Seems to me that the response of The Militant or the Socialist Workers' Party
or whatever, to this whole situation is irrelevant, to say the least. They
have this party line which has nothing to do with the realities of the current
situation. For example, what two state solution are they talking about? It's a
myth? What's the point of referring to each of the countries as "Capitalist"
when that isn't the point? They sound as out of touch as the Neo Cons.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2018 10:48 AM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] US, Russian rulers, Tehran and Tel Aviv vie in
Mideast
https://themilitant.com/2018/10/06/us-russian-rulers-tehran-and-tel-aviv-vie-in-mideast/
US, Russian rulers, Tehran and Tel Aviv vie in Mideast
By Seth Galinsky
Vol. 82/No. 38
October 15, 2018
S-300 surface-to-air missiles, like those the Russian rulers just delivered to
Syrian regime.
RT
S-300 surface-to-air missiles, like those the Russian rulers just delivered to
Syrian regime.
As the civil war in Syria winds down, with dictator Bashar al-Assad still in
power, Washington, Moscow and the rival capitalist rulers in the region are
maneuvering to protect their economic, political and military interests. And
the long-simmering dispute between the capitalist governments of Israel and
Iran is heating up.
Iran’s rulers consolidated power after years of stifling the popular
revolutionary uprising of working people that overthrew the U.S.-backed rule of
the shah in 1979. Workers and farmers had not been able to replace the shah
with their own government, but the reactionary regime was unable to smash the
working class.
To maintain its hold on power inside Iran, the regime pushes its reactionary
influence and program from Lebanon and Syria to Iraq and Yemen, and calls for
the destruction of the state of Israel.
“Israel will do whatever it must do to defend itself against Iran’s
aggression,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his speech to
the 73rd United Nations General Assembly Sept. 27. “We will continue to act
against you in Syria. We will act against you in Lebanon. We will act against
you in Iraq.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad replied the next day, saying that Israel is
the only country in the region with an “actual atomic arsenal.”
These are not just a war of words. The Israeli army and air force have carried
out more than 200 attacks on Iranian-connected weapons convoys, troops and
military bases in Syria over the last couple years. The Israeli government is
especially concerned about Iranian shipments to Lebanon’s Hezbollah that could
give them precision rockets and missiles.
Hezbollah, which means Party of God, was founded in Lebanon in the 1980s on the
Iranian rulers’ initiative. Tehran and thousands of Hezbollah combatants played
a key role in preventing the Assad regime from being overthrown after the
popular uprising against his rule broke out in 2011. But it was Russian air
power that was decisive in retaking territory from armed opposition groups in
the civil war that followed the crushing of the mobilizations.
Moscow and Tel Aviv
Even as it collaborated with Tehran to shore up Assad — at the price of more
than 350,000 Syrian dead and millions displaced — Moscow maintained relations
with Tel Aviv. Under a 2015 accord Moscow said it would not interfere with
Israeli strikes aimed at Iranian-backed militias and weapons shipments in Syria
and the Israelis agreed not to strike targets that would put Russians at risk
nor aid the fight to overthrow Assad.
On Sept. 16 the Israeli Air Force attacked an Iranian convoy headed to Lebanon.
According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, “Syrian air defenses started to go
berserk, firing 27 missiles every which way,” shooting down a Russian plane by
mistake.
Moscow charged that the Israelis had not given them sufficient notice to get
their plane out of the way and announced it would provide sophisticated S-300
surface-to-air missile systems to the Assad regime.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at the U.N. Sept. 29 that the first
of the batteries had been delivered. The missiles make any Israeli air attack
riskier.
The U.S. capitalist rulers are also determined to stay the advance of Tehran.
In May the White House abrogated the nuclear pact the Barack Obama
administration had reached with Tehran, also signed by London, Berlin, Paris,
Moscow and Beijing. Since then, Washington has launched deep sanctions against
Iranian capitalists’ exports that have slashed oil sales and sent their
currency into a tailspin. The effects hit working people there the hardest.
Russian and Iranian competition
While Moscow and Tehran both help keep Assad in power, they also have competing
interests.
As Iran’s exports of oil plummet under expanding U.S. sanctions, Moscow’s are
soaring.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Iran’s export of crude oil has dropped by
a third since June to 1.5 million barrels a day. Meanwhile, Moscow has
increased its oil output by 250,000 barrels a day, most of it going to those
who used to purchase from its erstwhile ally Iran.
Over the last year tens of thousands have taken to the streets in Iran to
protest the government’s intervention in the wars in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere,
and its impact on the economic crisis facing working people.
This includes the province of Khuzestan, which has some 70 percent of Iran’s
oil reserves and is home to Iran’s Arab minority.
Tehran charged that a deadly Sept. 22 attack on a military parade in Ahvaz,
Khuzestan, was directed by Washington and the Saudi regime, although Islamic
State claimed credit. The terror group posted pictures on the internet of those
who it said were its members carrying out the assault.
In retaliation, Tehran fired six ballistic missiles Oct. 1 into the sliver of
remaining Islamic State-controlled territory east of the Euphrates River in
Syria. The missiles flew nearly 400 miles over Iraqi airspace, striking IS
targets not far from U.S. military bases there.
Reportedly, the Iranians wrote “death to America,” “Death to Israel,”
and “death to al-Saud” on the missiles.
Washington has over 2,000 troops in Syria, along with massive air power in the
region. National Security Adviser John Bolton said U.S. troops will remain in
Syria “as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders.”
In response to the shifting political situation in Iran and the Middle East,
the Socialist Workers Party issued a statement in December 2017, “For
Recognition of a Palestinian State and of Israel.”
“In opposition to Washington, to bourgeois governments and political
organizations across the Middle East, and to the middle class left here in the
United States,” the party said, it “has a different starting
point: the class interests and solidarity of workers and toiling farmers across
the Middle East — be they Palestinian, Jewish, Arab, Kurdish, Turkish, Persian
or otherwise, and whatever their religious or other beliefs — as well as
working people in the United States and around the world.
“We are forwhatever helps working people organize and act together to advance
our demands and struggles against the capitalist governments and ruling classes
that exploit and oppress us and their petty bourgeois political servants and
media apologists,” the statement says. “We areforwhatever renews our class
solidarity and self-confidence, advancing us along a revolutionary course
toward a united struggle for workers power.”
In This Issue
Front Page Articles •North Carolina workers confront social disaster •US,
Russian rulers, Tehran and Tel Aviv vie in Mideast •‘Working class needs to
build a labor party’
•Join SWP door-to-door campaign to boost ‘Militant,’ books, party fund!
•Help fight Florida prison officials’ ongoing censorship of ‘Militant’
•Trump pushes US rulers’ interests vs. rivals at UN General Assembly
Feature Articles •Presumption of innocence is crucial right for working class
Also In This Issue •NY: Cuba president calls for end to US gov’t embargo
•‘Anti-gentrification fight’ is pretext for attack on art, culture that workers
need
•Argentina: ‘Abortion must be legal, in the hospital!’
On the Picket Line •Uber drivers protest low pay, as bosses pit them vs.
taxi drivers
•Tomato cannery strike leaders win jobs back
Books of the Month •How Cuban workers and farmers took power in 1959
25, 50 and 75 years ago
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