Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), jointly issued by the Internationalist Socialist League (RCIT Section in Israel/Occupied Palestine) and the International Bureau of the RCIT, 23.09.2024, https://the-isleague.com/ and www.thecommunists.net
1. The last days saw a clear escalation of Israel’s colonial war in the Middle East. First, it waged a mass terror attack by exploding thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies, resulting in 37 people killed (including children and medics) and nearly 3,000 injured. Then, it bombed a residential building in the Dahieh suburb of Beirut, killing at least 45 people, including several Hezbollah commanders. Since then, the Israeli Air Force launched numerous raids in south and east Lebanon. In response, Hezbollah fired missiles against the IDF Ramat David airbase in northern Israel as well as the site of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israel’s most important arms corporation.
2. This is not a temporary escalation but the result of a strategic decision of Netanyahu’s government to expand the war. The designation of the return of evacuated residents to the north of Israel as an additional official war goal (the others being the destruction of Hamas and the return of the Israeli prisoners of war) effectively means that the Zionist state aims to defeat Hezbollah. While the war has not already reached the level of systematic bombardment of Beirut and an Israeli ground invasion in the south, it is clear that the Zionist regime is preparing for this.
3. Israel’s escalation in Lebanon is both a huge aggression as well as an act of desperation. After nearly one year, the Israeli army has “succeeded” in Gaza only in committing one of the worst genocides of modern history with tens of thousands killed and nearly the whole population made refugees. However, it has failed in its war goals as it could not return dozens of Israelis, nor could they defeat Hamas. Today, Israel faces serious economic crisis and domestic protests, and it is globally isolated and despised more than ever.
4. It is exactly because of these political setbacks that the Netanyahu government feels obliged to wage another war. By this it hopes, on one hand, to divert domestic attention from its failures in Gaza and to avoid a collapse of the coalition government (which could result in sending Netanyahu to the court). On the other hand, the Zionist regime wants to provoke a full-scale war – first against Hezbollah and then against Iran – in order to drag U.S. imperialism, its most important ally, into the confrontation.
5. Israel’s escalation is highly risky since i) its army is already exhausted after one year of war in Gaza (the army command is already forced to recruit African asylum seekers in order to replenish its ranks); ii) Hezbollah is a formidable and well-armed opponent operating not in an isolated enclave (like Gaza) but with a broad hinterland and friendly neighbouring countries; iii) it is highly doubtful if Washington is prepared to follow Israel in its next adventure (even less so in a period of tumultuous Presidential elections).
6. The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) and its section in Israel/Occupied Palestine – the Internationalist Socialist League – reiterate their unconditional support for the Lebanese and the Palestinian resistance. We stand for the military victory of the resistance factions and the defeat of the Zionist monster without lending political support for Hamas, Hezbollah and other petty-bourgeois nationalist or Islamist organisations.
7. At the same time, we do not lend any political support to such forces. In particular, we condemn the reactionary support of Hezbollah’s leadership for the Assad tyranny in Syria and the capitalist Mullah dictatorship in Iran.
8. While we side with petty-bourgeois nationalist or Islamist organisations in their confrontations with the Zionist and imperialist enemy, we emphasise that the only solution is the independent organisation of the working class and the oppressed masses in Palestine and Lebanon in popular councils and militias.
9. The escalation of the Israel’s colonial war makes the mobilisation of the international workers and popular movement in solidarity with the Palestinian and Lebanese people all the more important. The Zionist state must be boycotted by any means necessary – from blocking any arms deliveries, economic and financial boycott to the rupture of any ties of universities with Israel. Likewise, the struggle against any pro-Zionist leaders within the workers movement must be intensified. In Arab countries, the masses need to force an end of any attempt for “normalization” with the Zionist monster. Egypt must break the siege, confront the Israeli army and help the brothers and sisters. Arms and Aid for the Resistance! The strategic task is to overthrow all these reactionary servants of Israel and the imperialist powers and to replace these with authentic workers and fellahin governments, based on popular councils and militias.
10. We reiterate that the only way forward is the revolutionary destruction of the Israeli Apartheid state and the creation of a free and red Palestine from the River to the Sea. Such a single secular and democratic Palestinian state would enable all refugees to return to their homes. At the same time, it would guarantee equal cultural and religious rights for all citizens (including the Jewish minority). It should be a workers and fellahin republic as part of a socialist federation of the Middle East. As part of a revolutionary upheaval of the Arab masses, it will be possible to break a progressive section of the Israeli-Jewish workers and youth away from Zionism. The RCIT calls all socialists to join us in building a Revolutionary World Party committed to the cause of the liberation of the Palestinian peoples and all other oppressed peoples!