Middle East

We received this article yesterday evening. It was written as the situation between Israel and Lebanon was escalating. The Israeli ruling class has decided on war to "solve" its problems. In reality it is opening up even greater problems destabilising the situation even further. The crisis of Israeli capitalism is dragging the peoples of the region to fratricidal war.

We received this article yesterday evening. It was written as the situation between Israel and Lebanon was escalating. The Israeli ruling class has decided on war to "solve" its problems. In reality it is opening up even greater problems destabilising the situation even further. The crisis of Israeli capitalism is dragging the peoples of the region to fratricidal war.

The Israeli military claim the 40 Palestinians killed since they re-invaded the Gaza Strip were all “militants”. In reality many civilians have been killed. The Israeli government is hell-bent on terrorising the Palestinian people into submission. It is achieving the opposite effect to that desired and opening up the beginnings of a major crisis for the Israeli ruling class.

The Israeli government refuses to consider the option of releasing Palestinian prisoners to get an Israeli soldier freed. And yet when a few years ago a friend of Sharon was captured he was prepared to release more than 400 Palestinian prisoners. This detail highlights how even in Israel there is one rule for the ordinary citizens and another for those at the top.

The first demand of the international labour movement, and of the Israeli working class, must be for the immediate withdrawal of the troops that were sent into Gaza overnight. Stop this present incursion now! And from there begin the struggle to transform society and put an end to the class and national divisions which are at the heart of the present conflict.

The Israeli Defence Force has amassed tanks and troops on the border with the Gaza Strip as the crisis over a kidnapped soldier deepens. For some time anyone who understands the mechanical logic of the Israeli government and its plans to reoccupy the Gaza Strip has known that the Israeli government has simply been looking for an excuse to move back in.

The cold-blooded killing of a Palestinian family as it was enjoying a day on the beach highlights the brutal methods used by the Israeli military. They are clearly trying to crush the spirit of the Palestinian people. They will achieve the opposite. With these methods the Israeli ruling class are preparing an unimaginable nightmare for all the people in the region.

Calls for boycotting Israeli academics and universities that do not disassociate themselves from the oppression of the Palestinian people have been growing in several unions internationally. How does this connect with the class struggle in Israel? Yossi Schwartz in Israel comments.

On the morning of November 19, 2005 US Marines killed 24 civilians, including women, children and even infants in Haditha, Iraq. The massacre was covered up until January, when evidence of the massacre could no longer be denied. The US government has announced that the Marines involved will stand trial for murder. The full impact of Haditha is yet to be revealed, but similar to the My Lai massacre in the Vietnam War, it could represent the beginning of the end for the US occupation of Iraq

On his recent visit to the USA the newly elected Israeli premier, Ehud Olmert, made some very belligerent speeches which raise the spectre of the use of nuclear weapons in the Middle East. It is in the interests of all workers in the region, Jewish, Arab, Kurdish, Iranian... to come together in an international struggle to overthrow the oppressors of all these peoples.

Recent armed clashes between Fatah forces and newly formed Hamas security forces reflect behind-the-scenes manoeuvres of imperialism to divide the Palestinian people with the hope of overthrowing the newly elected Hamas government. They are playing with fire.

With slogans such as "Employment, employment, is our obvious right; job security is our main demand" and "Unity, unity, workers, unity" Iranian workers came on the streets of Tehran on May Day. The workers from Qom were walking at the front of the rally and carried a large placard with "Temporary contracts must be revoked" and "End slavery" written on it.

After being labelled a “butcher” by the British press following last week's bad election results for the Labour Party and the subsequent Cabinet reshuffle, Tony Blair suffered another blow, this time not at home but abroad. In Basra the British army lost five soldiers, including the first female casualty, as their helicopter crashed and British soldiers came under attack.