By Elsa Bayoud
Despite the November 2024 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel continues to bomb Lebanon with impunity. On 22nd January, Israeli attacks on the Syria-Lebanon border killed two people, injured 19 and displaced 50 families. Two others were killed by missile strikes in the Sidon and Tyre districts. In total, Israel has killed 350 people in Lebanon since the supposed ceasefire, which the UN reports Israel has violated more than 10,000 times. Lebanon, on the other hand, has not fired a single shot at Israel.
Israel has also destroyed a key quarry in Lebanon and is constructing a wall one kilometre into Lebanon beyond the internationally recognised border, progressing with its land grabs. The United States is constructing the largest embassy in the world, the size of a university campus, situated in the mountains. This, predictably, doesn’t get much airtime however the Lebanese diaspora looks upon these events with increasing worry and dread.
Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement Israel agreed to stop the assault on the south if Hezbollah surrender their weapons to the Lebanese army and Lebanon allows an ‘economic zone’ to be developed in the south. The details of the economic zone and what it means for those living in southern Lebanon is so far unclear. The Lebanese government has stumbled at the hurdle of disarming Hezbollah. While weapons in the south have been given up, any attempt to fully disarm the group would likely be met with resistance. In the context of continued bombardment by Israel, the ever-present threat of future wars and incursions, and of course the genocide in Gaza, Israel and the US were aware when imposing the condition of disarmament that Hezbollah would not willingly give up its means of resistance. Though weakened by 2024 war with Israel, Hezbollah remains a significant political and military force in Lebanon with a base in a section of the population and support from Iran.
Negotiations between the president Joseph Auon and Naim Qassem of Hezbollah are ongoing. The latest address by Auon suggests an agreement that the Israeli occupation is to be referred to, in no uncertain terms, as ‘the enemy’. Those who understand Arabic know how strong a term this is. However, Lebanon is isolated in the region as well as internationally, facing the military and economic might of Israel and its Western backers.
Though Hezbollah has offered significant resistance to Israel, it is limited by its political programme. It came into direct conflict with the Lebanese working class in 2019 when it backed the government against a popular economic and anti-corruption uprising. Internationally, it’s strong links to the Iranian regime meant it supported the Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad against the democratic revolution from 2012 onwards. Many Lebanese people oppose Hezbollah’s ties to Iran, with a 2012 survey finding that a majority of Lebanese people had an unfavourable view of the Iranian regime.
The liberation of Lebanon from imperialism Israel’s military domination requires an internationalist working class struggle for a socialist united states of the middle east. This necessitates the overthrow of dictators, US-align and opposed ones alike, and the working class uniting across borders and sectarian divides. And it requires socialists in the imperialist heartlands to organise against governments’ intervention in the region and their supply of weapons and funding to Israel.
