Washington has amassed a daunting military force in the Middle East tasked with enforcing a blockade of ships to and from Iranian ports to advance the U.S. rulers’ interests. Its aim is to force Tehran to agree to U.S. demands to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and limit Tehran’s nuclear program. Since April 13, U.S. operations have forced 58 ships to turn around, and fired on four that ignored their warnings, disabling them.
The bourgeois press of all political stripes presents the 40 days of intense airstrikes on Iran as a joint U.S.-Israel war.
This isn’t true. It is two sharply different wars.
The U.S. rulers’ military and economic war is aimed at extending their imperialist domination and plunder of the Middle East by forcing a “deal” with a wing of the regime in Iran to advance Washington’s goals at the expense of its rivals, especially Beijing.
Israel is fighting a defensive war to prevent Tehran and its allies from launching more pogroms to eliminate the Jews in Israel, close to half of the Jews in the world. A new Holocaust. Israel’s defense requires it to end Tehran’s drive to acquire nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
The U.S. now has more than 50,000 troops in the region, including thousands of paratroopers and other combat forces, two aircraft carriers and associated strike groups.
It is working people and oppressed nationalities in Iran who are bearing the brunt of the war. Prices of basic necessities have skyrocketed. More than a million people have lost their jobs. If the blockade continues, Tehran could be forced to shut down oil wells, with further devastating consequences for workers.
Since consolidating a counterrevolution in 1983 against the mass popular 1979 uprising in Iran that overthrew the U.S.-backed shah, the reactionary rulers in Iran have used their state power to advance their goal of destroying Israel, a key part of extending their reactionary influence throughout the region.
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s first Supreme Leader, called Israel “a usurper state” and “our enemy.” His successor Ali Khamenei repeatedly called Israel “a cancerous tumor” that must be cut out.
Tehran, ‘axis’ allies: Destroy Israel
Tehran put together its so-called axis of resistance — Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and armed militias in Iraq — to encircle Israel.
The Houthi flag says, “God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse the Jews, Victory to Islam.” Hamas’ founding document says that Israel must be “obliterated.”
The 1985 “open letter” that serves as Hezbollah’s program says that “the Jew” is the biggest enemy Muslims face.
These are not just words.
Hamas, Hezbollah ready new attacks
Without Tehran’s funding, training and weapons, Hamas could not have carried out the Oct. 7, 2023, pogrom, the biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust in World War II. Despite the serious blows Israel has dealt Hamas, Hezbollah and Tehran since then, none of them have backed off from their long-range goal.
Hamas is reasserting its dictatorial rule in Gaza, torturing and killing opponents there and trying to rebuild its capacity to attack Jews in Israel.
Just days after the start of the war against Iran, Hezbollah began firing missiles and drones at Israel. To push back the assault, Israeli troops occupied a wide swath of southern Lebanon and targeted Hezbollah command posts and weapons stores in the north.
When President Donald Trump’s administration negotiated an initial ceasefire with Tehran, which began April 7, the Iranian regime demanded a halt to Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah. After first saying this was not part of the agreement, Trump announced April 17, “Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer,” He added, “They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the USA.”
While Israel did not completely halt its military operations, it scaled back, especially in northern Lebanon. The Trump administration continues to insist that Israel “show restraint.”
If President Trump asked Israel to end its war on Hezbollah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked in an interview aired on CBS’ 60 Minutes May 10, would Israel accept?
Netanyahu replied that Trump “understands what I’m saying.”
“They [Hezbollah] rocket our cities all the time. They rocket our communities,” Netanyahu said. “We want to get rid of that danger.” In other words, the answer is, “No.”
In the latest confirmation of the serious threat, during a five-day operation near the Litani River in Lebanon, Israel Defense Forces troops found underground compounds with ammunition, motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles that could rapidly reach Israel. “It was a full preparation for a raid,” one Israeli commander told Ynet News. “Their intention was clear: to go up into our communities.”
For the U.S. rulers, the fight against Tehran’s proxies is just a bargaining chip. For Israel it’s a life-or-death question.