- by William Briggs
- The Guardian
- Issue #2121
Rally for Palestine and Lebanon, Boorloo/Perth on Saturday 12 October.
The crimes of Israel grow with every passing day. In Lebanon the bombs continue to drop and an invading army goes about its barbaric work. Beirut suburbs are being turned into rubble. Israeli troops have fired on UN peacekeepers. Netanyahu sickeningly warns the Lebanese people that they might face a “long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has already threatened to take Lebanon “back to the Stone Age.”
Hezbollah has already intimated that it is prepared to negotiate a ceasefire. This has been ignored. Hamas, in Gaza, has indicated that it has long been prepared to support a meaningful ceasefire. Netanyahu ignored that too. Israel’s agenda is one of destruction, of ethnic cleansing, of establishing a ‘Greater Israel’ that does not allow for a Palestinian state, homeland, or safe place to live.
Thousands of Lebanese are now dead. Over a million, or 20 per cent of its total population have been displaced. More than 42,000 Palestinians are dead. There is famine and disease, but the killing, the bombing, the terror just goes on and on.
DEATH MARCHES
The latest atrocities in Gaza have been in the north where the refugee camp of Jabalia has been under siege. Nobody gets in and nobody gets out. The 175th journalist has just died in Gaza. UN centres are still being targeted. Schools housing refugees are still being bombed. The Israeli army is pursuing a policy of forcibly driving the population south. It is a mindless endless cycle, horrendously reminiscent of the ‘death marches’ in Europe as WW2 was coming to a close.
These atrocities violate international law. Israel acts with impunity because it has the infamous ‘iron clad’ support of the United States.
That support allows it to attack and fire on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon. It allows it to lay waste to Beirut. It allows it to terrorise and traumatise hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children.
CEASEFIRE CHARADE
Many months have passed since US President Biden made the claim that a ceasefire in Gaza might be just a “couple of days away.” Since then, he has repeated these claims in one form or another many times. The mainstream media faithfully report his words and ignore the fact that the words are empty.
Biden and his White House spokespeople go on with this charade. He now calls for “de-escalation” of hostilities in Lebanon while threatening Iran, and supplying Israel. The same media promote the lie that the US is somehow remotely interested in de-escalating or calming the waters in any way.
When Hamas and Hezbollah leaders were murdered by Israel, Biden spoke of “a sense of justice.” He supported Israel’s violation of Iranian territory. He now calls for “de-escalation” while maintaining political, financial and military support for a regime that has been condemned in all international forums.
US COLLUSION
It has been revealed that US presidential advisor, Amos Hochstein and White House co-ordinator for the Middle East, Brett McGurk, told senior Israeli officials that the USA agreed with Netanyahu’s plan to focus its aggression on Lebanon. This was described as “a history-defining moment – one that will reshape the Middle East for the better for years to come.”
Borders might be ‘reshaped.’ Political and economic realities might be ‘reshaped’ but the hatreds that will be engendered in a people so callously treated, so wantonly murdered and displaced will not be so easily ‘reshaped.’
There have also been reports coming out of Washington indicating that the United States is seeking to use the conflict in Lebanon, and the catastrophe that is unfolding to push for the election of a pro-US president there. Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the US Department of State, cynically described the war in Lebanon as an ‘opportunity’ to change the political structure of the country.’ The worst examples of US foreign policy and ‘regime change’ are on show for the world to see.
SHARED INTERESTS
The two regimes, the USA and Israel march in lock-step. Each gain from this bloody relationship. The interests of the two states have become one. The US offers enormous support, politically, economically, and militarily. $3.8 billion dollars a year is a lot of money for a country with a population of less than 10 million, and yet all US administrations see this as money well spent. Israel, for its part, plays a vital role in ensuring that the USA maintains a position of strategic, political, and economic domination in the Middle East. An awful, blood-stained status quo exists.
Some people have called Israel a “failed state.” There is some truth in that claim. Without the support of the USA, it would not be able to function as an economic and military force in the region. At the same time the regime still enjoys enough domestic political support to claim a degree of legitimacy. This is being rapidly eroded by its aggression towards the Palestinian people, towards Lebanon, Syria and by its perpetual goading of Iran to become part of a war that would have catastrophic repercussions for all.
Regardless of what happens in the next month, year, or decade, the fact remains that Israel is a threat to all within its very wide reach. It will continue to wreak havoc in the region and will do so in the knowledge that the USA, its political institutions, and the American ruling class will continue to back it and in return, require it to support the USA in its imperial designs.
Netanyahu and Biden’s much-reported telephone call has done absolutely nothing to soothe tensions in the region. Kamala Harris joined the conversation. According to a White House statement, “the president affirmed his ironclad commitment to Israel’s security.” The talks were described as “direct” and “productive.”
Biden promised that Iran would face “severe consequences” for its missile attack on Israel. He quickly ruled out any support for attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities while equivocating about striking oilfields. While Iran produces just two per cent of global output, such a strike would see prices escalate. That is not what Biden and Harris need on the eve of a presidential election.
“If I were in their shoes,” said Biden, I would be thinking about other alternatives than striking Iranian oilfields.”
Such an attack would send oil prices soaring across the world, which could prove costly for Harris ahead of the 5 November election.
Oil prices weigh heavily on the minds of US presidential candidates. The people in Gaza and Lebanon, the people in the occupied West Bank and Syria have other things to consider.
During the Israeli bloodletting of the past 12 months more than 42,000 have been killed in Gaza, 750 more in the West Bank, 260 in Syria and now well over 2,000 in Lebanon. The scale of the barbarity has been condemned by all international organisations. The slaughter goes on only because of an unholy alliance between the US and Israel, and with the complicity of America’s hand-wringing allies and partners in crime.
What concerns the American leadership as they head into their elections? The price of oil. How many barrels of crude equals the lives of a Palestinian or Lebanese family? Not many. What price oil? What price human life?
The US has provided unconditional military and diplomatic support for Israel since the outbreak of the war on Gaza – a policy that Harris has promised to maintain.
Australia continues to support Israel’s aggression diplomatically, and with its close relationship with Israeli military company Elbit Systems.
Take action! Join the demonstrations against Israeli’s aggression. Contact your MP/Senators and demand that Australia withdraw support.
