EDITORIAL
Netanyahu Declares War on Lebanon and Beyond

Sep 30, 2024

Speaking from the United Nations podium, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu declared war against Lebanon, and against much of the Middle East. The Zionist regime is carrying out a ferocious attack against Hezbollah forces and civilians inside Lebanon. First, they used exploding pagers and radios to maim and kill people. Then the Israeli military used missiles and airstrikes against Hezbollah bases and against apartment buildings in and near Beirut, Lebanon’s largest city and capital. They killed more than 550 people in one day in 1,600 strikes. At the time of this writing, the Israeli military has killed over 700 people in Lebanon, and wounded 1,800 others, including almost 100 children.

At the UN, Netanyahu not only justified these killings, he belligerently declared that the Israeli regime would continue to expand the attacks in Lebanon and would continue its wars in Gaza and the West Bank where over 40,000 Palestinians have already been massacred. Netanyahu went on to threaten Iran with war, saying his military will kill at will and not be interfered with.

So, who is going to stop the Israeli regime? Certainly not the U.S. government. While the Biden administration rattles on about a temporary ceasefire, the U.S. government gives Israel the means to carry out its wars in the Middle East. In the face of escalating war in Lebanon, the Israeli regime announced an additional gift of 8.7 billion dollars in military aid from the U.S. government. And the U.S. has sent 900 more troops to the Middle East, on top of the 40,000 already stationed there. The U.S. government is on the road to engage in war against Iran and its Hezbollah allies, declaring support for Israel, no matter the cost in human life.

The Netanyahu regime takes actions based on its own interests. Their interests don’t always align exactly with what the U.S. wants. But at the end of the day, the U.S. ruling class supports the Zionist regime and its wars because this regime represents and protects the interests of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East.

The Middle East, with its abundant oil fields and important trade routes, is a key area of the world for U.S. imperialism and its profits. The U.S. ruling class uses Israel as its cop on the beat in the Middle East. It is a cop they use against the millions of impoverished peoples in the region who have reason to rebel. Many have been displaced from their homelands. The U.S. also supports repressive Middle East regimes against their own populations. But those regimes are not always dependable for what U.S. imperialism needs. After the popular revolution in Iran threw out the Shah, the Israeli regime became the only regime the U.S. could rely on. And so the U.S. government armed the Israeli regime to the teeth.

With this backing from the U.S., Israel has been involved in one war after another in the Middle East. With the current Israeli onslaught, we are headed down a bloody path. When Netanyahu threatens to spread the war in the Middle East he gets no objection or pushback from the U.S. government.

The U.S. government is preparing for a widening war in Middle East, and elsewhere. A war that will directly involve the U.S. The U.S ruling class is preparing for this war with their accelerating increase in military spending, but also by preparing the population here for war with their daily drumbeat of propaganda against Iran, against Russia, against China.

The U.S. working class has no reason to fight a war on behalf of a ruling class that exploits us and is pushing us into poverty. The working class of the world has common interests and the power to stop this bloody madness. But only by organizing its forces to get rid of the capitalist system that is leading us to war.