Resisting US & Israeli Terror in the Middle East

dublin | anti-war / imperialism | event notice Friday July 21, 2006 11:37 by Socialist Worker forum

Saturday 22nd July 4pm Wynns Hotel Abbey St

Resisting US & Israeli Terror in the Middle East
with Nabil Bou Haidar (Lebanese Activist)
and Kieran Allen (Socialist Workers Party)

ISRAEL’S REGIME OF TERROR
The brutality of the Israeli regime is staggering. Every day they attack Lebanon and leave
a score or so of civilians dead. Bombs are dropped near refugee camps and children are
blown to bits. But, meanwhile, the Israeli government puts on a show of indignation that
three of their soldiers are kidnapped.
Israel holds 10,000 hostages inside its jails. Some of these were seized in cross bor-der
raids into Palestine. Others were captured during the last Israeli war against Lebanon
and are still kept in their jails years later.
And as for rocket attacks on a neighbouring country! Hizobollah's attack's began as
a response to daily bombing that Israel was inflicting on the Gaza strip in a deliberate
cold attempt to overthrow the elected Hamas government. They had calculated that if
they ratcheted up the level of despair, the Palestinians would turn on Hamas and call on
the PLO President to take over.
Hizbollah's attacks began as a way of taking the pressure off the Palestinians but as
soon as they started, the Israeli military turned up the heat further by calling for the dis-armament
of Hizbollah and started targeting Iran and Syria as their backers.
What we are witnessing is the horrific combination of the US neo-conservatives and
the fanatical extremism of Zionism.
The neo-cons have long had an agenda to re-shape the Middle East by first taking
Iraq and then toppling the Iranian and Syrian regimes. They hoped that this would allow
US imperialism to renew its dominance by giving it full control of the oil supplies and
using that as a lever against countries like China in the future.
The defeat they are facing in Iraq has made them more desperate and this is why they
want to lash out even more.
But they also know they face a danger of even more 'blowback' as an escalation of
the conflict could mean that Shia forces in Iraq move into full scale attacks on the US
occupation.
Zionism was a political ideology that argued that the fate of the Jewish people could
only be safeguarded if they expelled Palestians from their homes and forged an alliance
with imperialism. It presents itself as the watchdog, lashing out and doing the dirty work
of the imperial powers.
Its alliance with the neo-cons has added a new dynamic to its war psychology.
Zionism was always about expanding the boundaries of the Israeli state and building a
zone of racist superiority. But the recent growth of militant Palestinian struggles and the
defeats that Hizbollah inflicted on them in South Lebanon in the past has hemmed it in.
All of this explains the particular brutality at the moment.
The anti war movement throughout the world is gearing up for mass demonstra-tions
on September 23rd. We must do all we can to mobilise people power against this
brutal war drive.