By Ray O. Light

For three weeks now, the Israeli settler government has carried out a murderous aggression, massive destruction of infrastructure and the displacement of hundreds of thousands, one-quarter of the entire population of Lebanon. Quite rightly, the peoples of the world have expressed great indignation at the virtually unprovoked invasion of Lebanon by the Zionist forces. More than at any previous moment in its bloody history the Israeli settler state seems isolated and condemned in the "world community."

The scope and intensity of this war, ostensibly between the Israeli settler state and Hezbollah party followers in Lebanon, is quite surprising. On the one hand, Hezbollah’s electoral success has brought it into participation in the Lebanese government and its popularity has continued to grow. Even more striking is the fact that Israel’s recent military strategy of retrenching has meant giving up territory in which widely scattered Zionist settlements were surrounded by a large Palestinian population. As Barry Rubin, a US imperialist consultant, wrote in the current issue of Foreign Affairs Magazine, "The territories no longer serve a strategic function for Israel, given the unlikelihood of a conventional attack by Arab state armies, and Israel could better defend its citizens by creating a strong defensive line rather than by dispersing its forces."("Israel’s New Strategy", July/August 2006)

In this light, did Israel initiate this war on its own behalf, or on behalf of its imperialist master, US imperialism?

One unforeseen consequence of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq and its toppling of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist Regime had been the creation "in Iraq [of] the first Shiite-led state in the Arab world since the rise of Islam [!!]", as Vali Nasr, the Iranian born US imperialist expert on the Middle East, recently pointed out. (Wall Street Journal, 8-4-06) (Iran is mostly ethnic Persian.) This development tremendously boosted the prospects for the 140 -150 million Shiites throughout the Middle East, and Central and South Asia. In particular, it strengthened the Iranian Regime. Iran, with the world’s largest Shiite population and highest level of Shiite concentration (90% of the population of Iran), and with its vast oil reserves, became a growing regional power.

Indeed, as Mr. Nasr astutely observes: "The US has long relied on its traditional Sunni Arab allies---Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia--- to keep the Arab-Israeli conflict in check. But now the Sunni axis is failing…because these nations are incapable of containing a resurgent Iran and its radical clients on the front lines against Israel---Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas." (WSJ, 8-4-06)

As the only Shiite led government prior to Saddam Hussein’s ouster by US imperialism, Iran trained most of the key players in the current Iraqi government and, according to Vali Nasr, was "the first country in the region to send an official delegation to Baghdad for talks with the Iraqi Governing Council, in effect recognizing the authority that the United States had put in power." (See "When the Shiites Rise," July/August Foreign Affairs.) Since April 2005 closer ties between the governments of Iran and Iraq on aid, trade and security have been established. This is why the US lackey Iraqi government is, nonetheless, condemning Israel (and indirectly the US!) in its war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. This fact also demonstrates the growing power of Iran in the region.

On the basis of the above, and the fact that the Iranian government had played a key role in helping to get the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan to come over to the side of the USA, thereby helping to establish the US puppet Karzai government in Kabul, Vali Nasr argues that US imperialism should be engaging the Iranian Regime so as to "manage the rise of regional powers." (WSJ, 8-4-06) But such is the arrogance of the US Empire under George W. Bush that US imperialism is unwilling to recognize even regional powers, especially in the Middle East.

In this light, it is noteworthy that George W. Bush and US imperialism have so openly and decisively sided with the Israeli government. While most of the world’s governments have officially called for a ceasefire, or something comparable, alone among the major powers, the Bushites have strongly opposed a halt to the bloodshed at least until the Israelis have inflicted major damage to Hezbollah, no matter how much of Lebanon and how many Lebanese people are destroyed in the process. Furthermore, as Jose Maria Sison, chairperson of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS), has pointed out, "The US is further intensifying its interventionist role by rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel. The rushing of delivery of munitions is part of a multi billion dollar arms sale package that includes 100 GBU-28s which are 5,000-pound laser-guided bombs and satellite-guided munitions."

In addition, the silence of the (Sunni-led) Arab regimes on the Israeli carnage in Lebanon reflects the fact that US imperialism, rather than the Israeli settler state (which they would normally have no problem "condemning") is the prime mover behind the murder and mayhem in Lebanon.

1. Fundamentally, this is a proxy war between the United States and Iran. At a time when the US imperialist military has already reached strategic overreach, the Israeli settler army, armed with the latest in US high-tech weaponry, can not only test the weapons in battle, but fight in place of the US military against the rising Shiite forces, led by a resurgent Iran. On the basis of a presumed successful Israeli military action, international "peacekeepers", under the UNO, could then be brought in to suppress the Hezbollah forces in Lebanon, replacing the Israeli military as the surrogate US military force.

2. The Israeli assault on Lebanon focuses attention on the Zionist settler state and takes the heat off of the Bush Administration and US imperialism at this moment when they have clearly lost control of Iraq. General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General John Abizaid, the top US commander in the Middle East, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in the past few days and admitted that the US military is unable to reverse this development. While the US population has come to oppose the US occupation of Iraq, the majority still support the aggression of the Israeli military in Lebanon. Thus, by directly involving Israel in the widening of the war in the Middle East, US imperialism regains some initiative there. And by portraying Hezbollah as the aggressor, Bush’s "war on terrorism" is given a new leg to stand on.

3. The brutal Israeli onslaught against the Shiite masses of Hezbollah in Lebanon also provides an opportunity for US imperialism to attempt to unite the Shiite participants in the Iraqi Resistance with the lackey Iraqi government, thus potentially splitting the Iraqi Resistance. In their Senate testimony, both US Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and the two generals strongly promoted the idea that a civil war (between the Shiites and Sunnis in particular) is imminent. The only hope for US imperialism to remain in control of Iraq is the old "divide and conquer" tactics used so brutally and so well by the old British Empire.

In this connection, the outstanding General Union of Oil Employees in Basra (GUOE) has once again demonstrated its principled and consistent anti-imperialist and liberation character. In a February 2005 statement entitled, "Leave Our Country Now", they pointed out: "The occupation has deliberately fomented a sectarian division of Sunni and Shia. We never knew this sort of division before. Our families intermarried, we lived and worked together. And today we are resisting this brutal occupation together…" In a July 31, 2006 Communiqué, the GUOE, declare their solidarity with the "Lebanese people and Islamic resistance" against the "American and Zionist aggression." They understand that the aggression in Lebanon is the responsibility of both Israel and US imperialism, and they include all the Lebanese people, not just Hezbollah and the Shiites, in their solidarity. And despite being under the US imperialist gun themselves, they have carried out practical solidarity among the people of Basra on behalf of the Lebanese people. Finally, the GUOE "denounces the cowardly and degrading positions adopted by some Arab countries…"

We look forward to the day when there is once again an international Marxist-Leninist movement that possesses such a clear and principled line and policy on the struggle in Lebanon and Iraq as this mass oil workers organization in Basra!!