1. With the first anniversary of the new Zionist genocide that continues in Gaza approaching, the State of Israel is escalating its attacks against the civilian population of Lebanon. On September 17, it triggered the simultaneous explosion of thousands of beepers. On the 18th, it detonated laptops, walkie-talkies and other electronic devices. And on the 20th, it began bombings with American F-35 fighter jets on popular neighborhoods of Beirut – the capital – and the entire southern region of Lebanon, where there are several Palestinian refugee camps.
To its genocidal offensive on the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and its military operations in Syria, Yemen and Iran, the Zionist State is now adding this unprecedented aggression, in what threatens to become the beginning of an escalation of war throughout the Middle East.
2. In just one week, Israeli bombings and terrorist attacks in Lebanon have killed nearly 600 people, mostly civilians, including more than 50 children, 80 women and 100 elderly people; some 2,000 people were injured and nearly 500,000 people have been displaced from the south and the areas of Baalbek, Bekaa and Hermel towards Beirut, the mountain regions and Syria. The explosions affected people in their daily lives, in the streets, schools, hospitals and shops. Israel has dropped its missiles on homes, health centers, other infrastructure and even caravans of fleeing cars. And almost 10% of the total Lebanese population is now forcibly displaced. It is the biggest attack on that country since the Zionist occupation in 1982.
3. The fascist government of Benjamin Netanyahu, held by the Likud party and several ultra-religious Zionist parties, dares to escalate its genocidal attacks because of the impunity its allies grant it, by their actions as well as their inaction: the American and European imperialists among the former, the Arab capitalist governments and Russia and China among the latter.
At the same time, although widespread popular repudiation around the world of the crimes against humanity committed by the State of Israel has forced the International Criminal Court and the UN General Assembly to issue some condemnations, for now, these are limited to mere formalities and do not constitute effective sanctions.
4. Regarding the military aspect, Israel is accumulating troops and reservists on the border with Lebanon. It has clear air superiority over Hezbollah, but not so much on the ground: some 200,000 troops versus 100,000. Invading southern Lebanon up to the Litani River, as the Zionist ultra-right intends, would have a high cost. In turn, Hezbollah’s response so far is quite moderated: even with some 5,000 long-range Kader 1 missiles, it launched only one as a warning towards the Mossad headquarters in Tel Aviv, which was also intercepted by the Israeli defense.
As for the negotiations for a ceasefire, they remain blocked: Hezbollah refuses to abandon southern Lebanon and recognize the State of Israel, and the latter refuses to give up military control of Netzarim and Philadelphia, the two strategic corridors that cross Gaza.
- It is important to note that despite the genocide that Israel is carrying out against the innocent population of Gaza, it has not achieved its objectives of crushing Hamas and securing the release of all hostages. And that by opening another front with Hezbollah in Lebanon, which serves its interests of continuing and expanding the war, it will provoke consequences not only for them but also for their imperialist sponsors.
6. Iran’s permissive attitude towards Israeli attacks on Palestine and now Lebanon deserves strong criticism. While the new Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has significantly moderated his usual anti-Israel rhetoric, the focus of the current negotiations with the United States is Iran’s nuclear program and not the rights of the Palestinian people. As always, Iran manipulates the Palestinian cause for its own interests.
Since 2005, the reactionary and theocratic regime of the mullahs has been preaching the “unification of the arenas”, promising military support in the event of an Israeli attack on Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen or Iraq. But in the face of the current attack on Lebanon and the Zionist genocide in Gaza that has already lasted a year and claimed more than 40,000 lives, Iran is not supporting the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance according to their real and pressing needs.
7. One thing that is becoming increasingly clear is that there is no possible peace in the Middle East so long as the Zionist State of Israel, a theocratic, supremacist, pro-imperialist, colonialist and terrorist enclave by nature, persists. The two States fallacy repeated by imperialism and its associates is no solution. Neither is the capitalist and Islamic fundamentalist Palestinian State proposed by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran: we have insurmountable differences with that reactionary political-religious project and its methods.
The only genuine solution will come with a socialist revolution in the entire region that defeats and dismantles the Zionist State, liberates Palestine and establishes a federation of socialist republics in the Middle East. This strategy requires the construction of a new revolutionary socialist leadership, a task that the ISL is committed to.
8. In this context, Lebanon is currently experiencing an acute crisis. At the political level, there is a stalemate and a power vacuum: since 2022 there has been no president but a provisional government and the parliament is paralyzed. The popular rebellion of 2019 shattered the reactionary system of power-sharing by the three religious factions (Maronite Christians, Sunni and Shiite Muslims), which has not yet managed to recover. At the same time, in a country with very little productive and service development, the Israeli attacks are aggravating its economic collapse. At the social level, the massive forced exodus from the south has forced the suspension of classes and the use of schools as shelters, while health care and public assistance are drying up. Instead of removing the bread subsidy as it has shamefully just done, the Lebanese government should put all available resources at the service of the emergency, including confiscating the necessary funds or products from local and foreign companies and banks. One year after the Zionist attack on Gaza, we must unite in support of the peoples of Palestine and Lebanon.
9. In the midst of this catastrophe, our young Lebanese ISL comrades are carrying out humanitarian tasks with their group “For the People” to alleviate suffering and contribute to the resolve, organization and resistance of the people. Specifically, they are caring for several hundred families sheltered in five public schools in Beirut, guaranteeing the provision and distribution of food, water, mattresses, medicines, medical care for the wounded and psychological support. In addition to the commissions of direct aid and census of needs, they have added another one for the rescue of people in the neighborhoods hit by the bombings.
Throughout the world, the ISL is carrying out an urgent fundraising campaign to contribute to this humanitarian task in Lebanon. We invite you to collaborate with your solidarity contribution.
September 26, 202