been. Intense propaganda, amplified by 
Western media, claimed that the Iranian people eagerly awaited those who 
would restore democracy and were preparing to welcome the son of the 
former Shah, since he was the one Trump had installed.

And it didn't work. Residential neighborhoods and vital infrastructure 
were razed. Trump boasted of destroying Iranian civilization. What 
happened is somewhat reminiscent of what the USSR experienced in 1941 
during the German invasion. Initially, some of the population accepted 
the new occupiers who were ridding them of Stalinist terror. Some 
collaborated in Ukraine or the Baltic states. But very quickly, the 
horrors committed by the Nazis turned the entire population against 
them. The Iranian people ceased to demonstrate against the regime. We 
have anonymous accounts from people who did this at the beginning of the 
year and who now intend to oppose the United States. Moreover, Trump is 
no longer talking about overthrowing the regime. All the neighboring 
countries that accepted the establishment of American bases are paying a 
very high price. And the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, with the 
threat that the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea will 
suffer the same fate, affects the entire world.

Lebanon: Lessons from the Past
In 1948, many Palestinians living in the north of what would become 
Israel fled under fire and found refuge in Lebanon. After Black 
September (1970), Lebanon became the center of the Palestinian 
resistance. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978. In 1982, another invasion 
was particularly deadly, but it failed to install the Phalangists in 
power. The Israeli army supported its allies in the Sabra and Shatila 
massacre. This invasion will cause tens of thousands of deaths. Southern 
Lebanon will be occupied for twenty years. The region's water will be 
plundered. The population will be transformed into immigrants commuting 
daily to work in Israel. Israel will have its collaborators, the SLA 
(South Lebanon Army), who will systematically exploit southern Lebanon.

The media are promoting the idea that Iranian intelligence services 
created Hezbollah. This is a misconception. The Shiite community (30% of 
the population, living primarily in the south and the Bekaa Valley) was 
represented by the Amal militia, corrupt like other militias and with 
Palestinian blood on its hands. Since this militia was unable to resist 
the occupier, the resistance fighters created Hezbollah and sought aid 
and weapons from Iran. The entire population of the region, including 
Christians, participated in this resistance. The Israeli occupier 
established a torture center in Khiam prison and perpetrated numerous 
massacres, such as the Qana massacre in 1996. After twenty years of 
occupation, the Israeli army was forced to withdraw. The SLA fighters 
were granted amnesty, except for their leaders, who were resettled in 
Jaffa in former Palestinian homes. Hezbollah gained enormous prestige 
from this. It became the only militia in Lebanon that had not been 
disarmed. It allied itself with the Assad dictatorship, and its weapons, 
sourced from Iran, transited through Syria.

In 2006, Israel attempted another invasion of Lebanon. In thirty-three 
days, 1,200 Lebanese were killed. The southern suburbs of Beirut 
suffered terrible destruction. But the resistance on the ground was 
fierce. Michel Warschawski, a prominent Israeli anti-colonialist, told 
me that, for the first time, Israeli officers disobeyed orders, 
explaining that they were being led to their deaths. This offensive was 
a failure.

I had asked Georges Abdallah what he thought of Hezbollah: "Hezbollah, 
which expelled the Israelis, we support. Hezbollah, which co-governs 
Lebanon with the Phalangists, we oppose." Twenty years after that 
defeat, the Israeli army is once again trying to force Lebanon to 
capitulate. The methods have changed: emptying the entire region of its 
population (there are over a million refugees), resorting to massive 
bombing campaigns throughout the country (nearly 4,000 deaths since the 
start of the attack), and provoking a rupture in Lebanese society that 
will force Hezbollah to surrender. Ceasefires are a sham. Israel kills 
whomever it wants, whenever it wants.

In Lebanon, Israel is repeating what it is doing in Gaza: targeted 
assassinations of medical personnel, journalists, and members of 
political parties, and a yellow line prohibiting access to entire areas.

As these lines are being written, this strategy has failed. Netanyahu 
knows that for Trump to stop in Iran, Israel will have to stop in 
Lebanon. By destroying villages and attacking Christian buildings and 
symbols, the Israelis have alienated the entire population, including 
those who disapproved of Hezbollah's entry into the war. The daily 
newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour, headed by former Macronist minister Rima 
Abdul-Malak, has indeed blamed Hezbollah for the war. However, this 
newspaper, like President Joseph Aoun, observes that Israel is demanding 
Lebanon's surrender and that negotiations cannot lead to the recovery of 
the occupied territories. The Lebanese army lacks the resources to pay 
its soldiers, many of whom are Shiite. The idea that it will replace 
Hezbollah in southern Lebanon is illusory. Israel, in fact, wants a 
lasting annexation of the region. This will require deploying a large 
number of ground troops. This occupation is provoking the rejection of 
the occupation by many reservists in Israel. Generals are also 
expressing their disagreement. Everything suggests that, as in 1978, 
1982, 2000, and 2006, this invasion will fail.

Pierre Stambul

https://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4746
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