While preparing to defend Jews and all Israelis from new attacks threatened by Tehran and its “axis of resistance,” Israeli troops continue to deal blows to Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The destruction of Tehran-backed Hamas’ command structures is essential to prevent it from regrouping and carrying out its perpetual threats of more anti-Jewish pogroms, like it carried out in Israel Oct. 7. It is essential for opening up space for Jewish, Arab and other workers to find a way forward, to defend their common interests against capitalist rulers throughout the region and to forge the leadership they need.
Israeli troops are destroying Hamas’ tunnels, eliminating its commanders and degrading its remaining brigades day by day. On Aug. 10, an Israeli airstrike killed 31 Hamas and Islamic Jihad thugs who had set up a command room in a mosque in a school complex in Gaza City.
The New York Times, the Washington Post and other liberal capitalist news media responded by echoing Hamas propaganda as they have since Oct. 7. “Nearly 100 killed in Israeli strike on school, Gaza officials say,” was the headline in the Post. But the Post never informs its readers that every “official” body in Gaza is run by Hamas, which lies about the real death toll and the actual number of “civilian victims.”
The White House also gave credence to the Hamas claim in a statement saying that it was “deeply concerned” about the airstrike. Israeli army officials provided the names and photos of 31 dead Hamas and Islamic Jihad thugs.
The war on Israel takes place amid growing world capitalist disorder. Hundreds of millions of working people are being drawn into world politics against a backdrop of Moscow’s war to conquer Ukraine; sharpening rivalry in the Pacific between Beijing and the rulers in Australia, Japan and the U.S.; and Tehran’s bloody drive to assert its sway across the Middle East, while targeting Israel and the Jews. On top of these challenges, the U.S. rulers are incapable of preventing ruinous economic breakdowns, nor have they been able to crush working-class resistance to employer assaults here or worldwide.
The rise of Jew-hatred in the Middle East, the U.S. and around the world is rooted in this global instability.
From the stabbing of a Jewish man in Brooklyn Aug. 10 by an attacker who yelled “Free Palestine” to the exclusion of the Israeli Ultimate Frisbee team from an international competition in Belgium Aug. 6, confronting and opposing Jew-hatred is intertwined with the fight to advance the interests of the working class and oppressed nationalities.
Hamas is cause of Gaza destruction
The loss of civilian lives and destruction of homes, businesses and infrastructure in Gaza is significant. But that is the fault of Hamas and its backers in Tehran. Hamas puts its command posts and weapons in schools, hospitals, mosques and residences, using civilians as human shields. It began the war by murdering 1,200 people, mostly civilians, wounding thousands and taking more than 250 hostages. If Hamas frees the remaining hostages, gives up its arms and turns over the masterminds of the Oct. 7 pogrom the war would be over.
Tehran and Hezbollah have been threatening to retaliate against Israel for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran July 31 and of Fuad Shukr, a Hezbollah military leader responsible for numerous terror attacks, in Beirut the day before.
The Times and the Post called Haniyeh’s death an “assassination” and presented him as a civilian “diplomat.” But he was no “civilian.” And his death was not an “assassination.” Israel has a right to defend itself from Nazi-like groups intent on destroying Israel and killing all the Jews there.
On Oct. 7, Haniyeh immediately celebrated the bloody assault. “Get out of our land, get out of our faces,” he told Jews in Israel via an interview on Al Jazeera. “This land is ours, Jerusalem is ours, everything is ours.”
Washington defends its own interests
Washington is sending a second aircraft carrier group to the region along with a guided-missile submarine ostensibly as a warning to Tehran to not launch a major attack on Israel. But Washington’s goal is not fighting Jew-hatred or defending Israel’s right to exist as a refuge for Jews. It keeps pressing Israel to accept a long-term cease-fire — one which would leave Hamas intact — seeking to regain stability for U.S. imperialism’s economic and political interests in the region, including restarting shipping and access to oil resources.
The White House, along with the rulers in London and Berlin, demand Israel step down.
David Ignatius, a Washington Post columnist with ties to the State Department, claims that Tehran is driven by “determination to preserve its national dignity.” But that’s false. The capitalist regime in Iran is driven to extend its reactionary influence throughout the region with the destruction of Israel at the center. This course is greeted with derision by working people in Iran who suffer the consequences.
The Houthis in Yemen, whose attacks on ships have forced a 90% fall in shipping in the Red Sea, Hezbollah and now Tehran say they could halt attacks if Israel agrees to a permanent cease-fire. They want to save Hamas from total destruction, keep Israel from destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities before they build a nuclear bomb and buy time so that they can build up their forces for future, more deadly attacks on Israel and Jews.
Despite threatening massive retaliation against Israel, Tehran and Hezbollah have hesitated so far.
Arab citizens of Israel
Tehran, Hamas and Hezbollah are violently opposed to Jews and Arabs living together in peace. But that is not the view of the vast majority of the peoples of Israel, where 21% of the population is Arab and 73% is Jewish.
“Hezbollah doesn’t distinguish between Jews and Muslims,” Ibrahim Zina, a Muslim citizen near the town of Mazra’a in Northern Israel, told the Times of Israel. “We live and work together. When the sirens went off, we were all in the bomb shelter together.”
Arab citizens of Israel speak out against the racism and discrimination they face.
A car with four Bedouin women and a child that accidentally drove into an unsanctioned Israeli outpost in the Palestinian West Bank Aug. 9 was attacked by settlers, who held guns to their heads and set their car on fire.
“I always say, ‘Good that I’m an Israeli citizen, I love it,’” Lamis al-Jaer, one of the victims, told Israel’s Channel 12 news. “A normal person can’t understand why they would do that to us. We didn’t do anything to them. Someone who asks for directions — they deserve this?”
The incident was debated at a meeting in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. After a far-right legislator justified the attack MK Zvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionist party responded. “I don’t like to use the word ‘terrorism’ in these cases,” he said, but what the settlers did, “it’s a serious crime.”
Two settlers have been arrested so far as the investigation continues.