October 7, 2024 editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French
After Gaza and the West Bank, Netanyahu extended his war to Lebanon on September 21. After the intensive bombardment of the south of the country, which resulted in the death of the historic leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his military command, [Israeli] troops entered Lebanese soil. The massacre of 1,200 Israeli civilians and soldiers on October 7, 2023 by Hamas gave the far-right Israeli government the justification it had been waiting for to launch into an endless war, with the complicity of the world’s richest leaders, who couldn’t care less about the victims, be they Palestinian or Israeli for that matter!
A year of civilian massacres
The bombardments in Lebanon have already killed over 2,000 people and wounded thousands more. Tens of thousands of people have had to flee their homes, while the country already has a million refugees. For Israel, the clatter of bombs on Lebanon also serves to distract attention from the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Over the past year, the annihilation operation in the Gaza Strip has claimed more than 41,000 lives, left more than 10,000 people missing under the rubble, and wounded nearly 100,000. Almost all health infrastructure and schools have been pulverized. Survivors face famine, lack of drinking water and epidemics. In the West Bank, settlers and the army have killed nearly 700 people, and are waging a reign of terror among Palestinians.
The hypocrisy of the great powers
Netanyahu presents the war against Lebanon as a matter of survival for Israel. But faced with the Israeli state, armed by the main imperialist countries and supported by the presence of American and French aircraft carriers, Iran and Hezbollah have no interest in seeking war and a conflagration of the whole region. Biden claims to be working towards de-escalation in Lebanon, but continues to deliver tons of weapons to Netanyahu. As for [French President] Macron, he’s now saying that no more arms should be delivered to Israel, while claiming that France has never sold any. This is a lie! Many flagships of the French arms industry (Thales, Safran, MDBA, Airbus…) have forged partnerships with their Israeli counterparts and are jointly developing their activities to the great benefit of French arms capitalists.
Not in our name!
For the leaders of the capitalist world, the priority is to continue to rely on the State of Israel to defend their interests in the region. It doesn’t matter to them that the Palestinians in Gaza are being massacred and that the Lebanese are now being hit by war, as long as their imperialist order is assured. There’s nothing to be expected from their promises of a ceasefire. As for the Israeli people, they too are paying the price for this policy: the future that the Israeli government is preparing for them is one of endless war, and for the time being, the demonstrations that are taking place to denounce the disregard for the lives of the hostages still being held in Gaza have not been enough to sway this escalation of war.
We too must assert our opposition to these massacres. They must not be carried out in our name. The international movement of solidarity with Palestine, with its demonstrations all over the world, plays an essential role: it not only helps to break the Palestinians’ sense of isolation, but also to undermine one of the pillars of the Israeli state’s power, namely Western support. Now more than ever, let’s express our solidarity with the Palestinian people and our opposition to the invasion of Lebanon in our workplaces, schools and on the streets.
