Lebanon Attack

On June 5th, the day before Eid al-Adha, Israel bombed eight buildings in the suburbs of Beirut – all destroyed, along with 100 civilian housing units. Beyond being a horrific act of violence, this is also an act of war – a clear violation of the ceasefire. It is also part of a broader pattern; Israel has struck Lebanon nearly every day since the ceasefire was finalized in November of last year. Israel has also failed to withdraw from southern Lebanon, having established five strong points situated on hills near the Lebanon-Palestine border.

Israel claims that Thursday’s attacks were directed towards Hezbollah drone production facilities, which Hezbollah denies. The truth is irrelevant. As stipulated in the ceasefire agreement, any suspected violations of the ceasefire must be directed to an organization called the Tripartite Mechanism. This apparatus was established in the wake of the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and exists solely to mitigate tensions between Israel and Hezbollah. The Tripartite Mechanism also just so happens to be chaired by the United States – surely it is beyond reproach to presume that any judgement issued by the Tripartite Mechanism would be favorable to Israel. 

Israel’s goal is as clear as their lies are blatant – the resumption of hostilities with Hezbollah, the destruction of Lebanon’s people, cities, culture. Israel seeks to expand across West Asia – a task which demands the extermination of all Indigenous West Asian peoples. If Palestine is first on the chopping block – Lebanon is second.

Gangs and GHF

Last week, Benjamin Netanyahu openly admitted that Israel is arming criminal organizations in Gaza. The stated intent is recruit these groups, such as the so-called “Popular Forces,” as auxiliaries against Hamas – Netanyahu himself put it succinctly:

“What’s wrong with this? It only saves the lives of Israeli soldiers, and publicising it only helps Hamas.”

The reality is far worse than this – aid workers in Gaza have long complained that humanitarian aid is routinely stolen from trucks by these very same criminal organizations. Israel blames the rampant theft of life-saving food and medicine on Hamas, which just so happens to be the pretext given by Israel for the presence of IDF security forces at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid sites. We say pretext because the GHF functions as little more than a cruel trap for starving, displaced Palestinian refugees, herded like animals into pre-planned killzones, with the life-saving aid as bait – all planned, funded, and organized by US-Israeli interests. The amount of aid distributed is pathetic – the human carnage, disgusting.

On Sunday, 13 aid seekers were killed and over 100 wounded by IDF security forces at two GHF aid sites outside Rafah. The total body count of Palestinians murdered at these “aid sites” is now 163 killed, over 700 wounded, and 9 missing. Many of the massacres were carried out against unarmed civilians by tanks.

The ethnic cleansing of Gaza is the objective – the method is an engineered famine, created by the siege – in conjunction with Netanyahu’s criminal lackeys – and “solved” by the IDF with machine guns and tank shells.
 
 The Freedom Flotilla

On June 9th, Israel again broke international laws by forcibly intercepting an aid ship bound for Gaza and detaining the volunteers aboard. The Madleen, a vessil of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was manned by a French parliament member, journalists and activists – notably Greta Thunberg. Their goal was break through the blockade and deliver lifesaving aid to Palestianians in Gaza starving to death under the US-Israeli forced famine.

While this ship has carried headlines for weeks, neither the FFC’s mission nor Israel’s piracy is new.  The same way Israel has invaded  surrounding countries with impunity since its inception, the US-Israeli war machine has been attacking ships on international waters for decades. In 2010, the IDF stormed an FFC fleet, opened fire and killed nine. In May, an FFC boat named Conscience was, without irony, drone-striked by Israel. During the Madleen’s approach, Israel deployed psychological warfare by flying drones overhead, dropping an unidentifyed white substance on the boat, and cutting off communications.

These actions, funded by the US and carried out by Israel, are illegal by even international standards. Israel has no jursidiction over the Mediterrian Sea nor the people who travel it. Boarding a ship to take passengers prisoner is tantamount to kidnapping. It must be noted that the international laws themselves have allowed Palestinians to be subjugated and dehumanized since the Nakba. The 1993 Oslo Accords only granted Gaza access to 10% of their shoreline. The “only democracy in the Middle East” must be tried in the Hague for its crimes, and Palestinians deserve their sovergnty, from the River to the Sea.

ICE Raids and Marine Deployment

Across the US, Donald Trump has ramped up the mass deportation machine. Anonymous, masked ICE agents have been raiding people’s workplaces and tearing families apart. Alongside warrantless raids, immigrants attending routine court proceedings have been kidnapped by ICE and denied due process and access to counsel. This increasing ICE terror has been met with mass resistance. ICE kidnappings are being documented, protested, and actively confronted and obstructed. The rebel youth of Los Angeles confronted ICE and their cowardly defenders in the LAPD and other law enforcement agencies.

While a hail of tear gas and rubber bullets (in defense of mass deportation) contradicted Los Angeles’s claims to be a ‘sanctuary city,’ Donald Trump correctly saw the uprising as a black eye that disrupted his efforts to round up immigrants. In response, his administration has not only deployed 4,000 California National Guard troops (against the wishes of the governor) but also 700 Marines. The deployment of Marines for domestic law enforcement is blatantly illegal and threatens to provoke a constitutional crisis.

While hand-wringing over electoral strategies or peace-policed protests has produced less than nothing, definitive resistance outside of business as usual has actually disrupted the deportation machine. While we oppose the deployment of troops to police legitimate protests, we welcome the resistance. Empire in turmoil, people in motion! We call on everyone to support the rebels across the country in confronting ICE, and especially the National Guard and Marines: join the proud tradition of troops who refuse illegal and unjust orders! Stand with the people and not Donald Trump. We support the troops who refuse to fight.