THE FOLLOWING leaflet (translated from Hebrew) against the Olmert
government’s war plans, was issued by members of Maavak Sozialisti
(Socialist Struggle) the Socialist Party’s counterpart in Israel.
The current war is not intended to secure the release of the captured
soldiers or to bring security to the northern settlements. The generals
and politicians cannot endure the damage done to their prestige in the
attacks where soldiers were killed and captured in Keren Shalom and in
the northern border, and for this reason they are sending ordinary
soldiers to fight and telling over a million workers and their families
to "absorb the blows quietly".
The brave politicians and generals are prepared to fight till the
last drop of blood – not their own blood but the blood of thousands of
ordinary people, both Israeli and Lebanese…
The politicians told us that the aerial bombardment would "crush
Hezbollah", and that turning hundreds of thousands of Lebanese into
refugees will put pressure on the Lebanese government who will force
Hezbollah to surrender.
None of these things has happened. The massive bombardment has harmed
workers more than it has harmed Hezbollah – which is dragging the
[Israeli] army into the trap it has prepared in South Lebanon.
And now, after having promised us that there will be no need for a
land invasion and a re-occupation of South Lebanon, the politicians and
generals are sending the ordinary soldiers to do exactly these things.
In the meantime, in the North, street cleaners in Nahareeya are being
forced to continue working cleaning the empty streets – otherwise they
will be sacked and will lose their derisory salary.
The fires which are caused by missile strikes are extinguished by
firemen who have not received their wages for two months. Hundreds of
thousands of residents of the North understood that the government was
incapable of defending them and moved southwards – and the people left
behind are those who have no relatives who can put them up in the centre
of the country and who have no money for hotel bills, in other words
poor workers.
The government does not care about the residents of the north,
neither those who left nor those who remained.
The capitalist system which in normal times is incapable of providing
us with a decent living, health, decent education and affordable
housing, is also incapable of providing security and is leading us into
a new quagmire in Gaza, the West Bank and in Lebanon.
The capitalists who profited from the privatisations and the
[previous economic] boom, will also be compensated for their war losses,
and we will be forced to pay the price, in blood and poverty.
Only we, millions of workers and youth, can put a stop to this – in a
mass campaign of demonstrations and strikes.
