Is now the moment that the Israeli assault on Palestine spills over into a full war on a number of fronts? It certainly is the most dangerous time since the current Gaza conflict began. The explosion in Iran today killed at least 100. It must be linked with yesterday’s assassination in Beirut of Hamas leader and that on Xmas Day in Syria when Israel killed a commander from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. It takes place on the fourth anniversary of the assassination of Iranian general Qassem Suleimani by the US, close to the cemetery where he is buried.
If these actions are all linked to the Israelis, as is highly likely, then they are following the plan of the country’s far right which is keen to extend the war across its borders and particularly to Iran. Hence the attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon and on Iran. They are also an attempt to distract from Israel’s failure to ‘eliminate Hamas’, as well as from its war crimes carried out on a daily basis in Gaza and the West Bank. Despite this, Israel has not succeeded in securing the territory or defeating Hamas, and has also lost high numbers of its own soldiers in close urban fighting.
It also faces widespread domestic discontent, not least because of the government’s disregard for the remaining hostages in Gaza. Netanyahu and his far-right allies want to be able to continue the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians but also to spread the war in order to maintain their support. They know that once the war ends, the government’s days are numbered.
Their constant refrain is that Iran must be taken on in order to defeat ‘terrorism’ in the Middle East. But they know that this is a development which will draw in powers from across the region in an endless conflict, with people of the region (including of course in Israel) being the greatest casualties. Yet the strategy endorsed by Israel is not just warmongering brutality – it is a complete failure in its own terms.
The aim of the ‘war on terror’ launched in 2001 was to ‘take on’ Iraq and Iran, as well as Afghanistan. It ended disastrously for the US and UK in the countries it occupied, and the defeat of Saddam Hussein if anything strengthened Iran. The sanctions, proxy interventions, and targeted assassinations in the region have failed miserably to achieve the peace and stability claimed for them.
While the imperialist warmongers have not learnt the lessons of these wars, but keep repeating the same mistakes over again, the rest of us should reject their agenda. War between Iran and Israel will immediately involve both the US and Russia, major nuclear armed powers, and their respective allies. The war in Ukraine, which is a proxy between the Nato powers and Russia, has already dragged on for two bloody years, and developments in the Middle East would only serve to link the wars up with even grimmer consequences.
Israel’s attempted genocide in Gaza has already marked it out as a terror state. Its further terror actions are dragging the world into war. It relies on the complicity of the US – which dislikes some of its tactics but is allowing it to continue its war against the Palestinians – and by association our own government here as well.
Our slogans should be straightforward: stop the war, solidarity with the Palestinians, imperialists out of the Middle East. The demonstration on January 13 looks more urgent than ever.
