Yasha Marmer, a guest article from the Socialist Struggle Movement (SSM) in Israel/Palestine originally published on February 28th.
( השקרים של השלטון לא יביאו ביטחון || לעצור את ההפצצות באיראן ואת מרחץ הדמים האזורי! • מאבק סוציאליסטי/أكاذيب النظام لن تجلب الأمان || أوقفوا القصف على إيران وحمّام الدم الإقليمي! • نضال اشتراكي)
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are leading a bombing campaign that sabotages the mass struggle in Iran for freedom and welfare—at the expense of the security and future of the masses across the entire region. Build a pre-emptive protest against the vision of a “super-Sparta” and endless war promoted by the parties of occupation and capital rule, from Itamar Ben-Gvir to General Yair Golan.
The “pre-emptive” attack declared—once again—by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu against Iran has already killed more than 200 residents, including dozens of school students, in southern Iran, and has triggered an Iranian counterattack that has so far included volleys of missiles toward areas under the control of the State of Israel, as well as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Syria and Jordan.
As far as the reports of the assassination of the supreme leader of the Iranian regime, Khomeini will be confirmed, an explosive chain of response will follow with regional and global repercussions, as the result of Trump’s and Netanyahu’s demonstrative hubris fuelled actions.
Tens of millions in Iran are under bombardment by powers that have systematically acted to intensify mass hardship in Iran through sanctions. This is not a war for a Middle East free of missiles and nuclear weapons, nor a war for democracy in Iran. It is imperialist aggression aimed at imposing the interests of the nuclear powers, led by the gangs of Netanyahu and Trump. Their aim is to replace the current capitalist dictatorship in Iran with a capitalist regime friendly to them—whether it will try to portray itself as “democratic” or to enforce its authority in a way akin to the murderous regime of the Shah or the monarchy in Saudi Arabia with its executions by beheading.
Millions under the rule of Israel’s “full-right” government are once again forced to cope with missiles, following the destruction and bereavement of the previous round in June—from Bat Yam to Tamra —among Jews, Palestinians, and others, while many lack adequate shelters or properly protected spaces.
The head of the “Peace Council,” Trump, and the prime minister of death, Netanyahu, are once again patting themselves on the back over a display of military force.
Last time, they arrogantly declared a “historic” victory and the “removal of a threat,” and even spoke of supporting the “liberation” of the Iranian people whom they are bombing and extorting. They lied then, and they are lying now.
The imperialist assault by the strongest power in the world and the strongest power in the region marks a new phase in the bloody crisis, in which Netanyahu’s “government of death” cynically exploited Hamas’s October 7 attack to open a war of annihilation against the Palestinian people in Gaza and to launch a military campaign to change the regional balance of forces in favor of Israeli occupation and the rule of capital. This comes under the auspices of the United States, which is responsible for a continuing spiral of bloodshed while seeking to strengthen its grip as the hegemonic “landlord” in the region.
The attack comes after weeks of war-mongering and threats from Israel’s right-wing government, alongside a buildup of U.S. strike forces in the region, amid an escalation in aggression by the Israeli occupation in Lebanon and Gaza.
Enough with the lies, enough with the security demagoguery!
The new attack has once again been defined as a “pre-emptive”. Pre-emptive of what? Of the war that the Israeli government of death itself encouraged and initiated. A source in Israeli “security” establishment told Reuters this morning (28.2) that the date of the strike on Iran was set weeks in advance and that the attack had been planned for months—at the Ministry of “Defence” in Tel Aviv, not in Tehran.
An Israeli military spokesperson said that the upcoming campaign is expected to be “more significant” than the previous war against Iran. U.S. sources said that American strikes in Iran in the current campaign will be far more extensive than their previous strikes in Iran in June.
Netanyahu and Trump are attempting to disguise the imperialist aggression as a move supposedly intended to bring security to the masses in the U.S. and Israel, and even “liberation” to the masses in Iran. “Our operation will create the conditions for the Iranian people to cast off themselves the yoke of tyranny”, Netanyahu declared. “Our goal is to protect the American people by eliminating the threat from the Iranian regime”, Trump claimed.
The two cynics, who are facing domestic protest and a consistent lack of support in the polls, will yet swap roles: Netanyahu will again claim that his aim is to protect the public in Israel—whom he has once again sent to take cover in neglected shelters under conditions of economic hardship, anxiety, and mortal danger—while Trump will claim that he is “liberating” the masses in Iran, who are currently under a powerful and murderous combined Israeli-American bombing assault.
The Iranian regime will exploit the Israeli-American attack to escalate repression against the opposition at home and to silence protest voices. Netanyahu’s government will seek to use the war for similar purposes domestically. Israel’s Minister of “National Security”, Itamar Ben-Gvir has already threatened to “chop off the head” of those who go out to protest against the war.
Build a struggle
The leaders of the nationalist capitalist “opposition” in the Knesset are once again rallying in support of the bloodbath and the government. Yair Lapid made clear at the beginning of the week that “if the war comes—and it should—everyone will put everything aside. All disagreements will be put into a deep freeze. As in the past, I will be enlisted. I will go wherever necessary—to CNN, to the British Parliament. I will tell everyone: ‘You know I am the head of the opposition, Netanyahu and I are rivals—but on this matter he is right. Iran must be attacked with full force.’” General Yair Golan, chair of “The Democrats,” also cheered the attack today.
The political parties of Lapid and General Golan disagree with the government of death on certain aspects regarding the conduct of the endless war, the occupation, and the rule of capital—but not on the underlying logic of the war, the occupation, and the rule of capital. They are part of the agenda of “super-Sparta”.
While Lapid and Golan place their disagreements with the Netanyahu–Ben-Gvir government into deep freeze, it is important to insist on building a struggle across communities and across borders to stop the aggression and the war.
Workers’ organizations and neighbourhood initiatives should demand an emergency operation to deploy protective shelters in towns and neighbourhoods according to need and without discrimination; immediate emergency funding to make unfit public shelters usable and to open them to the public; and full and equal funding for Arab local authorities. Alongside this, workers’ organizations should also expose the destructive logic of the government of death, which, under the guise of security, fuels the bloody crisis, directly attacks workers and the poor in Iran, and thereby places millions more workers and poor people within missile range here as well.
It is essential to insist on a real solution and a way out of the regional bloodshed—one that lies in building a struggle for equality, welfare, and personal security, against the rule of capital, the occupation, and imperialism, and for socialist change.