This week, the US and Iran have signed an MOU, and a ceasefire peace agreement is expected to happen on Friday, one that encompasses all fronts, including Lebanon, and the retreat of the Zionist forces.
At the same time, southern Beirut was bombed, concurrently with the expansion of their operations in the south of Lebanon, intending to split the two fronts, impose its presence, and achieve its intrests in the region
This became clear, since the end of May, Netanyahu threatened to bombard Beirut massively, and the Zionist entity’s military has ordered the population of southern Beirut and the south of Lebanon to evacuate their homes before they are bombed to rubble. This is a permanent war on Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the IOF invasion continues. It has reached the outskirts of the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh, a resistance stronghold, and hoisted their flag over the strategic mountain top ruins of the medieval crusader castle, once again violating the ceasefire agreed upon in April of 2026. They also threatened the major cities of Sidon and Tyre, and have recently been issuing total evacuation orders of a region as far north as the Zahrani river, 10km north of the Litani river.
The objective of this war is clear: the Zionist enemy aims to conquer and permanently occupy the south of Lebanon. Therefore, the resistance must be crushed and the whole population driven out permanently. The soicalled ceasefire agreement resulted in the current occupation of the south of the Litani river, with more than one million of its inhabitants displaced. Since then, the IOF has been bulldozing and blowing up villages, emptied of their people, thus indicating its intention to make its occupation permanent.
The Israeli government proclaims not only that it intends to root out the Hezbollah fighters, but also to destroy their social base, i.e. the largely Shia population of the area, who are estimated to be over 30 per cent of the country’s population. This proves, against the Zionists’ intentions, that the Hezbollah fighters do indeed form a legitimate resistance force organically linked to the remaining and displaced residents, consisting largely of the Shia population.
Socialists around the world, though they do not support the Islamist politics and strategy of Hezbollah, have an absolute duty to support this resistance and to condemn the IOF through organized struggle against imperialism, which is seeking to expand its genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and the West Bank.
Netanyahu made this absolutely clear when he announced the capture of historic Beaufort Castle (Shkef). In an interview with the BBC, he described it, in his words, as “breaking the barrier of fear” and confirmed himself that they will be “taking the initiative to operate on all fronts in Syria, in Gaza, and in Lebanon.”
The Zionist Regime tries to take advantage of the situation
There are several interlinked reasons for the Zionist state to push forward now.
Firstly, the Zionist regime itself has become more and more aggressive, barbaric, and expansionist since October 2023. The government and fascist forces in Israel, in particular, see the opportunity to drive forward the genocide in Gaza – now controlling at least 60% of it – additionally, on 21 May, Netanyahu announced the IOF will extend this to 70%. Meanwhile, they continue the de facto annexation of larger and larger parts of the West Bank. And they see the chance to permanently occupy large parts of Lebanon in their push to establish a “Greater Israel.” This follows from the inner expansionist logic inherent to the Zionist state itself.
Of course, there are also other, contingent reasons like using the permanent aggression as means to derail from the inner difficulties of Netanyahu’s government. But the ceaseless expansion of a settler state is of a more fundamental character. There will never be peace for long with its neighbors nor will the destruction of the Palestinian people be halted, as long as the Zionist racist state exists.
There are many reasons for the current opportunity set before the Zionist state to expand: from the current crisis of US hegemony in the region, to the continued support by Western powers, the complicity of the Arab reactionary regimes, and the instant toleration of the Zionist policies by Russia and China among others.
Israel took the reactionary war against Iran as an opportunity to attack Lebanon.
Ironically, the US failure in the war to overthrow the Islamists in Tehran and to impose a pro-Western regime change has led to a fragile situation, where “negotiations” continue alongside US attacks and Iranian counter strikes. The difficulty to agree to a ceasefire, which can somehow be presented as a “success”, allows Israel to continue its war despite pressure from its allies in Washington and Western Europe. As long as US military presents its continuous attacks on Iran as “self-defense”, the Zionists will use the same urgency and excuse for their invasion of Lebanon, even when they are aware that Iran cannot accept a deal with the US whilst Israel continues its war on Lebanon.
Whilst the current invasion and campaign in Lebanon contradicts the US and Western European attempt for a reactionary settlement in the region and to broker a deal with Iran, they are not prepared to exert any decisive pressure against their Zionist ally. This is result of the inner contradictions of Trump’s “strategy”, as well as of the inner divisions in the US establishment. As for the major European imperialist powers – in particular Britain and Germany – they will follow the US in that respect and therefore, will continue their “unconditional” support for Israel’s “right to defend itself.”
Therefore, the Zionists will continue their war in its different forms and try to achieve their aims, even with the current situation, in case of a ceasefire.
How can Zionism be stopped?
The Lebanese people have every right to resist the Zionist aggression. The international working class, socialists, communists, trade unions and parties need to rally in their support, just as they support the Palestinian people in their struggle against the genocide.
In Lebanon, the government plays a particularly treacherous role. It refuses to mobilize the army for the defense of the country. It does not only betray this elementary duty, but even engages in negotiations with the enemy, agreeing to “truces” and “ceasefires” which the Zionists constantly break.
For months, all the talk of a truce was a deliberate attempt to deceive the public and cover up the continuity of the aggression under different forms. The south of Lebanon was never experiencing a truce, but rather an open war with multiple expressions: daily bombardments, selective assassinations, continuous occupation of the territory and a progressive expansion of the areas over which the enemy imposes its direct military control.
But the Lebanese authorities refuse to confront the Zionists. They have become puppets of the US and other Western imperialist powers, with hardly any leverage and being totally dependent on imperialist economic backings. Imposing such a puppet regime permanently, however, also requires crushing all and any forces of resistance and popular discontent within Lebanon.
As for Hezbollah, it continues to confront the occupation within the available possibilities and the sacrifice of its fighters. But the Islamic and bourgeois nature of its politics, its reliance on an alliance with the reactionary Iranian regime, and its role in past mass struggles in Lebanon itself, makes it impossible for Hezbollah to provide a strategy and program to unite the whole working class, the youth, the urban poor of the whole country, overcoming sectarian and communalist divisions on a class bases.
The Lebanese working class and popular masses need to join the resistance against the Zionist enemy. But they need to do so on the basis of a program, which links the struggle against Zionism and imperialism with the struggle for a socialist solution; in short, a program of permanent revolution, for a socialist Lebanon as part of a socialist world. For this a revolutionary party needs to be formed in the heat of this battle.
The International Socialist League solidarizes and supports the Lebanese people’s resistance. We support our Lebanese comrades, their efforts to broaden the struggle against the occupation on all issues, and their aim to build a broad front, politically active and present on the ground, bringing together workers, students, unions, progressive forces and all those who reject normalization and surrender.
International solidarity
But despite their heroism and strife, the Lebanese masses on their own will not be able to stop the Israeli army and its huge military power. But the Zionist aggression can be stopped and defeated, if the Arab, US and Western Europe working class force their governments to stop military support of the Zionist state, if they force them to sever financial and economic ties.
This means that the workers organizations – including mass reformist parties and trade unions – need to mobilize en mass in order to step up pressure on Western governments that, which aid and abet Israel’s crimes and regimes in the region that block or do nothing to aid resistance to them. In doing so, we need to combat the regulations and propaganda that characterize Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, but paint Israel as a paragon of democracy. Millions, especially amongst the youth, now see through this.
We must fight to boycott all military and cultural aid and endorsement of Israel, demanding its condemnation for genocide. Workers would impose their own sanctions on Israel as Greek and Italian dockworkers have done on several occasions. The left around the world should also send aid to Lebanese socialists, student organizations, and trade unions so that a class and revolutionary perspective can be offered to the suffering working people of Lebanon.
– Halt the IOF bombing and population displacement in Lebanon.
– Defeat the Zionist aggression and occupation! All Zionist forces out of Lebanon, and the release of the hostages taken.
– Israel and the US and European states that support Zionism must pay in full for the reconstruction of all the villages and devastated areas in the country.
– Support the popular resistance! Support Lebanese socialists and trade unionists!
– For a socialist Lebanon as part of a Socialist Federation of the SWANA region!
International Secretariat of the ISL
