Storm clouds are gathering over the Middle East as Israel, backed by the western imperialist powers, pushes the region ever closer to a devastating all-out regional war, highlighting yet again the choice before humanity: either socialism or barbarism.

The situation in the Middle East is escalating dramatically. Israel’s current invasion of Lebanon has sent shockwaves throughout the region and represents a further step towards the outbreak of a region-wide conflict, risking open war with Iran. As the Middle East grows more unstable, communists need a clear understanding of these events and what we can do to fight against militarism and imperialism wherever we are.

In the early hours of 1 October, the Israeli army crossed the border of Lebanon and started a land invasion of the country, following two weeks of heavy air strikes. This is a thoroughly reactionary war, backed and funded by US and western imperialism, which threatens to engulf the whole of the Middle East into open war, which could last for years and leave harrowing suffering in its wake.

After massive air strikes on the Dahiyeh district of Beirut, the Israeli military succeeded in assassinating the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, together with other top commanders of the organisation. It seems that the head of Hezbollah’s southern front, Ali Karaki, was also killed in the attack. Netanyahu ordered the strike personally and he is clearly provoking both Hezbollah, and its main backer Iran, to enter into all-out war with Israel. This danger is now closer than ever.

Airstrikes hit more than 1,600 targets inside Lebanon on Monday 23 September, the first day of Israel’s bombing campaign. Around 500 people were killed and over 1,600 were injured, while tens of thousands more fled the southern areas of the country. Israel’s undeclared war against Hezbollah has begun.

For almost a year, millions around the world have taken to the streets in order to fight against the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The imperialists and warmongers have been fighting against this mobilisation from the very first minute. In Europe and the USA, demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine have been prohibited, activists have been persecuted by police or suspended from their jobs, pro-Palestinian speakers have been banned from stating their opinion publicly, and the movement has been deprived from using necessary meeting rooms. Our comrades are also affected by this repression.

At least nine people were killed – including a 10-year-old girl – and over 2,800 injured, many of them left in a critical condition, when pagers they were carrying exploded, in an unprecedented coordinated attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon. American officials said Israel was behind the attack, which had been prepared for months and takes place as Netanyahu’s cabinet just voted to widen the war aims to include the return of those who had been displaced from the north of the country to their homes, which is code for launching an invasion of Lebanon. 

On Friday 6 September, Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish-American activist was killed in cold blood by a sniper of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Eygi was sheltering from IDF provocations at a prayer session near the village of Beita in the West Bank, when she was shot in the head and killed.

The recovery of the dead bodies of six hostages, held by Hamas in Gaza, by the IDF over the weekend has led to an explosion of anger, directed against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Hundreds of thousands came onto the streets on Sunday in mass demonstrations across Israel. The country was paralysed by a general strike called by Histadrut (the General Organisation of Workers in Israel) this morning, Monday 2 September. Protesters hold Netanyahu responsible for the death of the hostages, given his blatant and constant sabotage of the negotiations with Hamas. This is a very serious political crisis, which could lead to the removal of the Israeli PM. 

Since Kamala Harris entered the 2024 presidential race, the media has highlighted the alleged differences between her and Joe Biden’s rhetoric around Gaza, speculating about how she might differ from her current boss when it comes to the war on Gaza. They have noted a more “empathetic” tone toward Palestinians and a more “forceful” tone toward Israel.

“When the leaders speak of peace, the common people know that war is coming.” (Bertolt Brecht)

Recently, a figure of 186,000 projected deaths in Gaza has been circulating in the press and on social media. This horrifying death toll originated from a letter to The Lancet, the most prominent British medical journal, which the Israeli regime and its Western cheerleaders have attempted to discredit as baseless ‘blood libel’. In fact, when months of relentless bombing are combined with the malnutrition and disease caused by Israel’s blockade, this figure might end up being tragically conservative.

The killing of Hamas’ main leader and chief negotiator, Ismail Haniyeh, while he was in Tehran, Iran is part of a cynical attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to provoke an escalation of the conflict in the Middle East just so that he can stay in power. In this he can count on the complicity of Western imperialism, which allows him to remain in office as their main reliable ally in the region. 

The Palestinian people were forcibly expelled from their homeland by Zionist armed militias in 1948, in an event which remains in their collective historical memory as the Nakba, or the Catastrophe. The Zionist project had always envisaged such a development, and all genuine revolutionary Communists had consistently been opposed to the Zionist ideology. Why then did Stalin abandon the position of one state for the two peoples, Palestinian and Jewish, and come out in support of partition in 1947, together with the subsequent setting up of a separate Jewish state?

On Saturday 15 June, the Union of Workers at the Port of Piraeus (ENEDEP) mobilised to stop the Israel-bound container ship MSC ALTAIR from docking at the Greek port. The vessel was carrying war materials, destined to rain destruction on Gaza. Thanks to the blockade staying strong, the ship was forced to reroute towards Italy, landing a blow on Israel’s war machine that sets an example to workers of the world!