The Middle East:
Netanyahu’s Criminal Policy

May 12, 2025

This article is translated from the May 9 issue #2962 of Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle), the paper of the revolutionary workers group of that name active in France.

The Israeli security cabinet met on May 4 and approved continuing the military offensive in Gaza, which re-started on March 18. The official statement mentioned a plan of “conquest” or “capture” and urged that Gazans “voluntarily” leave (at gunpoint).

To seize even partial control over the Palestinian enclave, the Israeli army will need to deploy more soldiers. The army is calling up tens of thousands of reservists. Israel’s far right wing applauds the implementation of this war policy, which is the right wing’s platform. But the rest of the Israeli population shows more and more weariness to this war they see as never-ending. Military authorities admit that only between half and 70% of reservists report for duty. This is all the more true because Gaza is not the only front on which more and more Israeli troops are deployed.

A full-blown war is also being waged in the West Bank against several refugee camps, notably Tulkarm and Nur Shams. According to Palestinian news agency WAFA, more than 4,200 families—25,000 people—were forced to flee when their homes were destroyed. Meanwhile the Israeli army keeps bombing and occupying Lebanon despite having agreed to a ceasefire last November.

As for Syria, the Israeli air force bombed several military sites, saying it was responding to clashes between jihadist militias and Druze at the end of April. Israel even struck a neighborhood in Syria’s capital Damascus near the presidential palace on May 2. To justify these acts of war, Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu poses as the protector of the Druze religious minority. The Islamists who took power after the fall of dictator president Bashar al-Assad last December have threatened to persecute the Druze population of around 700,000. But this is far-fetched on Netanyahu’s part since the government he runs has militarily occupied part of the Golan Heights area of Syria since 1967 against the wishes of the Druze who live there!

In fact, Israeli leaders couldn’t care less what happens to the Druze in Syria. Quite the opposite. By claiming to protect the Druze, Israeli politicians are trying to whip up tensions between religious communities in Syria in order to be able to take advantage of instability. The Israeli army acts more and more like a conqueror in southern Syria.

None of this makes people in Israel safe or secure. Netanyahu’s policies mire Israel in endless war. The Israelis who persist in demonstrating every Saturday in Israel against Netanyahu and his far-right government know this, at least in part. But as for the leaders of major powers like the U.S., these imperialists have never stopped supporting Netanyahu, whatever concerns they express from time to time. The Israeli state remains the biggest cop of the imperialist order in the Middle East. This cop is sometimes difficult to control but is always loyal to imperialist interests.