In the last three days, Israel has brutally intensified its attacks on Lebanoncarrying out two waves of large-scale terrorist attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday, before carrying out massive bombings in southern Lebanon. Blowing up thousands of communication devices across the country, first pagers and then radio systems, Israel plunged Lebanon into terror, killing around thirty people and injuring several thousand.
Then, during the night of Thursday to Friday, the Israeli air force bombed the border regions, indiscriminately hitting dozens of villagesAt the same time, the Israeli government continued to threaten Lebanon throughout the week, claiming that “the center of gravity of the war had shifted to the north” and that Israel had “entered a new phase of the war.”
Israel then took its campaign against Lebanon even further, targeting a Hezbollah leader in Beirutattacked a residential building in the southern suburbs four times, causing dozens of victims. The target was Ibrahim Aqil, one of Hezbollah’s most important military leaders and a member of the Jihad Council, the top leadership of the organization’s military wing. Along with the leader of the military wing, they were also killed in the attacks. Ten commanders of the elite troops of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah is now in a unsustainable position. While it does not seem to want to launch an all-out war that it is not sure it can wage, the party cannot ignore all these repeated attacks, which are reducing its credibility to nothing, at the risk of providing Israel with a pretext for a full-scale attack.
Although Hezbollah’s response will be crucial in defining the situation in the immediate future, it is clear that Israel wants to push him into warClashes with Hezbollah have already forced 60,000 Israelis to leave the region, while Israeli bombings in Lebanon, almost daily since October 8, have displaced nearly 110,000 people. War now appears to be Netanyahu’s preferred optionwhile the extreme right dreams of recolonizing the Lebanese region south of the Litani River, and the General Staff speaks openly of the need to impose a “security zone” in Lebanon, that is, to invade the country.
Since October 7, the region has never been so close to going up in flames. The imperialist powers They are fully responsible for this situation since For eleven months they have given Israel complete freedom of action. The imperialist powers, led by the United Statesrelentlessly repressed the solidarity mobilizations with Palestine that arose throughout the world, transporting tons and tons of weapons and ammunition used to massacre the Palestinian people in Gaza.
Supported militarily, morally and economically by the imperialist countries, Israel has been able to continue its massacre in Gaza with impunity, forcing Two million Gazans to leave their homesreducing the enclave to dust, annexing almost all of the West Bank and bombing almost all of the neighboring countries: Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Lebanon and Iran.
In the Red Sea, these same powers, organized in an international coalition led by the United States, have repeatedly bombed Yemenbecoming directly involved in the dynamics of the war escalation. Benefiting from the unwavering support of its imperialist allies, Israel feels its wings growing and is now attacking Lebanon head-on, week after week crossing every “red line” that could prevent the outbreak of a total war.
At a time when the Zionist extreme right has put on the agenda the Project for a “Greater Israel”a Jewish State stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates, and the government aspires to “resolve” its Palestinian problem once and for all, the State of Israel threatens more than ever to wage a devastating war against Lebanon, whose population will have to pay the price in blood and fire.
Neither the calls for calm made in recent days by the American Democratic administration, which fears, on the eve of the elections, to involve the country in a new conflict, nor the change of tone of Emmanuel Macron in defence of France’s material interests in Lebanon, can mask this responsibility. Faced with the mortal danger looming over Lebanon due to the Israeli state’s offensive, only the struggle of The workers and popular classes of all countries in the region can prevent the bloodbath which is about to begin.
As for the Israeli people, they have embarked on a dead end that could be irreversible if they do not break decisively with the Colonial ambitions of the State of Israel and puts an end to the genocide in Palestine. This perspective is all the more central since, at a time when opposition to Netanyahu is growing in the country, mass mobilisations are not guided by any progressive solution to the current situation.
In this context, and at a time when Israel will be even more dependent on supplies from its imperialist allies if it goes to war with Lebanon, Mobilizations in solidarity with Palestine around the world are of crucial importance. Israel out of Lebanon! Stop the genocide in Gaza! End imperialist support for Israel!
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
