This article was originally published in English on Left Voice, part of the international network La Izquierda Diario in the United States.
On Friday, the Pentagon said it was deploying additional troops and warships to the Middle East ahead of an expected retaliation by Iran following Israel’s killing of Hamas’s top leader and ceasefire negotiator Ismail Haniyeh on Wednesday.
The deployment is arguably the largest transfer of US troops and military equipment to the region since Israel began its brutal genocide against the people of Gaza in October. In addition to thousands of troops and F-22 stealth fighters, the US is also sending the nuclear-powered USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its entire strike squadron. The Abraham Lincoln will join the Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier, which is already stationed in the Mediterranean, potentially doubling the amount of US firepower in the region. This follows a previous buildup of troops and warships equipped with anti-ballistic missile technology that the US deployed last April after Israel assassinated several Iranian military leaders in Syria. The US then used those weapons to help Israel’s “Iron Dome” air defense systems shoot down Iranian missiles and drones, and likely plans to do the same should Iran follow through on its promise to retaliate for Haniyeh’s assassination.
The decision to send more troops to the region comes at a time when hostilities between Israel, Iran and Hezbollah threaten to plunge the region into war. As Enzo Tresso explains: “The question is not how members of the so-called Axis of Resistance will respond to Israel, but rather how the colonial state will respond in turn, and whether it will embark on a regional offensive, dragging the imperialist powers along in its wake.” While President Biden is betting that introducing so much firepower to what is already an increasingly heated conflict may deter Iran from further escalation – or at least limit the scale of its retaliation – it is more likely to increase tensions, potentially emboldening Israel to take greater retaliatory measures in the event of an Iranian attack.
Moreover, the US troop surge is another example of the bipartisan regime’s support for Israel’s ongoing genocide. Indeed, it seems that, as outrageous as Israel’s behavior is, there is no limit to the amount of military support the US is willing to provide to protect the colonial state from the consequences of its actions. For example, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, after meeting with Netanyahu, wasted no time in reminding American voters that she supported Israel’s “right to defend itself” against Hezbollah and Iran. Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called for “wiping Iran off the face of the earth” should he be killed by Tehran – an unlikely scenario that Netanyahu nonetheless brazenly floated in his speech to Congress in July.
As the United States continues to provide seemingly unlimited military support to Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu and hardline military leaders have once again squandered any chance of a ceasefire and appear bent on dragging the United States into a possible war with Iran. As Seraj Assi argued in Jacobin“Israel is crying out for a brutal regional war.” But Assi is not the only one who thinks this way. Even the liberal bourgeois press has begun to wonder whether Netanyahu is intentionally trying to drag the United States into a wider war with Iran in order to destabilize its enemies. In an article for the New York Timeswell-known warmonger Thomas Friedman (no friend of Iran) openly raised the question of whether Israeli leaders were “deliberately provoking an escalation in the hope that a conflagration with Iran would draw the United States into the conflict.” Last April, Foreign Policy He was even more direct in his assessment of the situation, arguing that “a wider war with Iran is exactly what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been seeking for more than two decades.” And of course Netanyahu, who faces a number of corruption charges, has an interest in escalating and prolonging the conflict that goes beyond Israel’s supposed security.
But it is becoming increasingly clear that Netanyahu and the Israeli state are interested in using American firepower to further weaken Iran’s political and military influence in the region. Most analysts assume that the United States, already weakened by decades of failed wars in the Middle East, is not interested in a hot war with Iran or a broader conflagration that could destabilize the region and further test American forces at a time when the Pentagon would prefer to pivot toward military competition with China. But the reality is that, depending on how the situation plays out, the United States may not have much choice. After decades of normalizing unconditional support for its alliance with Israel as “the only democracy in the Middle East” and vowing to defend it at all costs—even while committing genocide—the United States has put itself in a position where, ironically, it has little leverage over Israel. In fact, as Netanyahu’s speech to Congress showed, the opposite appears to be the case. Israel, despite its declining global legitimacy — even among some American politicians — still has significant power to influence U.S. military policy, especially amid an extremely tight race for the U.S. presidency, where, despite widespread discontent with the war in Gaza, neither candidate feels they can afford to appear weak in their support for Israel.
That is precisely why all those who oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the war with Iran must do everything they can to end this military escalation. Last month, several major unions, including the UAW and SEIU, representing millions of American workers, drafted a letter calling on President Biden to “immediately halt all military aid to Israel as part of working to secure an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the war in Gaza.” That letter marked a significant shift from previous calls for a ceasefire, which did not include a demand to end military support.
However, like the statements above, the letter means nothing if these unions are not willing to back up their demands with action. As the United States and Israel head toward a possible war with Iran, it is more important than ever that we organize the rank and file to force our unions to do more than just issue statements. These unions and their members, along with all workers in the United States, have the potential to lead strikes of millions of workers across the country, as well as the power to actively shut down weapons production and block arms shipments to Israel. But we cannot rely on the bureaucrats in these unions to lead those strikes. They will have to be dragged along by independent organization of the rank and file and workers across the country.
The working class has the power to end US support for the endless war and genocide in Gaza, but doing so requires a clear anti-imperialist and internationalist perspective, a clear break with both parties of capital, and real self-organization on a national scale.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
