The Israeli government acts as if it wants to make any agreed settlement impossible - it hopes to get through force what it could not get through negotiations; the annexation of a sizable part of the territory it captured in the war provoked by Egypt, Syria and Jordan in 1967. The Israeli government is attempting to exploit the opportunity given to it by Hamas’s victory in the Palestinian elections. The Israeli escalation started soon after Hamas had semi-recognised Israel, backed down in the face of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's proposal to call a referendum in the Occupied Territories on the recognition of Israel and a "two-states" policy. Did the Israeli government fear that Abbas's success would put it under pressure to negotiate?

The Israeli government wants to act unilaterally to reduce any "Palestinian state" to a series of disjointed territories surrounded by Israeli military positions - to make impossible an independent Palestinian state. Conversely, Hamas could not have doubted the reaction it would provoke by the capture of an Israeli soldier. But Hamas would rather play with the lives of Palestinian people than pursue the achievement of a Palestinian state. Why? Hamas’s explicit long-term aim is to destroy Israel and establish an Islamic State run under sharia law. This reactionary and fantastic aim, if acted upon with sufficient power, would mean genocide on Israeli Jews.

Hezbollah, the Islamist movement in Lebanon, came to the support of the diehards in Hamas by kidnapping Israeli soldiers! Once again the Israeli government responded with a hugely disproportionate assault on Lebanon, with large and predictable civilian casualties among the Lebanese population in general. The victims of this offensive have been the people of Lebanon and Gaza; working-class Israelis; and the people of the occupied West Bank, who see the risk of an imposed Israeli carve-up of their territory increased. Syria and Iran bang the drums in support of Hezbollah and expose themselves as the regional imperialists they are. But the decisive power here to destroy, or to keep alive, possibilities of peace, lies with the Israeli government.

We support the peace movement in Israel and its demonstrations against this new war. We support the secular, democratic forces in the Occupied Territories and in Lebanon who resist the Israeli assaults in the name of a settlement which would allow every nation in the region - Palestinian Arabs as well as Israeli Jews - the right to self-determination in peace.

End the attacks on Gaza and Lebanon! No reoccupation of southern Lebanon! For a free and independent Palestinian state alongside Israel!


For more information and to get involved in the Committee for Two States contact Tom Unterrainer on 07779328418 or email  thomas.unterrainer@talk21.com