Unite against war, terror and racism

  • Israel out of Lebanon

  • Withdraw the troops from Iraq and Afghanistan

  • Defend democratic rights

  • For a socialist alternative to war and terror

Socialist Party on demonstration against Israel

Socialist Party on demonstration against Israel’s war on Lebanon

THE ISRAELI ceasefire was met with great relief in Lebanon. During 34 days of intensive shelling, over 9,500 Lebanese ‘targets’ had been hit by the Israeli army and navy. The brutal onslaught included the use of US-supplied M-26 cluster bombs, which scatter multiple warheads. Around 1,200 people were killed in Lebanon, over half of them civilians.

Jenny Brooks

Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are returning to flattened
villages, to begin the task of rebuilding their homes and lives. Direct
damage to infrastructure and homes has been estimated at $3.5 billion.

The Israeli government felt compelled to agree to the ceasefire,
having suffered the loss of 114 soldiers with nothing tangible to show
for it. That government is now under fierce attack from the Israeli
population for presiding over its first ever failure in a war.

Israeli ground troops are slowly pulling out, though in violation of
the ceasefire agreement the Israeli army continues with some offensive
missions inside Lebanon, causing further bloodshed.

In a limited face-saving exercise for the Israeli regime, Israeli
troops are being replaced with 15,000 Lebanese troops and 15,000 from a
number of other countries, supposedly to guard a buffer zone in south
Lebanon. However the United Nations (UN) is struggling to get
commitments for the international half of this force, because violent
clashes are feared.

Many British people are outraged that Tony Blair refused to call for
an early Israeli ceasefire and then disappeared on holiday at a time
when Britain was said to be under major threat of a terrorist attack.
And an increasing number of people blame Blair for that threat of
terrorism.

As two writers from the Washington DC Brookings Institution put it,
Bush and Blair’s support for the Lebanon war has "almost certainly
helped create more terrorist enemies as images of Lebanese women and
children crushed under Israeli bombs were broadcast on satellite
televisions throughout the world."

A recent YouGov poll gave Blair a rating of minus 37. Chancellor
Gordon Brown, who also did not call for a ceasefire and is one of
Blair’s prime fellow executors in destroying the NHS, was given minus
22.

The next response to Blair and the other New Labour leaders must be
to make the anti-war demonstration outside Labour Party conference on 23
September in Manchester as large as possible.

Influence

THE FRENCH government, trying to assert its influence as the past
colonial ruler of Lebanon, offered to lead the new international
‘peace-keeping’ force in south Lebanon, but then dragged its feet over
committing a sizeable number of troops. It also demanded an exact
description of the powers of the new force, saying this was not to avoid
any prospect of violent exchanges, but in order to have the right to
offensive action.

In response, the UN obtained agreement that the force can use "all
necessary means" to prevent clashes, including shooting Hezbollah
fighters if in a hostile confrontation; though a number of potential
participants are seeking further clarification.

However, significantly, the UN gave the Lebanese troops formal
responsibility for disarming Hezbollah in the buffer zone rather than
the international force. This was because the international forces face
bloodshed if they try to disarm Hezbollah, whereas the Lebanese forces
will not even seriously try to do so.

Hezbollah has already proved itself as a far superior fighting force
to the Lebanese army, and in any case, nearly 60% of the Lebanese
soldiers being deployed are Shia Muslims, many of whom support Shia
Hezbollah. With these factors in mind, the Lebanese government has made
its own agreement with Hezbollah, with the idea that Hezbollah will just
keep its arms away from open view.

Hezbollah has lived alongside a small force of UN ‘peacekeepers’ for
years, and can go on doing so if its arms and status are not threatened.
However, there are likely to be great divisions between the intervening
countries on what role they should play in relation to Hezbollah and
Israel. Italy has promised 2,000-3,000 troops and is being encouraged by
the Israeli regime to send them. On the other hand, Indonesia, Malaysia
and Bangladesh offered a total of 3,600 troops, and these three
countries do not even support Israel’s existence.

Crisis in Israel

The war and ceasefire led to political turmoil in Israel, with the
government being blamed for a war that is viewed as worse than a
complete failure. Israeli soldiers’ lives were lost and at the same time
the deterrent power of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has been severely
damaged.

As one Israeli commentator put it: "This is not a mere military
defeat. This is a strategic failure whose far-reaching implications are
still not clear. And like the boxer who took the blow, we are still
lying dazed on the ground, trying to understand what happened to us…
In Damascus, Gaza, Tehran and Cairo, too, people are looking with
amazement at the IDF that could not bring a tiny guerrilla organisation
to its knees".

Hezbollah remains in south Lebanon, still armed and with its standing
strengthened. It was able to fire 246 rockets – a record number – into
Israel on the final day of the war. The two Israeli soldiers taken
captive by Hezbollah at the start of the war remain in captivity. Many
of the parents of dead soldiers are asking what they died for.

The Israel government and army are being attacked for lack of
preparation. Troops lacked basic items. Some had to take water
containers off dead Hezbollah bodies because they lacked water, and raid
Lebanese shops for food.

The first ever anti-government demonstration of Israeli army
reservists took place on 17 August and one reserve detachment wrote:
"The sense that the echelons above us were unprepared, not serious,
lacking momentum and incapable of making intelligent decisions leads us
to ask whether we were called up in vain".

There is also huge criticism regarding lack of help and protection
given to civilians. As with the Lebanese, thousands of Israeli
Palestinians and Jews sat for weeks in dirty shelters, many without
enough food. Israelis whose homes were hit by rockets fear that they
will not receive adequate compensation. This shows how the neo-liberal
agenda of this Israeli government and those before it has penetrated all
walks of life.

A majority of Israelis blame the lack of a victory on poor
preparation and strategy, and on a bad ceasefire deal. However, a
minority are now questioning the idea of using force in all situations
and the Israeli dictum: "what doesn’t work through force will work with
even greater force".

Prime minister Ehud Olmert’s standing has halved in the opinion
polls, from 78% at the start of the war, to 40%. A majority of Israelis
are demanding the resignation of defence minister, Amir Peretz, who is
on 28%. And senior IDF officers called for the immediate resignation of
Dan Halutz, their chief of staff, for selling a £15,000 stock portfolio
just hours before declaring war on Lebanon, to avoid personal financial
losses. To try to weather the storm, the government and IDF conceded to
commissions of inquiry into their war conduct.

Olmert also faces a crisis over his unilateral withdrawal plan from
the Palestinian territories, inherited from Ariel Sharon. Having said in
the middle of the onslaught on Lebanon that attacking Hezbollah would
boost the withdrawal plan, he did a U-turn to say he will not proceed
for the time being with the next stage of it.

This is fundamentally because the credibility of his government has
gone in the light of the Lebanon war. The U-turn spells crisis for
Olmert’s party Kadima too, because the withdrawal plan was the only
policy behind its formation.

Hezbollah celebration

As well as for Israeli capitalism, this war has been disastrous for
US imperialism, as was outlined in the last issue of the socialist.
Hezbollah’s leader, Nasrullah, now has iconic status. Morale of the
Shias in the region has been much boosted, but also of the masses in the
Middle East who are in the main strongly anti-Israel and US imperialism.

As well as expressing Shia solidarity with Iran, Hezbollah has
emphasised its anti-Israeli stance and played up Lebanese nationalism,
to gain allegiance from non-Shia Lebanese people. Nasrullah made a point
of saying: "The victory will be for all of Lebanon, for every Arab,
Muslim and honourable Christian, who stood with Lebanon and defended
it". Hezbollah moved faster than the state and mobilised its own
construction workers for the rebuilding of the 15,000 destroyed homes.
It is giving a year’s rent and other help to families who lost their
homes.

Socialists should fully support the right of the Lebanese people to
armed self-defence against attacks and occupation. However, the firing
of rockets into civilian areas of Israel, which killed over 40 Israeli
Jews and Palestinians, was counter-productive, as it does not help to
turn the Israeli working class against its capitalist war-mongering
government. Rather it does the opposite, drawing them closer to the war
aims of the Israeli regime.

Also, while Hezbollah has strong support in Lebanon and determined
fighters, it is at root a pro-capitalist, Islamist organisation, which
will not in the long term be able to unite all sections of Lebanese
society.

Even now, during an atmosphere of admiration for Hezbollah in
Lebanon, the journalist Roula Khalaf pointed out that: "Behind the façade
of unity displayed by the Lebanese over the past month lurk sectarian
suspicions, including among the minority Sunni Muslims leading the
government and the Shia parties. Reports have emerged of displaced Shia
refusing assistance from Sunni groups".

Only a new, democratic workers’ party in Lebanon will be able to
unite workers from all ethnic and religious backgrounds, in an essential
struggle against imperialism and against capitalism in Lebanon and the
Middle East.

Israeli workers too will have no security, either economically or
militarily, for as long as capitalism exists in Israel. War can have a
major impact on consciousness, and this recent war has left its mark on
Israeli Jewish people. It has led to increased questioning of capitalist
politicians, and the likelihood that more workers and young people will
express an interest in socialist ideas.

See
www.socialistworld.net
for further analysis


Demonstrate – Sat. 23 September

End the wars and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

No to Blair’s imperialist Middle East policies.

Assemble 1pm Albert Square, Manchester.

called by the Stop the War Coalition

For details of transport to the demo, ring: 020 8988 8777.