Mass mobilizations become decisive in Middle East war
As this issue of IV goes to press also, Beirut is still under siege.
army is alternating brief with savage bombardments causing hundreds and thousands of deaths.
On the strictly military level, the Begin-Sharon army is capable of mounting an assault on the Lebanese capital and dealing an unprecedented blow to the
Such an action would result in a still higher number of victims and still more enormous destruction. also involve-which the Israeli government is much more concerned aboutheavy casualities in the aggressor army
But if the assault on Beirut has not yet taken place, this is above all because of the political problems the Zionist lead. ership is running into, and which would be no less acute even if it won a bloody military success.
There is no doubt that very strong pressures are being brought to bear by the European capitalist governments, the various Arab states, and American imperialism itself to keep the Israeli government from trying to carry its military gains too far and to persuade it to seek a political solution, a compromise that the other side could accept, even if it had to pay a
There is no need to say that neither the European capitalist governments nor the Arab states, in particular the so-called moderates, nor the imperialists in Washington have the slightest concern for safeguarding the most elementary rights of the Palestinians or for saving the lives of the heroic fighters in besieged Beirut. But they cannot fail to take account of the facts of the overall situation.
What would happen even if the PLO were crushed? This would not solve the problem of more than three million Palestinians without a country.
Where could the Palestinians in Lebanon go? What Arab state would accept them without the fear of having to face profound socio-economic repercus sions in its own country, if not immethen in a relatively short If the Palestinians remain in Lebanon, will not the problem that Begin has tried to solve with a new aggressive war reemerge sooner or later?
On the political level, if the present Palestinian leadership comes out of this confrontation humiliated and totally defeated, that is, if it in fact capitulates, what could prevent in the future the emergence of a new more radical and more consistent leadership? What could prevent the rise of a new leadership determined to combat all the that at the decisive moment have abandoned the Palestinians to their fate, a leadership that would appeal to the broad masses to wage a struggle that could lead
In Lebanon, Begin has been able to use the Quisling Haddad effectively as a pawn for some years. the complicity of Gemayel and the other conservative forces. But would not a reactionary state based on these forceswhich are far from homogeneous-and on repression against the progressive forces, inevitably still be unstable and continue to be a powder keg in the region?
Furthermore, the mass demonstrations that have developed since the first shock of the attack faded indicate that a new phase may have opened in the history of the Israeli state, that the Zionist regime may not be able to continue in the future to count on the sort of national consensus it has enjoyed in the past, that less and less Israelis are prepared to believe that it is possible to achieve a "final solution" trampling on the inte rests and basic aspirations of the Palestinian people.
If this is the present context of the conflict-if, despite the extent of the military operations, the confrontation is an eminently political one that means that the responsibility of the workers movement and the anti-imperialist movement throughout the world becomes much greater and much more immediate. so far the response to the Israeli agression has been gravely insufficient. While many hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in a large number of countries in October 1981 and June 1982 against rearmament and the nuclear mobilizations against the Israeli war have only a few only a few countries.
However, this war represents a very concrete challenge. It is correct to mobilize against preparations for war and portant and necessary to oppose with the effort the vile war of extermination that is in progress, the real danger of war on a wide international scale that exists today in the Mideast more than in any other region.
militants of the Fourth International have mobilized in West Beirut with the Palestinians and the other progressive forces. In Israel, our organization has played a role from the first in all the demonstrations against the aggressive war. In various countries, esin the countries of capitalist Europe, our comrades have been in the first ranks of the solidarity demonstra-
More and broader demonstrations must be organized. This is a fundamental responsibility.
For a Worldwide Mass Movement Against an Attempt to Crush an Entire People!
For a Worldwide Mass Movement Against the Threat of Wider Imperialist War in the Mideast!
3