The massacres of people in north Gaza, increasing attacks in the West Bank and the onslaught on Lebanon are for many of us unbearably painful to witness. They also are signs of an Israeli government and military totally off the leash, bombing schools and refugee camps, firing on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, and openly discussing a major military attack on Iran. The refusal of the ‘international community’ to do anything to stop this other than bleat from the sidelines is equally distressing, but not surprising given the role of Israel as imperialism’s watchdog in the Middle East.
We quite rightly describe Israel’s war on Gaza as genocidal, but in a sense this is only an extreme example of modern wars. Whereas the deaths in the First World War – up to 20 million in the whole conflict – were overwhelmingly military, that situation had changed by the Second World War. The estimated 60 million dead from that war contained far more civilians than military. We can only imagine the outcome of a third world war, with arms spending at record levels worldwide and the major powers armed with nuclear weapons which can destroy whole cities.
The trend particularly since the development of aerial warfare has been to target civilians. Not least in the colonial wars where the wealth and military might of western imperialism has been used against the population as a whole. So the Vietnam war saw 58,000 US military personnel killed, but an estimated 2 million Vietnamese. The invasion and occupation of Iraq by the US and Britain left at least 1 million Iraqi dead. The 20-year war and occupation of Afghanistan left probably hundreds of thousands of Afghans dead – in that case there was not even the attempt to count the figures.
The dehumanisation of the supposed ‘enemy’ is there in spades when it comes to Palestine. Netanyahu and his supporters talk quite openly about a ‘clash of civilisations’, where Israelis are defending themselves against barbarism. Yet it is Israel which has launched barbarity after barbarity on the Palestinian people.
After the Second World War, a range of international law was passed to prevent some of the atrocities which took place from being repeated. It outlawed the targeting of civilians, the denial of water, food and electricity to them, the indiscriminate bombing of civilians. All of these and many more have been breached by Netanyahu’s war. Yet criticism is muted, the UN makes declarations which are ignored by the major powers, the pronouncements of the ICJ and ICC denounced by the western imperialists.
Netanyahu’s war crimes are clear for all to see, yet he is emboldened to continue with them because those who brought us all the previous wars are determined to back him. Their hesitation is tactical – is it the right time to bomb Iran? Should that include nuclear sites? – rather than demonstrating any principle. They too want to crush Iran and reshape the Middle East, it’s just that they are concerned that Israel’s wars make that harder to do.
So we watch in horror at the daily atrocities carried out by Israel and fear the potential consequences of its next move. Yet the passivity of the political ‘leaders’ should not prevent us from acting. There are major theatres of war directly involving our government in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe, where the Ukraine war is a proxy one between the western powers represented by Nato and Russia. Here Ukraine is losing the war, and support for its president Zelensky is clearly waning. Last week he was greeted in Downing Street by Keir Starmer (no surprise there) but his proposed summit for a ‘victory plan’ at Ramstein US airbase in Germany was boycotted by Joe Biden.
A victory for Trump in November’s election will probably mean fairly rapid peace talks but they are coming whoever wins. That doesn’t necessarily bode well for the people of the Middle East, as it puts Iran more on the front line. And it will do little to quell the instability in the world, as further confrontation with Russia and more importantly China is very much on the cards.
On opposing both wars we must step up the action – and what we do even on a small scale can make a difference. One of the main ways that those who rule us try to demoralise us is to deny that possibility – that things will always remain the same and that we can only make the smallest incremental changes. That isn’t true and working class people are in a position to make history, as they have demonstrated repeatedly.
This is most urgent over the Middle East, where Israel is driving to a new war, but where the international solidarity around the world is both impressive and significant. In Britain, last week’s demonstration demonstrated that, but also the trade union day of action last Thursday, which was one of the best so far. British workers’ record of solidarity with those facing national or colonial oppression is good, from Spain to Chile. It needs to be linked to opposition to war, arms sales, and the racism and scapegoating of refugees that accompanies the imperialist agenda.